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smitaiyer.bsky.social
ssi
@smitaiyer.bsky.social
immunology and irony for the times, Associate Prof @ Pitt_Path
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8918-7005



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We just walked into an animal shelter because we drove by and saw they were having an adoption drive. Then the volunteers there told us that this sweetheart has been in the shelter for over a year. But they’re waiving the adoption fee for folks who come in to adopt Radar or another cat today.
August 9, 2025 at 6:53 PM
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We’re fighting back. ✊✍️

Shoutout to our brave NIH colleagues behind the “Bethesda Declaration”

No, you *cannot* attack medical research. It benefits us all.
“We urge you as NIH Director to restore grants delayed or terminated for political reasons so that life-saving science can continue.”

Over one hundred NIH employees publish a letter of dissent to Trump administration attacks on medical research, the “Bethesda Declaration.” 🧪
June 9, 2025 at 1:33 PM
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I’m available for cover art projects

Repost to help me connect with new artists 💜
May 19, 2025 at 1:10 PM
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The #measles vaccine has saved more lives than any other vaccine in the past 50 years.

2 doses = 97% protection against the highly contagious disease. #VaccinesWork #WorldImmunizationWeek
April 29, 2025 at 7:16 AM
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Here is fun way to play with data. The below graph shows the United States total cancer death rates from 1968 through 2023. In 1970 the United States started funding research to find how to prevent and cure cancer. See ALT for more. 🧪💡☠️ #Sociology
April 30, 2025 at 3:03 AM
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🍂 US Science is Under Threat - NOW is the Time to Act !!
🧪
Call your Reps
Inform others
Protest
Censoring mis/disinformation research is just the beginning. All scientific research in the US is under threat. Now is the time for scientists in all fields to act. Some small steps each of us can take:
April 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
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April 26, 2025 at 12:29 PM
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What a sad and scary time to be a scientist in the US.
ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS

We received a heads up from a trusted source that you should proactively download/print/screen shot any documentation on research.gov pertaining to your NSF awards, both those that are current and any that have closed in the last 5-6 years.

1/n
a cartoon of a man holding a frying pan and a spoon with red alert written above him
ALT: a cartoon of a man holding a frying pan and a spoon with red alert written above him
media.tenor.com
April 24, 2025 at 9:13 PM
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The scientific community must take a strong and active stand against vaccine revisionism — the false narrative that there is insufficient evidence to support the safety and efficacy of vaccines www.nature.com/articles/s41... #vaccines #immunology #virology
Combating vaccine revisionism - Nature Medicine
The scientific community must take a strong and active stand against vaccine revisionism — the false narrative that there is insufficient evidence to support the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
www.nature.com
April 20, 2025 at 4:03 PM
The side effects from vaccines we complain about?
Often part of the path to durable immunity.
Getting there takes careful, controlled studies.
JCI - Transient pain and long-term gain: adjuvant dose directs immune memory www.jci.org/articles/vie... 🧪 #vaccines #immunology
a woman in a purple jacket is holding a fish in a plastic bag .
Alt: meme - a woman in a purple jacket is holding a fish in a plastic bag .
media.tenor.com
April 16, 2025 at 12:07 AM
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March 16, 2025 at 9:32 PM
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March 23, 2025 at 5:06 AM
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"If you have no critics, you’ll likely have no success."

- Malcolm X
April 9, 2025 at 5:48 AM
Vaccines against measles, tetanus, whooping cough (pertussis) and tuberculosis,
received during childhood, have saved about 154 million lives over the past 50 years.
nature.com Nature @nature.com · Apr 11
Vaccines have granted families in wealthy countries the luxury of forgetting what measles, polio, rubella, and other preventable diseases are like.

We're looking at how many millions of lives vaccines have saved.

Read the full story: https://go.nature.com/4jqOqKn
April 11, 2025 at 2:59 PM
1 billion and strong -
Amazing what a little blood cult and pest management can do for your brand.🧪
#CatHistory #ScienceSkeet #coolscience
www.science.org/content/arti...
April 10, 2025 at 7:23 PM
🧪a thing of beauty—CD28 and CD95 separating T cells.
if only all markers were this well behaved.
#GatingGoals #FlowCytometry #Immunology
April 9, 2025 at 10:30 PM
"See, pushing back can help..
April 7, 2025 at 9:41 PM
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This turnout is incredible and yet invisible on NYT and WaPo. Evidently you need a major disruption associated with the demonstrations or a tragedy to break through. Infuriating and incentivizing the wrong things
This video, better than stills, illustrates just how many people marched in Boston yesterday.

City hall plaza, filled from the JFK federal building, stretching across Cambridge St and all the way down Tremont St to Boylston.

(From: Reddit)
April 7, 2025 at 1:23 AM
"For a child who is not vaccinated against measles — one of the world’s most infectious viruses — no classroom, school bus or grocery store is safe" www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
How Measles Attacks an Unvaccinated Child (Gift Article)
With falling vaccination rates and outbreaks that have caused more than 580 U.S. cases and at least two deaths, health experts expect hundreds or even thousands more to be infected in the coming month...
www.nytimes.com
April 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM
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I may be tired and a little hoarse, but as I said again and again on the Senate floor, this is a moment where we cannot afford to be silent, when we must speak up.
April 2, 2025 at 1:09 AM
An article that meets the moment.
Check out this thoughtful piece
🔗 “We must share the joy of discovery that motivated us to become and remain scientists as broadly and sincerely as we can.”
elifesciences.org/articles/106...
#Science #JoyOfDiscovery
My colleagues have articulated how many of us feel right now. I urge you to check it out.
Terrific set of perspectives and opinions by several researchers, including me, on how to process and respond to attacks on US science specifically, and science writ large.
March 29, 2025 at 10:25 PM
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Control Your Own Universe 🪐
February 3, 2025 at 2:39 PM
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March 20, 2025 at 2:44 PM