Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
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mayankchugh.bsky.social
Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
@mayankchugh.bsky.social
Assistant Professor @University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Alma: Harvard Med, Max Planck Tübingen, IISER

https://www.mayankchugh.org
Pinned
📣 Thrilled to share the first paper from ReForm Lab

Are you an international scholar on a visa? Faculty with international students in your lab and class? Student center workers? For the 1st time, we report data on visa burdens from over 700 ECRs.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
U.S. Visa Bureaucracy and Its Burdens Among Early Career Scholars
Foreign-born research scholars on temporary visas are essential to the U.S. scientific workforce and economy, yet they face systemic challenges shaped by restrictive immigration policies. While schola...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
I’m excited to share our new preprint! We built a single-nucleus multiomic (snRNA-seq+snATAC-seq) atlas of leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRᴴʸᵖᵒ) and identified conserved cis-regulatory elements overlapping human obesity-linked variants and eQTLs🧠🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Single-nucleus transcriptional and chromatin accessibility profiling of mouse hypothalamic LepRb neurons reveals cell type-specific cis-regulatory elements linked to human obesity
Leptin receptor-expressing hypothalamic neurons (LepRHypo) are key regulators of energy balance, yet a comprehensive, cell type-resolved, chromatin accessibility map of these neurons is lacking. We pr...
www.biorxiv.org
October 8, 2025 at 5:02 PM
YASS!! Let’s keep pushing open the doors to research assessment with preprints!!

asapbio.org/hhmi-enacts-...
HHMI Enacts “Immediate Access To Research” Policy For Its Scientists – ASAPbio
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) is requiring its scientists to post their research articles as preprints under an open license that allows
asapbio.org
October 8, 2025 at 2:15 PM
First lab meeting w/ 6 grad students UMBC!
September 8, 2025 at 7:28 PM
📣 Thrilled to share the first paper from ReForm Lab

Are you an international scholar on a visa? Faculty with international students in your lab and class? Student center workers? For the 1st time, we report data on visa burdens from over 700 ECRs.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
U.S. Visa Bureaucracy and Its Burdens Among Early Career Scholars
Foreign-born research scholars on temporary visas are essential to the U.S. scientific workforce and economy, yet they face systemic challenges shaped by restrictive immigration policies. While schola...
www.biorxiv.org
July 31, 2025 at 12:53 AM
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
The Trump admin is eliminating research through cuts to the #NIH and #NSF. In this op-ed, @mayankchugh.bsky.social & @jacoates.bsky.social urge a shift to open science: a model based on transparency, equity, and free access to research.
.
Learn more in The Scientist. ⤵️
Open Science: An Antidote to Anti-Science
Disappearing public datasets and funding cuts undermine US research. Can open science practices help researchers find stability?
www.the-scientist.com
May 28, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
Science in the US is in turmoil—funding slashed, research censored, students shut out. How do we tell young scientists to stay when the system is pushing them away?

Students from @mayankchugh.bsky.social's ReForm lab are worried, but they march on. #StandUpForScience
buff.ly/SIRQKgn
Science Under Threat in the United States: The impact on undergraduate students
Anti-science policies, funding cuts, scientific censorship and the US withdrawing from international commitments are worrying members of the ReForm Lab at the College of William & Mary.
buff.ly
April 2, 2025 at 3:15 PM
My undergraduate students & I have been having discussions about what the current US policies mean for the science, their career aspirations, & public health.

Thank you @drpeterrodgers.bsky.social @elife.bsky.social @elifecommunity.bsky.social
for giving us a space to share our voices & fears.
March 26, 2025 at 6:55 PM
There are academics I’ve spoken to that still don’t understand the publishing process @elife.bsky.social & yet have opinions on why it ain’t great. 🙄

Here’s a clear step by step with video explaining how publishing/PRC model at eLife. 👇🏽

Have you got your understanding right? 🤨
Frustrated with confusing or conflicting requests for revisions?

Our consultative review process means editors and reviewers discuss their reviews with each other before sharing their recommendations.

Learn more about peer review at eLife: buff.ly/sm1P4FL
March 26, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
My OpEd in @elife.bsky.social

“It feels as if we are trying to fight a series of attacks on science with one arm tied behind our back and our lips half sewn shut.”

