Daniel Hoffmann 🌻
@danielhoffmann1.bsky.social
Using quantitative computational modeling as scientific instrument. Prof at Uni Duisburg-Essen. Science & art addict. Posts my own.
#computationalmodeling #bayes #bioinformatics #immunesystem #cancer #infections #education #HTseq #art #poeticnaturalism
#computationalmodeling #bayes #bioinformatics #immunesystem #cancer #infections #education #HTseq #art #poeticnaturalism
Central station fauna just observed: a mouse has dragged a French fry longer than its own body to a safe place, and is now nibbling it away. In contrast to mice in the wild these animals are unimpressed by passersby.
November 10, 2025 at 8:24 PM
Central station fauna just observed: a mouse has dragged a French fry longer than its own body to a safe place, and is now nibbling it away. In contrast to mice in the wild these animals are unimpressed by passersby.
The frog is being boiled *now*! People may be under the impression that climate change is a future threat as many measures are associated with a date in the 2030s. But e.g. in 2012-2021 we had >500000 yearly heat-related deaths, up 63% compared to 1990s. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
The 2025 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change
Driven by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, climate change is increasingly claiming
lives and harming people's health worldwide. Mean annual temperatures exceeded 1·5°C
above those of pre-industr...
www.thelancet.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:32 AM
The frog is being boiled *now*! People may be under the impression that climate change is a future threat as many measures are associated with a date in the 2030s. But e.g. in 2012-2021 we had >500000 yearly heat-related deaths, up 63% compared to 1990s. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
The failure gap: people grossly underestimate the rate at which many things go wrong, possibly because of underreporting. The societal implications of this systematic underestimation are probably significant. psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
November 8, 2025 at 7:52 AM
The failure gap: people grossly underestimate the rate at which many things go wrong, possibly because of underreporting. The societal implications of this systematic underestimation are probably significant. psycnet.apa.org/record/2026-...
Climate change is turning Amazon lakes into hot puddles and cooking fish and river dolphins in them. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Amazon lakes hit ‘unbearable’ hot-tub temperatures amid mass die-offs of pink river dolphins – study | Amazon rainforest | The Guardian
Droughts and heatwaves causing water in some areas to reach 41C, killing fish and endangered dolphins, say researchers
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Climate change is turning Amazon lakes into hot puddles and cooking fish and river dolphins in them. www.theguardian.com/environment/...
Repair of DNA double strand breaks leaves heritable scars in chromatin, affecting long term cell function. www.science.org/doi/full/10....
www.science.org
November 7, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Repair of DNA double strand breaks leaves heritable scars in chromatin, affecting long term cell function. www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Breakthrough for the tinfoil hat is in the offing: AI based translation of brain activity into text makes progress. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
‘Mind-captioning’ AI decodes brain activity to turn thoughts into text
A non-invasive imaging technique can translate scenes in your head into sentences. It could help to reveal how the brain interprets the world.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Breakthrough for the tinfoil hat is in the offing: AI based translation of brain activity into text makes progress. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The cartoonish model of the immune system as composed of an adaptive & an innate branch is way too simple: innate immunity can also be trained. Review. elifesciences.org/articles/106...
Focus Issue: Evolving our understanding of trained immunity | eLife
The articles in this focus issue discuss progress towards a more complete understanding of memory in the innate immune system, and efforts to exploit "trained immunity" for the development of new vaccines and therapeutics.
elifesciences.org
November 6, 2025 at 7:57 AM
The cartoonish model of the immune system as composed of an adaptive & an innate branch is way too simple: innate immunity can also be trained. Review. elifesciences.org/articles/106...
