Matt Sikora
Assoc Prof at CU Anschutz, Cancer biologist, focus on #lobular breast cancer and gyn cancers, estrogen receptor pharmacology, and basic mechs in cancer disparities. Posts are my own. He/Him.
www.sikoralab.com
- Reposted by Matt SikoraAmericans being concerned about paying their bills isn’t a ‘con job’. A con job is when you give your billionaire friends a massive tax cut off the backs of working people.
- We've routinely asked our pediatrician "Do you have any MORE vaccines you can give them?" at every check up.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraI know I’m not supposed to use ChatGPT but I asked it to find me a seminar speaker and it suggested: “David Sabatini (deceased, but important for legacy)” and I cannot stop laughing.
- Reposted by Matt Sikora@biologyopen.bsky.social published by nonprofit @biologists.bsky.social lists editor & publishes the reviews of accepted papers & provides authors a decision with reviews in 7 working days of submission (by precontracting & paying reviewers)...if you support this, please help spread the word
- On the Factor Fexcectorn and autism bicycle AI slop study: I got an answer from Springer Nature this morning that this scientific paper will be retracted! 🧪 Full story: nobreakthroughs.substack.com/p/riding-the...
- Reposted by Matt SikoraAs someone who's spent a quarter century in Academia, I can't abide the "why bother with college when you have AI and YouTube" nonsense because THIS, this right here, is one of the most important reasons for going to college.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraBraver than like 90% of reporters for no reason at all.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraThe President of the United States just called for Democratic members of Congress to be executed. "HANG THEM", he posted. If you're a person of influence in this country and you haven't picked a side, maybe now would be the time to pick a fucking side.
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- Reposted by Matt SikoraDefunding scientists for the nationality of who they co-author with or who they train. One of the most radical attack on freedom of speech in US history. A far right nationalist destruction of US science. Such a shameful time to be an American that this racist stupidity has become mainstream.
- grants.nih.gov/grants/guide... This is going to be a fun next few grant cycles....
- Reposted by Matt SikoraAfter shutdown guidance: As of today, we can confirm that we will be rescheduling all October and November grant application submission deadlines (specific dates to be announced in a future Notice).
- Reposted by Matt SikoraWhile the government was shut down, 379 NIH study section meetings (containing 24,380 grant applications) were postponed. NIH is committed to getting these reviewed, but please be patient and understanding with staff, as this is a complex and heavy lift.
- This on top of having the October submissions to process, and recruit/assign reviewers. Hard to imagine how CSR just picks up where they left off with the depletions and chaos.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraSave the date: our faculty job market series continues this Wed, Nov12 at 3pm ET / 12p PT! Topic: on-site interviews + seminars Come hear our junior faculty share our thoughts/advice! There will also be time for Q&A. Registration link in flyer - see you soon!
- Reposted by Matt SikoraN7 Day 2025 is today. #MassEffect
- Reposted by Matt SikoraAre you a #Colorado resident who buys health insurance on the state marketplace (Connect for Health Colorado) & have seen a spike in your premiums for next year? DM me if you're willing to talk about the bill. Thanks! #copolitics
- Reposted by Matt SikoraFrom the top rope
- Reposted by Matt SikoraBeshear: Let me be clear. The president has both the funding and the authority to fund snap during a shutdown. In fact, every other president in every other shutdown has done so. People going hungry in this instance is a choice that this president has made.
- For Halloween, the Sikora Lab is excited to announce the release of the debut self-titled album from **MITOTIC CATASTROPHE** with chart topping hits: - Pour Some Agar on Me - You Give Science a Bad Name - Sweet Graph 'o Mine - We're Not Gonna Fake it - Welcome to the Data - Back in Lab Rock on!!!
- Reposted by Matt SikoraEndocrine research conference: Dr Maggie Musick from the Sikora lab @mjsikora.bsky.social discussed mechanisms of tumorigenesis in lobular breast cancer. #cancer #CUPathology
- I know & trust that NIH staff will get this round of reviews done. Yet having done my own CSR reviews 'for nothing' & with my own R01 sitting unreviewed now, working on another NIH grant has never felt so painful and futile. A quiet impact on science, perhaps, robbing the joy from looking ahead.