“Yet we are not beaten, and some of us are downright energized.”

elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Science Under Threat in the United States: Feeling abandoned but energized
Many individual researchers are frustrated by the response - or the lack of a response - from universities to a growing crisis.
elifesciences.org
March 25, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
Explore the newly launched Early-Career Neuroscientists Resource Center, designed to help you navigate the field with news, expert insights and practical tools. The page also highlights job openings, seminars, and more:

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/early-career...
Early-Career Neuroscientists Resource Center
News, perspectives and resources to help navigate the early stages of your neuroscience career
www.thetransmitter.org
March 20, 2025 at 9:12 PM
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
2/ Dine Roseline Dzekem introduced the work of eLife's Global South Committee and for an overview of our Early-Career Advisory Group, we heard from members Laura Han, @mayankchugh.bsky.social, Charlotte Ayima and Diana López.
March 5, 2025 at 11:11 AM
I got to collaborate with amazing @jacoates.bsky.social on this:

Calling open science community to be the guidepost & lead by example as science & scientists suffer in chaos.

Read here:

upstream.force11.org/open-science...
Science is Under Siege: The Open Science Community Must Act and Lead by Example
Worldwide, science is under attack by anti-scientific movements. The new US administration has thrown the entire academy into chaos, threatening global health. This article is a call for the open scie...
upstream.force11.org
February 13, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Thank you! @network-alba.bsky.social for having me to discuss challenges faced by postdocs and thank you to Katie for covering this for the @thetransmitter.bsky.social

Important than ever now
If you attended our ALBA-IBRO social at #SfN2024, you heard
@mayankchugh.bsky.social discuss the systemic challenges postdocs face. He joins the broader conversation in this article, diving into the #neuroscience #postdoc crisis and examines the impact of stagnant pay and shrinking career prospects
Static pay, shrinking prospects fuel neuroscience postdoc decline
Postdoctoral researchers sponsored by the National Institutes of Health now toil longer than ever before, for less money. They are responding accordingly.
www.thetransmitter.org
February 13, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Thank you @epimechfc.bsky.social for featuring and including us!!
2. Hydrostatic pressure is one of the major drivers of lumen expansion and thereby tissue morphogenesis.

Check out the cool review by @mayankchugh.bsky.social et al.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
January 7, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
"Non-White scientists appear on fewer editorial boards, spend more time under review, and receive fewer citations"

www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...
Non-White scientists appear on fewer editorial boards, spend more time under review, and receive fewer citations | PNAS
Disparities continue to pose major challenges in various aspects of science. One such aspect is editorial board composition, which has been shown t...
www.pnas.org
November 25, 2024 at 11:46 PM
So my first semester of undergraduate teaching ended and in the last class I got some sweet souvenirs from my students. I am so humbled. Awww.
December 11, 2024 at 9:31 PM
Thank you so much, @godwyns.bsky.social @elife.bsky.social for having me & providing an excellent space to share my voice & experiences with the research community!
Pleasure hosting @mayankchugh.bsky.social on #CommunityVoices where he delved into some of the complex issues affecting researchers, and shared deep insights into the value of #Diversity & #Justice in research
🎧
Appl: elifesci.org/Voices3Ap
Spotify: elifesci.org/Voices3Sp
Amzn: elifesci.org/Voices3a
November 22, 2024 at 2:54 PM
Thanks, W&M for covering me in the news. Plus, a great photo with my postdoc advisor Sean Megason & Dean Reede.

news.wm.edu/2024/11/19/h...
November 19, 2024 at 3:41 PM
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
☀️ Looking to get paid & gain valuable research experience this summer? Or know undergrads that could benefit?

REUs are ~6-8 weeks summer programs for undergrads and are very helpful for post-grad jobs & grad or professional schools!

See our REU database to learn more!

➡️ cientificolatino.com/reu
November 15, 2024 at 3:51 PM
I’m thankful to Harvard Catalyst for giving my work a voice and making me reflect on a journey I’ve taken. It’s fun, exciting, grounding, and yet so difficult.

catalyst.harvard.edu/news/article...
Data-Driven Change-Making
catalyst.harvard.edu
November 16, 2024 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by Mayank Chugh (he/him) ✨
I think another consequence of this decision is that any journal considering some sort of similar innovation is going to see this as a punishment

I've been trying to encourage the society journals I am a editor for to test this innovative model and this decision will further entrench resistance
November 15, 2024 at 5:55 PM