Derek Lowe
@dereklowe.bsky.social
Medicinal chemist / chemical biologist, author of “In the Pipeline” at http://science.org/blogs/pipeline. derekb.lowe@gmail.com and on Signal at Dblowe.18
All opinions are mine; I don’t speak for my employer in any way.
All opinions are mine; I don’t speak for my employer in any way.
Red squirrel hitting the sunflower seeds - we only see those guys in the winter, as opposed to the huge grey squirrel population out there.
December 24, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Red squirrel hitting the sunflower seeds - we only see those guys in the winter, as opposed to the huge grey squirrel population out there.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Personal news time: my time at the FDA is coming to an end. Chemistry reviewers are shielded from a lot, but as my boss put it, this year was awful. (She's retiring after 30 years at FDA, so she's seen a lot.) And it's pretty clear that things are going to get much worse before they get better.
December 22, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Personal news time: my time at the FDA is coming to an end. Chemistry reviewers are shielded from a lot, but as my boss put it, this year was awful. (She's retiring after 30 years at FDA, so she's seen a lot.) And it's pretty clear that things are going to get much worse before they get better.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Americans & Europeans needlessly exposing African babies to preventable diseases just to see if they can find something that would justify their preexisting antivaccine beliefs is not only unscientific and actually anti-science, it is very much reminiscent of colonialist, racist human rights abuses
“It is not clear what the research question is. It seems to be about the safety of the vaccine rather than its effectiveness, but both are already well-established, and to undertake such a study in a population where almost 1/5 of the adult population has a marker of infection seems extremely risky”
US plan for $1.6m hepatitis B vaccine study in Africa called ‘highly unethical’
Experts decry ‘neocolonialist’ Guinea-Bissau study after Trump administration changed advice for US babies
www.theguardian.com
December 21, 2025 at 10:07 AM
Americans & Europeans needlessly exposing African babies to preventable diseases just to see if they can find something that would justify their preexisting antivaccine beliefs is not only unscientific and actually anti-science, it is very much reminiscent of colonialist, racist human rights abuses
Credit to Rick Steves for putting up $2 million to do this and the other volunteers who raised money for renovations and operating costs.
These donors are real Americans and I'm proud to share a country with them.
These donors are real Americans and I'm proud to share a country with them.
It’s the “season of love and giving”…but this year, doesn’t it seem more like a “season of fear and taking”? Like many of you, I’ve been saddened by the human impact of draconian government budget cuts and how angry many housed Americans are at unhoused Americans.
🧵 1 of 9
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December 21, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Credit to Rick Steves for putting up $2 million to do this and the other volunteers who raised money for renovations and operating costs.
These donors are real Americans and I'm proud to share a country with them.
These donors are real Americans and I'm proud to share a country with them.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Reposted by Derek Lowe
As a former process chemist, yes. You get such 3am calls such as “There’s yellow foam overflowing out of the vessel, what do we do?” Or “We accidentally charged the vermiculite packing into the vessel along with the hydride reagent, it’ll be okay right?”
December 20, 2025 at 11:11 PM
As a former process chemist, yes. You get such 3am calls such as “There’s yellow foam overflowing out of the vessel, what do we do?” Or “We accidentally charged the vermiculite packing into the vessel along with the hydride reagent, it’ll be okay right?”
That “The #1 movie when you were ten years old is how your 2026 is going to go” thing is not delivering me encouraging news:
December 19, 2025 at 6:20 PM
That “The #1 movie when you were ten years old is how your 2026 is going to go” thing is not delivering me encouraging news:
Reposted by Derek Lowe
An interesting PubPeer discussion.
Senior author and Professor at @uqam.ca claims these bands and cells are not similar at all!
#ThisImageIsFine
#ImageForensics
Thanks @kaveh1000.bsky.social for providing the animations.
pubpeer.com/publications...
Senior author and Professor at @uqam.ca claims these bands and cells are not similar at all!
#ThisImageIsFine
#ImageForensics
Thanks @kaveh1000.bsky.social for providing the animations.
pubpeer.com/publications...
December 19, 2025 at 5:56 PM
An interesting PubPeer discussion.
Senior author and Professor at @uqam.ca claims these bands and cells are not similar at all!
#ThisImageIsFine
#ImageForensics
Thanks @kaveh1000.bsky.social for providing the animations.
pubpeer.com/publications...
Senior author and Professor at @uqam.ca claims these bands and cells are not similar at all!
#ThisImageIsFine
#ImageForensics
Thanks @kaveh1000.bsky.social for providing the animations.
pubpeer.com/publications...
Reposted by Derek Lowe
This is not the first time RFK Jr or his fellow anti-vax travelers conducted a study they knew would harm or kill children in low-income countries. It is a dehumanizing, colonialist model of manufacturing evidence: sacrificing foreign kids for political pseudoscience.
www.notus.org/health-scien...
www.notus.org/health-scien...
