Tamara Tal

Proud to work at UFZ! Thanks so much for supporting our work at the intersection of chemical exposure and brain health.
@ufz-cite.bsky.social

Das neue Gebäude auf dem Gelände des UFZ in Leipzig, mit Schnee umgeben und gekleidet in einem freundlichen Mausgrau. Es sind sieben Stockwerke geballte Umweltforschung mit Laboren, Büros und Tischtennisplatte.

Hallo liebe Community! Wie schon letzte Woche kommen auch die Beiträge dieser Woche aus Leipzig. Ich bin Elena, Doktorandin in der mTox-Gruppe am Department für Ökotoxikologie am UFZ Leipzig. Mein Projekt befasst sich mit dem angeborenen Immunsystem und der Darm-Hirn-Achse bei Zebrafischen. 1/4

Wenn ihr unsere Arbeit verfolgen möchten: Folgt unserer Gruppenleiterin auf Bluesky @tamaratal.bsky.social und vernetzt euch mit meinen Kolleg*innen auf LinkedIn:
www.linkedin.com/in/renee-owe...
www.linkedin.com/in/nadia-her...
www.linkedin.com/in/chloe-wra...
www.ufz.de/index.php?en...

Excited for Dr. @ilonajaspers.bsky.social talk: "Climate Change Research – Coming Together To Explore Mechanisms of Human Health Effects" (Dept. of Pediatrics, UNC Chapel Hill, USA).
📅 Tuesday, January 20, 1 PM
📍 KUBUS Hall 1A, UFZ

Upcoming Talk by Dr. Katie Paul Friedman @ulresearchinst.bsky.social "Can NAMs close the chemical data gap?" hostet by @tamaratal.bsky.social
📅 27 Jan 2026 | 10:00 CET
📍 UFZ Kubus, Hall 1A
Insights on using NAMs for rapid risk values, chemical prioritization & mixture modeling in safety assessment.

They had an exceptional journal, Environmental Health Perspectives, funded by NIEHS. Free to submit and publish in. The most respected public health journal in my field. EHP is not accepting new submissions. I think it was an editorial decision to maintain independence from political interference.

Thanks for highlighting this @danielgorelick.bsky.social ♥️. Most US citizens want their air, water, and food to be safe from harmful chemicals. The US EPA Office of Research Development is the scientific engine that ensures chemical safety. ORD should be celebrated, not destroyed!

Scott Glaberman, Chris Frey and I lay out why EPA's Office of Research and Development should be protected, not destroyed. Please share widely.

Dismantling EPA’s research office jeopardizes environmental safety, public health, and US competitiveness | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Kennedy’s Allies Against Pesticides: Environmentalists, Moms and Manly Men

🍿 👀 „They are taking on an influential agricultural and chemicals lobby that has long rebuffed attempts to strengthen restrictions on atrazine and other pesticides, at a time when the Trump administration is rolling back government restrictions on industries, not imposing new ones.“

Public health matters

IMBA is recruiting a Junior Group Leader! Are you interested in starting your own lab, pursuing curiosity-driven basic research in the life sciences? Apply by May 18: imba.science/beagroupleader #hiring #biology #research #groupleader #europe

Check out @enicolay.bsky.social’s amazing #zebrafish image! @zebrafishrock.bsky.social

“How might the narrative about senior women be challenged or changed in order to respect these women who have achieved enough success to earn promotion? How do we stop this generational cycle so that women's wings aren't clipped as soon as they approach the power to soar.”

Trump’s escalating attacks on research and education are hurting UC Santa Cruz – the public needs to act now The Trump administration’s attack on scientific research will deeply affect UC Santa Cruz, write three eminent UCSC professors, including one who won a Nobel Prize for her work. Since Donald Trump too...

I and my colleagues, @carpenterlab.bsky.social and Carol Greider, wrote an op-ed for our local media site, @lookoutsantacruz.bsky.social, about the recent cancellations of NIH funded training programs meant to broaden participation in science at UCSC:

lookout.co/trumps-escal...

