Rachel Berg-Murante
rachelaberg.bsky.social
Rachel Berg-Murante
@rachelaberg.bsky.social
Postdoc and cell biologist in the Nielsen Lab @VirginiaTech studying cryptococcus titan cell cycle, size, and stem-ness | PhD from the Moseley Lab @Dartmouth | Lover of fungi, felines, and fiber arts | she/her
🐈‍⬛🐈🧶👶🏻🍞🥾🚴🏻‍♀️
Reposted by Rachel Berg-Murante
In a potentially dramatic change to how it chooses what science to fund, NIH is ending a long-running practice at many of its institutes of establishing, and making public, a threshold peer-review score needed for a grant application’s approval. https://scim.ag/48ck2zu
NIH shake-up to grant decision-making draws concerns of political meddling
Policy drops “paylines” based on peer-review scores and requires geography and other factors to guide approvals
scim.ag
November 25, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Reposted by Rachel Berg-Murante
Been hearing folks don’t realize NIH is more than its internal labs.

That cutting NIH is ok because Dana Farber will still do cancer research. Joslin will cover diabetes, etc.

But these centers get most of their funding from NIH.

Stop NIH, and the whole system fails, across the entire US.
You might find this relevant - scorecards by district on the local economic impacts of White House proposed FY26 budget cuts.

scienceimpacts.org/fy26
SCIMaP - Impacts of Federal Cuts to Science and Medical Research
View Projected Impact of the FY2026 Budget Cuts to the NIH
scienceimpacts.org
August 16, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Reposted by Rachel Berg-Murante
I'm very impressed with this article by @science.org highlighting how the destruction of science in the US is impacting the careers of scientists who are, you know, real people. They did a great job of capturing my fears and frustrations around my career.

www.science.org/content/arti...
U.S. scientists’ lives and careers are being upended. Here are five of their stories
As the second Trump administration sends U.S. science into upheaval, countless researchers are fighting for their futures
www.science.org
May 6, 2025 at 9:50 PM
Reposted by Rachel Berg-Murante
Unlawful grant terminations are harming young scientists and threatening innovation. ASCB joins leaders calling for immediate funding restoration.

www.ascb.org/society-news...
Leading Life Science Organizations: Unlawful Grant Terminations Pose Grave Threat to America’s Innovation Pipeline - ASCB
Amicus Brief Filed in Support of Suit Calling for Immediate Funding Restoration WASHINGTON, DC – Four leading life science organizations, including the ASCB, filed an amicus brief today asking the cou...
www.ascb.org
May 2, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Reposted by Rachel Berg-Murante
BREAKING: We're suing the National Institutes of Health over their politically-motivated purge of research grants.

This is an unlawful attack on scientific progress that puts lives at risk.
April 2, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Rachel Berg-Murante
Scientific research is important. Scientific research saves lives. Scientific research fuels the economy. Scientific research keeps the country safe. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
A call for the United States to continue investing in science | mBio
The U.S. life science research mission is critical not only to human health and understanding the natural world but also to agriculture and food production, technological innovations, socioeconomic progress, and our national defense and leadership worldwide. A 2025 Research!America survey reveals that 92% of Americans want government to actively work to promote medical progress, in part by funding infectious and chronic disease research. Why? Because biomedical research saves lives, prevents suffering, and increases quality of life for not only Americans but for people throughout the world. While less well appreciated, science also drives enormous economic growth. Indeed, historically there has been widespread bipartisan support for biomedical funding by the federal government. Below we discuss the U.S. scientific research enterprise and provide evidence and arguments we hope the ASM community can use to advocate for science.
journals.asm.org
February 27, 2025 at 11:20 PM