Svasti Haricharan
Cancer biologist interested in host characteristics; advocate for equitable research environments; associate professor at SDSU; posts my own
- The erosion of the peer review process at the NIH is not just with the push back against in-person study sections, which I think are qualitatively superior to zoom sections. There were also in the last set of meetings: compression to 1 day meetings, and no chair summaries. Both comprise quality imo
- Related but separate. I teach critical thinking and we talk about how telling someone they're wrong because facts, seldom works. But showing someone patterns that they can recognize in mis/disinformation empowers them to figure out for themselves which sources they can trust for information.
- Hard agree. I created a Critical Thinking curriculum for our grad students because they craved that content. These are bright kids. Watching them kick ass once they grasp how to reason critically is amazing. But I shouldn't be the one seeing that transformation. That should be happening in school
- 100% this. That means the Cancer Biology class I teach is also partly a how to be a Biology student class. That means I can't teach all the cancer biology I want to because there's no point teaching intense biology concepts if we're struggling with the how to learn successfully question
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- It is ok to vote against making the middle third competitive if you haven't read those applications and therefore cannot really assess their competitiveness. They require a simple majority so make sure to ask clarifying questions before the first vote and then request a head count after the vote.
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- This should be said more often. The problem is not that the research that is funded isn't good, it's that we don't have the funding to fund all of the outstanding research ideas presented to us. ROI for NIH science funding is almost 2$ per $ spent. I'd like to see AI tech compete with that
- Also, to get to the truly difficult-to-answer questions in a discipline, you have to steep yourself in the field for quite a while before you appreciate what we know, what we don't know, and what we know we don't know. True discovery takes time, and is a group project
- Reposted by Svasti Haricharan“We cannot pursue our mission to improve the health and well-being of all Americans while DHS agents are murdering, assaulting, and terrorizing people who call this country home…We believe ICE and CBP are a greater threat to the health of our nation than the lapse of HHS services.”
- Read the Save HHS open letter! www.savehhs.org/letter-we-wi...
- Americans trust scientists more than any other groups in society. Understandably so. We are not driven by loyalty, money or politics. But many, if not most, of us are guided by truth, justice and humanity. This administration keeps trying to fool the American public, but they are a canny lot
- What are we doing here? These are entirely preventable diseases. They can cause death. They can cause lasting damage. The misinformation, and disinformation, about vaccines has to be combatted with clear, compelling measages. We forget the past at our own peril.
- But now we're taught by our mentors not to use the word "interestingly" when writing scientific papers. Nothing can be interesting anymore because we write like we knew all along. Most papers would be more fun if they were written as a journey, not a destination 🧪
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- For once paywalls performing a righteous function
- Get vaccinated. I see so many of my students wiped out because they didn't get the shot
- Reposted by Svasti HaricharanRT if you've never had a tab of ChatGPT open 'just to do quick research'
- "The work now is the same as it was in 1911: document the failures, design the remedies, prepare for the moment."
- This beautifully written piece by my pal @adambonica.bsky.social is worth your time today. A bit of light amid the darkness. open.substack.com/pub/data4dem...
- While a 100 million$ is being spent to recruit an army against Americans, this administration is closing the door on so many outstanding scientists, who gave up much of their lives to earn the privilege of using science to uplift humanity.
- Artificial intelligence is a very misleading term for a machine learning model, and certainly adds to the illusion currently being sold by tech billionaires. Great piece
- "The media has largely let [tech companies] set the terms of the debate, right down to the terminology used in any discussion of these systems." From @nannainie.bsky.social & me in @techpolicypress.bsky.social on how to spot and resist anthropomorphizing language about so-called "AI".
