Jacob Allen

🚨Interested in why fermented foods may be important for health? Check out our new pub describing a class of microbial metabolites that are abundant in fermented foods and are modifiable to enhance food matrix bioactivity towards a key immune receptor-AhR sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

What a treat it was to have @Mucus_Man visit @IGBIllinois yesterday! Great to steal him away from his shrimp experiments for a day and hear about his labs exciting new science (Mucus and non-mucus related) Not surprising that some cool new stories are coming out soon!

A new study by @IlliniHealthKin researchers has identified a pathway by which social stress can worsen symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease—a commonly reported phenomenon for those with IBD. Read the full story ➡️ go.ahs.illinois.edu/StressColitis

@DrHArmstrong @BrainBehavImm @IllinoisMSI @IlliniHealthKin

Breaking the X hiatus for a New Paper Alert 🚨 We describe how Social stress increases IBD susceptibility in mice via adrenergic signaling and epithelial ROS. Huge congrats to the whole team & espec. Elisa Caetano-Silva for leading the charge! @AHSIllinois pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41418891/

📜Our paper officially published w/ @JacobAllenPhD and team!👇👇 Social stress worsens colitis through β-adrenergic–driven oxidative stress in intestinal mucosal compartments: β-adrenergic and ROS pathways as therapeutic targets for stress-exacerbated IBD. sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

@SGrivennikov @JustinPerryPhD Just my 2 cents of course:)

@JacobAllenPhD @JustinPerryPhD you mean writing? Because preliminary data, PI's CV and overall research direction(s) proposed are still the same for the reviewer to judge? with AI i was more concerned with just too many applications being submitted at the same time...

The reality is that "going back to the way it was" isn't a solution. Whatever is going on now is masking the very real dysfunction that existed before. Everything about the NIH granting process is slow, cumbersome, admin burdensome, & inefficient. Eg why are there more non-scorable components than scorable components in a pre-award submission?!?! Why does it take SO LONG to go from submission to first evaluation, despite the fact that committees are assembled much closer to the meeting? Why do we still rely on long-form grants for R01s? Lots of basic issues that, assuming things "return to normal", will still make the process inefficient and a toil.

@SGrivennikov @JustinPerryPhD Correct! I think they go hand in hand. Overload reviewers on grant submissions means less time on each one, less focus on details. Means AI writing quality can cover up what used to be large holes appear as small holes. Also more grants = spread to less qualified reviewers,

@SGrivennikov @JustinPerryPhD Grants that look better than the science that backs it up.

@JacobAllenPhD @JustinPerryPhD what AI did change?

@JustinPerryPhD @NIH @NIHDirector_Jay Agree. Good outline, but… where are the action items?

I support the @NIH initiative on diet & nutrition, esp as it relates to child development. You know who isn't a fan? Apparently @NIH b/c we've spent 5+ years trying to get our fructose work (now published) funded. @NIHDirector_Jay et al are a lot of talk. No real action to speak of though. #our-priorities" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">nih.gov/about-nih/nih-…

Fun day with the lab celebrating ⁦@MikaelaK_RD⁩ PhD and arrival of new student Eleanor Eck! See Mikaela’s new lab coat with some fermented food “bling”… I focused on design, but I forgot about the size (an XXL… Mikaela is 5 ft 2… 😬). Correct size is inbound :)

Check out the commentary I wrote on some cool new metagenomic workflows from Elisa Caffrey and the Sonnenburg lab. New ways to study fermented food microbes :). journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/ms…

@TniaMedeiros7 @ScienceMagazine Awesome science and story! Congrats.

My paper is out in @ScienceMagazine! We found a novel host defense strategy where #mitochondria, our domesticated microbes, compete with the intracellular pathogen #Toxoplasma for #folate. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

@Mucus_Man Congratulations!! Well deserved.

🚨While the world is burning down around us, I'm happy to share that I've been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure. Though this is considered a personal achievement, it was only possible due to the wonderful trainees in the lab, who carried me here❤️.

@RondaCarlotta @harriswangnyc @natBME 😎. Awesome 👏

What if we could use precision #microbiome editing in vivo to turn harmful gut microbes into allies against disease? We did it using #CRISPR Transposon & mobilome engineering. With @harriswangnyc and Tyler Perdue. In @natBME 👉 nature.com/articles/s4155… 👉 innovativegenomics.org/news/carlotta-…

Just published! Congrats to lead authors, Dalia Perelman & Elisa Caffrey, on publishing "Unpacking Food Fermentation" in Advances in Nutrition. They explore what we know (and don’t) about fermented foods & why clearer definitions & research matter. 🔗 pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12…

@JustinPerryPhD @NutritionNerd And will kill those without it. In end, will have exact opposite effect as to what @NIHDirector_Jay said was needed. New minds with innovative ideas. This will crush that.

@JustinPerryPhD @NutritionNerd Hmm,except for people trying to keep their labs afloat. Or new investigators that were scored really well this year. Let’s say 12th percentile, and then don’t get funded because of this. This isn’t me btw, but people I know. Like all austerity measures, those with capital survive

“Given the drastic harms of abruptly transitioning to multi-year funding (MYF), the move can only be explained by utter incompetence or intentional sabotage.” Good overview of this policy change and the impact on the US’ scientific research environment. scienceandfreedomalliance.substack.com/p/a-quiet-poli…