New antibodies help tackle viral infections. A particularly helpful strategy seems to be to engineer antibodies so that they enrich at cells and receptors that are critical for the treatment. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Antibody drugs show promise for treating bird flu and HIV
Scientists are developing antibodies to track the evolution of these viruses and better treat infections.
www.nature.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:43 AM
New antibodies help tackle viral infections. A particularly helpful strategy seems to be to engineer antibodies so that they enrich at cells and receptors that are critical for the treatment. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Vaccinate children against COVID-19? A large retrospective study compares risks for vascular and inflammatory diseases in children & adolescents, vaccination vs. infection. Result: net benefit of vaccination. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
November 5, 2025 at 7:20 AM
Vaccinate children against COVID-19? A large retrospective study compares risks for vascular and inflammatory diseases in children & adolescents, vaccination vs. infection. Result: net benefit of vaccination. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
People with high risk of developing Alzheimer's benefit from walking a few thousand steps daily. Seems to slow down aggregation of tau protein in brain. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Alzheimer’s decline slows with just a few thousand steps a day
A modest increase in physical activity can delay cognitive decline by three years — or more.
www.nature.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:13 AM
People with high risk of developing Alzheimer's benefit from walking a few thousand steps daily. Seems to slow down aggregation of tau protein in brain. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Discovery of new potent antibiotic as intermediate metabolite of soil bacteria. Byproduct of "fundamental" research. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Powerful new antibiotic that can kill superbugs discovered in soil bacteria
Surprise discovery could pave the way for new treatments against drug-resistant infections.
www.nature.com
November 2, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Discovery of new potent antibiotic as intermediate metabolite of soil bacteria. Byproduct of "fundamental" research. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Take longer walks! For heart health it does not only matter how much you move but also whether in several shorter bouts or fewer longer ones. The latter is better for people who are doing less than 8000 steps daily. www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
November 2, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Take longer walks! For heart health it does not only matter how much you move but also whether in several shorter bouts or fewer longer ones. The latter is better for people who are doing less than 8000 steps daily. www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/...
How does a single cuckoo species evolve eggs that mimic those of many different hosts? Extensive genomics & geographic sampling shows: one simple mechanism is not sufficient. As often in biology: superficially simple phenomena (co-evolution) orchestrate complexity.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
November 1, 2025 at 9:37 AM
How does a single cuckoo species evolve eggs that mimic those of many different hosts? Extensive genomics & geographic sampling shows: one simple mechanism is not sufficient. As often in biology: superficially simple phenomena (co-evolution) orchestrate complexity.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
If you're doing droplet-based single cell RNA sequencing: there could be many more multiplets than you see with standard tools in your data, and multiplet removal likely doesn't work satisfactorily.
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
October 31, 2025 at 10:34 AM
If you're doing droplet-based single cell RNA sequencing: there could be many more multiplets than you see with standard tools in your data, and multiplet removal likely doesn't work satisfactorily.
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org/10.1371/jour...
For those who think humans are unique in that they rationally revise their beliefs in the face of new evidence: you now have to rationally revise this belief because there is evidence that chimps do that as well. Please check also dolphins, crows & elephants. www.science.org/doi/full/10....
October 31, 2025 at 7:18 AM
For those who think humans are unique in that they rationally revise their beliefs in the face of new evidence: you now have to rationally revise this belief because there is evidence that chimps do that as well. Please check also dolphins, crows & elephants. www.science.org/doi/full/10....
Basic science is always useful as we gain knowledge. Sometimes this knowledge turns out to be a gold mine that benefits everyone, as retold by this feature.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
October 30, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Basic science is always useful as we gain knowledge. Sometimes this knowledge turns out to be a gold mine that benefits everyone, as retold by this feature.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Outbreak of increasingly drug-resistant P. aeruginosa over 3 decades in a hospital: genomics traces outbreak history & identifies pathogen reservoir. John Snow would have been delighted. elifesciences.org/articles/93181
Detecting, mapping, and suppressing the spread of a decade-long Pseudomonas aeruginosa nosocomial outbreak with genomics | eLife
Routine genomic surveillance uncovered a decades-long multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa outbreak sustained by patient reservoirs and hospital plumbing, enabling targeted infection control measures that ultimately curtailed transmission.
elifesciences.org
October 30, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Outbreak of increasingly drug-resistant P. aeruginosa over 3 decades in a hospital: genomics traces outbreak history & identifies pathogen reservoir. John Snow would have been delighted. elifesciences.org/articles/93181
How to reach more than 200 years of age cancer-free: the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) achieves this with an exquisitely effective DNA repair. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Evidence for improved DNA repair in long-lived bowhead whale | Nature
Analysis of the longest-lived mammal, the bowhead whale, reveals an improved ability to repair DNA breaks, mediated by high levels of cold-inducible RNA-binding protein.
