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Reposted by Ben Hall

Toby Nangle @tobyn.bsky.social · 29m

Japan at the vanguard of so many (genuine) first world problems. Always worth following how it deals with them. on.ft.com/4oeQJ5O

Japan has an ‘enshortification’ problem

An ageing workforce is affecting all sorts of professions

on.ft.com

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Steve Senior @stevensenior.bsky.social · 11h

NHS estimates it costs £25 per dose to deliver. So that's £1.5 million to £2.5 million per (non-critical care) hospital admission avoided. Numbers to prevent a critical care admission or death are substantially higher still.

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Steve Senior @stevensenior.bsky.social · 11h

Bit nerdy, but it's worth having a skim over the number needed to vaccinate figures here. E.g. to avoid one hospitalisation in otherwise healthy people JCVI estimated 60-100k would need to be vaccinated (based on Autumn 2024 data).

www.gov.uk/government/p...

Appendix A: estimating the number needed to vaccinate to prevent a COVID-19 hospitalisation in autumn 2024 in England

www.gov.uk

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Ben Hall @hallben.bsky.social · 13h

Congratulations Inigo!

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Inigo Martincorena @imartincorena.bsky.social · 14h

Our latest work is out in Nature today. In this paper, we introduce an improved version of NanoSeq, a duplex sequencing protocol with <5 errors per billion bp in single DNA molecules, and use it to study the somatic mutation landscape of oral epithelium in >1000 people www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Somatic mutation and selection at population scale - Nature

A new version of nanorate DNA sequencing, with an error rate lower than five errors per billion base pairs and compatible with whole-exome and targeted capture, enables epidemiological-scale studies of somatic mutation and selection and the generation of high-resolution selection maps across coding and non-coding sites for many genes.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Wellcome Sanger Institute @sangerinstitute.bsky.social · 15h

A hidden evolutionary process has been uncovered in sperm — where certain harmful DNA changes are naturally favoured as men age.

This gives some changes a competitive edge and increases the risk of genetic conditions. 🔬

Read here 👇
www.sanger.ac.uk/news_item/hi...

Hidden evolution in sperm raises disease risk for children as men age

Researchers reveal how certain harmful DNA variations become more common in sperm as men age, raising genetic disease risk for offspring.

www.sanger.ac.uk

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Cancer Research UK Cambridge Centre @crukcamcentre.bsky.social · 22h

Cambridge researchers show that whole genome sequencing for breast cancer patients is likely to identify unique genetic features that could guide treatment or help match patients to clinical trials - which could benefit over 15,000 women a year.

🔗 crukcambridgecentre.org.uk/news/researc...

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Reposted by Ben Hall

James Harland @jmharland.bsky.social · 1d

Interdisciplinarity is fun because it’s something job ads in humanities HE say they want but it often feels like it actively disqualifies you (in the sense of having degrees in, and published in leading journals of, multiple distinct disciplines). Everyone believes you’re not in their discipline.

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Ben Hall @hallben.bsky.social · 2d

Delighted that Sebastian Brandner will open the computational cancer seminar series this year with his seminar “Prediction of genomic and epigenetic alteration in meningiomas: a project proposal”!

Tuesday 21st October 12pm, LMCB at UCL! Full details and registration below:

UCL Computational Cancer Collaboratorium Seminar Series

On-going seminar series

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Laura Howes @laurahowes.bsky.social · 1d

I still love this nugget, but I also love the email I got yesterday evening (my time) that said "Dr. Ramsdell is currently living his best life and is off the grid on a pre-planned hiking trip."
I wonder if he knows yet?

bsky.app/profile/gilm...

Michael Gilman @gilman.bsky.social · 2d

Love this story about one of today's Nobel winners, Mary Brunkow.

(She and colleague Fred Ramsdell, working at Celltech (RIP), uncovered the role of Foxp3 in the development of Tregs.)

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Ben Hall @hallben.bsky.social · 2d

Delighted that Sebastian Brandner will open the computational cancer seminar series this year with his seminar “Prediction of genomic and epigenetic alteration in meningiomas: a project proposal”!

Tuesday 21st October 12pm, LMCB at UCL! Full details and registration below:

UCL Computational Cancer Collaboratorium Seminar Series

On-going seminar series

www.eventbrite.co.uk

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Reposted by Ben Hall

samuel mehr @mehr.nz · 3d

"the quickest way to get a collaborator to return edits on your manuscript is to write down their affiliation wrong" (ancient academic proverb)

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Ben Hall @hallben.bsky.social · 3d

Congratulations!

