Benjamin Werner

RFK Jr’s health department to halt $500m in mRNA vaccine research Agency to end 22 federal contracts, questioning safety of technology credited with helping end Covid pandemic

The quote I have seen today that puts this in perspective:”RFK Jr sides with cancer on the war on cancer”

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

To evaluate computational models, we rely on trusted benchmark data and metrics

So what if a metrics is widely used… but plain wrong? It means that evaluations in dozens of papers are meaningless.

This has happened in single cell genomics…

(1/)

Looking forward to see RFKs genius betterments

So you mean 50 years after PhD. Still some hope for me then

One of the odd aspects of academia is the perception of age.

Its very possible to win early career awards at the age of 50.

Words are very important

Donald Trump (2025).

Even more so if you only know a 100 (but its the best words of course).

Will it matter?

Some adds remain unintelligible no matter the language

‘Dodgy looking’ clip of Trump playing golf in Scotland sparks cheating debate Video appears to show aide dropping ball in favourable position, as golf fans say it is a bad look for the sport

A rather good allegory of his entire life

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

figure 1 from https://doi.org/10.1086/737588 describing (a) our conceptualisation of an evolutionary transition in individuality, (b) an interpretation of the traits that we consider in our mathematical model, and (c) a graphical representation of the population dynamics in the model.

Interested in host-symbiont interdependence, eukaryogenesis, and evolutionary transitions in individuality? my first paper just came out! With @gokhalecs.bsky.social and Pete Czuppon, we study when & how individuality emerges in a host-endosymbiont collective doi.org/10.1086/737588 a short thread🧵:

Would like to know the opinions on narrative CVs.

I think I understand and like the purpose, but at the same time also find it a little strange to write about myself in such a narrative way.

Maybe that’s a personality issue, but it feels uncomfortabel.

They say that life's a carousel

Spinning fast, you gotta ride it well

The world is full of Kings and Queens

Who blind your eyes and steal your dreams

It's Heaven and Hell, oh well

Fool, fool

You've got to bleed for the dancer

Congrats Kit! @yosoykit.bsky.social Extremely worthy recipient of the Leah Edelstein-Kehset prize #SMB2025: she is leading the way modelling disease progression to improve early detection and prevention of #cancer

smb.org/SMB-Awards

Great work by @alexsteinresearch.bsky.social

We are very excited that the work is now available in Genetics.

On the bright side, if Brasil stops exports to the US, coffee may become affordable again in London.

Very happy that the review article by @magnushaughey.bsky.social and Imran Noorani on the evolutionary role of extra-chromosomal DNA in cancers just came out.

authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

Kennedy Withdraws U.S. Funding Pledge to International Vaccine Agency

Mass murderer.

(gift link)

NIH staff break ranks in open letter to Director Jay Bhattacharya Bethesda Declaration urges reversal of recent policies, including funding cuts

Article by @cenmag.bsky.social on the #BethesdaDeclaration by NIH scientists and staff released earlier this morning:

cen.acs.org/policy/resea...

Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good?
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could?
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul

Ich bin der Geist der stets verneint und das mit Recht,
denn alles was entsteht ist wert,
dass es zugrunde geht.
Drum besser wärs, dass nichts entstünde.

Reviewer 3 clearly is Mephistopheles.

Maybe California should consider cancelling funding the United States?

The sociology of science is rather strange and vastly different between disciplines.

Its also disastrous for the world, for science is a common good. We are all intertwined in our struggles for progress.

YouTube video by The Random Archivist Carl Sagan: Governments Will Use Ignorance of Science and Technology to Control the People

Its a long time in the making and somewhat predictable 25 years ago.

I am sure you have seen this remarkable remark by Carl Sagan

m.youtube.com/watch?v=f9A_...

Hi approach to relationships and parenting was a hint :)

At this stage, I think it’s all projection, always.

On the patterns of genetic intra-tumour heterogeneity before and after treatment Abstract. Genetic intra-tumour heterogeneity (gITH) is a universal property of all cancers. It emerges from the interplay of cell division, mutation accumu

Very happy that @alexsteinresearch.bsky.social manuscript on the patterns of genetic heterogeneity before and after treatment is out now:

academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

We build on and expand the population genetics theory of gITH.

Very worth a read if you are interested in somatic evolution.

Oh no, replication crisis!

The land of the free

This postdoc position will be a fantastic mix of computational and mathematical approach towards developing a fitness landscape of the Fabry disease. Hosted by @iimog.sigmoid.social.ap.brid.gy we will be collaborating intensively on this topic.