Francisco De La Vega
@ribozyme.bsky.social
Geneticist & Computational Biologist. Adjunct Professor at Stanford DBDS. All opinions are my own.
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
I regularly post updates on this story because it's an atrocity on an incomprehensible scale but people don't really talk about it
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
USAID cuts may cause over 14 million additional deaths by 2030, study says
Deep funding cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development and its potential dismantling could result in more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030, according to research published in The ...
www.reuters.com
February 13, 2026 at 3:01 PM
I regularly post updates on this story because it's an atrocity on an incomprehensible scale but people don't really talk about it
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Democracy is when voters choose their leaders. Autocracy is when leaders choose their voters.
Kristi Noem: "When it gets to Election Day, we've been proactive to make sure we have the right people voting, electing the right leaders to lead this country."
February 14, 2026 at 3:33 PM
Democracy is when voters choose their leaders. Autocracy is when leaders choose their voters.
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
So now the US is spending the enormous sum of $38 billion to build concentration camps? ICE is calling them "detention centers" but we know what they really are. I cannot believe my country would do this. Everyone should speak out against it wapo.st/3OfarSk
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion turning warehouses into detention centers
ICE plans to spend $38.3 billion converting warehouses into detention centers, according to planning documents, more than the annual budgets of 22 states.
wapo.st
February 14, 2026 at 4:07 PM
So now the US is spending the enormous sum of $38 billion to build concentration camps? ICE is calling them "detention centers" but we know what they really are. I cannot believe my country would do this. Everyone should speak out against it wapo.st/3OfarSk
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
WSJ editorial board hits FDA: It’s hard to recall a regulator who has done as much damage to medical innovation in as little time as Vinay Prasad who rejected Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine without even a cursory review.
www.wsj.com/opinion/vina...
www.wsj.com/opinion/vina...
Opinion | Vinay Prasad’s Vaccine Kill Shot
Does the White House know the harm he’s doing to public health?
www.wsj.com
February 12, 2026 at 4:49 AM
WSJ editorial board hits FDA: It’s hard to recall a regulator who has done as much damage to medical innovation in as little time as Vinay Prasad who rejected Moderna’s mRNA flu vaccine without even a cursory review.
www.wsj.com/opinion/vina...
www.wsj.com/opinion/vina...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Happy #DarwinDay! 🎉We celebrate Darwin’s insight into evolution by natural selection—a reminder that science education helps us question, explore, & understand the world around us. Honor Darwin’s curiosity & learn fast genetics facts at Discover Genetics: bit.ly/4rqaDwN
February 12, 2026 at 10:03 PM
Happy #DarwinDay! 🎉We celebrate Darwin’s insight into evolution by natural selection—a reminder that science education helps us question, explore, & understand the world around us. Honor Darwin’s curiosity & learn fast genetics facts at Discover Genetics: bit.ly/4rqaDwN
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
"We should be skeptical of any people who sell themselves as singularly capable of giving health advice on the internet and should always follow the money and connections where they lead."
gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/o...
gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/o...
Opinion | Peter Attia, the Epstein Files and the Lie Propping Up Big Wellness
www.nytimes.com
February 7, 2026 at 4:09 PM
"We should be skeptical of any people who sell themselves as singularly capable of giving health advice on the internet and should always follow the money and connections where they lead."
gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/o...
gift link
www.nytimes.com/2026/02/07/o...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Attendance plummets at some science meetings. Travel bans. Gov Shutdowns. Funding. www.science.org/content/arti...
