Olu Ajilore, MD, PhD

NIH FY2025 funding data finally emerges on RePORT The FY2025 funding picture was disrupted significantly by the mandate for Multi-Year Funding of about half of the budget for extramural awards. This produced a mid-year declaration by NCI that thei…

NIH FY2025 funding data finally emerges on RePORT drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2026/03/06/n...

Delays in grant awards and funding calls worry NIH researchers Many programs may be pushed into the next fiscal year, and some could face funding gaps

"Since Trump took office 13 months ago, NIH has posted only 84 NOFOs, down from 787 in the previous year. Many more are in limbo. NIH has 323 opportunities listed as 'forecasted.' ... many on the list were announced in 2024 and ’25 and still are not open."

My group is hiring a full time research coordinator to work with our collaborators in Houston on understanding speech and language development in children with epilepsy. Great for folks looking to get direct experience with clinical/translational research. Please repost! jobs.bcm.edu/job/Research...

The NIH Restructuring Congress Rejected Is Happening Anyway (I used Gemini Nano Banana 2 to create this fictional image.)

The NIH Restructuring Congress Rejected Is Happening Anyway
open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

The Future DSM: Bold Redesign, Lingering Blind Spots | Psychiatric Times The future DSM revamp is coming, weaving social context, biomarkers, functioning and symptom dimensions into faster, evidence-based diagnosis.

In the March cover story for Psychiatric Times, I provide an overview of the proposed changes to the future DSM, accompanied by some personal commentary and suggestions of my own.

www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/the-fut...

A recent paper in @natureportfolio.nature.com raised concerns about the lesion network mapping method. Our team of 16 coauthors analyzed >1000 lesions and 34 symptoms and found that "The methodological foundations of lesion network mapping remain sound" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

‘We’re no longer attracting top talent’: the brain drain killing American science As Trump slashes science funding, young researchers flee abroad. Without solid innovation, the US could cease to have the largest biomedical ecosystem in the world

The exodus of next generation scientists is exacerbated by deep cuts to #NIH training programs meant to support early career scientists.

Last year, half of the US Nobel prize winners in science subjects were immigrants.

Who would want to come here?

🧪 www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

So you get out your Fascism for Dummies book for the 15 things you do, and we tried to include as many of them as we could in the most artful way possible. How were we supposed to know that this clown car in Washington was going to basically use the same book that we used? So I don't think it's prescience so much as the sad familiarity of fascism and the karaoke menu of things that you go through to do it. You could list them from the show, or you could list them from the newspaper.

Tony Gilroy, creator of Andor, wasn’t allowed to use the word “fascism” during press junkets in 2025.

Interesting interview in The Hollywood Reporter.

www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-featur...

A New Concern About Weight Loss Drugs: What if They Work Too Well?

Honored to see our work cited in today’s New York Times in coverage of emerging data on next-generation GLP-1–based therapies. What does it all mean? Some brief thoughts below.. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/18/w...

We 💗 new NPP articles! Check out our #TWiNPP roundup 👇🏻

Another Perspective from @CFReynolds3MD and @pshrink @pshrink.bsky.social on key themes in current and future research on neuropsychiatric illness in older adults

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Coding with AI - Better Code, Better Science

My new chapter of Better Code, Better Science on AI-assisted coding is now complete! It's been completely revised in an attempt to futureproof it. Comments welcome. bettercodebetterscience.github.io/book/ai-codi...

What NIH Staff Can’t Tell You—And Why That Matters The people who understand most clearly what is being lost at the NIH are also the people least able to say so.

What NIH Staff Can’t Tell You—And Why That Matters
open.substack.com/pub/elizabet...

How pediatricians found themselves at war with RFK Jr. The AAP has become a leading opponent of MAHA and RFK Jr.'s vaccine agenda.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has become a leader in the effort to reverse RFK Jr.'s vaccine policies.

The success — or failure — of the group's approach will have consequences for kids' health nationwide.

Inside the AAP's plan for the MAHA age:

www.statnews.com/2026/02/13/a...

Mental health is shaping survival after heart disease—yet we rarely treat it that way. A new meta-analysis of 22 million people links PTSD, anxiety, depression & insomnia with higher risk of acute coronary syndrome. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Freeman Hrabowski III, the President Emeritus from the University of Maryland Baltimore County, giving a TED talk.

This is a powerful message from Freeman Hrabowski.

🧵

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N.F.L. Careers Scarred Their Brains. Could Mushrooms Provide Relief?

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...

N.F.L. Careers Scarred Their Brains. Could Mushrooms Provide Relief?

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/u...

Nice commentary on a recent paper from our lab from Dr. Tarek Rajji

Understanding the Older Brain in Depression - Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging www.biologicalpsychiatrycnni.org/article/S245...

Agreed!

The ‘bible for psychiatry’ is getting a rewrite: your guide to the next DSM Could the next version of the DSM be a 'living' document that has more focus on the causes of mental illness?

The ‘bible for psychiatry’ is getting a rewrite: your guide to the next DSM www.nature.com/articles/d41...

The ‘bible for psychiatry’ is getting a rewrite: your guide to the next DSM Could the next version of the DSM be a 'living' document that has more focus on the causes of mental illness?

The ‘bible for psychiatry’ is getting a rewrite: your guide to the next DSM www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Anxiety and depressive symptoms differentially moderate the relationship between cognitive reappraisal and financial exploitation vulnerability in older adults Financial exploitation (FE) vulnerability in older adults is a growing public health concern and may signal future cognitive decline. This study investigated the associations between FE vulnerabili...

⚡ NEW STUDY ALERT ⚡

Led by graduate student Melanie Leguizamon; financial vulnerability in older age is associated with cognitive reappraisal. This suggests emotional regulation interventions may reduce financial exploitation vulnerability in older age.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Schizophrenia & Related Disorders Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.

The @cshlnews.bsky.social Schizophrenia course is happening again this summer.

I will be a presenter, I was also lucky to attend the first one in 2005!

It is well worth attending.

More info:

meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx...

Radical changes could be coming to ‘psychiatry’s bible’ | CNN How a person will be diagnosed with a mental illness could look significantly different in the near future.

www.cnn.com/2026/01/28/h...

Genetic Data From Over 20,000 U.S. Children Misused for ‘Race Science’

Genetic Data From Over 20,000 U.S. Children Misused for ‘Race Science’ www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...

The NIH's MYF policy in 2025 resulted in 4000 fewer grants and fellowships that touched every area of biology and medicine; continuing it in 2026 would be disastrous for science, technology and health in the United States 🧪
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Congratulations to my excellent grad student Whitney Wyche on her first #ACNP2026!

Congrats to the new @acnporg.bsky.social Fellows! #ACNP2026

Congrats to all of the new @acnporg.bsky.social Members!!!
#ACNP2026