Reposted by Ben Hall

Jason Moore @moorejh.bsky.social · 4d

Where is the $10 - $100 genome we were promised? spectrum.ieee.org/whole-genome... #genomics #dna

Mass-Scale Genome Sequencing Will Change Our Understanding of Life

The Earth BioGenome Project aims to sequence 1.8 million species. It's one of the most ambitious science projects ever, and it will revolutionize biology

spectrum.ieee.org

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Ben Hall @hallben.bsky.social · 4d

Nelly furtado or hall and Oates?

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Medical Journalists' Association @mja-uk.bsky.social · 4d

NHS advisers are expected to rule against routine screening for prostate cancer, dealing a blow to campaigners pushing for more checks www.thetimes.com/article/700d...

NHS advisers set to reject routine prostate cancer screening

Despite campaigners’ pleas for more checks, experts fear widespread screening risks harming hundreds of thousands of men unnecessarily

www.thetimes.com

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 4d

(Huber lab)[EMBL] welcomes applications for a PhD in ML for spatial omics [representation learning + integration with biostatistics, cell + anatomy foundation models, collaborate with domain scientists on cancer and dev:bio discovery science] |> Apply though the ELLIS portal ::: Deadline 2025-10-31

ELLIS @ellis.eu · 7d

🎓 The application portal for the #ELLISPhD Program is open today! Info & link: https://bit.ly/45DSe75

ELLIS PhD Program: Call for Applications 2025

The ELLIS mission is to create a diverse European network that promotes research excellence and advances breakthroughs in AI, as well as a pan-European PhD program to educate the next generation of AI...

ellis.eu

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Ars Technica @arstechnica.com · 5d

How ants can kick-start fermentation to make yogurt

Ants carry lactic and acetic acid bacteria that help coagulate milk, as well as formic acid to acidify it.

arstechnica.com

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Cancer Research UK Policy @crukpolicy.bsky.social · 5d

Beating cancer is a huge challenge.

So we need to attract and retain the most talented researchers from a broad range of backgrounds, who can help to support innovative ideas so that more people affected by cancer benefit from our discoveries.

Equality, diversity, inclusion in research | Cancer Research UK

Our EDI in research strategic approach lays out how we'll work towards beating cancer for everyone by funding excellent research and exceptional researchers.

www.cancerresearchuk.org

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Ben Hall @hallben.bsky.social · 6d

It’s not a commute I’d recommend.

The hand wringing about the train though is pathetic. Fifteen years of talk, nothing happening. The economic boost of a quick link between sci/tech clusters should be more than enough in itself

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Ben Hall @hallben.bsky.social · 6d

I’ve not done it but when it was direct it was 3-3.5 hrs. Being direct, you could sleep but changing in Bedford would make a moderately unpleasant experience unbearable.

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Chris Tape @christophertape.bsky.social · 6d

Applications are now open for the @cruk-cityoflondon.bsky.social Black Leaders in Cancer PhD Programme.

If you are interested in our project ‘Reprogramming Plasticity in Colorectal Cancer’ feel free to get in touch!

www.colcc.ac.uk/2026-blic-ph...

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Cancer Research UK City of London Centre @cruk-cityoflondon.bsky.social · 6d

Are you interested in doing a #PhD in #cancerresearch?
🧪🧑‍🔬👨🏽‍🔬👩🏿‍🔬🧫🦠🔬
Do you want to develop new #biotherapeutics?
Find cancer cures for #youngpeople?
Applications for our fully funded 4-year PhD programme starting in Autumn 2026 are open!
bit.ly/4mHbPIH
#uclcancer #QMBCI #KCLcancer_pharm #KCL #TheCrick

CYP PhD Studentships

For students embarking on their research career Applications for 2026 PhD studentships in Children and Young People's cancer are open! Applications are now open! The Children and Young People's ...

bit.ly

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 6d

Japan is just a few days away from running out of Asahi Super Dry as the producer of the nation’s most popular beer wrestles with a devastating cyber attack that has shut down its domestic breweries www.ft.com/content/bb86...

Japan days away from running out of Asahi Super Dry after cyber attack

Vast majority of factories of nation’s most popular beer have stopped work this week

www.ft.com

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Reposted by Ben Hall

Marie Le Conte @youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com · 6d

feels a bit weird that we keep having these stories about individual cyber attacks but without anyone really joining the dots and going "okay, shall we maybe talk about this as a major global story"

Tony Tassell @tonytassell.bsky.social · 6d

Japan is just a few days away from running out of Asahi Super Dry as the producer of the nation’s most popular beer wrestles with a devastating cyber attack that has shut down its domestic breweries www.ft.com/content/bb86...

Japan days away from running out of Asahi Super Dry after cyber attack

Vast majority of factories of nation’s most popular beer have stopped work this week

www.ft.com

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