Allison Meisner
@ameisner.bsky.social
Asst prof @ Fred Hutch - breast cancer treatment and prevention. Biostatistician.
Mom of two (+ dog mom of Bunny) in Seattle.
Opinions my own.
Mom of two (+ dog mom of Bunny) in Seattle.
Opinions my own.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
"Where they make a wasteland, they call it peace."
-Calgacus, a Caledonian warrior, speaking about the Roman conquest of Britain in the First Century AD, via Tacitus
-Calgacus, a Caledonian warrior, speaking about the Roman conquest of Britain in the First Century AD, via Tacitus
Trump claims he and Netanyahu are seeking "eternal peace in the Middle East"
September 29, 2025 at 6:42 PM
"Where they make a wasteland, they call it peace."
-Calgacus, a Caledonian warrior, speaking about the Roman conquest of Britain in the First Century AD, via Tacitus
-Calgacus, a Caledonian warrior, speaking about the Roman conquest of Britain in the First Century AD, via Tacitus
trying to get this grant in before the government shuts down
a hallway with a red carpet leading to a living room and a table .
Alt: Macauley Caulkin running down the hallway screaming in Home Alone
media.tenor.com
September 26, 2025 at 10:24 PM
trying to get this grant in before the government shuts down
Reposted by Allison Meisner
BREAKING: The Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to move forward with the abolition of the Department of Education. It gives no explanation for its order. All three liberals dissent. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
From Sotomayor's dissent:
From Sotomayor's dissent:
July 14, 2025 at 7:20 PM
BREAKING: The Supreme Court allows the Trump administration to move forward with the abolition of the Department of Education. It gives no explanation for its order. All three liberals dissent. www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...
From Sotomayor's dissent:
From Sotomayor's dissent:
Reposted by Allison Meisner
see, the thing *i’m* genuinely worried about is that RFK will effectively ban vaccines
Breaking:
WASHINGTON (AP) - Health secretary removes every member of scientific committee that advises the CDC on how vaccines should be used.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Health secretary removes every member of scientific committee that advises the CDC on how vaccines should be used.
June 9, 2025 at 9:27 PM
see, the thing *i’m* genuinely worried about is that RFK will effectively ban vaccines
Reposted by Allison Meisner
Man comes to the US from Lebanon. Starts out delivering pizzas, becomes a Nobel winning neuroscientist. Trump freezes his funding, he gets an email from China offering to move his lab “any city, any university I want" with guaranteed funding for 20 years.
What are we doing?
What are we doing?
June 3, 2025 at 7:49 PM
Man comes to the US from Lebanon. Starts out delivering pizzas, becomes a Nobel winning neuroscientist. Trump freezes his funding, he gets an email from China offering to move his lab “any city, any university I want" with guaranteed funding for 20 years.
What are we doing?
What are we doing?
Reposted by Allison Meisner
There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
May 31, 2025 at 4:43 AM
There are 2 previous historical cases of countries destroying their science and universities, crippling them for decades: Lysenkoism in the USSR and Nazi Germany. The Trump administration will be the 3rd.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
It's not just budgets but research, institutions, expertise, and training the next generation.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
The lawsuits are great to fight the illegal impoundment, but the second there's an actual federal budget passed through Congress that looks like this, it's all over for American higher education.
Presidential budget is out. Here's NSF. Biggest cut, by amount, is $1 billion, or 66.8%, from MPS (Physics & Math directorate). nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...
May 30, 2025 at 9:01 PM
The lawsuits are great to fight the illegal impoundment, but the second there's an actual federal budget passed through Congress that looks like this, it's all over for American higher education.
As someone noted in today's faculty meeting, PO's are heroes right now.
The NIH Director continues to misunderstand (or mischaracterize) the extent to which research is being gutted. I appreciate this program officer for speaking up.
