David Duneau
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dduneau.bsky.social
David Duneau
@dduneau.bsky.social
150 followers 340 following 38 posts
#newPI studying what explain the differences in susceptibility to infection among individuals (Sex? Pathogen behavior? Environment? Stochasticity?)

Immunity/infection/sex dimorphism/plastic pollution/Drosophila/human

Fellow at University of Lisboa (Ce3c)
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by David Duneau
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by David Duneau
levayerr.bsky.social
I am honnestly a bit worried by the latest fuss about qed (the IA driven review). While the results are indeed quite impressive (it is very good at listing the claim and finding potential improvement), I don't quite see how this will eventually reduce the reviewing burden or help us
November 7, 2025 at 8:33 AM
Reposted by David Duneau
iandunt.bsky.social
Vital piece of investigative reporting from Sky. They've uncovered the X algorithm which feeds users extremist right wing material from the moment they join the site. It is a far-right radicalisation engine, by design.

news.sky.com/story/the-x-...
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
Elon Musk is boosting the British right - and this shows how
news.sky.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:23 AM
Reposted by David Duneau
palomamoritz.bsky.social
Pour @clemovitch.com, la logocratie désigne une “manière de gouverner où le mensonge tient lieu de communication officielle, où le pouvoir n’est plus exercé par le peuple mais ceux qui se sont emparés de la parole”.
Pourquoi nous ne sommes déjà plus en démocratie ➡️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjRi...
November 4, 2025 at 11:13 AM
dduneau.bsky.social
Very excited to share this collaboration with @pbeldade.bsky.social! We explore how the interaction between immune function and developmental processes shapes morphological plasticity in response to temperature.
bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
November 4, 2025 at 4:39 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
christophermichel.com
Mariana Wolfner

Mariana Wolfner has spent her life studying a creature so small it could rest on the tip of her finger. In her hands, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster becomes something extraordinary, a key to understanding how life is shaped, sustained, and passed on. On a windy fall…
Mariana Wolfner
Mariana Wolfner has spent her life studying a creature so small it could rest on the tip of her finger. In her hands, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster becomes something extraordinary, a key to understanding how life is shaped, sustained, and passed on. On a windy fall afternoon at Cornell, she sat surrounded by papers, notes, and journals. The light came through the window in soft bands as she lifted a golden model of a fly and smiled.
explorers.com
November 4, 2025 at 12:45 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
cedricbrun.bsky.social
Quand notre ministre de tutelle nous insulte devant la représentation nationale. "Bande de nuls" "complètement à la ramasse".
Nous reprocher des taux de réussite faible à Horizon Europe et ERC, quand manquent les moyens pour assurer nos missions de service public. Surtout changez rien!👌
October 31, 2025 at 8:55 AM
dduneau.bsky.social
I wonder what the Journal is going to do with that :(
alexr.bsky.social Alex Rubinsteyn @alexr.bsky.social · 14d
I've been asked about this paper (www.nature.com/articles/s41...) enough times that I finally had to read it.

The basic claim is that mRNA vaccines had huge synergistic benefit with checkpoint blockade against lung cancer melanoma.

tl;dr it's glam-slop & everyone involved should be embarrassed
SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade - Nature
mRNA vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 also sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint inhibitors.
www.nature.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
sailorrooscout.bsky.social
Well now, would you look at that?

A massive, 26-YEAR-LONG study of MORE THAN 2.4 MILLION people in Sweden found found NO EVIDENCE to support a causal link between acetaminophen (the API in Tylenol) use during pregnancy and increased risk of autism, ADHD, OR intellectual disability in children.
October 30, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
alexkwan.bsky.social
My department, Cornell BME, is hiring!

This tenure-track faculty position is a great opportunity to join a vibrant community that values research, teaching, and entrepreneurship.

📝 academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/30816
Cornell BME at Weill Hall in Ithaca
October 28, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
fly-jedi.bsky.social
Preparations for the next JEDI meeting are underway! The upcoming Junior European #Drosophila Investigator / #NewPI meeting is planned for Portugal in June. Final dates and additional details will be announced soon - stay tuned for updates!​
AI-generated image of a lightsaber-wielding figure conquering Portugal.
October 28, 2025 at 10:14 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
hansonmark.bsky.social
Bizarre that our 2020 #Drosophila #AMP review already feels out of date.

Thanks to #AnnualReviews to cover the many updates in the field and present a much more complete picture of the diversity, mechanisms, topics, of fly immunity re: host defence peptides.