- Reposted by Matt Sikora. @cucancercenter.bsky.social member @mjsikora.bsky.social, PhD, is a leader in research into lobular breast cancer, an understudied cancer type that’s on the rise in American women and has sharply lower survival rates several years after diagnosis than more common breast cancers. #cucityofhealth
- Reposted by Matt SikoraAfter Trump got his Covid shot, he chose to fire the scientists protecting the rest of us from diseases.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraTHAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS
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- Reposted by Matt SikoraSometimes I think about how from 1935-1975ish, Bell Labs produced an insane amount of revolutionary science and technology, including 11 Nobel Prizes, the transistor, UNIX, C, the laser, the solar cell, information theory, etc. The secret? Provide scientists with ample, steady, no-strings funding.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraI am just so fucking proud of her.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraNEWS: The F.D.A. approved a new generic version of the abortion pill mifepristone. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/02/h...
- Reposted by Matt SikoraDonald Trump is conditioning federal funding to universities on the signing of a loyalty pledge to his agenda. This reeks of authoritarianism, and the universities should reject this hostage-taking of their funding.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraThe Jane Goodall Institute of Canada has learned this morning, Wednesday, October 1st, 2025, that Dr. Jane Goodall DBE, UN Messenger of Peace and Founder of the Jane Goodall Institute, has passed away due to natural causes. She was in California as part of her speaking tour in the United States.
- This is going to be the most unhinged well-being survey ever.
- Reposted by Matt Sikora“The Founders understood that without education, the ability to repeat tyranny was too great. They pushed—whether it was Franklin, Washington, Madison, or Jefferson—in their writings for education, for critical thinking, & for an understanding of its role.” — @rweingarten.bsky.social
- This is right up there with interviewing Peter Navarro the other day - pandering to MAGA isn't going to get your funding back, NPR. There is no 'both sides' to acetaminophen and autism, it's a safe drug during pregnancy.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraI often get this question from non-scientists I meet when I travel, "why haven't we cured cancer yet?" and it does reveal a true disconnect between reality and public perception. You know who never asks me that question? Breast cancer patients and advocates I work with /1
- Reposted by Matt Sikora"STAT’s analysis of NIH Reporter data reveals that the agency will still fund far fewer new projects this year, due to a change in how it awards grants...the number of R grants issued has dropped much more precipitously — from 5,633 to 3,758 newly funded projects."
- A frenzy of grantmaking in August has the NIH seemingly on pace to spend its entire $47 billion budget by the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 www.statnews.com/2025/09/12/n...
- Sigh. Our 8th percentile R21 officially misses the crazy 7%ile payline at NCI. At the same time, my R01 gets Y4-5 funded together, when instead of that multi-year funding, they could've funded new work on the R21!
- Reposted by Matt SikoraWhile Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., dismantles the federal institutions that set vaccine policy, states like Colorado are changing laws and regulations in an effort to preserve access to vaccines.
- NIH's NOSI on Women's Health Research was edited to expire as of yesterday, in case you were worried that the clowns in charge were finished axing research that they don't understand. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
- Reposted by Matt SikoraThis is awesome. @ellecordova.bsky.social
- Reposted by Matt SikoraCan you get a COVID vaccine this year in Colorado? Here’s what to know.
- Reposted by Matt Sikora“Numbers always tend to benefit the left” is kinda a stunning admission. The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. George Orwell, 1984
- My wife and I are both PhDs and both at U. Colorado - I'm faculty and she's in admin. Most of our work convos about each other's roles end something like "lolz no thanks, better you than me".
- I had the amazing opportunity to chat w @projbridgeco.bsky.social to talk about the lab, my career, studying #lobular breast cancer, and working w patient advocates. Loved talking re where I've been & talk about what's important to me as a PI and mentor! Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0NBd...
