Ubadah Sabbagh
@ubadahsabbagh.com
chief of staff @arcadiascience.com • syrian immigrant • former: mit, virginia tech, umkc, community college
ubadah.sy
ubadah.sy
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
We’ve been heads down @ArcadiaScience for a bit but the @arenabioworks news this week caused me to dump thoughts. hard things are hard; don’t be such a fucking hater. Reflections on parallels w our own institutional experiment here seemay.substack.com/p/big-experi...
Big experiments are only big if they can fail
Some reflections on Arena Bioworks' unexpected wind down as a fellow institutional experimentalist
seemay.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 4:20 PM
We’ve been heads down @ArcadiaScience for a bit but the @arenabioworks news this week caused me to dump thoughts. hard things are hard; don’t be such a fucking hater. Reflections on parallels w our own institutional experiment here seemay.substack.com/p/big-experi...
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
Excellent post by the creator of the hoax FormatMyPaper.com.
"We’re a community of experts, terrified of a harmless prank site, yet seemingly unbothered by the multi-billion dollar publishing industry that actually takes our copyright, our labor, and our intellectual property every single day."
"We’re a community of experts, terrified of a harmless prank site, yet seemingly unbothered by the multi-billion dollar publishing industry that actually takes our copyright, our labor, and our intellectual property every single day."
Beware giving this site your unpublished data
Users noticed the website had fake testimonials and a domain name registered seemingly overnight.
ubadah.substack.com
October 24, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Excellent post by the creator of the hoax FormatMyPaper.com.
"We’re a community of experts, terrified of a harmless prank site, yet seemingly unbothered by the multi-billion dollar publishing industry that actually takes our copyright, our labor, and our intellectual property every single day."
"We’re a community of experts, terrified of a harmless prank site, yet seemingly unbothered by the multi-billion dollar publishing industry that actually takes our copyright, our labor, and our intellectual property every single day."
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
Scientists themselves determine what is valued within science. Yet we act as if beholden to external managers, bean-counters who confuse the production of papers with scientific progress.
We don't have to find better ways to navigate the prison of metrics-driven scientific assessment.
We don't have to find better ways to navigate the prison of metrics-driven scientific assessment.
October 25, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Scientists themselves determine what is valued within science. Yet we act as if beholden to external managers, bean-counters who confuse the production of papers with scientific progress.
We don't have to find better ways to navigate the prison of metrics-driven scientific assessment.
We don't have to find better ways to navigate the prison of metrics-driven scientific assessment.
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
Ubadah Sabbagh is referring to closed-access for-profit publishing here, but I keep thinking about how perfectly it describes the general push to incorporate large language models into the scientific workflow in the interest of higher "productivity".
ubadah.substack.com/p/beware-giv...
ubadah.substack.com/p/beware-giv...
October 25, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Ubadah Sabbagh is referring to closed-access for-profit publishing here, but I keep thinking about how perfectly it describes the general push to incorporate large language models into the scientific workflow in the interest of higher "productivity".
ubadah.substack.com/p/beware-giv...
ubadah.substack.com/p/beware-giv...
PSA: Many of you may have noticed a website floating around called formatmypaper(dot)com. People rightly noted something was fishy. I dig into what happened here:
open.substack.com/pub/ubadah/p...
open.substack.com/pub/ubadah/p...
Beware giving this site your unpublished data
Users noticed the website had fake testimonials and a domain name registered seemingly overnight.
open.substack.com
October 23, 2025 at 2:07 PM
PSA: Many of you may have noticed a website floating around called formatmypaper(dot)com. People rightly noted something was fishy. I dig into what happened here:
open.substack.com/pub/ubadah/p...
open.substack.com/pub/ubadah/p...
Woah just discovered this
formatmypaper.com
formatmypaper.com
FormatMyPaper - The End of Manuscript Formatting
Paste your paper, choose your journal, and let our AI handle the tedious rest. Get back to the science.
formatmypaper.com
October 15, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Woah just discovered this
formatmypaper.com
formatmypaper.com
If you've been hearing a lot about "AI Scientists" and wondered how much is real, how much is hype, and what's possible, so have I. So I spent some time thinking about it and this came out.
open.substack.com/pub/ubadah/p...
open.substack.com/pub/ubadah/p...
