Ya'el Courtney, PhD

Jane Coffin Childs Fellow & postdoc in immunology @ Stanford Robinson lab | 2024 Harvard neuro PhD @LehtinenLab • @HHMINews Gilliam ‘21 • 48/100📚 in 2026

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

🧬 With biomedical PhD applications open now, I often get asked for advice. I created a guide filled with tips from my own journey to Harvard & insights from others. I use it to lead workshops & it’s ready to help you too! ✨

Dive in and share! ⬇️

https://t.co/CZUSewsW2Y

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@yanirisma__ Sent this to my partner and said the same thing hahaha

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

New OMB rule would move science funding from experts to political appointees, and let agencies cancel grants mid-project.

Wrote up the plain version + how to comment before July 13.

https://t.co/8vS1WIOavu

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

Just updated my HHMI Gilliam Fellowship application guide for the 2026 competition, which brings major program changes.

Int'l PhD students can now apply. MD-PhDs are eligible. & a new postdoc pathway that can extend HHMI support up to 7 years total.

https://t.co/BSQ11pBpfW

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@KatinOxford Super similar! Recently passed 50 books and I have VERY minimal tv consumption, only an episode or movie here or there as a social experience w my partner!

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@EmilyDreyfuss When the message was like “I’m truly sorry for X. It wasn’t just careless, it impacted your ability to Y.”

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@EmilyDreyfuss As a scientist who always loved diagramming sentences in middle school…. This is so true and funny. I started calling folks out in 2024 for using AI to write their messages to me and they were always SHOCKED I could tell

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@katclone @MIT CONGRATS!!!!!

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@jsabatino37 They also give no citation or method for where figure 1 came from…unless I’m missing something? Yes very odd numbers in several cases

[Ruth Ann Crystal, MD @CatchTheBaby]

COVID raises your shingles risk.

New data from 110,000+ patients out of Taiwan shows that post-COVID Shingles also raise risk of
➡️ Bell's palsy
➡️ Guillain Barré
➡️ Myasthenia Gravis

Worst of all? Neurological vulnerability lasts for at least 3 years. https://t.co/W2MDpgMdmx

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

Reading ANY books a year is good!!! We should encourage any reading goal. 1 book? Amazing. 100? Great! Literacy and learning are ✨✨✨

[zara ꨄ︎ @kqteharker]

the average person has a reading goal of 10-20 a year but in a community where reading is your main hobby, of course people are gonna read more idk why this is such an issue 😭 if u wanna read 20 books a year that's okay. reading 50+ is also okay and entirely feasible

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@dianadamenovaa @adelwu_ I second this!!!

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@adelwu_ This is my absolute favorite, need to add the adjustable wide strap

https://t.co/g7kyMF85hd

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@SherifMorris @CoreyWriting Potentially outlier year after removal of GRE requirement/some other factors. 800 applicants, 25 spots.

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@SherifMorris @CoreyWriting Neuro in 2024 was 3.125%

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@drgurner @pintofscienceUS Agree totally!

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

Gave a @pintofscienceUS talk in Palo Alto last night: “You Got Over Mono. Your Body Didn’t.”

15 min on EBV. 95% of us carry it for life. Major cancer cause, required trigger for MS, increasingly implicated across autoimmune and post-viral disease.🦠

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@rexvsdeji Why?

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@erikmoldwarrior @pintofscienceUS I did indeed! Learned from the wonderful book Osler’s Web.

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@ArthurCaplan @PeterHotez Well, given that shingles is against a neurotropic herpesvirus, perhaps not great to generalize to ALL routine vaccines. Yes, likely general decreased inflammation is helpful for prevention. But I suspect in coming years it’ll really become clear that neurotropic herpes are BAD

[Ya'el Courtney, PhD @ScienceYael]

@dagarfield @keviv9 Oh I’ve heard that more than a few times :). And am joyfully meeting my own metrics of success.