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We Should be Concerned About What Happened at the CDC
On February 1, 2025 the Inside Medicine Substack reported that the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ordered agency scientists to withdraw research manuscripts under consideration for publication at medical or scientific journals. The directive, which was emailed to staff members on January 31, included a list of “forbidden terms” researchers must strip from their work. Banned terms include gender, transgender, non-binary, LGBT, biologically male, biologically female, and more.
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My Mental Health and Graduate School
I gave my PhD exit talk on Tuesday September 13th, 2021, but afterward I didn’t feel like celebrating, I just felt burnt out. During my PhD I never felt like I was making enough progress. This constant thought was heavily influenced by the fact that there was only one model of “PhD success” I was aware of, and my PhD journey didn’t adhere to this model. My dry lab data weren’t enough.
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Bacterial Strategies of Host Colonization
Our environment exposes us to a vast array of microorganisms some of which populate our microbiomes. Research on microbiome assembly has largely focused on host features that dictate habitability, but bacterial features that promote colonization of a host, especially in non-pathogenic organisms, remain poorly understood. In the August issue of Cell Host & Microbe, Robinson et al. investigate bacterial strategies of host colonization and identify a mechanism by which bacteria use chemically regulated motility to promote rapid immigration into the host.
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The Importance of TGFβ to Skin Tissue Resident Memory T Cells
CD8+ tissue resident memory (Trm) T cells are long-lasting immune cells retained at peripheral tissue sites where they can mount a rapid and robust local response to previously encountered microbial pathogens. In the epidermal compartment, Trm cell development is critically dependent on transforming growth factor β (TGFβ). This cytokine, produced in a latent form, is activated in skin by keratinocyte-expressed αvβ6 and αvβ8 integrins, and skin CD8+ T cells exposed to active TGFβ show upregulated expression of the surface molecule CD103.
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Inflammatory Mediators of Pre-Term Labor
Intrauterine infection/inflammation (IUI), also known as chorioamnionitis, is a condition that occurs when bacteria from the urogenital tract ascends to the uterus and infects the membranes surrounding the fetus as well as the amniotic fluid. It is well established that IUI contributes to preterm labor and can led to devastating health outcomes for both the pregnant individual and the fetus. Not all IUI cases end in preterm delivery, however, thus necessitating research to identify the specific inflammatory mediators that drive IUI-induced preterm labor.
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Is AI Too Smart For Our Own Good?
Can scientific achievements become so advanced that we lose sight of our own humanity? This thought was weighing on the mind of science and technology journalist Jacob Ward during a Synapse-sponsored lunchtime talk with students on Tuesday, April 16. At UCSF we think of science as a subject we study, but science can also be used as a lens through which we view and deepen our understanding of other subjects.
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Sexual Harassment Process Troubles Complainants
Several UCSF students came forward with their stories of academic sexual misconduct involving individuals who are still at UCSF last October after a briefing of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report on sexual harassment of women in science. The study showed that despite the policies and procedures in place, 50 percent of women experience unwanted sexual harassment in academia. One survivor who shared her story is UCSF alum Grace, whose name we have changed to protect her identity.
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Sharing Science
Scientific breakthroughs are occurring at a rate faster than ever before. In 2007, it was estimated that 1.5 million new scientific papers were published. Despite this exponential growth in scientific discovery, many researchers struggle to access scientific knowledge because a large portion lies just out of reach, trapped behind a paywall. It is essential for scientists to read primary literature to learn about their area of research and the questions that remain to be answered.
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Beginners Guide to Science Publishing
It’s been several weeks since you hit the “submit” button, and the manuscript-tracking page has remained permanently open in your web browser. At least once a day you refresh the page, but there is no new status update. Scientific researchers know how to start the publication process and know the end goal, but for many the path from submission to publication is a mystery. This path can be a winding one, sometimes your manuscript moves forward and sometimes it moves back.
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Advancing Cancer Care
Predicting how cancer patients will respond to treatments has been a major challenge in the field of oncology, but a new preclinical laboratory model may help to more accurately predict treatment outcomes. This new model not only has the potential to create more personalized and more effective treatment plans for patients, but could also improve and accelerate drug screening and development. Advancements began when scientists discovered that tumor cells taken from a patient and grown under the right conditions can grow, divide, and unite to create a three-dimensional miniature tumor in a dish, a cancer organoid.
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