www.nature.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:55 AM
How to reach more than 200 years of age cancer-free: the bowhead whale (Balaena mysticetus) achieves this with an exquisitely effective DNA repair. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Immune cells not only eliminate pathogens but also can tune tissue structure. Useful review on this "structural immunity" function. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Structural immunity: immune cells as architects of tissue barriers | Nature Reviews Immunology
This Perspective presents a framework of ‘structural immunity’ that positions immune cells as architects of tissue structure. Beyond their roles in antimicrobial defence, we posit that immune cells contribute to tissue homeostasis by guiding structural composition and, in some cases, directly building barrier components.
www.nature.com
October 29, 2025 at 7:14 AM
Immune cells not only eliminate pathogens but also can tune tissue structure. Useful review on this "structural immunity" function. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
AI appears to lonely souls more humane than the usual industrial human interaction. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
‘DeepSeek is humane. Doctors are more like machines’: my mother’s worrying reliance on AI for health advice | Health | The Guardian
The Long read: Tired of a two-day commute to see her overworked doctor, my mother turned to tech for help with her kidney disease. She bonded with the bot so much I was scared she would refuse to see a real medic
www.theguardian.com
October 28, 2025 at 6:35 AM
AI appears to lonely souls more humane than the usual industrial human interaction. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Women gain more cardiovascular benefit than men from same amount of exercise. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Men need twice as much exercise as women to lower heart disease risk, study finds | Health | The Guardian
Researchers suggest ‘sex-specific strategies’ after analysis of cardiovascular health improvements
www.theguardian.com
October 27, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Women gain more cardiovascular benefit than men from same amount of exercise. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...
Populist leaders make their peoples poorer. Empirical evidence. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
Populist Leaders and the Economy - American Economic Association
Populist Leaders and the Economy by Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularick and Christoph Trebesch. Published in volume 113, issue 12, pages 3249-88 of American Economic Review, December 2023, Abstract: Populism at the country level is at an all-time high, with more than 25 percent of nations currently gove...
www.aeaweb.org
October 26, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Populist leaders make their peoples poorer. Empirical evidence. www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=...
Reposted by Daniel Hoffmann 🌻
#Cholera is spreading fast.
As for so many infectious diseases, we do have the tools to intervene… but poverty, neglect, disasters, and lack of real political buy-in perpetuate an epidemic ecosystem.
@who.int
@drtedros.who.int
#MedSky #IDSky #EpiSky 🧪
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
As for so many infectious diseases, we do have the tools to intervene… but poverty, neglect, disasters, and lack of real political buy-in perpetuate an epidemic ecosystem.
@who.int
@drtedros.who.int
#MedSky #IDSky #EpiSky 🧪
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
Cholera is spreading fast, yet it can be stopped. Why haven’t we consigned it to history? | Hakainde Hichilema and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Vaccine production must be expanded to combat this ancient disease, especially in Africa, but a lack of political will is holding us back
www.theguardian.com
October 25, 2025 at 9:41 PM
#Cholera is spreading fast.
As for so many infectious diseases, we do have the tools to intervene… but poverty, neglect, disasters, and lack of real political buy-in perpetuate an epidemic ecosystem.
@who.int
@drtedros.who.int
#MedSky #IDSky #EpiSky 🧪
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
As for so many infectious diseases, we do have the tools to intervene… but poverty, neglect, disasters, and lack of real political buy-in perpetuate an epidemic ecosystem.
@who.int
@drtedros.who.int
#MedSky #IDSky #EpiSky 🧪
www.theguardian.com/global-devel...
At first glance a real world trolley problem: mass drug administration with antibiotic azithromycin protects children but comes with risk of spreading antibiotic resistance. Dilemma could be resolved by improving living conditions. www.science.org/content/arti...
October 25, 2025 at 7:36 PM
At first glance a real world trolley problem: mass drug administration with antibiotic azithromycin protects children but comes with risk of spreading antibiotic resistance. Dilemma could be resolved by improving living conditions. www.science.org/content/arti...
The humble bumblebee has empathy (or a precursor thereof). So what's humble is not so much these animals than our imagination. www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...
October 25, 2025 at 9:19 AM
The humble bumblebee has empathy (or a precursor thereof). So what's humble is not so much these animals than our imagination. www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...