the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May
@the-dee-em.bsky.social
30 followers 21 following 24 posts
Computational biology (currently immunology, T cells). Roller derby support (I ref and wrote JamStats (http://jamstats.net). D&D.
jamstats.net).
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Apr 23
Make "Disappear" Intransitive Again
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Apr 22
l'accent aigu, no less!
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Mar 19
The recent "Mal-ID" paper in Science diagnoses diseases from immune repertoires. But a powerful model like Mal-ID can learn differences between groups of immune repertoires that are unrelated to the diseases of interest. We explore these pitfalls in our eLetter response.
Disease diagnostics using machine learning of B cell and T cell receptor sequences
Clinical diagnosis typically incorporates physical examination, patient history, various laboratory tests, and imaging studies but makes limited use of the human immune system’s own record of antigen ...
www.science.org
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Mar 13
The Canadian "elbows up" thing is genuine and awesome... and because I'm not a hockey fan it just makes me think of the bonkers fight choreography in _Divergent_.
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Mar 8
There were a lot of inspiring words at the Seattle Stand Up for Science rally today, but the real inspiration was the energy in the crowd! American science won't just lie down and be destroyed. Stand up, fight back!
standupforscience2025.org
me holding a protest sign
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Mar 8
In her weekly email, my kid's principal referred to the school musical, Hadestown, as "set in a world not too different from our own".

Yep, that's 2025 for you.
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Feb 17
Well, in a sense they are showing real expertise. I literally *couldn't* make plots that bad if I tried. At least not without a stupid amount of effort.
Reposted by Damon May
altnih4science.bsky.social
Alt NIH Bluesky 🧪 @altnih4science.bsky.social · Feb 17
They’re firing NIH scientists and replacing them with people with this level of crappy chart-making?

Sounds like the DOGE kids would benefit from going through the NIH postbac program. 🧪
molly.wiki
Molly White @molly.wiki · Feb 15
not sure what's worse about the DOGE site: unsecured databases, leaking of classified information, or these chart crimes
Bar charts of employee tenure, salary, and age from the DOGE website. The y axis is unlabeled, and horizontal lines providing some sense of scale are unevenly spaced
29 90 540
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Feb 17
Wait... HOW did they make plots that bad? What cursed plotting package exposes an option to put tick labels on the X axis of a histogram that represent *ranges* of values?

Seriously, are they writing their own terrible plotting software to make their terrible plots?
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Feb 8
American science is under full-on assault. I'm an American scientist. I don't like being assaulted. What can I do? Anyone got ideas?
NIH cuts billions of dollars in biomedical funding, effective immediately
The move halts a large slice of money for most universities and research institutions virtually overnight, imperiling vital research in everything from cancer to heart disease.
www.washingtonpost.com
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Feb 2
Oh, man, you're so lucky. My kid will sometimes cook, but only if I do a bunch of the prep and cleanup.
.
.
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(it's a trap!)
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Feb 1
Bling
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 31
Postdocs aren't getting paychecks, because Trump.
Postdocs are well-educated, but by and large they're *not* rich people. Pulling the rug out from under them like this hurts them badly, and it cripples science.
National Science Foundation suspends salary payments, leaving researchers unable to pay their bills
An NSF online payment system remained down after the federal funding freeze was lifted, leaving early-career scientists scrambling to pay bills
www.statnews.com
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 30
Buy 3 lemons.

See? I can write private notes to myself in a public forum, too!
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 29
I'm not, though, and you're one of the organizations I'm really looking to for ways I can act.
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 28
How can we organize in protest?
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 21
Coming up on 20 years in Seattle, and I just now got around to going up to the top of the Smith Tower. A++ would ascend again.
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 17
"Is it better for a man to have chosen Fight Club than to have good imposed upon him?"
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 17
"Dizzie was my friend. She was a soldier. But more than that, she was a citizen of the Fight Club."
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 13
In this article, I take a step back from the nitty gritty immunology to describe how we can use T-cell repertoires from 10Ks of people to build a catalog of humanity's shared T-cell responses to diseases... without (initially) having any idea which groups of T cells respond to which diseases.
ECOclusters: A T-Cell Biomarker Catalog of Humanity’s Shared Responses to Disease
The T cells circulating in an individual’s blood represent a record of their prior immune exposures.
globalforum.diaglobal.org
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 13
Thought 1: being a dungeon master involves a lot of extremely amateur architecture
Thought 2: I wonder if DMs who are actual architects spend all their time making the buildings look right
Thought 3: all wilderness adventures, all the time
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 13
<tweeet!>
Apocalypse foul: unnecessary connection.
No Adventure Time for a week.
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 11
Back in 2020, we did a bunch of work on SARS-CoV-2-responding T cells and put it out there as a preprint. Then we got back to work. 4+ years later, here it is in print!

Congrats to everyone who worked on this, and particularly to those who went the extra mile to get it published, multo post facto!
Frontiers | Magnitude and dynamics of the T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 infection at both individual and population levels
www.frontiersin.org
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the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Jan 8
And he was still hungry.
the-dee-em.bsky.social
Damon May @the-dee-em.bsky.social · Dec 12
Same!