Peter Todd
@realtoddlab.bsky.social
Neurologist and scientist at University of Michigan.
We study short tandem repeats in human disease: Fragile X, FXTAS, CANVAS, Ataxia, ALS, FTD, neurogenetics.
We study short tandem repeats in human disease: Fragile X, FXTAS, CANVAS, Ataxia, ALS, FTD, neurogenetics.
Reposted by Peter Todd
alert to all H1B holders, please share: Trump just banned H-1B employees from reentering US unless employer pays $100,000 "fee". Proclamation applies to both new H-1B entrants and current H-1B employees who are abroad. set to take effect tmrw sun sept 21. please return if you can. i am so sorry. 😢
September 20, 2025 at 1:13 PM
alert to all H1B holders, please share: Trump just banned H-1B employees from reentering US unless employer pays $100,000 "fee". Proclamation applies to both new H-1B entrants and current H-1B employees who are abroad. set to take effect tmrw sun sept 21. please return if you can. i am so sorry. 😢
Not sure this is the right long term answer-although it is clearly coming. We will all run our papers through algorithms that spit out the same stuff. My AI vs your AI.
There is signal in the noise humans make.
There is signal in the noise humans make.
This is such a great idea/service!! Have Brendan-bot give you pre-submission comments on your paper!
Just made a manuscript/PAP feedback GPT built from 150+ previous peer reviews - identifies problems and provides actionable feedback on the points that I raise most frequently
chatgpt.com/g/g-68af4d19...
Anyone can use - try it out! (Editors/authors: feel free to cut me out of the loop 😉.)
chatgpt.com/g/g-68af4d19...
Anyone can use - try it out! (Editors/authors: feel free to cut me out of the loop 😉.)
September 1, 2025 at 2:40 AM
Not sure this is the right long term answer-although it is clearly coming. We will all run our papers through algorithms that spit out the same stuff. My AI vs your AI.
There is signal in the noise humans make.
There is signal in the noise humans make.
Reposted by Peter Todd
I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.
August 11, 2025 at 6:12 PM
I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.
Remember when expertise was considered a good thing?
If the president's pawns serve as the final arbiters of grant success, the whole system will quickly go from a meritocracy to an idiocratic system of patronage and payoffs. Trump's great legacy will be the destruction of American science.
If the president's pawns serve as the final arbiters of grant success, the whole system will quickly go from a meritocracy to an idiocratic system of patronage and payoffs. Trump's great legacy will be the destruction of American science.
1. Federal funding for research promotes tech, biomedical, and scientific discovery in the US, and provides training for the sci/tech workforce that has brought immeasurable wealth to the US over the past 75 years.
Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.
Today's executive order includes a provision that will obliterate both functions.
Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal
www.whitehouse.gov
August 8, 2025 at 2:04 AM
Remember when expertise was considered a good thing?
If the president's pawns serve as the final arbiters of grant success, the whole system will quickly go from a meritocracy to an idiocratic system of patronage and payoffs. Trump's great legacy will be the destruction of American science.
If the president's pawns serve as the final arbiters of grant success, the whole system will quickly go from a meritocracy to an idiocratic system of patronage and payoffs. Trump's great legacy will be the destruction of American science.
Ever wonder how intronic repeats in C9orf72 get translated into toxic proteins in ALS and FTD? We found that transcription initiates within the intron to generate a novel endogenous efficient mRNA template for RAN translation in patient neurons and mouse models 1/5| PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Cryptic intronic transcriptional initiation generates efficient endogenous mRNA templates for C9orf72-associated RAN translation | PNAS
Intronic GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat expansions in C9orf72 are the most common genetic
cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemp...
www.pnas.org
August 4, 2025 at 8:09 PM
Ever wonder how intronic repeats in C9orf72 get translated into toxic proteins in ALS and FTD? We found that transcription initiates within the intron to generate a novel endogenous efficient mRNA template for RAN translation in patient neurons and mouse models 1/5| PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Peter Todd
This is extraordinarily dangerous and will slow academic biomedical research and drug development. A total ban is on the horizon. www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/nih-announce...
NIH announces end to funding for animal-only studies - Drug Discovery and Development
Drug Discovery and Development covers strategies and technologies related to pharmaceutical research and development and drug formulation.
www.drugdiscoverytrends.com
July 8, 2025 at 12:12 AM
This is extraordinarily dangerous and will slow academic biomedical research and drug development. A total ban is on the horizon. www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/nih-announce...
Reposted by Peter Todd
Hello! Ever wonder what's "talking to" your favorite transcript, but were too scared to ask? In our review in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social, @mardakheh.bsky.social and I highlight new RNA-focused tools for discovering RNA interactions across organizational scales. Checkit!
tinyurl.com/ydn6e3ac
tinyurl.com/ydn6e3ac
June 30, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Hello! Ever wonder what's "talking to" your favorite transcript, but were too scared to ask? In our review in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social, @mardakheh.bsky.social and I highlight new RNA-focused tools for discovering RNA interactions across organizational scales. Checkit!
tinyurl.com/ydn6e3ac
tinyurl.com/ydn6e3ac
This is inspiring stuff, Jack.