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Diagrams of fruit fly larvae (left) and adult (right) annotated with genes expressed in different tissues, including male- or female-biased gene expressions. A diagram providing an overview of the regulation of antimicrobial peptide and other host effector peptides by Toll and Imd signalling, alongside diagrams showing the diversity of the peptides. A summary table illustrating sequence features common to antimicrobial peptides, and a summary table of gene families. A diagram giving a model for the mechanisms of antimicrobial peptide and host defence peptide actions in killing microbial cells, including precise mechanisms, broader host-pathogen relationships, and non-microbicidal roles of these peptides in protecting the host.
October 24, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
jlsteenwyk.bsky.social
Not today, parasitic #wasps!✋🚫

#Stinkbugs use a fungus-carrying organ on their hind legs to coat their eggs in #fungi🍄🦵

This provides a physical defense against #parasitic wasp oviposition🛡️

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
October 22, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
droseu.bsky.social
We are in Bluesky and we are happy to share our two last consortium publications: the DrosEU expanded DEST dataset and a Continent-wide study of phenotypic differentiation among European #Drosophila melanogaster populations (1/7)
October 19, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by David Duneau
cahirokane.bsky.social
Respect and support to all those protesting at No-Kings Day yesterday, and getting plane loads of AI-generated sh-t dumped on them.
indivisible.org Indivisible ❌👑 @indivisible.org · 26d
This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings
October 19, 2025 at 9:07 AM
Reposted by David Duneau
roopikarisam.bsky.social
Dartmouth is OUT! Thank goodness... a friend at U of A and I have been playing "Who will be the last of the 9 standing?" and it's not gonna be us!
Dear Secretary McMahon, Ms. Mailman, and Mr. Haley, I appreciated the opportunity to speak with you yesterday. I welcome further engagement around how we can (a) enhance the long-standing partnership between the federal government and this country's leading research universities and (b) ensure that higher education stays focused on academic excellence. As I shared on the call, I do not believe that the involvement of the government through a compact--whether it is a Republican- or Democratic-led White House- is the right way to focus America's leading colleges and universities on their teaching and research mission. Our universities have a responsibility to set our own academic and institutional policies, guided by our mission and values, our commitment to free expression, and our obligations under the law. Staying true to this responsibility is what will help American higher education build bipartisan public trust and continue to uphold its place as the envy of the world. We remain open to other ways to work with the federal government to enhance higher education. Best, Sian Leah Beilock President
October 18, 2025 at 3:03 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
keithrmatthews.bsky.social
We have a 3+ year post doc available in our lab to study trypanosome transmission and virulence. Combined wet lab and bioinformatics expertise preferred. Please apply via the HR link (elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...). Find out more about us in the link below.
The Matthews Lab | Biology
The Matthews Lab
biology.ed.ac.uk
October 17, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
kokkonut.bsky.social
🚨🚨Job! 🚨🚨Permanent (75% time) job! We are a pretty awesome research group & seek a manager who deals with everything: personnel tasks, organizing retreats, preparing code for teaching / data structures for research... Fluency in German & English essential. stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de#/jgu/job/51527
stellenboerse.uni-mainz.de
October 17, 2025 at 7:38 AM
Reposted by David Duneau
nature.com
Of the 202 Nobel laureates who have been awarded prizes in physics, chemistry and medicine this century, less than 70% hail from the country in which they were awarded their prize.

go.nature.com/4ocbFu6
More than 30% of this century’s science Nobel prizewinners immigrated: see their journeys
The most common destination for eventual Nobel laureates in physics, chemistry and medicine since 2000 is the United States, Nature has found.
go.nature.com
October 9, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
atrupar.com
Pritzker: "This guy is unhinged. He's insecure. He's a wannabe dictator. And there's one thing I really want to say to Donald Trump. If you come for my people, you come through me. So come and get me."
October 8, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
kokkonut.bsky.social
@romanzug.bsky.social and @socialinsectlab.bsky.social thinking about colony dynamics! Resource variation can mask tradeoffs, but here we show that even if that *doesn't* vary, lucky starts in colony life can lead to better trajectories and if so, a tradeoff is often undetectable despite being real.
October 3, 2025 at 8:14 AM
Reposted by David Duneau
newseye.bsky.social
NEW: Extraordinary scenes in Amsterdam this afternoon (Sunday, Oct 5).

An estimated 250,000 bring the city to a standstill; people all wearing red to show solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸

(🎥 Ahmed Zantac)
October 5, 2025 at 3:07 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
kojamf.bsky.social
Dr. Jane Goodall filmed an interview with Netflix in March 2025 that she understood would only be released after her death.
October 5, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Reposted by David Duneau
mehdirhasan.bsky.social
Free Greta Thunberg and the rest of the illegally detained flotilla activists.
October 4, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Reposted by David Duneau
dianamonkey.bsky.social
In 2016, Jane Goodall spoke at the International Primatological Society meetings. She closed her talk asking everyone to thank the primates we studied not with applause, but with their calls. And so a room full of Very Eminent Primatologists made delighted monkey noises to Jane Goodall. ⚱️🐒🧪🌍
October 1, 2025 at 11:06 PM