Nels Elde

https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/stark-divide-americans-more-confident-in-career-scientists-at-u-s-health-agencies-than-leaders/

A quick email before I head of to get ready for the @standupforscience.bsky.social rally.

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Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse Hepatitis D-like satellite viruses, known as deltaviruses, have been recently discovered in a wide range of animals. These viruses are thought to expr…

We found a viral Trojan Horse: a virus can hide inside another virus.This one surprised us: deltaviruses don’t just borrow a helper virus. They can travel inside it.
A literal Trojan Horse “virus-in-a-virus” route into cells. 🤯 Kudos to 1st author @viroscope.bsky.social and co-authors !

'Jumbo cyanophage' 🐘🦠

PhD and Postdoc Transition Program | Gilliam Fellows | HHMI The Gilliam Fellows Program supports PhD students and their faculty thesis advisors to advance cutting-edge research, facilitate the transition to postdoctoral scientist, and foster the development of...

2nd- or 3rd-year PhD student? Applications for @hhmi-science.bsky.social's #GilliamFellows Program open 9/1! Robust dissertation support, an incredible community of scientists, tailored professional development (for you *and* your faculty thesis advisor), & so much more. Bookmark bit.ly/4qQArRh!

Since I’ve been sharing bad news lately, it’s time for some good news.

Got a JIT request for my grant (yes, the one I had to renegotiate twice). Maybe I’ll get to stay in science after all.

Also begs the question, why are universities so afraid of asking procedural questions like the one I did…

“Our study showed that RNA technology could impact virtually every aspect of human health, from debilitating chronic diseases to conditions even thought incurable”

Is a ‘selfish gene’ making a Utah family have twice as many boys as girls? Genealogy study claims first conclusive case of sex ‘distortion’ in humans — but not all researchers are convinced.

Nature News on the tantalising possibility of the first documented sex-ratio distorter in humans.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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

These NOFO delays have created so many gaps in longstanding programs, including programs that are congressionally mandated.

www.science.org/content/arti...

With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

White House stalls release of approved US science budgets The US Congress rejected sweeping cuts to science agencies. But the NIH, the NSF and NASA have had their spending slowed.

Congress rejected massive cuts to US science budgets for 2026, but much of the money still isn’t flowing to researchers.

The culprit? The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is quietly slow-walking the release of funds. 🧵👇

Flatlining of US Science. Massive self inflicted wound.

Private money cannot replace public funding of science Who should pay for American science? In the current political climate, many are looking to the private sector to compensate for cuts in public funding. At the Harvard School of Public Health—particula...

My latest:

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Next column will address needed guardrails for private funding of science, esp. in light of #Epstein/ #Summers etc.

Retracing the final year of Burmese refugee who died in Buffalo. Retracing the final year of the Burmese refugee who died in Buffalo after being abandoned by Border Patrol agents.

Everything about this story is sickening. And the details keep getting worse.

www.investigativepost.org/2026/02/26/t...

This week's cover @thelancet.com

This story from @michaeldgreen.phd is way too common at the Trump/Bhattacharya NIH. Program staff can't give grantees clear answers; they don't have them. That is the MO: provide intentionally ambiguous guidance under threat of retaliation, creating an environment where staff over-comply out of fear

Devastating.

Don't look away from the continued cruelty and horrors. Please keep calling your representatives, please keep showing up to protest these horrific actions, please keep caring.

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Karolinska Institute is hiring for 7 new positions!

Individual job details below!👇

#ScienceJobs

Voices: Medical research saved my daughter’s life. We must protect the funding that makes that research possible. “Scientists are seeking new treatments and cures for many diseases, common and rare,” writes Lateishia Curtis in an op-ed. “Talk to friends, neighbors and policymakers about medical research. The next...

Wonderful op-ed by a mother who explains how NIH-funded research at U of U Health saved her daughter's life.

"That research — and Briar’s life — demonstrate just how critical federal support is to scientists, doctors and, especially, the patients they help."
www.sltrib.com/opinion/comm...

Screenshot from an NIH website reading: "Table 1 shows the number of principal investigators (PIs) applying for or receiving an R01-equivalent grant in FYs 2021 to 2025, disaggregated by career stage. NIH supported 1,423 and 1,144 ESIs in FYs 2024 and 2025, respectively. The decrease seen in FY 2025 may likely be due in part to NIH implementing a requirement to use 50% of its remaining competing Research Project Grant (RPG) funds (starting in June 2025) for full-year funded competing RPGs, which was expected to lead to fewer awards and support fewer researchers overall."

Check this out straight from the NIH website, acknowledging that multiyear funding was likely responsible for a 20% decrease in early stage investigators.

And that it was expected.

A strange approach for someone so committed to the next generation of scientists.

grants.nih.gov/news-events/...

The National Science Foundation’s entire budget is $10 billion.

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres - Nature Evolutionarily related ‘proto-point’ centromeres providing resolution to the evolutionary origins of point centromeres are identified in yeast, and comparison shows they evolved in an ancestor with re...

Our paper is now out in Nature:

“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”

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

A short thread on how retrotransposons helped give rise to yeast point centromeres.

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Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social from our lab discovers giant DNA viruses that infect amoeba encode eIF4E and the entire suite of 4F complex proteins to control mRNA translation, including beautiful crystal structures of viral 4E bound to modified mRNA 5' caps:

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

A huge congratulations to Brenda Bass @bbass.bsky.social for her Lifetime Achievement Award from the RNA Society @rnasociety.bsky.social! She is being recognized for her "groundbreaking discovery of A-to-I editing and outstanding contributions to this field."

People line up on a sidewalk at dusk in a line, holding lighted candles.

Happening now on 50th Street in Minneapolis. Lined up over a ten block stretch.

New preprint from our lab led by fantastic graduate student @titas10.bsky.social, in which we retrace the emergence of antimicrobial function in the mammalian protein lactoferrin.

Prasad overruled FDA staff to reject Moderna's flu vaccine application The rejection is the latest instance of Vinay Prasad overruling career FDA scientists to place vaccines under harsher scrutiny.

The flu and pneumonia kill over 45,000 people a year. Moderna developed a new mRNA flu vaccine for people 50 and older--who are most at risk. Prasad, unilaterally, against the recommendation of experts within the agency, denied Moderna's appplication. www.statnews.com/2026/02/11/m...

Davis Summer Population Genomics Program Want to learn population genetics? Please fill out this form to indicate your potential interest in a 2-week intensive online summer population genetics course taught by Jeffrey Ross-Ibarra and Graham...

Fun news! @gcbias.bsky.social and I are teaching a 2-week online population genetics workshop this summer to raise money for the Center for Population Biology at UC Davis. We're trying to gauge interest -- please fill this out if you might be interested! And please share broadly!

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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Jessie Diggins, Olympic cross-country skiing gold medalist, from the Twin Cities: “I want to make sure you know who I’m racing for…”