- Also up on Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
- Reposted by Matt SikoraCOMMENTARY: If this was happening in another nation, we'd call it by name. It's authoritarianism.
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- Reposted by Matt SikoraWhile other politicians talk, @philweiser.bsky.social delivers This group of state AGs has created something that should give us all hope; state leaders working together for the benefit of all of us
- Attorney General Weiser and a coalition of AGs have secured an agreement with the Trump administration to release all of the remaining education funds it previously illegally withheld. Read more: bit.ly/41o6v5q
- A Ryan Warner interview with Mike Lamp, though sad for Mike's sign off, might be the greatest audio-based therapy ever conceived. @cprnews.bsky.social
- Except maybe if @stinasieg.bsky.social joined the interview too. I don't know if I could such a pleasant sounding conversation.
- In today's soul-sucking waste of time tasks brought on by the current administration, I had to write a budget consolidation request and proposal to re-allocate funds intended for foreign collaborators on my R01, to comply with NOT-OD-25-104. We either end the foreign sub, or end the R01.
- It must be nice when you can just "find" whatever conclusions you want, rather than have to rely on rigorous study and data analysis.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraCan peer review be done faster, without compromising on quality? Biology Open has embarked on an exciting experiment to find out - Editor-in-Chief Dan Gorelick @danielgorelick.bsky.social explains. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt5h...
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- 🦆DAY 21 of #31DaysOfAction Help us send a clear message that they must impeach & remove RFK “The Quack.” $3 donation = someone dressed in a duck costume will deliver a rubber duck stamped with IMPEACH THE QUACK to your Rep’s office. Help us flock the halls of Congress - Link: tinyurl.com/sufsci
- Reposted by Matt SikoraJESUS, MARY, AND JOSEPH! This gave me old Google back! It killed the AI results dead!
- 4 hour study section with one 5 (five!!!) minute break in the middle
- Reposted by Matt SikoraThere is not enough lobular breast cancer research, IMO, so I'm thrilled to see this radiation review by @mjsikora.bsky.social and co-authors! www.nature.com/articles/s41... #bcsm
- I rarely am poking around in tissue culture these days, but was showing some cells to the family of one of our summer students this afternoon. Apparently I left the microscope light on. I'll let you guess what kind of shit I'm getting in the lab Teams chat right now.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraI doubt that there is a single family in America that hasn’t benefitted directly from the NIH.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraHell yeah, keep the pressure on. If you live in one of these states, call your Senators, thank them, and remind them that there are related issues where their states and the nation needs their support and willingness to stand up.
- But this is promising?? Keep the pressure on? rollcall.com/2025/07/28/r...
- Reposted by Matt SikoraI could not be more excited to finally announce that my lab will be moving to The Wistar Institute in Philadelphia in early September! While this is somewhat of a homecoming for me, it is a new adventure for the 6 lab members moving with me! More details to come about new roles and opportunities!
- Reposted by Matt SikoraNIH staff are being required to fully fund ~ 50% of their grants. This means that all 4 years of an award will be paid out of this appropriation. This will help them get the appropriated funds spent, but will mean they can only fund (1/2 + 1/4*1/2) = 5/8 has many grants as they would have otherwise.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraFinal CBO score of the "big beautiful bill" is out Largest Medicaid cuts ever - in fact, at least 4 times the size of the previous largest; $894-$990 bn cut Kicks 10 million off health insurance Largest SNAP cuts ever, $197 bn cut Still increases the deficit by $3.4 trillion from huge tax cuts
- Reposted by Matt SikoraI’m no political strategist but if Trump wants to distract us from the Epstein Files, he could try fully funding NIH, EPA, NASA, NOAA, NSF, USDA, USGS, etc. We’d be so shocked that we won’t stop talking about it for months.