May 20, 2025 at 2:24 AM
As someone noted in today's faculty meeting, PO's are heroes right now.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
Not sure if this has been shared here yet, but this is video of Rumeysa Ozturk's arrest posted by WCVB. It's terrifying.
March 26, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Not sure if this has been shared here yet, but this is video of Rumeysa Ozturk's arrest posted by WCVB. It's terrifying.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
Lewelyn Dixon, a lab technician who has lived in the U.S. for 50 years and is a green card holder, is being held at an ICE detention center in Tacoma.
Lewelyn Dixon, UW lab technician, held in Tacoma ICE detention center
Lewelyn Dixon, a lab technician who has lived in the U.S. for 50 years and is a green card holder, is being held at an ICE detention center in Tacoma.
www.seattletimes.com
March 24, 2025 at 6:21 PM
Lewelyn Dixon, a lab technician who has lived in the U.S. for 50 years and is a green card holder, is being held at an ICE detention center in Tacoma.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
BREAKING: Yuval Abraham, co-director of Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land," says Israeli settlers beat his co-director Hamdan Ballal, injuring his head and stomach — and then Israeli soldiers invaded the ambulance he was in and seized him.
Ballal's whereabouts are now unknown.
Ballal's whereabouts are now unknown.
March 24, 2025 at 6:30 PM
BREAKING: Yuval Abraham, co-director of Oscar-winning documentary "No Other Land," says Israeli settlers beat his co-director Hamdan Ballal, injuring his head and stomach — and then Israeli soldiers invaded the ambulance he was in and seized him.
Ballal's whereabouts are now unknown.
Ballal's whereabouts are now unknown.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
CALLS ARE WORKING - it has bought us precious time, but we NEED to keep the pressure up.
Tomorrow is the cloture vote.
KEEP CALLING: (202) 224-3121 ☎️☎️☎️
Tell your Dem Senator to vote NO on Cloture and NO on the Republican spending bill.
Do NOT assume your Senator will be good on this. Trust me.
Tomorrow is the cloture vote.
KEEP CALLING: (202) 224-3121 ☎️☎️☎️
Tell your Dem Senator to vote NO on Cloture and NO on the Republican spending bill.
Do NOT assume your Senator will be good on this. Trust me.
🚨 Everyone needs to call their Dem Senator right now. They are starting to cave.
Tell them:
1. Vote NO on Cloture
AND
2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill.
Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it.
TODAY is the showdown.
🤳🏽: (202) 224-3121
Tell them:
1. Vote NO on Cloture
AND
2. Vote NO on the Republican spending bill.
Don’t let them pivot to reconciliation. GOP doesn’t need Dem votes on that and they know it.
TODAY is the showdown.
🤳🏽: (202) 224-3121
March 13, 2025 at 6:54 PM
CALLS ARE WORKING - it has bought us precious time, but we NEED to keep the pressure up.
Tomorrow is the cloture vote.
KEEP CALLING: (202) 224-3121 ☎️☎️☎️
Tell your Dem Senator to vote NO on Cloture and NO on the Republican spending bill.
Do NOT assume your Senator will be good on this. Trust me.
Tomorrow is the cloture vote.
KEEP CALLING: (202) 224-3121 ☎️☎️☎️
Tell your Dem Senator to vote NO on Cloture and NO on the Republican spending bill.
Do NOT assume your Senator will be good on this. Trust me.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
Every time you see what sounds like a wild claim about woke research, you can assume a) it will fall apart under the most basic of inspection, b) the person making the claim will never be held accountable for lying, and c) it is a cover to gut useful research that we benefit from.
Trump claimed the Biden administration spent $8 million "making mice transgender." The White House tried to back up this number with records of funding for research into cancer, asthma, and HIV, some of which used *transgenic* (genetically modified) mice.
Trump Decried Millions Spent 'Making Mice Transgender.' It Was Cancer and Asthma Research
President Trump falsely claimed that Biden spent $8 million on 'making mice transgender,' but the real research was for human health.
www.rollingstone.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:57 PM
Every time you see what sounds like a wild claim about woke research, you can assume a) it will fall apart under the most basic of inspection, b) the person making the claim will never be held accountable for lying, and c) it is a cover to gut useful research that we benefit from.
