Rebekah Evans
@cellularscale.bsky.social
Assistant Professor Georgetown University Department of Neuroscience
Our lab has 2 great posters this year at #SfN25 and a collaborative poster making a computational modeling of the PPN. Come see us on Wednesday afternoon!
November 14, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Our lab has 2 great posters this year at #SfN25 and a collaborative poster making a computational modeling of the PPN. Come see us on Wednesday afternoon!
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
Sigh. NIH normally sends several hundred scientists to the SFN annual meeting to learn, exchange info, come up with new ideas, and advance science. (The exchange of ideas is the very core of the scientific enterprise.)
This year, no one from NIH will attend due to the gov't implosion.
This year, no one from NIH will attend due to the gov't implosion.
Enjoy a broad range of lectures and network with experts in the field at #SfN25! 🧠
Gain valuable insights and tools to enhance your research and career.
Browse through to lectures and build your itinerary in the 2025 Neuroscience Meeting Planner
🔗 vist.ly/4de72
#neurosky #neuroskyence
Gain valuable insights and tools to enhance your research and career.
Browse through to lectures and build your itinerary in the 2025 Neuroscience Meeting Planner
🔗 vist.ly/4de72
#neurosky #neuroskyence
November 7, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Sigh. NIH normally sends several hundred scientists to the SFN annual meeting to learn, exchange info, come up with new ideas, and advance science. (The exchange of ideas is the very core of the scientific enterprise.)
This year, no one from NIH will attend due to the gov't implosion.
This year, no one from NIH will attend due to the gov't implosion.
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
Seeing a lot of celebration of this as a win.
But at NIH we have seen this exact play before.
It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture.
A 🧵:
But at NIH we have seen this exact play before.
It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture.
A 🧵:
Trump Administration Will Rehire Scores of Experts Fired in Error
www.nytimes.com
October 11, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Seeing a lot of celebration of this as a win.
But at NIH we have seen this exact play before.
It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture.
A 🧵:
But at NIH we have seen this exact play before.
It looks like it is the Vought strategy -and to stop the lawless firings we have to see the bigger picture.
A 🧵:
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
But it took weeks or months of confusion before some had their (lawless) RIF notices revoked.
As was widely reported, several NIH scientists, including a major-award-winning Parkinson’s researcher, weren't fully de-RIF’d until @durbin.senate.gov caught out RFK Jr at a Senate hearing about them.
As was widely reported, several NIH scientists, including a major-award-winning Parkinson’s researcher, weren't fully de-RIF’d until @durbin.senate.gov caught out RFK Jr at a Senate hearing about them.
RFK Jr. told Congress no working scientists were fired, but these top NIH brain scientists are still facing job cuts
"As far as I know, we have not fired any working scientists," RFK Jr. had told Congress.
www.cbsnews.com
October 11, 2025 at 11:10 PM
But it took weeks or months of confusion before some had their (lawless) RIF notices revoked.
As was widely reported, several NIH scientists, including a major-award-winning Parkinson’s researcher, weren't fully de-RIF’d until @durbin.senate.gov caught out RFK Jr at a Senate hearing about them.
As was widely reported, several NIH scientists, including a major-award-winning Parkinson’s researcher, weren't fully de-RIF’d until @durbin.senate.gov caught out RFK Jr at a Senate hearing about them.
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
“CDC will have lost its ability to detect outbreaks and respond to them. It will no longer be able to track diseases, in America and around the globe. That includes infectious threats like flu, foodborne illnesses, and Ebola, as well as chronic diseases and injuries.”
time.com/7325192/cdc-...
time.com/7325192/cdc-...
CDC ‘Not Functional’ After Trump Administration Orders Mass Firings
The layoffs targeted leaders in departments related to respiratory diseases, chronic diseases and global health.
time.com
October 12, 2025 at 2:21 AM
“CDC will have lost its ability to detect outbreaks and respond to them. It will no longer be able to track diseases, in America and around the globe. That includes infectious threats like flu, foodborne illnesses, and Ebola, as well as chronic diseases and injuries.”
time.com/7325192/cdc-...
time.com/7325192/cdc-...