- Reposted by Matt SikoraOnline voting on Governor Polis’ $28.5M Capitol pedestrian bridge project closes at midnight Monday. I appreciate that he included my commentary opposing the project on his online survey page. www.co150walkway.com/feedback
- Reposted by Matt Sikora“there is evidence that the use of AI tools has enabled Principal Investigators to submit more than 40 distinct applications in a single application submission round” would love to see this evidence grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...
- Grant review needs to be part of this discussion, particularly with more submissions for tighter pay lines. Eg can we leverage LOI phases better so that 20 reviewers aren't reading 60 applications in full, burning hundreds of hours to make one award?
- Cool lightning presentation from Outstanding Abstract Awardee Emily Zboril (Harrell Lab @vcumassey.bsky.social ) on the agonist activity of the anti estrogen lasofoxifene in bone, shows protective activity and blocks bone loss while suppressing tumor growth. #ENDO2025
- Reposted by Matt SikoraMy favorite talk of #Endo2025 is @liisagalea.bsky.social but also the entire sex differences session full of things we know but for some reason have ignored: females are different than males. Not more complex. Not more dynamic. Different. It’s not sexist to use funds to study this; it’s necessary.
- Beautiful talk from Dr Camilla Hughes @pennstateuniv.bsky.social on NR5A1/SF1 in regulating follicle development in the ovary. Impt role in micro environmental structure and serial steps of follicle maturation. #ENDO2025 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
- Dr. Ilmatar Rooda @ki.se shows really lovely integration of single-cell & spatial transcriptomics to define + map cellular subpopulations of cells within ovary, eg refining types of stromal cells and types of oocytes and how composition changes over age. #ENDO2025 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39168975/
- #ENDO2025 - workshop with NIH program officers this morning, interesting gem that the timing of your application vs timing of Fed budget changes funding decision timelines. Councils in fall often do not yet have a budget, and are very conservative w decisions until winter/spring.
- Another gem - including multiple target NIH institutes with a grant submission is not super helpful. Primary assignment is exactly that, and a secondary choice can only fund grants, even well scored, with special funds in very short supply. Try to make sure it goes to the right home. #ENDO2025
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- Congrats to Early Investigator Awardee Dr. Matt Taves! Continuing a recent tradition of @nrimpact.bsky.social members on the next gen star stage 💫 @endocrinesociety.bsky.social
- Huge congrats to Early Investigator Awardee @quinascience.bsky.social! So pleased that someone so dedicated to @endocrinesociety.bsky.social is being recognized as a star in our field. #ENDO2025
- Reposted by Matt SikoraSuperstar TCDCC co-chairs ran a smooth and awesome program for #ECF2025. And kudos to Nadia Barghouthi as program chair. @endocrinesociety.bsky.social @endocrinenews.bsky.social #ENDO2025
- After a day with our Early Career Forum attendees yesterday, Inga Harbuz-Miller and I realize that we're still trainees at heart ❤️ #ENDO2025 Credit @lmfendo.bsky.social for the photo and pose 😆
- After a day with our Early Career Forum attendees yesterday, Inga Harbuz-Miller and I realize that we're still trainees at heart ❤️ #ENDO2025 Credit @lmfendo.bsky.social for the photo and pose 😆
- If you're wondering, yes, @endocrinesociety.bsky.social will use your pictures for promo material 😂 #ENDO2025 Pretty cool to have @nrimpact.bsky.social folks featured: @profriggins.bsky.social @zmadake2.bsky.social @ayeshashafi.bsky.social @cittellylab.bsky.social Drs Cordoba-Chacon & Treviño
- #ENDO2025 kicks off today with a call to action from society prez Dr. Newell-Price, for US-based members to contact their Congresspeople in support of NIH. Proud of @endocrinesociety.bsky.social for not shying away from the challenges we face. secure.everyaction.com/PK0t2cj5NUyh...
- Reposted by Matt SikoraMy amazing colleague @loriraetzman.bsky.social the 2025 Endoctrine Society Laureate Awardee for distinguished service. #ENDO2025 @endocrinesociety.bsky.social
