Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · 4d

Feel good story of day. Went to outdoor movie night at granddaughter’s school yesterday in downtown Toronto. The children and parents comprised a rainbow of colours, speaking a Babel of languages. It was so joyful watching all the children run and play together. Canada has done something right.

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · 11d

If anything, this analysis on “what would have happened if the NIH had spent 40% less over past years” underestimates the impact of NIH on innovation. The most valuable IP walks on two feet. And guess who paid for the training of many industry scientists?

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

What if NIH had been 40% smaller?

Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research

www.science.org

Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · 27d

In selecting an antibody to use for your experiment, you should look in the literature and find the one that one is most cited. NOT!

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Sep 6

For the non-Canadians out there, one of our best just died. Ken Dryden was an athlete, scholar, public servant. Bill Bradley is the closest equivalent in the United States. Dryden was my childhood hero. You want to understand a lot about Canada, read his book “The Game”.
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Tributes pour in for hockey legend, former politician and author Ken Dryden | CBC News

Tributes are pouring in from across Canada and beyond after former Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden — a legend of Canadian hockey — died at the age of 78.

www.cbc.ca

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Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Research at UHN @uhnresearch.ca · Sep 5

#ICYMI Congratulations to @uhn.ca’s Drs. Cheryl Arrowsmith and John Dick for receiving the Awards for Excellence in Cancer Research from the Canadian Cancer Society!

Read more on their research and awards ➡️ www.uhnresearch.ca/news/recogni...

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Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Matthieu Schapira @mattschap.bsky.social · Aug 12

CACHE 7 is launched with support from the @gatesfoundation.bsky.social and unpublished data from Damian Young at @bcmhouston.bsky.social, Tim Willson @thesgc.bsky.social and Neelagandan Kamaria InSTEM. Design selective PGK2 inhibitors. We'll test them experimentally.
bit.ly/4lnVYOs

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Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Elizabeth Picciuto @epicciuto.bsky.social · Aug 11

In 2016, before Trump secured the GOP nomination, the Boston Globe made a fictional dystopian front page of what a nightmare world it would be if Trump won. And those just pretty much are our actual headlines now.

A fake Boston Globe front page for April 2017. Headlines include, “deportations to begin: President Trump calls for tripling of ice force, riots continue,” “US soldiers refuse orders to kill Isis families,” “ market sink as trade wars loom,” “ new libel law targets ‘absolute scum’ in press” “ Trump on Nobel Prize shortlist,”

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Jul 28

Not on the old Canadian TV series ReGenesis! The scientists in that show did controls, had experiments fail, and had great lab hands (grad students would be on set for every lab scene to make sure!)

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Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) @dndi.org · Jul 28

#HepatitisC is a curable disease, but life-saving treatment is priced out of reach for millions of people who need it.

On #WorldHepatitisDay, join us as we call for access to affordable treatments globally!

👉 Read more about the study presented at the 2025 #EASLCongress in May: bit.ly/4fdYoxS

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Jul 23

After 5 years of planning and pilot projects, Target2035, which aims to develop and share pharmacological probes for all human proteins by 2035, is coming out of stealth mode. Our Roadmap for accelerating small molecule hit discovery is now published.

rdcu.be/exxi7

Protein–ligand data at scale to support machine learning

Nature Reviews Chemistry - Target 2035 aims to develop a potent and selective pharmacological modulator for every human protein by 2035 with the results made publicly available. This Roadmap...

rdcu.be

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Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Chemical Probes Portal @chemicalprobes.org · Jul 21

🚀 On July 21, the Chemical Probes Portal celebrates 10 years! Launched after the landmark 2015 @NatChemBio paper by Arrowsmith et al., it now features >1150 compounds, >600 targets, and 1600+ expert reviews—powering better biomedical research. 🧪🔬
👉 chemicalprobes.org #ChemicalBiology @icr.ac.uk

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Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Mark Lautens @marklautens.bsky.social · Jul 16

Come join our faculty. Rank is open (assistant, associate, full professor) in experimental physical chemistry.