CDC to Fund Controversial Study in West Africa on Infant Hepatitis B Vaccines
The study prompted swift outcry from scientists in the U.S. who say it’s “unethical.”
www.notus.org
December 19, 2025 at 5:46 PM
This is not the first time RFK Jr or his fellow anti-vax travelers conducted a study they knew would harm or kill children in low-income countries. It is a dehumanizing, colonialist model of manufacturing evidence: sacrificing foreign kids for political pseudoscience.
www.notus.org/health-scien...
www.notus.org/health-scien...
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Survivorship Bias Sugar Cookies for the Human Genetics Department Holiday Baking Extravaganza
December 18, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Survivorship Bias Sugar Cookies for the Human Genetics Department Holiday Baking Extravaganza
Ah, ritual public humiliation, a tradition of authoritarians throughout history. Next Trump should see if he can get Lutnik to do his TV appearances wearing a red clown nose and wig. Why not? Would it be any worse?
FOX: If you cut something by 100%, the cost goes down to 0. If you cut it by 600%, the drug companies are actually paying you
LUTNICK: What he's saying is if a drug was $100 and you bring it down to $13, it's down 7 times
F: Not a 600% cut
L: But it's 700% higher price before. It's down 700% now
LUTNICK: What he's saying is if a drug was $100 and you bring it down to $13, it's down 7 times
F: Not a 600% cut
L: But it's 700% higher price before. It's down 700% now
December 18, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Ah, ritual public humiliation, a tradition of authoritarians throughout history. Next Trump should see if he can get Lutnik to do his TV appearances wearing a red clown nose and wig. Why not? Would it be any worse?
Reposted by Derek Lowe
THREAD: The FDA has made it difficult to find where medications are made. Today we're changing that with our latest tool.
With Rx Inspector, it’s possible to see your drug’s manufacturing facility and what the FDA found during its inspections.
Here's how you can use it. 1/
With Rx Inspector, it’s possible to see your drug’s manufacturing facility and what the FDA found during its inspections.
Here's how you can use it. 1/
December 18, 2025 at 4:56 PM
THREAD: The FDA has made it difficult to find where medications are made. Today we're changing that with our latest tool.
With Rx Inspector, it’s possible to see your drug’s manufacturing facility and what the FDA found during its inspections.
Here's how you can use it. 1/
With Rx Inspector, it’s possible to see your drug’s manufacturing facility and what the FDA found during its inspections.
Here's how you can use it. 1/
If you want mirror-image analogs of natural biomolecules as drug candidates, it’s probably easier to screen normal ones against a mirror-image target. Then flip the hits around!
Mirror-Imaging Your Way Through
www.science.org
December 18, 2025 at 6:01 PM
If you want mirror-image analogs of natural biomolecules as drug candidates, it’s probably easier to screen normal ones against a mirror-image target. Then flip the hits around!
Reposted by Derek Lowe
I worked for a big academic publisher and right before I quit they stopped copyediting/proofreading to cut costs. The editors are acquisitions editors; they are not checking citations, and there's no one down-chain to do it in most cases. That's how you get slop citations.
Academics and technologists are sounding the alarm about a growing crisis in scholarship as we know it: AI-generated citations of nonexistent papers that have infested real journals. Despite being fake, the sources are widely assumed to be authentic the more they appear in published literature.
AI Is Inventing Academic Papers That Don't Exist -- And They're Being Cited in Real Journals
Academic articles from authors using large language model are creating an ecosystem of fake research that threatens human knowledge itself.
www.rollingstone.com
December 17, 2025 at 10:06 PM
I worked for a big academic publisher and right before I quit they stopped copyediting/proofreading to cut costs. The editors are acquisitions editors; they are not checking citations, and there's no one down-chain to do it in most cases. That's how you get slop citations.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
How does excessive fearmongering about something that has contributed to tens of thousands of annual American deaths make things worse? First of all, they are falsehoods & lies. But I’ve seen the effects when even medical professionals/first responders are too scared to save a life in front of them.
December 17, 2025 at 11:16 AM
How does excessive fearmongering about something that has contributed to tens of thousands of annual American deaths make things worse? First of all, they are falsehoods & lies. But I’ve seen the effects when even medical professionals/first responders are too scared to save a life in front of them.
Never forget: Elon Musk has blood on his hands.
December 17, 2025 at 3:47 PM
Never forget: Elon Musk has blood on his hands.
The Sandmeyer reaction is an organic chemistry classic, but it’s always had this regrettable tendency to explode. Here’s a newer and less white-knuckled alternative:
A Sandmeyer Replacement
www.science.org
December 17, 2025 at 2:42 PM
The Sandmeyer reaction is an organic chemistry classic, but it’s always had this regrettable tendency to explode. Here’s a newer and less white-knuckled alternative:
Reposted by Derek Lowe
My favorite 2025 #PfizerChemistry publications #12daysOfPapers 4/n:
From our Process chem colleagues comes this wonderful #OPRD paper on Cu-catalyzed ammonia/small amine couplings - tons of het scope, easy set up (even worked for me!)
