Michael M Hopkins

Great to see this project (that I am a tiny part of) go live!

The lamentable truth is we cannot afford the researchers we already have because most UK universities are in a financial crisis. That crisis is due to immigration policies that reduced the UK's appeal to international students, who were contributing billions to the economy in fees, rent, food etc

Decades of incremental progress in Japan on iPS cell therapies and huge investment, show promise. But will treatments be affordable? More and more this is the question with biotech.

The cost of Trump’s attack on American science Sweeping funding cuts threaten to undermine the innovation that has been a central part of US economic strength for decades

The US had the world's best funded science base, yielding over $2 to the economy for every $1 invested. Now NIH, NSF are being gutted as described in this FT piece. Industries that rely on science are (publicly) silent as are senior scientists. The young protest alone.
www.ft.com/content/67fd...

Resilient tree-planting strategies for carbon dioxide removal under compounding climate and economic uncertainties | PNAS To meet decarbonization targets, nations around the globe have made ambitious commitments to expand forested land. Operationalizing these commitmen...

🌲 Tree Planting is a Cost-effective Way to Protect the Climate

Diverse planting strategies can reduce financial risks from climate uncertainty, with tree planting one of the most cost-effective carbon removal methods.

🔗 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

#SciComm 🧪 #ClimateAction

I'd be keen to join - I'm at the Science Policy Research Unit @ University of Sussex, so the clue is in my affiliation I guess.

Digital billboard in Boston's subway station that reads: "Finally, social media that's billionaire-proof."

Finally, social media that's billionaire-proof. ⚡

Bluesky's first IRL ads spotted in @boston.gov @mbta.com.

I wonder if they will encourage civil servants to stay with the same brief longer, gaining more expertise? That would be welcome.

It will be interesting to see if this company gets past the concerns raised by the first consumer genetics companies twenty years ago: Will the tests generate work for doctors dealing with the worried well? Will genetic test results change behaviour positively or generate apathy?

What does the long list look like? As a social scientist, it's good to have ammunition to fend off the sceptics - but I think some more economically influential ideas are needed (coming from a country where the PM essentially disregarded the validity of sociology in the 1980s).

Pandemic monitoring with global aircraft-based wastewater surveillance networks - Nature Medicine By simulating the implementation of airport-based wastewater surveillance sites at the global level, a modeling study shows how this early warning system would perform in identifying sources of pandem...

Wastewater from airplane toilets?
We introduce a global Aircraft-Based Wastewater Surveillance Network (WWSN) for pandemic monitoring in Nature Medicine 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Aircraft-based wastewater surveillance allows for real-time, non-invasive monitoring of global pathogen spread
Short 🧵

Excellent advice - Crisis opens the door to Change, but mainly for those solutions that are already to hand.

Unjust, selfish, evil - words that barely indicate how wrong this is.

Mexico, the genetic cradle of Maize, tries to keep GM corn out of its food chain.

US biosimilar 'void' spells trouble as biologic patent expirations loom, IQVIA report says While 118 biologics are expected to lose patent protection in the US over the next decade, that $234 billion opportunity for biosimilar developers may not materialize because of several challenges, ac...

Hundreds of patented biologic drugs come off patent in the next decade yet huge monopolies will remain in place due to a dearth of biosimilars in development. Why no competition? It looks like biosimilar makers won't get out of bed for less than half a billion $ per year.
endpts.com/us-biosimila...

Gene-edited pig kidneys to be tested in more humans soon, two companies say FDA clears United Therapeutics and eGenesis for gene-edited pig kidney transplant studies, including the first clinical trial and a three-person compassionate-use program.

Two xenotransplantation companies competing to bring gene-edited pig kidneys to patients with renal failure, addressing the chronic shortage of donor organs.

A grant scheme could work better than a visa scheme - but that would cost money.

Incoming US administration pauses HHS/NIH communications, and decision making hitting job adverts & offers, grant awarding, meetings and travel. Apparently some disruption is common as administrations change, but the impact is looking much higher this time. www.science.org/content/arti...

The main way seems to be seeking autonomy for more decision making. The scope for this may increase as the unit becomes more established.

For anyone interested in the management of academic drug discovery, here is a piece we just published in Drug Discovery Today, on the progress and challenges of the UK's Drug Discovery Units. Access to the article is free (for now).

authors.elsevier.com/a/1kRn-4r9Rk...

💥 YES! The Youth Mobility Scheme (EU Countries) Bill is looking like it will go through without government opposition today.

That’s because of YOU!

You have all flooded the zone with 8-10,000 emails to your MPs on this.

Keep them coming. And do follow-ups too.

I've been following the policy debate about the impacts of patenting genes (or patents on nucleotide sequences more generally) for over 20 years, so its great to see a curated collection of publications on this topic, put together by Robert Cook-Deegan and colleagues:
elsihub.org/collection/p...

Traffic on @resprofnews.bsky.social website surging as a result universities rethinking deals with publishers.

@francesjones.bsky.social revealed in Dec the University of Sheffield has cancelled its Elsevier subscription deal.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

We now know... 1/3

EU companies top US and China counterparts in R&D investment growth, breaking decade-long trend Europe's industry has increased its investment in research and development (R&D) by 9.8% in 2023, surpassing the growth of corporate R&D investment in the US (+5.9%) and China (+9.6%) for the first ti...

EU leads R&D investments in automotive, which together with ICT and health drive global R&D growth

ec.europa.eu/commission/p...

Prediction: This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Will Drop Out of the $1 Trillion Club in 2025 | The Motley Fool

Those of us considering why the UK lacks US-style tech giants should start with understanding US investor techno-optimism. Take Tesla. Motley Fool suggests the stock is overvalued (as an EV firm) but for others, its leading a push for AI/ automation across sectors.
www.fool.com/investing/20...

Sounds good. Research on the impact of medical innovation has revealed huge long term payoffs, most notably from studies into the harms of smoking (Doll and others). These more than justify public R&D. I would bet social science has its own similar massive contributions, given policy relevance.

ESRC does sort of do this but the current website shows off recent examples, with budding impact. Yet the biggest wins, with the most widespread impact will be older. Roll these out and show the value of social science research at its best, to give the critics and supporters something to mull over.

Good piece here reflecting on what the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)does, as it starts its 60th year. Given that one of the UK's most popular politicians doesn't even see the point of the social sciences (seriously) a suggestion would be to showcase 60 big impacts from ESRC.

The headline doesn't look great - but read on. The example cited, of Gilead making tens of billions annually by curing Hep C, falling to 'only' 4 billion last year, still shows massive return on investment. But nothing lasts forever, so no its not 'sustainable' , just a supermassive blockbuster!

Fall in UK university core science courses stokes fears for industrial strategy Chemistry courses have dropped a quarter and biosciences by 15% in past 5 years

Claims that falling numbers of science degrees will hit the industrial strategy seem a bit overblown at this stage - given that most students do not even stay in the sciences for their employment. More concerning is the massive financial crisis brewing in universities. www.ft.com/content/563f...