Study section that was supposed to review my proposal this week has now been pushed to mid-April...
March 4, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Study section that was supposed to review my proposal this week has now been pushed to mid-April...
A LOT of my work involves supporting trials and research that industry would never (and could never) do. This is not as simple as shuffling money and people around - the issue is who these bodies (industry vs. government) answer to and the corresponding incentive structure.
There is a belief in MAGAland that the private sector will just fund this stuff. For example, Sean Hannity said that “most of the solutions for cancer are going to be found in the private sector, not with public money.”
But thats simply not true.
But thats simply not true.
By @katherinejwu.com
"The NIH... supported 99 percent of the drugs approved in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019. The agency has had a hand in “nearly all of our major medical breakthroughs over the past several decades,”
The NIH is in a struggle for its (and our) lives. This is existential to America:
"The NIH... supported 99 percent of the drugs approved in the U.S. from 2010 to 2019. The agency has had a hand in “nearly all of our major medical breakthroughs over the past several decades,”
The NIH is in a struggle for its (and our) lives. This is existential to America:
February 28, 2025 at 12:23 AM
A LOT of my work involves supporting trials and research that industry would never (and could never) do. This is not as simple as shuffling money and people around - the issue is who these bodies (industry vs. government) answer to and the corresponding incentive structure.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
CDC source:
“We just had word that all our fellows and post doc staff are laid off effective immediately. The famous Epidemic Intelligence Service, aka the Disease Detectives, is no more. That’s 1260 staff.
They are calling this ‘Phase 1’.”
“We just had word that all our fellows and post doc staff are laid off effective immediately. The famous Epidemic Intelligence Service, aka the Disease Detectives, is no more. That’s 1260 staff.
They are calling this ‘Phase 1’.”
February 14, 2025 at 7:58 PM
CDC source:
“We just had word that all our fellows and post doc staff are laid off effective immediately. The famous Epidemic Intelligence Service, aka the Disease Detectives, is no more. That’s 1260 staff.
They are calling this ‘Phase 1’.”
“We just had word that all our fellows and post doc staff are laid off effective immediately. The famous Epidemic Intelligence Service, aka the Disease Detectives, is no more. That’s 1260 staff.
They are calling this ‘Phase 1’.”
Reposted by Allison Meisner
WSJ sub: “Indian Partition went smoothly enough, right? Will try to remember to check this before publishing.”
February 13, 2025 at 11:15 AM
WSJ sub: “Indian Partition went smoothly enough, right? Will try to remember to check this before publishing.”
Really enjoyed chatting about personalized prevention at last week's Innovator's Network program at Fred Hutch. Turns out people in the community are really jazzed about prevention!
February 12, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Really enjoyed chatting about personalized prevention at last week's Innovator's Network program at Fred Hutch. Turns out people in the community are really jazzed about prevention!
So excited that this analysis - which I started FOUR years ago - is now finally published! We used existing HIV Prevention Trials Network datasets and some causal inference tools (quite a learning curve for me) to estimate the effect of PrEP in Black MSM in the US.
academic.oup.com/ije/article/...
academic.oup.com/ije/article/...
Estimating the effect of pre-exposure prophylaxis in Black men who have sex with men
AbstractBackground. Black men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately burdened by the HIV epidemic in the USA. The effectiveness of pre-exposure
academic.oup.com
February 10, 2025 at 7:42 PM
So excited that this analysis - which I started FOUR years ago - is now finally published! We used existing HIV Prevention Trials Network datasets and some causal inference tools (quite a learning curve for me) to estimate the effect of PrEP in Black MSM in the US.
academic.oup.com/ije/article/...
academic.oup.com/ije/article/...