Excited to share our Version of Record in eLife! We find that two ways of inhibiting a brainstem structure (PPN) actually result in completely different and even opposite behaviors. One inhibitory connection is rewarding and one is aversive.
Inhibitory basal ganglia nuclei differentially innervate pedunculopontine nucleus subpopulations and evoke differential motor and valence behaviors
The substantia nigra inhibits all PPN neurons and causes place aversion, while the globus pallidus selectively inhibits caudal non-cholinergic PPN neurons and causes place preference.
elifesciences.org
August 21, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Excited to share our Version of Record in eLife! We find that two ways of inhibiting a brainstem structure (PPN) actually result in completely different and even opposite behaviors. One inhibitory connection is rewarding and one is aversive.
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
I have a first serious attempt to estimate the consequences of multi-year funding for July.
For new R01s, the amount of additional expenditure was
$135 M
The number of additional R01s that could have been funded is
182
1/9
For new R01s, the amount of additional expenditure was
$135 M
The number of additional R01s that could have been funded is
182
1/9
a man in a shirt and tie is touching his forehead
ALT: a man in a shirt and tie is touching his forehead
media.tenor.com
August 14, 2025 at 8:54 PM
I have a first serious attempt to estimate the consequences of multi-year funding for July.
For new R01s, the amount of additional expenditure was
$135 M
The number of additional R01s that could have been funded is
182
1/9
For new R01s, the amount of additional expenditure was
$135 M
The number of additional R01s that could have been funded is
182
1/9
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.
August 11, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
"It’s like taking over a hospital and making the surgeons break bones instead of fix them, like suddenly requiring your engineering firm to use 'three' in place of pi, like telling a three-star chef her new goal is to make all the patrons puke."
EPA Leadership Is So, So Proud of Its Ignorance
Splinter is your home for news and opinions that challenge power in our political and economic system that's becoming more unhinged each and every day.
www.splinter.com
July 29, 2025 at 6:59 PM
"It’s like taking over a hospital and making the surgeons break bones instead of fix them, like suddenly requiring your engineering firm to use 'three' in place of pi, like telling a three-star chef her new goal is to make all the patrons puke."
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
My quote of the day
A Video Quote
Medical miracles don't happen overnight. You have to invest in them. Our investments are in trouble.
(From Francis Collins on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 16, 2025)
A Video Quote
Medical miracles don't happen overnight. You have to invest in them. Our investments are in trouble.
(From Francis Collins on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 16, 2025)
July 17, 2025 at 10:44 AM
My quote of the day
A Video Quote
Medical miracles don't happen overnight. You have to invest in them. Our investments are in trouble.
(From Francis Collins on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 16, 2025)
A Video Quote
Medical miracles don't happen overnight. You have to invest in them. Our investments are in trouble.
(From Francis Collins on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, July 16, 2025)
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
Happy 107th Birthday, Brenda Milner! Her contributions to neuropsychology shaped the way we understand the human brain. From surviving two world wars and two pandemics, to paving the way for future generations of researchers, Milner’s legacy continues. @mcgill.ca @cusm-muhc.bsky.social
July 15, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Happy 107th Birthday, Brenda Milner! Her contributions to neuropsychology shaped the way we understand the human brain. From surviving two world wars and two pandemics, to paving the way for future generations of researchers, Milner’s legacy continues. @mcgill.ca @cusm-muhc.bsky.social
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
We were honored to attend the 2025 Parkinson’s Disease Gordon Conference in Waterville Valley, NH. It was wonderful to bring together some of the best and brightest scientists to discuss the most exciting developments in PD research, including many of our own awardees and SAB members!
June 13, 2025 at 4:15 PM
We were honored to attend the 2025 Parkinson’s Disease Gordon Conference in Waterville Valley, NH. It was wonderful to bring together some of the best and brightest scientists to discuss the most exciting developments in PD research, including many of our own awardees and SAB members!
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
This is worse than many appreciate because it is not merely a delay. Many institutions such as mine are TERMINATING these otherwise active grants if the NoA is delayed by more than a month because they cannot afford to keep the grant supported personnel on payroll
If you weren't angry enough already, here are the rates of non-competitive renewals through May.
