Ya'el Courtney, PhD

🧬 With biomedical PhD applications open now, I often get asked for advice. I created a guide filled with tips from my own journey to Harvard & insights from others. I use it to lead workshops & it’s ready to help you too! ✨ Dive in and share! ⬇️ 
yaelcourtney.com/phdapplication…

@bakermind Our newest one does! So fun!

Yeah your freezers do go down to -80 but do they have rave lighting

@ImmunoFever @bhanlon15 @amyrochlin 👏👏👏

@amyrochlin At the long COVID Keystone in Santa Fe I pushed back against Dr. Nath's framework for how clinical trials need to stay focused on a single, "clean" population without complicated co-morbidities. I asked which co-morbidities do we exclude? POTS? CCI? Mast cell activation?

"If you’re going to develop treatments to modulate the immune system you’re going to have to take into consideration that immune responses are going to be different in different individuals...you can’t just helter-skelter treat everyone with the same drug and expect the same answer.” Dr. Avindra Nath Sub-typing is essential for this patient community, opening the door to more targeted and effective treatments that will work for the right patient at the right time.

The most promising longevity drug isn't a peptide or metformin. It's the Shingles vaccine. New data shows it slows biological aging and lowers systemic inflammation for 4+ years post-shot. We are seeing a 20% reduction in new dementia diagnoses and a 25% lower risk of stroke. Stop waiting for a magic pill. One is already on the shelf.

📢🎉@hhmi_science competition for the next cohorts of #HannaGray Fellows and #FreemanHrabowski Scholars opening 11/3/2026. Senior postdocs and faculty within 7 years of appointment. Up to $10M over 10 yrs, + salary & benefits. Spread the word and consider applying! bit.ly/4vhC0LA

RSVP HERE: form.laborbase.org/260746265337058

Researchers from Stanford, UCSF, Berkeley (and more!!!) are heading to Sacramento on May 4 to rally for California's science funding future. Free bus. Open to community members too. If you care about publicly funded research, this is the moment to show up. 🚌🔬

@InVitroFuture @VeggieGalaxy Veggie galaxy is one of the only things I miss about Boston

Don't even think about killing yourself

My TEDxMIT talk on The Dominoes of Chronic Illness: Reframing a Medical Mystery won't be on Youtube for another few weeks, so I've tried to capture the essence here in a 29 part thread.

I want to ask you to follow this dot with your eyes. Was that easy? Without you even having to give that much thought, your brain is telling your eye muscles where to move to keep your focus on that dot. 1/

@drallcome @atranscendedman And some results in systemic sclerosis and myositis as well nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

@drallcome @atranscendedman There have been super impressive results with lupus! nature.com/articles/s4159…

University Hospital Erlangen, 1 patient, a single CAR-T cell treatment cleared 3 ultra rare autoimmune diseases. After 14 months, the woman has no symptoms and needs no medication, suggesting a powerful new option when standard care fails. nature.com/articles/d4158…

If you're a 2nd or 3rd year PhD student in the biomedical sciences thinking about applying, the application launches September 1, 2026. That gives you time to start now, talk to your advisor, and actually build something strong. I offer coaching if you want help.

The guide also links to my complete 2021 application materials, fully annotated. Career Statement, Scientific Leadership, Research Plan. When I applied in 2020, I couldn't find a single full example of a winning application anywhere public. So I put mine out there.

Just updated my HHMI Gilliam Fellowship application guide for the 2026 competition, which brings major program changes. Int'l PhD students can now apply. MD-PhDs are eligible. & a new postdoc pathway that can extend HHMI support up to 7 years total. yaelcourtney.com/resources-and-…

One of the most common questions I get: "what are PhD programs actually looking for?" Usually because students have been told contradictory things by different mentors. Wrote up what actually matters and what you can stop worrying about: yaelcourtney.com/resources-and-…

By analyzing DNA data from over 900,000 people, a new study found that some of the most common viruses hiding in the body vary with age, sex, and the seasons — and that genes influence the long-term effects these viruses have on our health. broad.io/virome-news

@DrKimEBarrett @UofCalifornia WOOHOO YES!

So honored to have represented @UofCalifornia in supporting Sen. Wiener’s SB 895 today to establish a California funding agency to underpin research

@ThosVarley Really sorry! Get well soon.

RSV is kicking my ass way more than I thought it would. I've never been so congested and the fatigue is absolutely crushing. It doesn't feel as deranged as COVID did, but it's definitely the sickest I've been in a while.

I did 40 one-on-one faculty interviews during my PhD application season. Before the first one I thought about how much was on the line and not knowing what to expect. By the end I looked forward to them. Wrote up what I figured out along the way. yaelcourtney.com/resources-and-…

Interesting very preliminary uncontrolled pilot study. Certainly makes sense to move forward to a placebo-controlled trial