August A. Culbert

Grateful for amazing mentorship from Dr. Nirali Shah, Dr. Flavia Gava & team at NIH MRSP for facilitating this work, plus collaborators @MSKCancerCenter @seattlechildren and med school @CWRUSOM @ClevelandClinic for this opportunity!

So excited to see this finally in print! In this multi-center, retrospective analysis @NIH, we found risk factors associated with severe infections among pts receiving CAR T-cells for B-ALL: ⬆️Age ⬇️Platelets ✅ALL-HT risk score + pts with multiple infections: ⬇️ 2-year mOS

We celebrate the retirement of Dr. Robert Mayock—brilliant clinician, gifted educator, and role model to generations of physicians. His decades of dedication to patient care and medical education have shaped our program and inspired generations. Thank you, Dr. Mayock! 💙

Plus, it was great to reconnect and meet with CCLCM & @CWRUSOM alumni @PriscillaKim23 and @AlexChaitoff

SGIM was awesome. Had an amazing time presenting our work investigating clinical outcomes of treatment of Toxin EIA-negative patients for C. Diff infection. Thankful for mentorship from Dr. Deshpande & team @CleClinicMD @CCF_IMCHIEFS @SocietyGIM #SGIM25

MRSP Research Symposium ✅ Super grateful for the opportunity to train @theNCI @NIH with incredible mentorship from Dr. Nirali Shah & colleagues in the POB. Had such a wonderful year with MRSP and learned a TON from my amazing classmates!

After 21 years at my dream job, I’m very sad to announce my early retirement from the National Institutes of Health. My life’s work has been to scientifically study how our food environment affects what we eat, and how what we eat affects our physiology. Lately, I’ve focused on unravelling the reasons why diets high in ultra-processed food are linked to epidemic proportions of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity. Our research leads the world on this topic. Given recent bipartisan goals to prevent diet-related chronic diseases, and new agency leadership professing to prioritize scientific investigation of ultra-processed foods, I had hoped to expand our research program with ambitious plans to more rapidly and efficiently determine how our food is likely making Americans chronically sick. Unfortunately, recent events have made me question whether NIH continues to be a place where I can freely conduct unbiased science. Specifically, I experienced censorship in the reporting of our research because of agency concerns that it did not appear to fully support preconceived narratives of my agency’s leadership about ultra-processed food addiction. I was hoping this was an aberration. So, weeks ago I wrote to my agency’s leadership expressing my concerns and requested time to discuss these issues, but I never received a response. Without any reassurance there wouldn’t be continued censorship or meddling in our research, I felt compelled to accept early retirement to preserve health insurance for my family. (Resigning later in protest of any future meddling or censorship would result in losing that benefit.) Due to very tight deadlines to make this decision, I don’t yet have plans for my future career. The NIH has been a wonderful place because it allows scientists to take risks, form unique collaborations, and do studies difficult to conduct elsewhere. I’m proud of what we’ve accomplished and I’m fortunate to have had such wonderful colleagues and scientific collaborators. I hope to someday return to government service and lead a research program that will continue to provide gold-standard science to make Americans healthy.

ICU Hemodynamics: If you are managing patients with #vasoplegicshock, this is a nice review article:

So thankful for the opportunity to train @theNCI this year with fantastic mentorship in the POB

This data gives me hope: it shows what’s possible when we invest in pediatric cancer research. But continued progress isn’t guaranteed. Pharma has no incentive to focus on rare and childhood cancers. Federal funding is essential to ensure every child has a chance at survival.

Periodic reminder that for most people with vasodilatory shock we should be targeting a MAP > 60 mmHg (not 65). A lower MAP goal was associated with a shortened duration of vasopressors & possibly reduced mortality. With vasopressors, less is truly more. jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

#GU25 Proud of our MS3 @nikhil_p4 @CleClinicLCM for receiving the @ConquerCancerFd Merit award for his poster on deciphering immune-genomic markers of hyperPD with IO in pts with mUC! @jamecancerdoc @GeneCollector @CleClinicMD @ASCO

Beautiful review of HLH on @NEJM from history to management of primary and secondary HLH In the revised HLH 2024 criteria, natural killer cell activity is removed as a criterion, a huge relief and 5/7 criteria to be met for diagnosis . nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

ICU Stories: 70 yo pt w history of A. fib presented to the ED 4 d earlier w slurred speech/diplopia/weakness. CT brain: no stroke. TTE: normal LV/RV, severely dilated LA. Brain MRI: "small multifocal acute infarcts from central embolic source". Admitted & started on heparin drip

Dr. Bribriesco was one of the best teachers I had the opportunity to learn from during preclinical & early med school Taught me so much about ECMO, transplant, and palliative care Glad other students are getting this great opportunity!! @abribriesco43 @CWRUSOM @CleClinicLCM

Thanks to @abribriesco43, our CT Elective students have been busy jet setting and (slightly) avoiding their classroom responsibilities! Bringing a whole new meaning to didactic learning. #transplant @CWRUSOM @STS_CTsurgery @ThoracicStudent @WomenInThoracic

Thank you to the American Cancer Society @AmericanCancer for supporting our work in understanding the role of bacteria in head and neck cancer.

Great article by @MaevePascoe on screening for sleep issues👇 @CleClinicLCM

Photo with Jim Allison after his talk this morning on the origins of checkpoint inhibitor therapy. @NCI_CCR_SB @NCIResearchCtr @NCI_CCR_PedOnc

It’s not every day you get to meet a Nobel laureate! Super honored and excited to have attended the 50th anniversary symposium celebrating Dr. Rosenberg’s 50 years @NIH @theNCI Thankful for @CCMedEd MRSP program & @CleClinicLCM for this opportunity!