- "Whatever the defects of American universities may be, they disseminate no prejudices, rear no bigots, exclude no man because of his religious opinions" - Charles Dickens in the 1840s. Would that this administration could appreciate the treasure we possess as a nation renowned for higher education 🧪
- One of the worst parts of these changes is they are asking scientists to legitimize them. In study section, they ask the panel to vote to confirm that a subset of the not discussed grant applications (that most of us haven't read) fall into a pile to be considered for funding. Don't stand for this.🧪
- I explained the dangers of the recent politicization of grant reviews at NIH for The Hill, and also that while diversity otherwise remains a bad word, geographic diversity is somehow laudable. thehill.com/opinion/tech...
- 'Doctorow argues "AI isn’t the bow-wave of ‘impending superintelligence’. Nor is it going to deliver ‘humanlike intelligence’. It’s a grab-bag of useful (sometimes very useful) tools that can sometimes make workers’ lives better, when workers get to decide how and when they’re used.”'
- Reposted by Svasti HaricharanNo one says to legit business owners, "hey I see there's an underground market selling toxic knock-offs of your product: how will you incorporate the toxic product AND protect your customers against its harms?" But apparently it's fine to make this suggestion to educators with respect to AI.
- Yes, the absolute absurdity of it is this is hoarding to the point where money loses any value. These people have some sort of mental illness.
- www.statnews.com/2025/12/18/n... A 11 percentage point in grant funding for early career researchers in 2025. So it begins. 🧪
- Watched Princess Bride today. RIP Mr Reiner
- Good science news to greet the holidays. Our paper is now out @natcomms.nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Outstanding work by two of my postdocs, Aloran and Tyler, and collabs with Nic Fusco, Carol Manhart @templechemistry.bsky.social & Matthew Bainbridge @radychildrensoc.bsky.social 🧵🧪/1
- Subcellular localization of MMR protein MLH1 in #breastcancer patients is often cytoplasmic, as Nic's data has shown, but we don't know what that means in terms of patient outcome or treatment options. Here, we found that cyto MLH1 associates with worse outcomes similar to that seen with loss /2
- Nice work by @amulyasreekumar.bsky.social 🧪🎇
- Now online in Cancer Discovery @aacrjournals.bsky.social: Residual Breast Cancer Cells Co-opt SOX5-driven Endochondral Ossification to Maintain #Dormancy - by @amulyasreekumar.bsky.social, Lewis Chodosh, and colleagues doi.org/10.1158/2159... @pennmedicine.bsky.social @penncancer.bsky.social
- If nature publishing group of making half a billion $ in profit, feels like maybe they can afford to pay reviewers for their time and expertise 🧪 group.springernature.com/gp/group/med...
- When you develop a tool that is truly useful to scientists, you do not have to force it down their throats. I don't see Molecular Devices sending me an email about ten great things I can do with their spectrophotometer to extend my research. The day I need AI to tell me what to think, I'll quit🧪
- "Pronatalists like Dean Spears and Michael Geruso worry that low birth rates mean “fewer and fewer people to discover new ideas”—but having more babies risks derailing the careers of already-born women today." Love it! What about the already-born and their new ideas? 1/2
- Preprints are gold for getting your results out there, setting up collaborations, visibility for your lab, and convincing grant reviewers that you aren't blowing smoke when you say "manuscript in submission" #AcademicSky 🧪
- The first administration that has proudly stood up to fight against cancer research. The folly and evil of purposeful ignorance and blatant lying is robbing the US of its position as a leader in science, and the world of its progress towards health and prosperity for all before our eyes 🧪
- Reposted by Svasti HaricharanThis is actually quite brilliant, up to and including the final sentence 🔥
- Can confirm, @sdsuresearch.bsky.social has seen increasing enrollment every year, coupled with threats of budget cuts from the state that squeeze faculty on both sides to continue to provide the quality of education that our students have (rightly) come to expect. #EduSky
- I've already heard several of my colleagues say they don't see the point of participating in peer review because of the low funding rates. This could easily be the straw that broke the camel's back when asking scientists to spend valuable time evaluating the ideas of their peers 🧪
- I gotta take this opportunity to pump up @sandiegostate.bsky.social. I love that we take our mission of keeping higher education affordable quite seriously. At least for now. And still an R1. At least for now.
