Dr Pei F Lai (1stGenPhD)

Undruggable No More: AI Hits Disordered Proteins, Unlocks Therapy Targets David Baker’s lab has successfully designed binders to disordered proteins, expanding therapeutic access to over 50% of the human proteome.

Undruggable No More: AI Hits Disordered Proteins, Unlocks Therapy Targets
David Baker’s Nobel Prize-winning lab has successfully designed high affinity binders to disordered proteins, expanding therapeutic access to over 50% of the human proteome
www.genengnews.com/t...

A guide to academic event names

The secret of reviewing 😆

All day

Summer Congregation: Monday 14th July 2025 @ 12:30pm YouTube video by University of Birmingham

Guest speaker at UoB graduation on 125th year anniversary of the university (starts at t = 46.5 minutes).

www.youtube.com/live/v84dZIe...

The Life Scientific - Paul Nurse - BBC Sounds Jim meets Paul Nurse, Nobel prize-winning geneticist and President of the Royal Society.

Sir Paul Nurse
#Birmingham #AlmaMater

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Desert Island Discs - Sir Paul Nurse - BBC Sounds Sue Lawley's castaway is Director-General of Science at Cancer Research UK Sir Paul Nurse

Sir Paul Nurse #FrancisCrickInstitute #RoyalSociety #NobelPrize #DesertIslandDiscs

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Global collaboration is key to decoding Alzheimer’s disease Recent progress on Alzheimer’s disease shows what we gain when scientists work together — and what the world loses when bad policies force them apart.

“We are closer than ever to the day when a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease stops being a death sentence — but only if we continue to support researchers and enable their ability to work with one another,” writes Bill Gates in a World View article for Nature Medicine. #medsky 🧪

The Life Scientific - Demis Hassabis on artificial intelligence - BBC Sounds Demis Hassabis tells Jim Al-Khalili why he wants to create artificial intelligence.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Demis Hassabis #AlphaFold #GoogleDeepmind #DesertIslandDiscs (2017)

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Biggest trial shows four-day work week cuts stress — and workers say it boosts performance Nature - Compressing five days of work into four can create stress, but the benefits outweigh the downsides, sprawling study shows.

Moving to a four-day work week without losing pay leaves employees happier, healthier and higher-performing

go.nature.com/4lIJ9zf

San Francisco ♥️

Los Angeles ♥️

Delegates have now split into work groups to develop new research ideas that can be pitched to Borne for possible funding. New ideas generated in real time, that could change the scope of what we know about premature birth. We’ll hear about these ideas during the closing session of day 2.

Little stepping stones of encouragement (1999-2004)

PS: I'm not an idiot

Plan for the summer

Thank you 🥰

Congratulations to our June 2025 Reviewer of the Month, Dr. Pei Lai from Imperial College London! 🎊

www.nature.com/commsbio/ref...

U.S. college is first to decline federal science grants because of new DEI language Williams College says NSF and NIH requirement related to discrimination “undermines” academic freedom

Exclusive: Until it gets more clarity on new grant language, Williams College won’t accept more National Institutes of Health or National Science Foundation funding for research on its campus.

Are groundbreaking science discoveries becoming harder to find? Nature - Researchers are arguing over whether ‘disruptive’ or ‘novel’ science is waning – and how to remedy the problem.

Researchers are arguing over whether ‘disruptive’ or ‘novel’ science is waning – and how to remedy the problem

https://go.nature.com/3SAofFU

Your time is valuable. Don’t give it away just for ‘exposure’ Academia relies on unpaid labour — but researchers should think carefully about what kind of work they’re willing to give to for-profit organizations for free, says Dritjon Gruda.

Academia relies on unpaid labour — but researchers should think carefully about what kind of work they’re willing to give to for-profit organizations for free, says Dritjon Gruda.

https://go.nature.com/3ZFMXZ5

‘You’re just not welcome’: researchers grapple with US plan to revoke Chinese student visas Scientists are eyeing their legal options in anticipation of new immigration actions.

Graduate students, postdocs and science lab leaders are reeling after an announcement last week that the US government will revoke visas for Chinese students — and they are contacting lawyers.

https://go.nature.com/4mLQ9fU

Science-integrity project will root out bad medical papers ‘and tell everyone’ Group behind Retraction Watch aims to pinpoint the most influential flawed health data.

The non-profit organization that runs Retraction Watch has launched a project aimed at rounding up flawed and fake medical-research papers and neutralizing their impact on public health.

https://go.nature.com/4jAo08S

Male mice can grow ovaries if their pregnant mums are iron deficient The study is the first to show that low iron levels can affect fetal sexual development.

Male mouse fetuses can develop female organs in utero if their mother is iron deficient during pregnancy

https://go.nature.com/43N7f4s

Thanks @commsbio.nature.com editors for naming me as their Reviewer of the Month - nice to be featured on their homepage! @natureportfolio.nature.com and others need more initiatives like this to highlight the value of peer review in protecting scientific integrity.
www.nature.com/commsbio/ref...

Level up

Priority seat signage with pictograms showing reserved seating for the elderly, injured, pregnant (with wi-fi waves seeming to emanate from her belly), and those with young children. Text is displayed in multiple languages.

“Are you okay, ma’am?”
“I think I swallowed my router.”
“Here, take my seat.”

Scientific conferences are leaving the US amid border fears Some meetings have been put on hold in response to foreign researchers’ travel concerns.

Several academic and scientific conferences in the United States have been postponed, cancelled or moved elsewhere

https://go.nature.com/437v5IW

Harvard researchers devastated as Trump team cuts nearly 1,000 grants Nature talks with scientists about an uncertain future as the US government lays siege to their university.

As the US government slashes Harvard’s funding, Nature has learnt that researchers at the university have lost nearly 1,000 grants worth more than US$2.4 billion.

https://go.nature.com/4jg8Sxa