February 7, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Attendance plummets at some science meetings. Travel bans. Gov Shutdowns. Funding. www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
RFK Jr said during his Senate confirmation hearings that his trip to Samoa in 2019 ahead of a devastating measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines." Documents obtained by @us.theguardian.com and @apnews.com undermine that testimony. Details here, by me and @aliswenson.bsky.social ⬇️
Newly revealed emails undermine RFK Jr testimony about 2019 Samoa trip ahead of measles outbreak
Kennedy later said the purpose of his trip had nothing to do with vaccines. US embassy and UN staff at the time said otherwise, emails show
www.theguardian.com
February 6, 2026 at 1:49 PM
RFK Jr said during his Senate confirmation hearings that his trip to Samoa in 2019 ahead of a devastating measles outbreak had “nothing to do with vaccines." Documents obtained by @us.theguardian.com and @apnews.com undermine that testimony. Details here, by me and @aliswenson.bsky.social ⬇️
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Excited to share my first preprint on federated conditional analysis of rare single variant and aggregate association tests across six genetically-inferred ancestry groups in All of Us and UK Biobank doi.org/10.64898/202...
February 6, 2026 at 9:33 AM
Excited to share my first preprint on federated conditional analysis of rare single variant and aggregate association tests across six genetically-inferred ancestry groups in All of Us and UK Biobank doi.org/10.64898/202...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology
She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.
www.nature.com
February 6, 2026 at 9:09 AM
No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Surprised (but also not that surprised) that the AlphaGenome paper didn't officially cite any of the primary data used for training their model (see Fig. 1, thousands of datasets made with tremendous time and effort over >15yrs). What's up with that @nature.com ?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Advancing regulatory variant effect prediction with AlphaGenome - Nature
AlphaGenome, a deep learning model that inputs 1-Mb DNA sequence to predict functional genomic tracks at single-base resolution across diverse modalities, outperforms existing models in variant effect...
www.nature.com
January 30, 2026 at 2:20 AM
Surprised (but also not that surprised) that the AlphaGenome paper didn't officially cite any of the primary data used for training their model (see Fig. 1, thousands of datasets made with tremendous time and effort over >15yrs). What's up with that @nature.com ?
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
I wrote today about AlphaGenome, Google DeepMind's AI for DNA. It's powerful, experts told me, but it won't solve the mysteries of the genome overnight. Gift link: nyti.ms/4k5NFIl
nyti.ms
January 28, 2026 at 4:44 PM
I wrote today about AlphaGenome, Google DeepMind's AI for DNA. It's powerful, experts told me, but it won't solve the mysteries of the genome overnight. Gift link: nyti.ms/4k5NFIl
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
more details and sharp analysis from @willoremus.com and @aaronschaffer.com here is a gift link wapo.st/4rjXAMQ
Inside a tech company’s secretive plan to destroy millions of books
Court filings reveal how AI companies raced to obtain more books to feed chatbots, including by buying, scanning and disposing of millions of titles.
www.washingtonpost.com
January 27, 2026 at 6:48 PM
more details and sharp analysis from @willoremus.com and @aaronschaffer.com here is a gift link wapo.st/4rjXAMQ
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
some of my favorite snippets from newly released court docs in the Anthropic copyright book case. eye-opening stuff on Project Panama, their plan to "destructively scan all the books in the world" in order to train AI
January 27, 2026 at 6:44 PM
some of my favorite snippets from newly released court docs in the Anthropic copyright book case. eye-opening stuff on Project Panama, their plan to "destructively scan all the books in the world" in order to train AI
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Not only was DOGE illegally accessing your Social Security information, but it was also illegally offering to share it with third-party political groups working to overturn elections.
This is a deep betrayal of the public trust and must be fully investigated. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
This is a deep betrayal of the public trust and must be fully investigated. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
DOGE Employees Shared Social Security Data, Court Filing Shows
www.nytimes.com
January 22, 2026 at 3:11 PM
Not only was DOGE illegally accessing your Social Security information, but it was also illegally offering to share it with third-party political groups working to overturn elections.
This is a deep betrayal of the public trust and must be fully investigated. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
This is a deep betrayal of the public trust and must be fully investigated. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/u...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Come for this horribly depressing graph about the state of America’s health and science agencies and stay for the heatmap from grant termination hell. Essential reading from @maxkozlov.bsky.social and colleagues
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
January 22, 2026 at 6:26 AM
Come for this horribly depressing graph about the state of America’s health and science agencies and stay for the heatmap from grant termination hell. Essential reading from @maxkozlov.bsky.social and colleagues
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
"The middle powers must act together because if we‘re not at the table, we‘re on the menu".
