He knows what ‘memorial’ means, right?

Genetic medicine is changing everything. Sickle cell disease is an example. Interesting (maybe only to me) scd is caused by a mutation in the 6th amino acid in the adult (beta globin) hemoglobin gene. This was determined IN 1956 by Vernon Ingram! (1/?)

Upsetting. I was riding the elevator today at work (Harvard Medical school). There was a Swiss post doc explaining to a coworker that he had solved his funding worries (got a prestigious European grant) but that it didn’t solve his other problem. Being in a country that did not want him.

Call me crazy. I would prefer to pay for universal healthcare that I do not use. I would rather not be one of the lucky people that has cancer, has a child with a genetic condition, needs a heart transplant, or has a stroke and gets back more than they pay in. I suppose it sucks to be healthy.

Fantastic talk at #ashg25 by @laurenctesta.bsky.social on gene editing in PXE. True treatment for rare genetic disorders are coming.

At #ashg. I have heard Francis Collins several times in the past. He is always measured (also brilliant). He seems fired up. Suggests that everyone write their local congress people and tell them how important research is. Especially stories where research has directly helped them.

Wendy Chung was just announced as the winner of the 2026 Mary Ellen Avery Neonatal Research award.

www.societyforpediatricresearch.org/2026-mary-el...

There is ongoing litigation trying to tie acetaminophen to autism. IMO this is a frivolous suit. Wisner Baum is one of the firms involved. Surprise surprise. Conor Kennedy (RFKjr’s son) works for Wisner Baum.

Bill Cassidy is a smart guy. I think he genuinely wants a healthy country. I just think he is scared of Trump. He needs to end the RFKjr experiment. Come out strongly against him. Force his fellow republicans to vote on removal. Make him resign. You can’t have hhs fire someone for talking to you.

For a science reporter. I would like someone to look up the American medical Nobel prize winners. Get grant scores for projects that eventually won the prize (not post work grants). My suspicion is that few would have been at the 4% cutline. True advances can come from anywhere. Fund science.

One fundamental misunderstanding of science is that most people think of it as what you did in school. In ‘Real research’ you do not know the answer before you do the experiment. We should be throwing money at basic science. No one knows in advance what funding will produce the next breakthrough.

I am at the KIF1A meeting. KIF1A is a rare progressive neurological genetic disease that is variable in impact based on the exact genetic mutation. To date there are about 400 patients worldwide but I suspect that there are many more undiagnosed. #kif1a 1 of ?

2/2 you used to have to read German to get a Chemistry PhD. Scientific dominance can appear insurmountable until it is surmounted. These NIH and NSF cuts will cause the loss of at least a generation of researchers. The economic damage is incalculable. The loss of future cures is heart breaking.

Disaster for the US. The biggest economic strengths (aside from being the reserve currency) for the US are science and technology. This will cripple this advantage. We will lose a generation of scientists. This is like the fall of German science in the 1930s. 1/2

Human Genetics and Genomics Advances: Human Genetics and Genomics Advances www.cell.com/hgg-advances...

Last year, Wendy Chung published initial results from the Guardian study of genomic based newborn screening. Remarkably they can sequence from the dried blood spot used in standard nbs and it works 99.6% of the time. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

If you are an NC resident and voted in November, please check if your name or the names of any family areone of the 60K votes being challenged. If so, confirm ASAP with your Board of Elections. You only have two weeks.

The website to check linked in the reply.

www.newsobserver.com/news/politic...

Biogen came out of a professor at UCSF. Regeneron came from Columbia professors. Moderna came from Harvard professors. Most biotech companies started at NIH funded universities. Cutting indirects will stop this massive engine of growth. #nih

Cutting NIH indirects is terrible policy. NIH spending is one of the best government investments and has a hugely positive rate of return. Aside from the fiscal stupidity, how many cures will not be found? American healthcare is not the envy of the world. American medical research was. #nih