Hiten Madhani
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hitenmadhani.bsky.social
Hiten Madhani
@hitenmadhani.bsky.social
Gene regulation in health and disease | Professor/Vice-Chair @UCSF Dept. of Biochemistry and Biophysic | via Stanford, UCSF and MIT | https://madhanilab.ucsf.edu
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
My weekly update on NIH funding.

This is for all projects.

The breakdown for competing and non-competing awards will follow.

1/4
February 4, 2026 at 3:35 PM
Not good. I don’t understand why dems acquiesced on this.
It is limited in statute with teeth. But only to FY25 levels (39%) - the same level that contributed substantially to a 25% decrease in new science funding from NIH last year.

So it's not toothless but it is ineffective.
February 4, 2026 at 6:54 AM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
Bhattacharya, a moment ago: "What you've been seeing in the press is that there have been funding cuts. There haven't been funding cuts. What there has been is a change in agency priorities."

Our year in numbers begs to differ
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
January 30, 2026 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
Important update: a federal judge has ruled that Russ Vought & OMB were breaking the law & must tell the public exactly how they are spending (or not spending) funds appropriated by Congress.

I wrote this law years ago to ensure transparency and accountability.
January 30, 2026 at 12:33 AM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
Help us get the word out!!!
GET IN, DORKS!
The stakes are high and we have a LOT to stand up for in 2026.

Join us on March 7th, 2026! www.standupforscience.net/march7

Want to host an event in your area? Sign up here: fight2win.standupforscience.net/sign_up/14434/

#Standupforscience #takebackourscience
January 29, 2026 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
🧬 Meet Sni445, a newly discovered #Yeast ribosome assembly factor! Ynl050c/Sni445 recruits specialized snoRNPs (snR4 & snR45) that guide precise rRNA acetylation during ribosome synthesis. Another piece of the puzzle solved!

🧪 #YeastResearch #SGD

www.yeastgenome.org/reference/S1...
January 29, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
We could have 4 JWST’s or a science mission at every planet. The NIH could be funded for two years. Or 1.5 years or so of USAID funding, if it still existed.

This is how they’re spending our tax dollars. This is our money.
Personally I think this is too much money for Donald trumps untrained heavily armed militia
January 29, 2026 at 2:30 AM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
The Senate should pass all 5 bills to fund cancer research, child care, and more THIS WEEK. Senate Democrats are ready to do just that.

Meanwhile, we need to keep negotiating DHS funding to bring sanity and due process to our immigration enforcement.

No Republican shutdown.
January 27, 2026 at 1:31 AM
If you are looking for a distraction, this seems cool. Sticky ends++. If it works as advertised, seems like it could be a game-changer.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Construction of complex and diverse DNA sequences using DNA three-way junctions - Nature
Sidewinder enables high-fidelity DNA assembly by separating the information that guides assembly from the final assembled sequence.
www.nature.com
January 26, 2026 at 9:20 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
I am excited to offer a postdoctoral research position in my lab in Oxford studying the distribution of small RNAs during plant sexual reproduction. shorturl.at/7Goxt
Reposts appreciated!
Obligatory cat video to brighten your day. :-)
January 26, 2026 at 4:31 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
It's time to identify those 23 people and begin the pressure on them. This administration will not stop, even if the courts order it. That much is clear.
Reminder: All it would take to end the murder of American citizens by an untrained government goon squad is 16 Republicans in Congress voting with Dems to defund ICE (or 23 to impeach and remove Trump — 3 in House & 20 in Senate). That’s it. 23 Americans can vote for the public and end all of this.
January 24, 2026 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
California just joined the World Health Organization.

I love it.
California joins WHO public health network following US exit, marking a first for any state
California joined WHO's Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, countering federal withdrawal from the organization.
www.abc10.com
January 23, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
Important story from Max Kozlov. Loss without replacement of council members is a serious concerns which could be a huge problem in the future, but this is uncertain.
🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year.

That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027.

A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications.

A short 🧵
Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026
Thirteen of the agency’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members.
www.nature.com
January 22, 2026 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
The language on multiyear funding (MYF) is ineffective.

Final bill anchors MYF to 2025 instead of 2024. This means MYF will likely continue at the same rate we saw last year, where NCI's payline from ~10% to 4%.

This is incredibly harmful to the US research workforce - especially early career.
The final LHHS bill with funding for Health and Human Services is out this morning! At first glance, it looks similar to the Senate bill with a roughly 1% increase in total funding for the NIH. While it doesn't match inflation, it avoids many of the problems in the presidential budget request. 1/n
January 20, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
YES! A step in the right direction. After a horrendous year for science & the #NIH, it is imperative to protect it from political interference. NIH's success is due to decisions based on science, not political ideology.

Science does not belong to politicians.
🧪 degette.house.gov/media-center...
DeGette Introduces Bill to Protect NIH From Political Interference
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Congresswoman Diana DeGette (CO-01), Ranking Member of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health, introduced the Follow the Science Act to shield the National Institutes...
degette.house.gov
January 22, 2026 at 8:37 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
🚨 New from me: Grant review at more than half of NIH's institutes could be frozen by the end of the year.

That's because crucial NIH grant-review panels are slated to be empty at those institutes by Jan 2027.

A wonky bureaucratic problem with big implications.

A short 🧵
Exclusive: key NIH review panels due to lose all members by the end of 2026
Thirteen of the agency’s advisory councils, which must review grant applications before funding is awarded, are on track to have no voting members.
www.nature.com
January 22, 2026 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
🧪IMPORTANT! This graphic explains how science all over the US is funded. Congress approved a 2% increase in the #NIH budget for FY 26.

Buried in the bill-
Shift of ~40% of grants to MYF. This will still result in a 35% DECREASE in the NUMBER of grants funded per yr.

Russel Vought is behind this.
January 22, 2026 at 1:25 AM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
🧪 Russel Vought wants to kill the #NIH, in a slow, sneaky way. The NIH appropriations include language that allows multi-year funding of grants. No 40% cut.

Yay. No.
Allowing multi-year funding allows fewer grants will be funded. This toxic compromise will kill science.

We deserve better.
If we continue to compromise with people whose stated goal is to destroy NIH, then we will not be successful in saving it.
January 21, 2026 at 12:37 AM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
The multi-year NIH funding of grants tagged to 2025 allows Russell Vought to reduce the number of grants funded this year because he insists that a 5 years of $$$ has to be committed. This is bad. We could see a cut in actual grants by 1/3 or more. Spread the word. www.statnews.com/2026/01/16/n...
Limit on multiyear funding of NIH grants is a sticking point in Senate budget talks
A clause limiting the use of multiyear NIH grant funding has become a sticking point as the Senate appropriations panel finalizes the HHS spending bill.
www.statnews.com
January 21, 2026 at 10:55 AM
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
Reposted by Hiten Madhani
House Appropriations minibus bill funding NIH is out now.
- $400M increase
- Multiyear funding of new awards capped at 2025 levels.
- No line item for BRAIN Initiative

text here: docs.house.gov/billsthiswee...

Screenshots from Dem summary and Sec 240 (multiyear funding text).
January 20, 2026 at 2:29 PM
Beautiful day for a ride!
January 18, 2026 at 11:03 PM
49ers game off to a great start — if you are a Hawks fan…
January 18, 2026 at 1:35 AM