@debiaselm
Assoc. Prof UCLA | Neuroscientist who studies glia (non-neuronal brain cells) and how glia shape brain health throughout the lifespan. Mother and wife. Lover of nature, novels, and really good bread. | Opinions my own.
Universal healthcare, universal childcare, public health, education, cancelling student loans, science and research funding, welfare programs are all much better uses of that much money.
100%. I think about this every time I see figures for money spent on ICE, money spent on this war, even money spent on the f***ing ballroom…….
So many ways to spend the money that would actually help people.
Warm congratulations to The Brain Prize winners 2026, Professor David Ginty and Professor Patrik Ernfors, for their pioneering work on how the nervous system detects and processes touch and pain.
Karolinska Institutet
HHMI
#Neuroscience #BrainPrize2026
TAKE BACK our SCIENCE RALLY! - three days away!
With just 3 days to go, let's CHECK IN!
* What rally are you attending?
* What's your sign going to say? What t-shirt will you wear?
* What is YOUR biggest issue? #Research, #healthcare, #education, #climatechange, all of the above...
▶️ We want to hear from you: Smash that "reply" button! ◀️
www.propublica.org/article/educ...
Dept of Ed cut staff, shifted priorities, and won’t share data.
“Complaints about transgender students playing sports and using girls’ bathrooms at school have been fast-tracked while cases of racial harassment of Black students last year were ignored”
@samwang.bsky.social , an autism scientist who made headlines for his data-based analyses of congressional districts, is running for a House seat in New Jersey.
By Lauren Schenkman
www.thetransmitter.org/policy/is-th...
We urgently need to know more. And yet…..I really don’t want to know more (i.e. I’m scared about all the negative health effects).
Hopefully we can figure out what exposure types matter the most and whether cells (microglia / macrophages?) can be assisted in eliminating NPs from tissues.
Have you tried Jeremy Kay or Daniel Saban at Duke? Or Yirong Peng at UCLA (although not sure how much they are focusing on gliosis)?
To TSA/global entry folks (of which I am one) - these are the demands we’re fighting for:
1) ICE agents wear body cameras and no masks
2) ICE agents get judicial warrants before raiding people’s homes
3) ICE can’t raid churches and schools
Get to the airport 20 min earlier and don’t complain.
DemCast link in the post didn’t work for me. Here’s link to their home page if it doesn’t work for others
demcast.com
#FDA backs down on #Moderna: The agency had refused to review the company's licensure application for an mRNA flu vaccine, but after significant pushback has relented. www.statnews.com/2026/02/18/f...
A new policy went into effect at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill : the University can record a class without the permission or knowledge of the instructor.
"Students will self-censor if they know that their words in class can be recorded by administrators.”
—UNC - Chapel Hill AAUP
Cells come in many shapes and sizes, with diverse physiological functions. But how do #organelles and their interaction networks remodel during #differentiation of stem cells into different cell types? Here’s what we discovered about neuronal differentiation: 1/13
📌 Folks, you’re on social media, here is something everyone can do. Google “ICE facility being built in” and insert your state or county. If you find one, put it on blast and contact your local officials to say you oppose it. We need to protest these facilities before they open.
2/2
This is the interview Donald Trump didn’t want you to see.
His FCC refused to air my interview with Stephen Colbert.
Trump is worried we’re about to flip Texas.
This week's Fitness Friday is LIVE! 💪 Join us online for a brain boosting workout with dual-tasking activities that combine physical exercise with cognitive challenges.
Register for free: Parkinson.org/events/2026/Feb20FF
We have posted a Research Assistant (LSRP1) position to work on aging and 'rejuvenation' using mouse models!! 🐭
careersearch.stanford.edu/jobs/life-sc...
Apply and join our awesome lab!! (please share) 😎
Not enough people are talking about the fact that the GOP’s disenfranchising SAVE act would disproportionately risk the voting rights of approximately *69 million* married women in the US.
Read that again.
69 MILLION married women.
See details from @the19thnews.org in the reply below.
Fuentes, yesterday: “Our #1 political enemy is women because women constrain everything, every conversation, every man, everything. They have to be imprisoned. They are the ones that are hurting the fertility rate. They're the ones making us sympathetic to poor people, which are also brown people.”
shows two people standing in a well-lit room with brick and white walls. They are between two upholstered chairs, and studio lighting equipment is visible above them. The atmosphere appears professional, possibly set for an interview or meeting.
(1/2) New NeuroSociety Stories episode coming soon… 🎥
#Neuroethics pioneer Karen Rommelfanger sits down with Dana Foundation President Caroline Montojo to discuss her path to neuroethics and why it’s important to consider its application through different cultural lenses.
#neurosociety #neurotech
“The resulting documents look authoritative, but their authority derives from stylistic alignment rather than epistemic depth. The expert becomes a relay point through which institutional legitimacy flows, rather than a source from which it originates.”
You have got to be fucking kidding me. So many of us are begging for scraps to do real cancer research and this is what NCI is spending money on??
Inflammation, cell and mitochondria damage biomarkers, and links to cognitive dysfunction in #LongCovid relative to recovered controls
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
As Black History Month begins, we honor the generations of Black New Yorkers who built this city into the “gorgeous mosaic” we call home.
Today, we reflect on the words of Mayor David Dinkins: our city’s first Black mayor (and a democratic socialist!).
I hope people read these vivid disease descriptions.
Measles “caused a vivid red rash and fevers that spiked so high and for so long that the sick searched desperately for relief”
“Smallpox caused fever, headache, nausea, racking body aches and a rash of excoriating, pus-filled blisters.”
In addition to boxes and shopping bags and laundry baskets and open dresser drawers, Foxy loves to lie on any backpacks left on the floor…….
#Caturday
(3/3) and, most recently, the FBI's seizure of computers and devices from Washington Post reporter Hannah Natanson without warning”
And this doesn’t include defunding PBS and NPR and ICE tear gassing reporters and more.
Truly a concerted effort to crush free press.
(2/3) “threats by Trump to hold up big corporate transactions involving media companies; Trump's personal lawsuits against major news outlets, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal;”