A department with a distinguished past and bright future.

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Jul 4

Groan….

Jim Woodgett @jwoodgett.bsky.social · Jul 3

Now THIS is basic science by definition!

Sean Rudd @seanrudd.bsky.social · Jul 3

And that's a wrap on another Purine and Pyrimidine Society meeting. Held every 2 years - this one in Barcelona - an excellent meeting for those interested in nucleotide metabolism. Lots of discussions between folks at all career stages.

Check out the program here - ppsociety.org/symposium/

#PP25

Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Jul 1

Not a minute goes by over the past 60 years that I have regretted my parents’ decision to move us to Canada. A country that is, and has always been, great. Happy Canada Day to all! 🇨🇦

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Jun 21

This is heartbreaking, and shame on Trump, Musk and Rubio. But given USAID and the US people did a huge public service by investing in the infrastructure to distribute medicine in Africa, why can’t Canada step up, leverage this, and fund some of the programs?
www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/o...

Opinion | The Waste Musk Created

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Matthieu Schapira @mattschap.bsky.social · Jun 16

CACHE4 results are out! All previously known CBLCB ligands shared the same scaffold. Congrats to Keunwan Park who successfully designed a chemically novel series, to the experimental team at @thesgc.bsky.social and thanks to @conscience-network.bsky.social for greasing the wheels! bit.ly/4mYNe3r

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Jun 11

Jays. So hot right now. Jays.

#BlueJays @torontobluejays.bsky.social

Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · May 30

Unbelievable

www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

White House Health Report Included Fake Citations

www.nytimes.com

Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · May 27

The United States has levied sanctions on Harvard but not on Russia. A curious set of values.

Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · May 8

Waiting for Trump to emerge

Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Matthieu Schapira @mattschap.bsky.social · May 5

@thesgc.bsky.social is generating large/open screening data and inviting data scientists to train their ML models via DREAM challenges:
1- train your model on DEL data
2- retrospectively predict 138 ASMS true positives
3- predict new hits. We will test them and publish together.
bit.ly/3YXVKoT

First DREAM Target 2035 Drug Discovery Challenge

'First DREAM Target 2035 Drug Discovery Challenge' (Synapse ID: syn65660836) is a project on Synapse. Synapse is a platform for supporting scientific collaborations centered around shared biomedic...

bit.ly

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Reposted by Aled Edwards S.G.

Ravi Menon, Ph.D. @northernthrux.bsky.social · May 5

Congratulations @tridentpct.bsky.social open science lead Dr. Richard Gold, Faculty of Law, McGill University for being named a Distinguished James McGill Professor. Learn more about Richard here. www.mcgill.ca/law/profs/go...

Richard Gold

Full Professor Director, Centre for Intellectual Property Policy James McGill Professor Associate member, Dept of Human Genetics Chancellor Day Hall 3644 Peel Street Room 34 Montreal, Quebec Canada H3...

www.mcgill.ca

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · May 4

Another hidden cost is the time waiting to execute Material Transfer Agreements (to safeguard the IP that loses money). Optimistically (very), an MTA takes on average a month to execute. Our university does 6,000 per year. That’s 500 person/years of delay….to safeguard IP…that loses money.

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Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Apr 25

Santos sentenced to 7 years. His big mistake was not to storm the Capitol.

www.cbc.ca/news/world/u...

George Santos, U.S. congressman for less than a year, sentenced to more than 7 years in prison | CBC News

Disgraced former U.S. Congress member George Santos, who lied about his life story and defrauded donors, was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in prison, sobbing as he heard his punishment.

www.cbc.ca

Aled Edwards S.G. @aledmedwards.bsky.social · Apr 25

To me, among the most distressing things in Canadian politics is the tacit acceptance of rude and uncouth words in signs and flags directed at (almost always left-leaning) politicians. I have no idea how this became acceptable.