4008 Non-competitive renewals were due to be funded in May.
The total funded was 99!
Some is due to terminations, but most is due to slow grant making due to DOGE review and other impediments.
1/2
4008 Non-competitive renewals were due to be funded in May.
The total funded was 99!
Some is due to terminations, but most is due to slow grant making due to DOGE review and other impediments.
1/2
June 10, 2025 at 8:44 PM
This is worse than many appreciate because it is not merely a delay. Many institutions such as mine are TERMINATING these otherwise active grants if the NoA is delayed by more than a month because they cannot afford to keep the grant supported personnel on payroll
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
NYT, Page One:
“Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to ‘any city, any university I want,’ he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years.”
@nytimes.com
“Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to ‘any city, any university I want,’ he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years.”
@nytimes.com
June 4, 2025 at 9:51 AM
NYT, Page One:
“Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to ‘any city, any university I want,’ he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years.”
@nytimes.com
“Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to ‘any city, any university I want,’ he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years.”
@nytimes.com
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
Senate hearing on the FY26 NIH budget with Jay Bhattacharya
June 10, 10am ET
www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/a-r...
June 10, 10am ET
www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/a-r...
A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Request for the National Institutes of Health | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
www.appropriations.senate.gov
June 5, 2025 at 1:37 AM
Senate hearing on the FY26 NIH budget with Jay Bhattacharya
June 10, 10am ET
www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/a-r...
June 10, 10am ET
www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/a-r...
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow.
The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
June 3, 2025 at 9:02 PM
If you burn down a forest, you don't miss out on lumber for just that season. You have to replant all the trees, nurture them, and wait for them to grow.
The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
The science and research budget cuts happening now are wanton, senseless arson. Recovery, if it ever happens, will take generations.
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
Trump’s cuts to research programs directly harms scientists from working class backgrounds.
Bridges built between the blue collar and ivory tower are collapsing in front of us.
Bridges built between the blue collar and ivory tower are collapsing in front of us.
“You work so hard to put yourself in a position where you don’t have to worry, and then that’s taken away from you,” said Camila Valderrama-Martínez...She can get a job, but that “takes away time from my research and my time in lab and focusing on my studies and my thesis.” 🧪
Another casualty of Trump cuts? California students pursuing science research careers
At least 24 UC and Cal State campuses lost science research training grants that provided their students with annual stipends of $12,000 or more.
calmatters.org
May 29, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Trump’s cuts to research programs directly harms scientists from working class backgrounds.
Bridges built between the blue collar and ivory tower are collapsing in front of us.
Bridges built between the blue collar and ivory tower are collapsing in front of us.
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too
May 24, 2025 at 5:47 PM
I appreciate the offers from other scientists to help Harvard (students, labs, etc) through this attack, but what would be most helpful is for you to use your position to contact your elected representatives and make it clear this fight isn't just Harvard, it will affect you, and their districts too
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
Am I crazy or did we just have a convo about how we can't fund cancer research?
May 23, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Am I crazy or did we just have a convo about how we can't fund cancer research?
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
REMINDER.....REMINDER......REMINDER
3 DAYS LEFT TO COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F
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3 DAYS LEFT TO COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F
1/n
gumball and anais from the amazing world of gumball are sitting at a table
ALT: gumball and anais from the amazing world of gumball are sitting at a table
media.tenor.com
May 20, 2025 at 8:33 PM
REMINDER.....REMINDER......REMINDER
3 DAYS LEFT TO COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F
1/n
3 DAYS LEFT TO COMMENT ON SCHEDULE F
1/n
Reposted by Rebekah Evans
That’s a plan to reclassify tens of thousands of government jobs as “policymaking positions” and therefore subject to presidential appointment and removal of those who occupy these positions.
2/n
2/n
May 20, 2025 at 8:34 PM
That’s a plan to reclassify tens of thousands of government jobs as “policymaking positions” and therefore subject to presidential appointment and removal of those who occupy these positions.
2/n
2/n