Stephanie Smelyansky

@Zhi_Lindsey_Lin Congrats Lindsey!

Absolutely honored to be selected 2025 CAS Future Leaders! Congrats to all the cohort and I look forward to join you in upcoming events! 🥳

@DrBaffi_Jr @WallaceUcsf No one is arguing that they could do that, it's that they've shown no actual intent of doing so. NIH funding caps have barely moved in 20 yrs and it's hard to believe that the intent of slashing indirects is to increase # of grants or funding lines to scientists.

@rdd147 @WallaceUcsf For things to get better let's hope that we can develop an NIH system that is robust, well-funded, and transparent, so everyone knows the importance of the research going on, the value there is in funding it, and how those funds are used!

@SSmelyansky @WallaceUcsf Gotcha. Best of luck to ya (seriously), left the game 4 years ago when a decision had to be made and I saw salary of young investigator, rough world there. Hope things get better.

@rdd147 @WallaceUcsf If PIs can't hire PhD students and postdocs, there won't be a biotech industry at all because there'll be no well trained scientists. And so many biotechs are direct spin outs from academic ventures, or rely so heavily on university research!

@rdd147 @WallaceUcsf Reducing NIH indirects is going to directly impact students and postdocs. The NIH has no intention of raising direct costs. PIs are going to have to pay for every tiny thing that used to be covered by indirects, and they won't be able to hire or train students and postdocs.

@DrBaffi_Jr @WallaceUcsf Also the indirect doesn't come from ~your~ grant funding. It's fee paid to the university directly that's a percentage of the grant award. So your grant pays for the new TC hood, but F&A pays the university for HVAC and equipment maintenance.

@DrBaffi_Jr @WallaceUcsf Yes because F&A covers utilities (these labs use so much water, electricity, sophisticated HVACs), maintenance crews to fix equipment/plumbing/air, building rent, etc. And that includes covering those people's salaries, which aren't paid from grants.

@GaneshMuthappan @WallaceUcsf That's essentially what indirects already do except the rent and upkeep fee is negotiated between the government and the university every four years. In theory possible but would require NIH raising direct cost budget caps which they haven't done in ~20 years.

@WallaceUcsf How much of a paradigm shift would it be for the lab to pay rent and upkeep fees to the university and show them as a direct cost?

@rdd147 @WallaceUcsf A) people already use pen/strep and it doesn't protect against a lot of things, like fungal contamination or mycoplasma B) depending on the experiment (ie studying how certain bacteria can infect human cells!) you can't use pen/strep because it messes up the results!

@WallaceUcsf Keeping it honest, pen/strep does the same thing at 1/10,000 cost

So excited to share with you work I've done with in @KiesslingGroup now out on Biorxiv! Here, we were deciphered how native mucus cultivates and retains probiotics using synthetic polymers, leveraging the information to design new prebiotics. Check it out! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

@VPVP1957 @hartman_bill I'm sorry that happened, that's definitely really scary! If it helps, we have effective antibiotics for TB and good protocols in place for contact tracing, isolation, etc. The medical and scientific community takes TB really seriously.

@SSmelyansky @hartman_bill My son, since the pandemic, has had severe anxiety surrounding health issues. He was working at a machine shop for his job & learned the wife of a shop employee had active TB. While the employee had been testing negative, it sent my son off the deepend since he was uninformed.

The CDC is not allowed to comment on the tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas. The word must get out, however. Most of the world is vaccinated against TB, but the US is not. We are vulnerable and this is a real threat.

@NADNAR_org @hartman_bill No because the vaccine isn't very effective, especially past childhood, and the US has a very low incidence rate of TB, making it unlikely that an individual would be exposed to someone with active disease.

@hartman_bill Are Americans typically not vaccinated against TB?

@harmolee @hartman_bill The TB has been around for a long time, however it's not very effective so it's not given in countries like the US with a very low incidence of TB

@hartman_bill Wait - I have latent TB, I was told there is NO vaccine…I was treated for 9 months just in case …when was a vaccine made??? My ID Dr is unaware from what he has told me…

@Firni @hartman_bill Yes on the Mantoux skin test but not on other TB tests. We don't vaccinate for TB because the vaccine isn't very effective, especially past childhood, and the TB incidence in the US is so low that exposure is incredibly unlikely.

@hartman_bill I remember a doctor telling me that we don’t vaccinate for TB, because then we’d all pop positive for TB. 🤷🏻‍♀️

@VPVP1957 @hartman_bill We do! There is actually a very vibrant TB research community in the US.

@hartman_bill People should seriously do research on TB.

@Myrealnamesux I'm a TB researcher not a clinician so this is a convo to have with your PCP, but in the US the TB incidence rate is so low (<10000 cases yearly) that it's highly unlikely you'd be around people with active disease so there is unlikely to be a benefit to getting the vaccine.

@SSmelyansky Thank you. Would it make sense for kids to get vaccinated at this point? Under 5yrs? Under 12? Or is this one of those “useless without heard immunity” situations?

⚠️Do you wonder why you haven’t heard much about this massive TB outbreak recently? Cuz the CDC can’t hold any press conferences or issue public statements of any kind. ➡️Most of the world 🌎 has been vaccinated against TB… but the US has not, which is now extra vulnerable.

@KITTYBAYOUTSFAN @DrEricDing Because the vaccine is overall low efficacy and particularly protects kids from severe forms of TB, and in a country with an overall very low rate of TB infections the cost/benefit of giving it to everyone isn't worth it

@DrEricDing Why weren’t we vaccinated against it ?

@Myrealnamesux @DrEricDing 1) Yes 2) yes (but then not contagious) 3) in the US most likely not 4) TB is contagious but typically we have good containment strategies so unlikely to face an antibiotic shortage here 5) no use getting vaxxed because it's a low efficacy vaccine with best efficacy in kids

@DrEricDing 1) Is it true that TB is airborne or 2) it can be asymptomatic? 3) Is it possible that the perma-cough many have is TB (i.e. would American docs routinely test for it)? 4) Should we be prepping for antibiotic shortages (4+ mo treatment)? 5) Is it worth getting vaxxed now?

@sketchfly @DrEricDing This is likely the TST skin test (did you ever have that weird bubble/bump thing on your forearm?) then the actual vaccine! Public schools in the US require it as proof you don't have TB before starting school

@DrEricDing Well... it is required in schools because I have it on my immunization record and no, it doesn't leave a scar or it didn't for me.

@DrEricDing The BCG vaccine largely has very low efficacy past childhood and largely protects against extrapulmonary TB in kids. Instead of a large scale BCG vaccination campaign in the US it is much more pressing to develop better vaccines and treatments.

2) For those asking, the majority of the world has used the BCG vaccine against TB… the BCG vaccine also protects against many other bacterial infections too. Up until now, CDC skipped it because US was low risk, and the BCG vaccine leaves a small scar & BCG messes up TB tests.