#ChemSky #ChemChat
From our Process chem colleagues comes this wonderful #OPRD paper on Cu-catalyzed ammonia/small amine couplings - tons of het scope, easy set up (even worked for me!)
#ChemSky #ChemChat
Cu-Catalyzed Coupling of Aryl Halides Utilizing Ammonia and Hydroxypicolinamide Ligands
The hydroxypicolinamide family of ligands has previously demonstrated utility in Cu-catalyzed C–N couplings and hydroxylation of heteroaryl halides. The application of these ligands has been extended ...
pubs.acs.org
December 16, 2025 at 5:05 PM
My favorite 2025 #PfizerChemistry publications #12daysOfPapers 4/n:
From our Process chem colleagues comes this wonderful #OPRD paper on Cu-catalyzed ammonia/small amine couplings - tons of het scope, easy set up (even worked for me!)
#ChemSky #ChemChat
From our Process chem colleagues comes this wonderful #OPRD paper on Cu-catalyzed ammonia/small amine couplings - tons of het scope, easy set up (even worked for me!)
#ChemSky #ChemChat
Reposted by Derek Lowe
We gave Jay Bhattacharya an opportunity to clarify his vaccine stance: does he REALLY believe that the vaccine is worse than the disease? Instead, he launched into a defense of MAHA as the future of scientific inquiry, and never really gave us a straight answer...
@repauchincloss.bsky.social
@repauchincloss.bsky.social
December 16, 2025 at 2:55 PM
We gave Jay Bhattacharya an opportunity to clarify his vaccine stance: does he REALLY believe that the vaccine is worse than the disease? Instead, he launched into a defense of MAHA as the future of scientific inquiry, and never really gave us a straight answer...
@repauchincloss.bsky.social
@repauchincloss.bsky.social
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Some Dems have told themselves only ~1% of the population is trans so they can dip their toe in the anti-trans filth and come out clean.
I don't have any trans family members—but it still makes me irate. I see it as a huge red flag, a sign you are unprincipled and untrustworthy. And I'm not alone.
I don't have any trans family members—but it still makes me irate. I see it as a huge red flag, a sign you are unprincipled and untrustworthy. And I'm not alone.
We are parents of a trans kid and our family takes this very, very personally. If you intentionally make life harder for our beloved daughter, it’s EXTREMELY hard to think of you as an ally, to say the least. @amyklobuchar.com - you still send us requests for money, while hurting our kid. Disgusted.
Here are the 28 Dem Senators who voted to advance the first federal ban on trans athletes & a federal definition of sex that would make trans & intersex people non-existent: Angela Alsobrooks (MD), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Richard Blumenthal (CT), Lisa Blunt Rochester (DE), Chris Coons (DE), ->
December 16, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Some Dems have told themselves only ~1% of the population is trans so they can dip their toe in the anti-trans filth and come out clean.
I don't have any trans family members—but it still makes me irate. I see it as a huge red flag, a sign you are unprincipled and untrustworthy. And I'm not alone.
I don't have any trans family members—but it still makes me irate. I see it as a huge red flag, a sign you are unprincipled and untrustworthy. And I'm not alone.
These Elon-ish “Data Centers in Spaaaace” ideas are hand-waving nonsense, as people who actually understand satellite hardware will be the first to tell you.
December 16, 2025 at 3:23 PM
These Elon-ish “Data Centers in Spaaaace” ideas are hand-waving nonsense, as people who actually understand satellite hardware will be the first to tell you.
Reposted by Derek Lowe
This is extremely important
December 16, 2025 at 12:48 PM
This is extremely important
Reposted by Derek Lowe
Marketing people of the world, please stop giving things one or two letter abbreviations and stacking them in boxes and calling it a 'periodic table of the (whatever)'
December 16, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Marketing people of the world, please stop giving things one or two letter abbreviations and stacking them in boxes and calling it a 'periodic table of the (whatever)'
Reposted by Derek Lowe
I'd like to speak to an expert who could help explain the implications of classifying fentanyl as a WMD. Drop your recommendations or reach out.
December 15, 2025 at 10:13 PM
I'd like to speak to an expert who could help explain the implications of classifying fentanyl as a WMD. Drop your recommendations or reach out.
Likewise. Video is useful to show how to reach in to replace a headlight bulb. But to transfer written information it’s an excruciating slow trickle. Just let me read it!
Yup. But I also HATE short form video with a passion. I hate that so many tutorials and reviews and stuff are now videos. Hate hate hate. Largely because video is such a slooooowwww medium. I can read so much faster than I can listen or watch.
December 15, 2025 at 10:19 PM
Likewise. Video is useful to show how to reach in to replace a headlight bulb. But to transfer written information it’s an excruciating slow trickle. Just let me read it!