Michael Connor

Woot woot! 🎉 Thanks to everyone who gave feedback! I'm stoked for this award funding this project! *Beastie Boys Sabotage intro music* @AgenceRecherche

Yersinia actively downregulates type III secretion and adhesion at higher cell densities #yersinia #pathogens #microbiology @PLOSPathogens journals.plos.org/plospathogens/…

A systemic screen using programmable antisense oligomers to silence genes of DNA and RNA phages identifies proteins essential for phage propagation. This tool offers potential for optimizing phage therapy. #NBThighlight nature.com/articles/s4158…

@Milan_Gerovac get it brother! Cool paper!

🚀 Hiring in Paris: 1 PhD + 1 Postdoc on an ANR gut–brain project in zebrafish (imaging, optogenetics). Leads: P. Hernández (Curie) & G. Sumbre (ENS-IBENS). Start flexible 2026. Also M2 internships (Jan–Feb 2026). See call for details. #PhDposition #Postdoc #Paris #Zebrafish

🥬🍃The Postharvest Lab at Clemson University is looking to fill a GRA position at the PhD level. The applicant will conduct research on Brassica leafy greens spanning from preharvest to postharvest 🥗. Interested and meet the requirements? Contact me at kpalbor@clemson.edu 📧

DON’T MISS!!!! MMPC 2025!!! Still time to submit an abstract and register!!! Contact me if you have any questions!!!!!!

Genomics job opportunities in Sweden! Our infrastructure has an open position for a postdoc with a focus on long-read sequencing, and a permanent (!) bioinformatician position in ancient DNA. Cutting-edge tech, great environment, work-life balance, nice country. Please RT!

@ATinyGreenCell It's amazing though. I use a similar one and a flexible one too :)

Printing some biocompatible autoclavable parts for a client. First some calibration prints to get resin exposure right, then the real stuff. The resin is absurdly expensive at $100/kg but is said to be the most bio-inert that also has autoclavability as a feature. Clear color too

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We're hiring! If you're an experienced virologist (with a PhD in molecular virology), want to join the Horizon Europe-funded project APPEAL and work with us in the vibrant city of Montpellier, South of France, take a look here for more details: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/359640 Please RT

@JasonSynaptic @PTenigma In general it seems that it's a culmination of accounting # based on estimates - could see the indirect + cost at the non competitive awarded across the 5 year window vs the new awards + indirect in context of the projected budget.

@midweekwarrior @PTenigma I think this is what NIA is doing now...so basically not making any new awards to make sure existing awards are funded to their end. My worry is that they use the worst case numbers and then have $$ left over that just rolls back into the treasury.

Just got told by my NIA PO that I should probably resubmit my R01 (by July 5 lol), even though it scored a 10% and is on Alzheimer’s disease. Last year’s NIA paylines were 13% for regular R01s and 16% for AD grants..so WTF?! 😭🫠

@JasonSynaptic @PTenigma Aye, just another thought that occurred to me. Can you back calculate the amt in indirects needed to pay out in current FY for the awarded funds? Keeping in mind they might be conserving funds for this expecting a clock run reset?

@PTenigma @JasonSynaptic Looking at the pg 6 rough math suggests that the non competitive that are retained were actually awarded as n-2

@midweekwarrior @JasonSynaptic yes exactly - so would it make sense for us to keep track of folks who have won non-competing, and the cut (if any) and the delay? It could help us estimate the mean payline for next year under different cut scenarios (-44%, -20%, no change).

@PTenigma @JasonSynaptic Since I'm terrible at math I'm guestimating of the non competitive about 6-9% has been committed. Then if they award only 5-8% of new competitive grants by budget allocation they would have wiggle room for carry-over the FY to sustain the non-competitive+ new awards

Hi both - I have been trying to figure this out too - for some grants (RF1s), then more than one year can be paid in one go, i.e. the first 3 or 4 years can be given out at the start. This used to happen when NIA had a lot of money, although not for all grants. In the usual situation, each new year of an R01 has to be paid out of that year's allocation. In the table - x.com/PTenigma/statu… - I started to realize that they cannot keep funding prior grants with a 44% cut, so either they don't fund any new ones at all, or the payline is set very low (?3%) and they delay, end, furlough, or reduce the non-competing continuations. I can't quite make sense of what happens in that case. During a CR, the non-competing awards tend to be cut 10-15% and then (often) restored at the end of the financial year before Sep 30. But I don't know what happens to a grant that is cut literally 44%, i.e. what are you supposed to do (collect half the data? not analyze it?). I found posted online a NINDS budget for the year starting Sep 30 and on p7 you can see how they split the budget between new awards and non-competing continuations: officeofbudget.od.nih.gov/pdfs/FY26/inst… As Jason said, the ICs could implement this differently and they would have to come up with a guideline on what ratio to fund new and prior commitments. Or, they could just delay them until the clock runs out (which is what I see happening and nobody is talking about it....)

CURIOUS ABOUT PHAGE BIOLOGY!? CPIC lab at @Helmholtz_HZI is recruiting in the call +++ CURIOSITY IS INFECTIOUS +++ helmholtz-hzi.de/en/career/job-… Did you spot the phage? Please share!

@JasonSynaptic @PTenigma Exactly. I always assumed it was a sliding window so every 5 years based of % of non competitive ones would pinch a budget line. But if the distribution of non competitive is equally spread across the 5 year window means that target payline could be calculated over a 5 yr window

@midweekwarrior @PTenigma This is a good Q...I had assumed that perhaps all $$ of a 5 year grant was funded from a specific FY..but it seems more likely that each year of funding comes out of subsequent FYs, hence capping new awards.

@PTenigma @JasonSynaptic Also, what is the simulation with a lump sum distribution for total award and each fiscal year begins with a full allocated budget?

Hi Jason I'm sorry to hear this and we're in the same boat with several grants in limbo that have (usually) fundable scores. Logically, you'd think they would pay out this year's money even if next year's is cut 44% starting Sept 30. Although nobody has said it, I think this will happen. - x.com/PTenigma/statu… - i.e. fundable grants are delayed or not decided until AFTER the clock runs out on Sept 30. Resubmitting a 10th percentile grant sounds crazy, especially as the score can get worse and or the payline can shift down to 3% (see table above). I'm sorry to hear this, it is interesting to hear back from people in the same situation, as very little information is public...