I stand with you in your pledge to our trainees. They need our support and they deserve our courage.
I stand with you in your pledge to our trainees. They need our support and they deserve our courage.
June 26, 2025 at 9:21 PM
This is inspiring stuff, Jack.
I stand with you in your pledge to our trainees. They need our support and they deserve our courage.
I stand with you in your pledge to our trainees. They need our support and they deserve our courage.
Reposted by Peter Todd
Just got told by my NIA PO that I should probably resubmit my R01, even though it scored a 10% and is on Alzheimer’s disease. Last year’s NIA paylines were 13% for regular R01s and 16% for AD grants..so WTF?! 😭🫠
June 20, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Just got told by my NIA PO that I should probably resubmit my R01, even though it scored a 10% and is on Alzheimer’s disease. Last year’s NIA paylines were 13% for regular R01s and 16% for AD grants..so WTF?! 😭🫠
Reposted by Peter Todd
The day started with tragedy with political violence in MN and instead of being scared, neighbors SHOWED UP to stand together at No Kings Twin Cities. We packed the Capitol Mall all the way to the Cathedral. Estimate 80,000+ right now. So proud of our state. #nokings #indivisible
June 14, 2025 at 9:45 PM
The day started with tragedy with political violence in MN and instead of being scared, neighbors SHOWED UP to stand together at No Kings Twin Cities. We packed the Capitol Mall all the way to the Cathedral. Estimate 80,000+ right now. So proud of our state. #nokings #indivisible
A huge and untimely loss
Atul Butte died yesterday.
The world lost a giant.
A big bear of a man.
With a huge smile.
With love for everyone.
With energy that could power a room.
I loved everything about Atul.
I loved how he was always happy.
I loved how excited he was about science and helping people.
The world lost a giant.
A big bear of a man.
With a huge smile.
With love for everyone.
With energy that could power a room.
I loved everything about Atul.
I loved how he was always happy.
I loved how excited he was about science and helping people.
June 15, 2025 at 1:24 AM
A huge and untimely loss
Reposted by Peter Todd
New powerful article up in the New York Times on cancelled and delayed grants
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Here Are the Nearly 2,500 Medical Research Grants Canceled or Delayed by Trump (Gift Article)
Some cuts have been starkly visible, but the country’s medical grant-making machinery has also radically transformed outside the public eye.
www.nytimes.com
June 4, 2025 at 3:01 PM
New powerful article up in the New York Times on cancelled and delayed grants
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Peter Todd
Hello Fly Folks. quick note FlyBase is under duress due to termination NIH$ to Harvard and intl collabs. The hardworking folks @flybase.bsky.social are doing their darndest to ensure access to current data. For US, there will soon be a new site to donate. Please spread the word, ideas and support 🪰💪
My lab studies bacterial infections. We spend a lot of time looking at (or for) species-specific genetic and genomic databases for hosts and microbes. FlyBase is the best of all—there is literally no comparison. Its existence is under threat. Please donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Drosophila Genetic Database
The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk
June 4, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Hello Fly Folks. quick note FlyBase is under duress due to termination NIH$ to Harvard and intl collabs. The hardworking folks @flybase.bsky.social are doing their darndest to ensure access to current data. For US, there will soon be a new site to donate. Please spread the word, ideas and support 🪰💪
Reposted by Peter Todd
Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Drosophila Genetic Database
The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk
June 3, 2025 at 6:23 PM
Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Reposted by Peter Todd
URGENT: FlyBase has lost practically all its funding overnight; even user fees are tied up in denied grant funding. 🤬🤯
Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below.
This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.
Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below.
This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.
My lab studies bacterial infections. We spend a lot of time looking at (or for) species-specific genetic and genomic databases for hosts and microbes. FlyBase is the best of all—there is literally no comparison. Its existence is under threat. Please donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Drosophila Genetic Database
The Drosophila Genetic Database, FlyBase, is on the brink of collapse due to the sudden termination of the FlyBase NIH grant, which includes salaries for 5 literature curators based at the University ...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk
June 3, 2025 at 5:20 PM
URGENT: FlyBase has lost practically all its funding overnight; even user fees are tied up in denied grant funding. 🤬🤯
Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below.
This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.
Any lab using @flybase.bsky.social please donate using the link in post below.
This incredible community, on whose backs our #Drosophila labs depend, can't be left out to dry.
Reposted by Peter Todd
All of NIH funding to Northwestern University is frozen. This pause includes noncompeting approved funding, new and competing grants with fundable scores. No reimbursements for money already spent have been received since March. This situation is rarely reported so please Please get the word out!