October 13, 2025 at 2:01 AM
If you've been hearing a lot about "AI Scientists" and wondered how much is real, how much is hype, and what's possible, so have I. So I spent some time thinking about it and this came out.
open.substack.com/pub/ubadah/p...
open.substack.com/pub/ubadah/p...
excited about applying engineering + AI to frontier biology?
we’re building tools @arcadiascience.com to help scientists move faster and smarter, and we’re hiring software engineers and applied ML engineers to join us. if that’s you, apply and let's talk:
we’re building tools @arcadiascience.com to help scientists move faster and smarter, and we’re hiring software engineers and applied ML engineers to join us. if that’s you, apply and let's talk:
August 22, 2025 at 5:03 PM
excited about applying engineering + AI to frontier biology?
we’re building tools @arcadiascience.com to help scientists move faster and smarter, and we’re hiring software engineers and applied ML engineers to join us. if that’s you, apply and let's talk:
we’re building tools @arcadiascience.com to help scientists move faster and smarter, and we’re hiring software engineers and applied ML engineers to join us. if that’s you, apply and let's talk:
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
This week, I continue my discussion with @ubadahsabbagh.com, Chief of Staff at Arcadia Science. We discuss his transition to industry, perspective on the state of academic research, and his visionary endeavors. www.podbean.com/eas/pb-3spkv...
May 17, 2025 at 7:48 AM
This week, I continue my discussion with @ubadahsabbagh.com, Chief of Staff at Arcadia Science. We discuss his transition to industry, perspective on the state of academic research, and his visionary endeavors. www.podbean.com/eas/pb-3spkv...
folks, we’re hiring for scientist roles
- lab tech
- protein designer
- molecular biologist
- project scientist
all onsite, all for creative people who believe in open science & wanna build cool shit. plus other stuff but that’s in the postings
jobs.lever.co/arcadiascience @arcadiascience.com
- lab tech
- protein designer
- molecular biologist
- project scientist
all onsite, all for creative people who believe in open science & wanna build cool shit. plus other stuff but that’s in the postings
jobs.lever.co/arcadiascience @arcadiascience.com
May 15, 2025 at 2:54 PM
folks, we’re hiring for scientist roles
- lab tech
- protein designer
- molecular biologist
- project scientist
all onsite, all for creative people who believe in open science & wanna build cool shit. plus other stuff but that’s in the postings
jobs.lever.co/arcadiascience @arcadiascience.com
- lab tech
- protein designer
- molecular biologist
- project scientist
all onsite, all for creative people who believe in open science & wanna build cool shit. plus other stuff but that’s in the postings
jobs.lever.co/arcadiascience @arcadiascience.com
>march 10 @arcadiascience.com announces new form of rapid publishing
>apr 18 team reads a preprint, finds it interesting
>9 work days later, team publishes results validating and extending model
this is how science should be. open, rapid, with the community
arcadia-science.github.io/2025-geno-ph...
>apr 18 team reads a preprint, finds it interesting
>9 work days later, team publishes results validating and extending model
this is how science should be. open, rapid, with the community
arcadia-science.github.io/2025-geno-ph...
Cross-trait learning with a canonical transformer tops custom attention in genotype-phenotype mapping –
arcadia-science.github.io
May 2, 2025 at 11:11 PM
>march 10 @arcadiascience.com announces new form of rapid publishing
>apr 18 team reads a preprint, finds it interesting
>9 work days later, team publishes results validating and extending model
this is how science should be. open, rapid, with the community
arcadia-science.github.io/2025-geno-ph...
>apr 18 team reads a preprint, finds it interesting
>9 work days later, team publishes results validating and extending model
this is how science should be. open, rapid, with the community
arcadia-science.github.io/2025-geno-ph...
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
And the artist, Audrey Bell! www.aebellillustration.com
April 30, 2025 at 6:50 PM
And the artist, Audrey Bell! www.aebellillustration.com
Not only do we do cool science but we have a badass illustrator for our pubs
April 30, 2025 at 4:54 AM
Not only do we do cool science but we have a badass illustrator for our pubs
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
This made me cry and it really should not have. It is a document of basic decency. Good for Tufts, may the other institutions grow a spine too.
www.tufts.edu/president/sp...
www.tufts.edu/president/sp...
University Declaration for Rümeysa Öztürk
University Declaration for Rümeysa ÖztürkApril 2, 2025Dear Tufts community,Please see below a declaration by Tufts University in support of a motion filed today by Rümeysa Öztürk’s legal team in Öztür...
www.tufts.edu
April 3, 2025 at 8:29 PM
This made me cry and it really should not have. It is a document of basic decency. Good for Tufts, may the other institutions grow a spine too.
www.tufts.edu/president/sp...
www.tufts.edu/president/sp...
popped over to make sure its still there
April 3, 2025 at 10:46 PM
popped over to make sure its still there
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
This message is for immigrants — everyone from naturalized citizens to the “undocumented”— you may decide to do some things differently and that’s ok, smart even. Be gentle to yourself & remember that fear is the authoritarian’s greatest weapon.
