Rejji Kuruvilla
Neurobiologist, Professor, fond of reading, cats, thrillers, and food
- It is impossible to avoid the realization of where we are as a country today, no matter how much we’d like to bury our heads in the sand and pretend that the violence is not directly impacting our lives. Until it does.
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaIf you / your lab / your institution rely on NIH funding, you need to read this and understand how this is one of many changes affecting you. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
- Reposted by Rejji Kuruvilla🧪 An EMBO Meeting on Axon Biology in Okinawa, Japan Iconic science at an amazing venue. Please join us! EMBO | COB Workshop on Axonal degeneration and regeneration meetings.embo.org/event/26-axo...
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaPowerful piece in STAT this morning from some NIH staff members who have resigned www.statnews.com/2026/01/10/n... 1/3
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- Having these two headlines juxtaposed only underscores the awfulness of this year
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- What a year! But grateful for the good things in life, which includes good people in my life, work that is fulfilling, warmth of a fireplace, some downtime over the holidays, waking up without an alarm, and furry companions.
- In a year beset by funding and visa uncertainties, sheer chaos, where some still don’t know whether they have a future here-this group keeps surging ahead driven by curiosity. Grateful to work with a talented & wonderful group! Our annual tri-lab party with @samerhattar.bsky.social and Haiqing Zhao
- Reposted by Rejji Kuruvilla🚨Job Alert plz RT! Johns Hopkins Psych & Brain Sciences is looking for a new colleague using behavioral or computational approaches to study cognition! We are excited about many areas of (esp higher) cognition in human adults, children, or nonhuman animals Open-rank apply.interfolio.com/178146
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- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaNo more paylines at the NIH grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaAnd I’m a big fan of Turing, von Neumann, Shannon, Metcalfe, Hinton, Sejnowski, and all the other algorithmic and computation people. No shade. But data limits still limit understanding of the brain. That’s why the #NIH US BRAIN Init was so important: public investment made new tools.
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- It is a good night for democracy…
- Submitted two NIH grants this month-floated off like messages in the bottle in the ocean. No idea if anyone would read them one day….
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaAfter 13 years in the US, I’ve made the difficult decision to leave. Having packed up everything and rethought about priorities, rather painstakingly, while I’m sad to leave the life I’ve made here, I’m also relieved that I won’t have to plan my life around immigration policies anymore.
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- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaFunders must recognise that great discoveries often come from studies that seeks to advance knowledge for its own sake go.nature.com/47zrzYZ
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- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaA university that signs the “compact” is one that acknowledges its own inability to compete and succeed based talent and merit. It would signal insecurity and mediocrity to current and future students and faculty. Say no. Recruit the best people, protect their freedom and support their hard work.
- Wins for the week-submitting a grant application and a revised manuscript. Bottom line-focusing on what I can control.
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaSix of the nine Nobel Prize winners this year work in the U.S. Three of the six were born outside the U.S., which is the pattern most years. No country has benefited more from welcoming immigrants from around the world. www.nobelprize.org
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- Cool pre-print and valuable resource highlighting the molecular and cellular diversity of human sympathetic ganglia and DRG cell types www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaFor this #FluorescenceFriday, a gorgeous image of an adult mouse kidney labeled with AQP2 and alpha SMA antibodies. AQP2 (green) marks the collecting duct and distal connecting segment while SMA marks the arterial tree. Courtesy of talented postdoc Sarah McLarnon.
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaThis paper does a great job with a "It's a Wonderful Life" scenario about NIH, supposing the consequences of the bottom 40% of the funding NIH grants never existed. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... tl:dr The world would lose a lot, but directly and indirectly
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaAny academic folks on H1B visas (even with stamps in passports) please get legal advice from your University attorneys before leaving the US.
- Arundhati Roy’s intense memoir of her mother “Mother Mary comes to me” is a brutal read, yet funny and poignant. Rekindled my love of reading and brought on all the emotions of complicated mother-daughter relationships, orthodoxy of Kerala Syrian Christians, and not conforming to societal norms.
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaIt bears repeating that nearly the entire US enterprise in science and technology has been irreversibly gutted. This is shocking. All this loss has occurred without any real benefit to the average US citizen. Except we now have the biggest, best funded secret police force perhaps ever. Yay for us!
- Wistfully thinking about the days when incompetent Reviewer 3 was the biggest problem…
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- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaScience is a long game. Translational science, or clinical medicine is only possibly because of basic science discoveries where the clinical applications are not yet known. Also: Nobels are typically awarded for basic science… *exploratory* basic science. True story.