May 23, 2025 at 5:56 PM
All of NIH funding to Northwestern University is frozen. This pause includes noncompeting approved funding, new and competing grants with fundable scores. No reimbursements for money already spent have been received since March. This situation is rarely reported so please Please get the word out!
If this comes to pass, it will cripple biomedical research and markedly reduce international student attendance at US Colleges- which will drive up education costs.
They're terminating OPT.
Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US.
6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com
Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US.
6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com
Skilled immigration on the chopping block? Effects of eliminating "Optional Practical Training" in the US
The White House has taken numerous steps to sharply reduce the number of immigrant workers, with or without legal status, in the US economy. These policies, so far, typically target immigrants with le...
www.piie.com
May 22, 2025 at 3:02 AM
If this comes to pass, it will cripple biomedical research and markedly reduce international student attendance at US Colleges- which will drive up education costs.
Reposted by Peter Todd
OPT provides short-term work visas for recent international graduate students in the US, allowing them to work after their student visa expires. It's a pipeline for jobs in medicine, biomedical research, education, technology, engineering, and other highly skilled work.
This is very, very, bad.
This is very, very, bad.
They're terminating OPT.
Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US.
6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com
Today the nominee to head USCIS stated directly: he will end Optional Practical Training, the single largest channel for high-skill immigrants to work in the US.
6 weeks ago I warned about this & summarized the research on impacts of this drastic action—> @piie.com
Skilled immigration on the chopping block? Effects of eliminating "Optional Practical Training" in the US
The White House has taken numerous steps to sharply reduce the number of immigrant workers, with or without legal status, in the US economy. These policies, so far, typically target immigrants with le...
www.piie.com
May 21, 2025 at 9:26 PM
OPT provides short-term work visas for recent international graduate students in the US, allowing them to work after their student visa expires. It's a pipeline for jobs in medicine, biomedical research, education, technology, engineering, and other highly skilled work.
This is very, very, bad.
This is very, very, bad.
Reposted by Peter Todd
Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025
May 18, 2025 at 10:44 PM
Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025
Reposted by Peter Todd
say it again:
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
There is a false dichotomy drawn between "the ivory tower" and "the real world," and I'm here to report that in a post-industrial society, your real-world economy absolutely hinges on the university.
University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.
University towns are factory towns. Universities drive economic activity, not the other way around.
A must read
May 18, 2025 at 1:45 PM
say it again:
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
4 million people work in higher ed, the largest employer in 10 states, second largest employer in 10 more, and in 60 of the 100 biggest cities
ROI for NIH and NSF for local economies is conservatively 4x, often close to 10x
demolishing higher education is economic sabotage
7 months from novel diagnosis to first dose. We are rapidly moving into a world where modular RNA based medicines, gene therapies and gene editing will be rapidly deployed, routine, and personalized to the recipient.
Also- none of this happens without academic biomedical research and NIH $.
Also- none of this happens without academic biomedical research and NIH $.
A lipid nanoparticle–delivered base-editing therapy was custom designed for an infant with a ureacycle disorder. The affected infant was treated at approximately 7 and 8 months of age. Read the Brief Report: nej.md/42XF03F
#ASGCT2025 #MedSky @asgct.bsky.social
#ASGCT2025 #MedSky @asgct.bsky.social
Patient-Specific In Vivo Gene Editing to Treat a Rare Genetic Disease | NEJM
Base editors can correct disease-causing genetic variants. After a neonate had received
a diagnosis of severe carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 deficiency, a disease with
an estimated 50% mortality ...
nej.md
May 15, 2025 at 10:15 PM
7 months from novel diagnosis to first dose. We are rapidly moving into a world where modular RNA based medicines, gene therapies and gene editing will be rapidly deployed, routine, and personalized to the recipient.
Also- none of this happens without academic biomedical research and NIH $.
Also- none of this happens without academic biomedical research and NIH $.
Reposted by Peter Todd
Amazing that this has happened. Maddening that we are actively destroying the capability to do it again. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/h...
Baby Is Healed With World’s First Personalized Gene-Editing Treatment
www.nytimes.com
May 15, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Amazing that this has happened. Maddening that we are actively destroying the capability to do it again. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/15/h...
Reposted by Peter Todd
I’m reliably told this is cutting edge research with lots of commercial and defense applications that no one in their right mind would shutter.
May 15, 2025 at 5:08 PM
I’m reliably told this is cutting edge research with lots of commercial and defense applications that no one in their right mind would shutter.
Those who stay will be champions.
NEW: Fresh off announcing his departure for the University of Florida, outgoing University of Michigan President Santa Ono has had his name removed from the American Assoc of Colleges and Universities academic freedom letter he signed barely two weeks ago. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/outgo...
Outgoing UMich Prez Santa Ono Pulls His Name from Academic Freedom Letter
Over the weekend University of Michigan President Santa Ono announced that he...
talkingpointsmemo.com
May 8, 2025 at 3:32 AM
Those who stay will be champions.