This top line--"nearly 800 NIH grants"--was made possible by every scientist who reported their terminated grant to us. 🙏

Small acts add up, and the country is finally learning the full scope RFK's vandalism.

And don't stop now! Report your terminated NIH grant here: forms.gle/FnGLkUtK3M58...

🌍 IP3 Retreat: Healthy Planet
📅 May 7, 2025 | 🕘 9:00–17:00 | 📍 KUBUS Leipzig
Last chance to register – deadline until today (April 25)!
Join us for a day of science, exchange & inspiration. Agenda & abstracts are now online.
Open to all @ufz.de employees
👉 Register here: events.hifis.net/event/2299/

I wrote a thing.

I am eternally grateful for my editor, who took the original draft and helped me narrow down my key points into a more effective piece with a broader reach.

Also, thanks to the editorial & legal teams, who maintained the message while protecting us in this fraught moment.

In today's Nature: "These cutbacks put the entire US research enterprise at risk. For more than 8 decades, the US has stood unrivalled as the world’s leader in scientific discovery and technological innovation. US universities spin off more than 1,100 science-based start-up companies each year.."

Endangering travel to the US also limits the free exchange of ideas, a crucial component of our academic and research success. This administration is using every conceivable tool to decimate the US’s academic and research enterprise and we will be the poorer for it.

Women, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boards Scientists, with expertise in fields that include mental health, cancer and infectious disease, typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal.

Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

Did somebody say make #PeerReview more fair, more transparent, and more fast?
Fast & Fair peer review from @biologyopen.bsky.social
journals.biologists.com/bio/pages/fa...

Harvard steps up

www.harvard.edu/research-fun...

Fast & Fair peer review made it to the European Zebrafish PI meeting in Paris.
Ran into one of our reviewers @simoesfilipa.bsky.social used her honorarium to buy new shoes.
Zebrafish research never looked so good.
📄 bit.ly/4iZ30st
bit.ly/fastandfair
@biologists.bsky.social @biologyopen.bsky.social

She Worked in a Harvard Lab to Reverse Aging, Until ICE Jailed Her President Trump’s immigration crackdown ensnared Kseniia Petrova, a scientist who fled Russia after protesting its invasion of Ukraine. She fears arrest if she is deported there.

Nightmare scenario.

„On Feb. 16, customs officials detained her at Logan International Airport in Boston for failing to declare samples of frog embryos she had carried from France at the request of her boss at Harvard.“

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/s...

„So, I ask you: How do you feel? How do you feel as we fall behind in global scientific progress? As economic uncertainty grows? As the health of your families and communities is put at risk? I know I feel outrage, and I hope others recognize what’s at stake and feel the urgency to support science.“

Nobel laureate: I owe America my success. Today, its scientific future is in danger | CNN Dr. Ardem Patapoutian says he watches “with deep sadness as the United States’ remarkable scientific enterprise, which took generations of hard work and national investment to build, faces a concerted...

Great article by @nobelprize.bsky.social laureate @ardemp.bskyverified.social outlining the health, economic and national security benefits of US biomedical research, and the devastation of government efforts to destroy our leading edge.

www.cnn.com/2025/04/09/h...

So lovely to host Jess Plavicki at UFZ today where we learned about how TCDD exposure disrupts neurovasculature development. This image represents the Brown-to-UFZ pipeline - Here’s hoping I get to work with many more Plavicki trainees in the future 👾.
@ufz-cite.bsky.social @plavickilab.bsky.social

How Measles Attacks an Unvaccinated Child With falling vaccination rates and outbreaks that have caused more than 580 U.S. cases and at least two deaths, health experts expect hundreds or even thousands more to be infected in the coming month...

Good tutorial on how measles infections work, fortunately all of this is avoidable.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Our daughter, a life-long NC resident and a Tarheel born and bred is one of those whose ballot was challenged. This is a shocking example of using the courts to overturn valid elections