- Over 20 years after Julius’s lab and mine cloned TRPM8, it is rewarding to see this science helping patients. The TRPM8 agonist Tryptyr treats dry eye by increasing tear production. A reminder that NIH-funded curiosity-driven research translates to medicines. tryptyr.myalcon.com?gad_source=1...
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaOver 20 years after Julius’s lab and mine cloned TRPM8, it is rewarding to see this science helping patients. The TRPM8 agonist Tryptyr treats dry eye by increasing tear production. A reminder that NIH-funded curiosity-driven research translates to medicines. tryptyr.myalcon.com?gad_source=1...
- From a trip to PNW and being reminded how beautiful this country is. My childhood was spent in a crowded and polluted city (much as I loved it). But the majestic splendor of the natural beauty in the US will never cease to amaze me. Hope we can sustain the national parks.
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- Yup this.. paylines below 5% are demoralizing not only for applicants but also reviewers. Good luck, NIH, finding reviewers to take on this task..
- Finding comfort in little things these days. Working with a good group of people, discussing science, sharing ideas. Trying to tune the noise and chaos out in moments like this. Lab lunch.
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- Reposted by Rejji Kuruvillaso.... NIH issued a news item clarifying the new use of animals policy. It seems that the bottom line is that NIH will not issue NoFOs specifically about creation or use of animal models of disease. 1/2 grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
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- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaTapping the sign that says “NSF, NIH, and public investment into basic research are the real engines of US innovation”
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- Very thankful for my non competing renewal coming in in time-something I had taken for granted previously 😅 Also for a PO who responds instantly to all queries-thank you.
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- Finding joy in little things-fluffy idlis (as close to my mother’s as I could make them), morning coffee, cats snoozing in the quiet hum of the house, and manuscript submitted this week.
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaIt’s official! Fall 2025, I go from “Assistant” to “Associate” Professor. Thanks to trainees (ugrad/grad/postbacs), professional/personal networks, & family for supporting my goal of establishing a vibrant research program that puts people before projects. More science, scientists, & understanding!
- Nostalgia for the days of science Twitter where the arguments where about how to justify the font in grants, whether labs should be named after the PI, NIH paylines at around 16%, and academia vs industry as career options for PhDs 😭
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- This week, I’ve seen colleagues serve on NIH study section, doing their job diligently, submit papers, mentor students, serve on university committees, be excited about the science at conferences. Despite all the uncertainties and chaos. Don’t know what’s ahead but you can’t break spirits so easily.
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaBREAKING: Judge denies NSF's 15% indirect rate plan. Like the DOE and NIH attempts, it too has now been rejected by courts. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
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- Love the new simplified review criteria for NIH applications-allows you to focus on why the research should be done, and can it be done well? without all the fillers. No extensive comments on investigator expertise/environment. But wish we could go back to in-person study sections. Teams sucks!
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaAn NIH staffer reacts to today's ruling: "I'm looking forward to the day that we are so slammed with work trying to reinstate everything that we had to terminate illegally — I'll work 24/7 to make that happen if I can."
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- Kudos to the brave NIH staff who show up for work every day. Who decided to speak truth to power even as their jobs could be at stake. I signed. We can get the number of signers up to the millions to show that we care about the future of NIH and research in this country.
- Here is a link you can blast out to all of your networks to ask them to consider signing on in support of our NIH heroes. actionnetwork.org/forms/add-na... We are at 5000 folks who have signed on. But we can do better Only for people who have ever been sick or knows someone who has been.
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaI wanted to show support for these brave public servants and to allow others, including the scientific community, to join me. In partnership with @standupforscience.bsky.social, we have a way for you to do that... www.standupforscience.net/bethesda-dec...
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaThis is on all the Senators who turned a blind eye and voted to confirm. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/h...
- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaSharing this not because I need support (I’m fine), but because we all need to be aware of how bad things are getting, especially for people who are foreign, “look foreign,” and/or have an accent, even in very progressive, very blue places. 🧵
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- Reposted by Rejji KuruvillaAlmost all Nobel Prizes are awarded for work that is exploratory, or absolutely basic science with no obvious commercial or medical benefit. You cannot predict where advancements come from, so you have to invest in science and scientists. Targeted (corporate) science investment will never do this.
- Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪 www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...
