Huge shout out to my postdoc, Dr. Tyler DeWitt #notonhere for an outstanding talk at #AACR2026 yesterday. He presented our story on the molecular underpinnings of breast cancer outcome disparities (currently in revision in Cancer Research @aacrjournals.bsky.social) with panache #breastcancer 🧪
It is disgusting that VCs/businesses that made billions of $$ off the backs of de-risked cutting-edge research from scientists in the US, are now content to turn their backs on the whole enterprise with a shrug when the chips are down. A window into the mind of the leaders of today.
Every day I talk to other cancer researchers, committed to soldiering on as long as poss, but many of us see the writing on the wall & cannot help but be despondent. Pharma co.s otoh are happy to tell us that if we cannot make breakthroughs, they'll take ones from China. So there's that, I suppose.🧪
Everything happened because of someone else (unconnected to POTUS), he is a disinterested scientist only motivated by a love of humanity, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. The absence of any attempt at taking ownership of the debacle that is American research today was appalling to watch
I read this piece, and I'm not going to lie, it is deeply shocking to think that we have gone so far off the rails that we can think and write and publish that the main purpose of a graduate student is to "be productive" on day 1.
"Sometimes what you need is a front-loaded award ... so it's perfectly scientifically justified" The lies upon lies, the misdirection, the prevarication, it's exhausting, no wonder he doesn't sleep
So, his claim is that the payline going down from 30% to <10% is because scientists are submitting more applications? Bro with some circular thinking here. I wish House reps were better educated in the how research funding works so they could push back against rank deceit 🧪
At least on science communication, some parts of the scientific community has realized its importance for a while, but structural changes are required to provide opportunities for direct communication with the public. Science influencers taking over tik tok maybe?
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/american-b...
The really sad thing is that a lot of scientists have also fallen for the Merchants of Doubt strategy and I hear many colleagues complain that science has become political, revealing a deep lack of understanding of how they have been manipulated themselves 🧪
In gearing up to teach a big pre-med requirement class next semester, I love this idea
www.science.org/content/arti...
If you'd like to work on this gorgeous campus with my lab, consider applying here: careers-sdsurf.icims.com/jobs/20123/r...
We're looking for someone to join us as a tech and grow into a lab manager position. To learn more about the lab: www.haricharanlab.com 🧪
Gorgeous recent sunset from our beautiful Spanish revival campus (pic from SDSU’s LinkedIn page). Too pretty to not share! ❤️
For me, it's wrapping my head around the kind of tech bro who dreams of a world where humans don't have to think .....
Another tough day for team “there’s no point in complaining about AI, just accept it.”
I have an email you wrote me with this same advice when I was writing a grant application a few years ago. I printed it out and stuck it next to my computer. I read it often. ❤️
Now they've posted it on their website, so no backsies 😂
Here's another example of a nonsense puff piece in Forbes. Maybe we should be teaching people logic instead of teaching them how to craft prompts for AI.
www.forbes.com/sites/gregor...
"The questions leftists ask about AI are: does this improve my life? Does this improve my livelihood? So far, the answer for everyone who doesn’t stand to get rich off AI is no." Spot on. Spending a bunch of money to build something that helps noone. Why, though?
aftermath.site/anthropic-cl...
Asona Lui @ucsdhealthsci.bsky.social and I @sdsuresearch.bsky.social are PIs on one of those three funded applications! Our research is going clinical 😍😅🥳🧪 [I'll do a 🧵on how taxpayer $$ directly contributed to this shortly] #ShareGoodNewsToo
😂
But it does it quickly and congratulates you for asking
Yeah, I was in one once where the person running it seemed more intent on informing people about how to get away with harassment without legal consequences than anti-harassment training
Do better, universities
Oh, pish
I think it helped get a more coherent summary statement, and also brought up to speed all the non-assigned reviewers who weren't paying attention to the whole discussion. But I concede that it was dependent on having a chair who was a fair and unbiased summarizer
The erosion of the peer review process at the NIH is not just with the push back against in-person study sections, which I think are qualitatively superior to zoom sections. There were also in the last set of meetings: compression to 1 day meetings, and no chair summaries. Both comprise quality imo
Related but separate. I teach critical thinking and we talk about how telling someone they're wrong because facts, seldom works. But showing someone patterns that they can recognize in mis/disinformation empowers them to figure out for themselves which sources they can trust for information.
Hard agree. I created a Critical Thinking curriculum for our grad students because they craved that content. These are bright kids. Watching them kick ass once they grasp how to reason critically is amazing. But I shouldn't be the one seeing that transformation. That should be happening in school
100% this. That means the Cancer Biology class I teach is also partly a how to be a Biology student class. That means I can't teach all the cancer biology I want to because there's no point teaching intense biology concepts if we're struggling with the how to learn successfully question