But I’m proud we used the struggle to dig deeper– and that’s where we found some of the most interesting science.
🧬 Novel, underdiagnosed links & mechanisms with therapeutic potential
🧍Works even for rare diseases
🌐 A truly useful resource for the community
But I’m proud we used the struggle to dig deeper– and that’s where we found some of the most interesting science.
🧬 Novel, underdiagnosed links & mechanisms with therapeutic potential
🧍Works even for rare diseases
🌐 A truly useful resource for the community
Finally, terrified, we sent it to PNAS @pnas.org.
After one round of review, reports came back: supportive. Positive.
Accepted 🎉 🎉
Finally, terrified, we sent it to PNAS @pnas.org.
After one round of review, reports came back: supportive. Positive.
Accepted 🎉 🎉
Publishing can be arbitrary.
Some reviewers make up their minds before seeing the evidence.
One reviewer can wield disproportionate power.
Rebuttals must be painfully clear.
Editors often fail to step in, even when the situation is obvious.
Don’t assume fairness in peer review
👇
Publishing can be arbitrary.
Some reviewers make up their minds before seeing the evidence.
One reviewer can wield disproportionate power.
Rebuttals must be painfully clear.
Editors often fail to step in, even when the situation is obvious.
Don’t assume fairness in peer review
👇
The reviewer did not.
It was tragic. And honestly, a bit comic.
The reviewer did not.
It was tragic. And honestly, a bit comic.
I even tested the reviewer’s hypothesis, which meant redoing everything with a dataset 3× bigger (yes, manually annotated).
I even tested the reviewer’s hypothesis, which meant redoing everything with a dataset 3× bigger (yes, manually annotated).
⏳ 4 years of my PhD
❌ 1 rejection after 3+ years
🔄 5 rounds of revisions
🤯 And an absurd fight with a single reviewer stuck on a single, simple statistical concept.
By then, I was validating my patience, not the data.
⏳ 4 years of my PhD
❌ 1 rejection after 3+ years
🔄 5 rounds of revisions
🤯 And an absurd fight with a single reviewer stuck on a single, simple statistical concept.
By then, I was validating my patience, not the data.
📑 Months of manual curation
🧮 Developing methods from big omic data
🧬 Introducing patient stratification to uncover disease links
And it worked. The signal was strong, robust, exciting.
We thought “this will be hard work, but reasonably straightforward”
Reader, it was not.
📑 Months of manual curation
🧮 Developing methods from big omic data
🧬 Introducing patient stratification to uncover disease links
And it worked. The signal was strong, robust, exciting.
We thought “this will be hard work, but reasonably straightforward”
Reader, it was not.
A story of patience, absurdity, and persistence 🌀 <1min
From Alfonso Valencia’s lab and a very stubborn PhD student (me).
A story of patience, absurdity, and persistence 🌀 <1min
From Alfonso Valencia’s lab and a very stubborn PhD student (me).