Standard Deviation EP2: Domino Effect

Out of Patients with Matthew Zachary

Dr. Nikki Maphis didn’t just lose a grant. She lost a lifeline. An early-career Alzheimer’s researcher driven by her grandmother’s diagnosis, Nikki poured years into her work—only to watch it vanish when the NIH’s MOSAIC program got axed overnight. Her application wasn’t rejected. It was deleted. No feedback. No score. Just gone.

In this episode, Oliver Bogler pulls back the curtain on what happens when politics and science collide and promising scientists get crushed in the crossfire. Nikki shares how she’s fighting to stay in the field, teaching the next generation, and rewriting her grant for a world where even the word “diversity” can get you blacklisted. The conversation is raw, human, and maddening—a reminder that the real “war on science” doesn’t happen in labs. It happens in inboxes.

RELATED LINKS:

• Dr. Nikki Maphis LinkedIn page

• Dr. Nikki Maphis’ page at the University of New Mexico

• Vanguard News Group coverage

• Nature article

• PNAS: Contribution of NIH funding to new drug approvals 2010–2016

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