March 28, 2025 at 10:50 PM
This message is for immigrants — everyone from naturalized citizens to the “undocumented”— you may decide to do some things differently and that’s ok, smart even. Be gentle to yourself & remember that fear is the authoritarian’s greatest weapon.
prudent reminder for scientists today, from a thousand years ago
March 22, 2025 at 7:33 PM
prudent reminder for scientists today, from a thousand years ago
my tl is once again flooded with dead palestinian children killed by israeli bombs we pay for
March 18, 2025 at 2:31 PM
my tl is once again flooded with dead palestinian children killed by israeli bombs we pay for
fast forward two months later, i spent 10 hours today with a group of bay area investors, tech entrepreneurs, creatives, academics, lawyers, and scientists planning projects to develop education and tech sectors in syria.
we’re cooking 💚
we’re cooking 💚
Im in disbelief. The tyrannical dynasty that’s caused so many of us generations of pain, imprisoned and exiled my family, has ended. Hard to know what’s next in these conditions. But I’m relishing with my friends and family that we can, if only for a moment, finally breathe.
Assad is gone. I can’t believe it.
February 23, 2025 at 2:02 PM
fast forward two months later, i spent 10 hours today with a group of bay area investors, tech entrepreneurs, creatives, academics, lawyers, and scientists planning projects to develop education and tech sectors in syria.
we’re cooking 💚
we’re cooking 💚
Whether from this indirects policy or some later thing, many labs will be shuttered. And I bet the first to go won't be those who mastered scientific theatrics & wasting taxpayer dollars, those skilled at prestige games and cronyism, or those rife with sexual harassment & abuse.
February 8, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Whether from this indirects policy or some later thing, many labs will be shuttered. And I bet the first to go won't be those who mastered scientific theatrics & wasting taxpayer dollars, those skilled at prestige games and cronyism, or those rife with sexual harassment & abuse.
New job @arcadiascience.com! Ideally you've got a few years of experience post-PhD, in academia or elsewhere, and have some computational fluency in addition to experimental expertise. Added bonus, you'd get to join our pastry-fueled preprint comment parties like the one we're having today :)
February 7, 2025 at 7:42 PM
New job @arcadiascience.com! Ideally you've got a few years of experience post-PhD, in academia or elsewhere, and have some computational fluency in addition to experimental expertise. Added bonus, you'd get to join our pastry-fueled preprint comment parties like the one we're having today :)
Pleasure speaking with Katie @thetransmitter.bsky.social for her well researched story.
February 1, 2025 at 7:05 PM
Pleasure speaking with Katie @thetransmitter.bsky.social for her well researched story.
Academic scientists, I’m curious to hear what guidance (if any?) your institutions have offered re the disruption and uncertainty around NIH/NSF funding
January 31, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Academic scientists, I’m curious to hear what guidance (if any?) your institutions have offered re the disruption and uncertainty around NIH/NSF funding
“Relationships need repetition and structure to grow. They need rituals and habits.”
www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...
www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...
The Easiest Way to Keep Your Friends
It’s a little boring, a little type A, and a lot better than letting relationships fizzle.
www.theatlantic.com
January 13, 2025 at 6:39 PM
“Relationships need repetition and structure to grow. They need rituals and habits.”
www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...
www.theatlantic.com/family/archi...
Reposted by Ubadah Sabbagh
Que fantástica iniciativa para promover el rigor científico y premiar a quienes no suelen ser reconocidos por hacer las cosas "bien", aunque hacerlo así no valga para promociones, ni de puntos en esa investigación "al peso" a la que nos estamos acostumbrando...
NINDS just launched a $50K prize competition for early-career scientists championing research rigor beyond their normal duties. Do you organize workshops, journal clubs, or do work to try and shift culture? This could be you.
www.challenge.gov?challenge=ni...
www.challenge.gov?challenge=ni...
Challenge.Gov
Challenge.Gov is the official GSA government website supporting prize challenges and prize competitions that are sponsored by the US federal government. Here federal agencies provide prize awards to ...
www.challenge.gov
January 9, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Que fantástica iniciativa para promover el rigor científico y premiar a quienes no suelen ser reconocidos por hacer las cosas "bien", aunque hacerlo así no valga para promociones, ni de puntos en esa investigación "al peso" a la que nos estamos acostumbrando...