Kristine Willis
@kristine-willis.mstdn.science.ap.brid.gy
Systems biologist, data scientist, policy wonk, runner. Former NIH-funded investigator, former NIH program official. Founder, Woodley Park Institute. Writing […]
🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mstdn.science/@kristine_willis, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://mstdn.science/@kristine_willis, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact
My muse needs to keep better hours.
February 3, 2026 at 2:21 AM
My muse needs to keep better hours.
Reading an incredibly thoughtful, deeply referenced review this morning written by an academic in a BRICS state and published in a journal that some of my colleagues in the American academy would no doubt look down on.
We lose so much when we give a narrow set of authorities a privileged place […]
We lose so much when we give a narrow set of authorities a privileged place […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
February 1, 2026 at 3:49 PM
Reading an incredibly thoughtful, deeply referenced review this morning written by an academic in a BRICS state and published in a journal that some of my colleagues in the American academy would no doubt look down on.
We lose so much when we give a narrow set of authorities a privileged place […]
We lose so much when we give a narrow set of authorities a privileged place […]
Nice modeling by former NIGMS director Jeremy Berg showing the impact of forward funding more #nih awards.
Don’t miss the subtle point he makes early on about decreasing probability of award driving a delayed increase in application numbers […]
Don’t miss the subtle point he makes early on about decreasing probability of award driving a delayed increase in application numbers […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
January 30, 2026 at 8:05 PM
Nice modeling by former NIGMS director Jeremy Berg showing the impact of forward funding more #nih awards.
Don’t miss the subtle point he makes early on about decreasing probability of award driving a delayed increase in application numbers […]
Don’t miss the subtle point he makes early on about decreasing probability of award driving a delayed increase in application numbers […]
Current status: making questionable decisions about caffeine consumption.
January 29, 2026 at 7:40 PM
Current status: making questionable decisions about caffeine consumption.
January 27, 2026 at 8:36 PM
Supportive of this necessary move, but it highlights a question I’ve increasingly wrestled with: how do you balance the need for Mertonian universalism with the need to establish trust, especially in a system where there are definite bad actors? #metascience
ArXiv preprint server clamps down on […]
ArXiv preprint server clamps down on […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
January 26, 2026 at 2:34 PM
Supportive of this necessary move, but it highlights a question I’ve increasingly wrestled with: how do you balance the need for Mertonian universalism with the need to establish trust, especially in a system where there are definite bad actors? #metascience
ArXiv preprint server clamps down on […]
ArXiv preprint server clamps down on […]
A thought I find myself coming back to lately.
January 15, 2026 at 7:54 PM
A thought I find myself coming back to lately.
RE: https://flipboard.com/@bbcnews/health-2g9ldae7z/-/a-V5LX7TKbSay96SZ6TsukiA%3Aa%3A3199692-%2F0
Three cheers for CAR-T !! A little good news in the world
Three cheers for CAR-T !! A little good news in the world
flipboard.com
January 14, 2026 at 1:11 AM
RE: https://flipboard.com/@bbcnews/health-2g9ldae7z/-/a-V5LX7TKbSay96SZ6TsukiA%3Aa%3A3199692-%2F0
Three cheers for CAR-T !! A little good news in the world
Three cheers for CAR-T !! A little good news in the world
New at The Progress Bar: The system for funding science is fundamentally broken. To fix it, we need to do more than change who gets funded, we need to change how funding decisions are made.
https://theprogressbarwpi.org/p/doing-experiments
https://theprogressbarwpi.org/p/doing-experiments
January 12, 2026 at 1:18 PM
New at The Progress Bar: The system for funding science is fundamentally broken. To fix it, we need to do more than change who gets funded, we need to change how funding decisions are made.
https://theprogressbarwpi.org/p/doing-experiments
https://theprogressbarwpi.org/p/doing-experiments
Ugh. I really really want to run and it is 48F and raining. Worst running weather ever.
January 10, 2026 at 8:26 PM
Ugh. I really really want to run and it is 48F and raining. Worst running weather ever.
For anyone not familiar with the NIH org chart, Mike Lauer was the Director for Academic Research, generally considered the third most senior official.
It is extraordinary, and to my knowledge, unprecedented for someone from leadership to be so publicly critical of the agency.
It is extraordinary, and to my knowledge, unprecedented for someone from leadership to be so publicly critical of the agency.
January 10, 2026 at 2:08 AM
For anyone not familiar with the NIH org chart, Mike Lauer was the Director for Academic Research, generally considered the third most senior official.
It is extraordinary, and to my knowledge, unprecedented for someone from leadership to be so publicly critical of the agency.
It is extraordinary, and to my knowledge, unprecedented for someone from leadership to be so publicly critical of the agency.
“The system of funding science is fundamentally broken. In some respects, it’s been an unmitigated disaster. It was a house of cards, and it’s not surprising that it’s now falling apart.”
Happy to see Mike Lauer, former director of extramural research at #nih, and I are on the same page here […]
Happy to see Mike Lauer, former director of extramural research at #nih, and I are on the same page here […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
January 10, 2026 at 1:48 AM
“The system of funding science is fundamentally broken. In some respects, it’s been an unmitigated disaster. It was a house of cards, and it’s not surprising that it’s now falling apart.”