Reposted by Allison Meisner
Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca
In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.
globalnews.ca
February 9, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Whenever you hear someone sneer about scientific research that seems useless to them — “they’re studying the spit of lizards?!” — remind them that’s exactly how we got Ozempic.
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
globalnews.ca/news/9793403...
Reposted by Allison Meisner
Impact of NIH cut starting to sink in
Here's Sen. Katie Britt urging "a smart, targeted approach" in order to protect important research at UA-Birmingham, a top NIH recipient
Also, as article notes, the state's largest employer
www.al.com/news/2025/02...
Here's Sen. Katie Britt urging "a smart, targeted approach" in order to protect important research at UA-Birmingham, a top NIH recipient
Also, as article notes, the state's largest employer
www.al.com/news/2025/02...
Katie Britt vows to work with RFK Jr. after NIH funding cuts cause concern in Alabama
UAB and UAH are among Alabama institutions that could be affected by cuts.
www.al.com
February 9, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Impact of NIH cut starting to sink in
Here's Sen. Katie Britt urging "a smart, targeted approach" in order to protect important research at UA-Birmingham, a top NIH recipient
Also, as article notes, the state's largest employer
www.al.com/news/2025/02...
Here's Sen. Katie Britt urging "a smart, targeted approach" in order to protect important research at UA-Birmingham, a top NIH recipient
Also, as article notes, the state's largest employer
www.al.com/news/2025/02...
...and higher education more generally.
Note that the end of academic medical centers == the end of physician training...so, no more doctors.
Note that the end of academic medical centers == the end of physician training...so, no more doctors.
From what I hear from multiple people in the space, the latest NIH indirect costs for medical research grants will basically mean the end most academic medical centers.
February 8, 2025 at 8:05 AM
...and higher education more generally.
Note that the end of academic medical centers == the end of physician training...so, no more doctors.
Note that the end of academic medical centers == the end of physician training...so, no more doctors.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
Scientists and journalists need to figure out right quick how to explain to the average person how a massive change in research indirects will impact the medical care they and their children get (eg at the local children’s hospital), the education their children will get, the price of tuition, etc.
February 8, 2025 at 1:35 AM
Scientists and journalists need to figure out right quick how to explain to the average person how a massive change in research indirects will impact the medical care they and their children get (eg at the local children’s hospital), the education their children will get, the price of tuition, etc.
Reposted by Allison Meisner
From a crude markets perspective, this is a catastrophe for the pharmaceuticals industry (combined market cap: $1.88trn) and biotech industry (combined market cap: $1.32trn). Five alarm fire, "everything we depend on to create value is being dumped down a sewer", catastrophe.
8. It is difficult to overstate what a catastrophe this will be for the US research and education systems, particular in biomedical fields.
It is deliberate and wanton devastation entirely out of scale with any concern about DEI activities on campuses.
The goal is destroy US universities.
It is deliberate and wanton devastation entirely out of scale with any concern about DEI activities on campuses.
The goal is destroy US universities.
February 8, 2025 at 1:07 AM
From a crude markets perspective, this is a catastrophe for the pharmaceuticals industry (combined market cap: $1.88trn) and biotech industry (combined market cap: $1.32trn). Five alarm fire, "everything we depend on to create value is being dumped down a sewer", catastrophe.
A great fear of mine is that changes like this will completely fly under the radar for the general public...until they wake up and find the scientific enterprise in this country has entirely collapsed.
1. Today the NIH director issued a new directive slashing overhead rates to 15%.
I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters.
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
I want to provide some context on what that means and why it matters.
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
NOT-OD-25-068: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Supplemental Guidance to the 2024 NIH Grants Policy Statement: Indirect Cost Rates NOT-OD-25-068. OD
grants.nih.gov
February 8, 2025 at 2:55 AM
A great fear of mine is that changes like this will completely fly under the radar for the general public...until they wake up and find the scientific enterprise in this country has entirely collapsed.