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvF...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvF...
FULL SPEECH: Canada’s PM Carney Says US-Led World Order Is Breaking at World Economic Forum | AC1G
YouTube video by DRM News
www.youtube.com
January 21, 2026 at 8:05 PM
"The middle powers must act together because if we‘re not at the table, we‘re on the menu".
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvF...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTvF...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
“Foreign exporters absorbed only 4% of last year’s U.S. tariff increases by lowering prices, while American consumers and importers absorbed 96%.
“Rather than acting as a tax on foreign producers, the tariffs functioned as a consumption tax on Americans.”
www.wsj.com/economy/trad...
“Rather than acting as a tax on foreign producers, the tariffs functioned as a consumption tax on Americans.”
www.wsj.com/economy/trad...
Americans Are the Ones Paying for Tariffs, Study Finds
New research contradicts President Trump’s claim that foreigners are footing the bill.
www.wsj.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:29 PM
“Foreign exporters absorbed only 4% of last year’s U.S. tariff increases by lowering prices, while American consumers and importers absorbed 96%.
“Rather than acting as a tax on foreign producers, the tariffs functioned as a consumption tax on Americans.”
www.wsj.com/economy/trad...
“Rather than acting as a tax on foreign producers, the tariffs functioned as a consumption tax on Americans.”
www.wsj.com/economy/trad...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
🚨 #ISMB2026 Proceedings submissions are due tomorrow, January 20 by 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (no exceptions).
📥 Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/proceedings
📥 Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/proceedings
January 19, 2026 at 10:46 AM
🚨 #ISMB2026 Proceedings submissions are due tomorrow, January 20 by 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (no exceptions).
📥 Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/proceedings
📥 Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/proceedings
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
An interesting bit of history:
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
January 19, 2026 at 7:06 AM
An interesting bit of history:
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the US. You may know of them as the US Virgin Islands. As part of this sale, the US recognized Danish authority over Greenland.
The text of the complete, ratified agreement is here: www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/...
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Paper accepted! 😊 "Reframing the Free Will Debate: The Universe is Not Deterministic" will appear in Synthese. Final version available here: arxiv.org/abs/2503.19672 - with Henry Potter and George Ellis
January 15, 2026 at 7:52 AM
Paper accepted! 😊 "Reframing the Free Will Debate: The Universe is Not Deterministic" will appear in Synthese. Final version available here: arxiv.org/abs/2503.19672 - with Henry Potter and George Ellis
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland.
They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”
They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”
January 17, 2026 at 5:36 PM
More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland.
They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”
They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
Deadline for proceeding papers for #ISMB26 approaching fast - send your work on sequence analysis algos and tag then for #HiTSeq @hitseq.bsky.social
📢 The #ISMB2026 Proceedings deadline is ONE WEEK away!
📅 Deadline: January 20, 2026 (no extensions)
Selected papers will be published in Bioinformatics and presented at the conference in DC this July!
📥Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/proceedings
📅 Deadline: January 20, 2026 (no extensions)
Selected papers will be published in Bioinformatics and presented at the conference in DC this July!
📥Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/proceedings
January 16, 2026 at 10:02 PM
Deadline for proceeding papers for #ISMB26 approaching fast - send your work on sequence analysis algos and tag then for #HiTSeq @hitseq.bsky.social
Reposted by Francisco De La Vega
📢 The #ISMB2026 Proceedings deadline is ONE WEEK away!
📅 Deadline: January 20, 2026 (no extensions)
Selected papers will be published in Bioinformatics and presented at the conference in DC this July!
📥Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/proceedings
📅 Deadline: January 20, 2026 (no extensions)
Selected papers will be published in Bioinformatics and presented at the conference in DC this July!
📥Submit here: https://www.iscb.org/ismb2026/call-for-submissions/proceedings
January 16, 2026 at 3:29 PM