Happy to see Mike Lauer, former director of extramural research at #nih, and I are on the same page here […]
Happy to see Mike Lauer, former director of extramural research at #nih, and I are on the same page here […]
Getting used to being a free-range academic again
January 9, 2026 at 5:58 PM
Getting used to being a free-range academic again
80 years after Vannevar Bush, we have an opportunity to rework the systems that fund and shape research. We can accelerate scientific progress - if we make the right choices. New substack:
https://theprogressbarwpi.org/p/the-next-frontier
https://theprogressbarwpi.org/p/the-next-frontier
The next frontier
Scientia ad initium novum
theprogressbarwpi.org
January 8, 2026 at 5:25 PM
80 years after Vannevar Bush, we have an opportunity to rework the systems that fund and shape research. We can accelerate scientific progress - if we make the right choices. New substack:
https://theprogressbarwpi.org/p/the-next-frontier
https://theprogressbarwpi.org/p/the-next-frontier
Do I rule out the possibility that one day we will have a new, different kind of AI with better reasoning skills? No.
Do I believe the current LLM-based paradigm will ever deliver that? Also No.
Do I believe the current LLM-based paradigm will ever deliver that? Also No.
January 8, 2026 at 12:53 PM
Do I rule out the possibility that one day we will have a new, different kind of AI with better reasoning skills? No.
Do I believe the current LLM-based paradigm will ever deliver that? Also No.
Do I believe the current LLM-based paradigm will ever deliver that? Also No.
“To understand what work AI can do on its own today, researchers collected hundreds of examples of projects posted on freelancing platforms that humans had been paid to complete .. the best AI successfully completed only 2.5% of the projects”
Unsurprisingly, genAI chatbots made errors, dropped […]
Unsurprisingly, genAI chatbots made errors, dropped […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
January 8, 2026 at 12:47 PM
“To understand what work AI can do on its own today, researchers collected hundreds of examples of projects posted on freelancing platforms that humans had been paid to complete .. the best AI successfully completed only 2.5% of the projects”
Unsurprisingly, genAI chatbots made errors, dropped […]
Unsurprisingly, genAI chatbots made errors, dropped […]
So many important points here it was hard to pick a pull quote, but this one speaks to my personal experience at #nih:
“We are systematically underutilizing our collective capacity for discovery and transformation… Our own funding mechanisms have become a bottleneck rather than a catalyst” […]
“We are systematically underutilizing our collective capacity for discovery and transformation… Our own funding mechanisms have become a bottleneck rather than a catalyst” […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
January 4, 2026 at 12:55 PM
So many important points here it was hard to pick a pull quote, but this one speaks to my personal experience at #nih:
“We are systematically underutilizing our collective capacity for discovery and transformation… Our own funding mechanisms have become a bottleneck rather than a catalyst” […]
“We are systematically underutilizing our collective capacity for discovery and transformation… Our own funding mechanisms have become a bottleneck rather than a catalyst” […]
New year, new science, new Substack.
I'll be talking about studies of scientific progress, and how we can leverage our understanding of how science works to produce more breakthroughs in less time. If that sounds interesting, give me a follow […]
I'll be talking about studies of scientific progress, and how we can leverage our understanding of how science works to produce more breakthroughs in less time. If that sounds interesting, give me a follow […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
January 1, 2026 at 4:09 PM
New year, new science, new Substack.
I'll be talking about studies of scientific progress, and how we can leverage our understanding of how science works to produce more breakthroughs in less time. If that sounds interesting, give me a follow […]
I'll be talking about studies of scientific progress, and how we can leverage our understanding of how science works to produce more breakthroughs in less time. If that sounds interesting, give me a follow […]
Highly recommended reading. A great framing of how far biomedicine has come in a short time, and how we’re still striving for more progress every day
https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/medical-breakthroughs-in-2025
https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/medical-breakthroughs-in-2025
Medical breakthroughs in 2025
... and a happy new year.
www.scientificdiscovery.dev
December 31, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Highly recommended reading. A great framing of how far biomedicine has come in a short time, and how we’re still striving for more progress every day
https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/medical-breakthroughs-in-2025
https://www.scientificdiscovery.dev/p/medical-breakthroughs-in-2025
Happy almost New Year from Zoo Lights!
December 31, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Happy almost New Year from Zoo Lights!
It’s not just PubMed; #nih funding opportunities, grant applications, and supported publications have gradually moved towards clinical/translational research. If you were on Christmas break and missed our new paper on trends in the agency’s portfolio, read it here: 3/3 […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
December 30, 2025 at 1:00 AM
It’s not just PubMed; #nih funding opportunities, grant applications, and supported publications have gradually moved towards clinical/translational research. If you were on Christmas break and missed our new paper on trends in the agency’s portfolio, read it here: 3/3 […]
For comparison, here are the top 5 high-level topics of papers published in 2000. If you’re thinking biomedical research has shifted in a clinical/translational direction … you’re right! 2/3
December 30, 2025 at 1:00 AM
For comparison, here are the top 5 high-level topics of papers published in 2000. If you’re thinking biomedical research has shifted in a clinical/translational direction … you’re right! 2/3
PubMed wrapped: categorizing the top 5 high-level topics of papers published in 2025. LLM-based classification of 1,783,299 documents in total 1/3
December 30, 2025 at 1:00 AM
PubMed wrapped: categorizing the top 5 high-level topics of papers published in 2025. LLM-based classification of 1,783,299 documents in total 1/3
Great story illustrating the impact of recent funding instability on lab techs, who are often underpaid, under-credited, and under-appreciated by the modern research enterprise.
One of my long held pet theories is that some part of our struggles with reproducibility is linked to the lack of […]
One of my long held pet theories is that some part of our struggles with reproducibility is linked to the lack of […]
Original post on mstdn.science
mstdn.science
December 28, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Great story illustrating the impact of recent funding instability on lab techs, who are often underpaid, under-credited, and under-appreciated by the modern research enterprise.
One of my long held pet theories is that some part of our struggles with reproducibility is linked to the lack of […]
One of my long held pet theories is that some part of our struggles with reproducibility is linked to the lack of […]