LJ Amaral MS, RD, CSO

Graduate students increasingly use artificial-intelligence tools to draft, code and search — but many fear it could erode the very skills a doctorate is meant to build go.nature.com/4bmCOaa

Graduate students increasingly use artificial-intelligence tools to draft, code and search — but many fear it could erode the very skills a doctorate is meant to build go.nature.com/4sPERJH

From the parking garage @CedarsSinai 😍 10 years here and hoping for 10 more!

Obituary: James Watson (1928-2025) co-discoverer of DNA’s double helix who reshaped modern biology go.nature.com/445m3Mw

Loved this conversation with #BretScher about #ketogenicdiets for #glioblastoma open.spotify.com/episode/5br7C9…

Here are some #tidyplots use cases for bioinformatics 🔥 Complete with data and code 🚀 #bioinformatics" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">tidyplots.org/use-cases/#bio… #rstats #dataviz #phd

@MarcusDGon @SFreedlandMD Thank you for sharing!

A phase 1 safety and feasibility trial of a ketogenic diet plus standard of care for patients with recently diagnosed glioblastoma @ljamaral1 @SFreedlandMD #JethroHu nature.com/articles/s4159…

@jgong15 @MOASC_Office @CedarsSinai @CSCancerCenter Thank you, Dr. Gong! I gotta get on that!! 😄

@ljamaral1 @MOASC_Office @CedarsSinai @CSCancerCenter Congrats @ljamaral1 ! Where’s the tweetorial??

Super excited to share our data from our Phase 1 clinical trial looking at newly diagnosed #Glioblastoma patients using the #KetogenicDiet! @CedarsSinai @CSCancerCenter nature.com/articles/s4159…

@AKoutnik @tnseyfried @DominicDAgosti2 Thank you for sharing!!

🧠New Ketogenic Diet Study in Glioblastoma (GBM) 📊Phase I Pilot: -Overall survival: 30months -Historical overall survival: ~13 to 16months Near doubling....Phase II is recruiting

@NYU_NFS Wouldn’t be where I am without @nyusteinhardt 🫶🏼

Check out our alumni LJ Amaral’s podcast about her career path! #WomenInSTEM

New podcast up! This is all about my career path, goals, and some personal anecdotes :) #WomenInSTEM open.spotify.com/episode/3P5dOc…

@KevinH_PhD You’re a real role model, Dr. Hall. I’m deeply saddened your research was cut short but appreciate all that you have done over the years to advance science and the field of diet and nutrition. Wishing you a peaceful retirement

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.

✨New issue!✨ Check out the latest in #metabolism research from across all disciplines. Read about #EVs, #Exercise, #GlucoseMonitoring, #LiverMetabolism , #Mechanosensation, #Neurometabolism - and many more topics! nature.com/natmetab/volum…

Funding from the @NIH contributed to the development of 354 out of 356 (99.4%) of the new drugs approved by the FDA between 2010 and 2019, and 🚨 100% 🚨 of FDA approved drugs btw 2010-2016. @NIH funding is the backbone of American biomedical innovation. #protecttheNIH

Delighted to highlight new work by Kelly Jameson and colleagues showing that select microbial metabolites in the small intestinal lumen regulate vagal activity cell.com/iscience/fullt…

Current situation for scientists. Trump’s blanket order to stop communication between institutions like NIH and the public has resulted in a complete halt of grant reviews, grant funding decisions. Fun.

How wearable sensors (@Oura, @fitbit, or @Apple watch) detected subclinical inflammation up to 7 weeks before a flare of inflammatory bowel disease gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-… @RobertHirten @HPI_MS @MountSinaiNYC

Read the full study here: nature.com/articles/s4225…📖 And if you’d like to know more, feel free to reach out!

🚨 Exciting New Research Alert! 🚨 Our latest study, published in #NatureMetabolism, reveals how memory circuits in the brain drive intake of fats and sugars and impact body weight. 🍫🍟 Let’s break it down! 🧵