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Wolfgang Huber

@wkhuber.bsky.social

7.7K followers 2.3K following 510 posts

Statistician, Computational Biologist, R | Bioconductor. Love stats and ML. https://www.huber.embl.de Textbook: Modern Statistics for Modern Biology https://www.huber.embl.de/msmb/ (with @sherlockpholmes.bsky.social)

www.huber.embl.de

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · Aug 24

In July we had the 3rd edition of the Ukrainian Biological Data Science Summer School.
Now a regular, it has created a sense of community: young people eager to learn new topics, network across the country&world. Seeing how science is a positive&optimistic force.

www.huber.embl.de/group/posts/...

Ukrainian Biological Data Science Summer School 2025 – Huber Group @ EMBL

Uzhhorod, 19 July - 1 August 2025: the third edition

www.huber.embl.de

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Reposted by Wolfgang Huber

Erick Ratamero @erickratamero.com · 8h

Applications are open until 12/10 for both positions, so you might need to hurry :) I think these are both very exciting - and as a bonus (or a malus) your office space would probably be right next door to me!

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Erick Ratamero @erickratamero.com · 8h

Second, for a Mathematical Modeling Specialist - this person will consult and collaborate in projects, but also engage in training and establishing a community of practice. embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

Mathematical Modeling Specialist (Life Sciences)

EMBL Data Science Centre meets the growing demand for advanced data analysis at EMBL and ensures that biological research data at our multi-site organisation are expertly processed, integrated, annota...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Wolfgang Huber

Erick Ratamero @erickratamero.com · 8h

The Data Science team at EMBL is hiring for two open positions! First, for a Scientific Community Manager, focusing on community aspects and training on data science. embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

Scientific Community Manager

EMBL is Europe’s flagship research laboratory for the life sciences – an intergovernmental organisation with more than 110 independent research groups and teams performing scientific research in disci...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Wolfgang Huber

Alice Stollmeyer @stollmeyer.bsky.social · 4d

🔥 Finally an EU leader says it out loud:

“We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks that are controlled either by large American entrepreneurs or large Chinese companies, whose interests are not at all the survival or proper functioning of our democracies.”

Defend Democracy @defenddemocracy.bsky.social · 4d

President Macron: “Europeans, let's wake up!

We have been incredibly naive in entrusting our democratic space to social networks.”

defenddemocracy.eu/macron-democ...

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Gautam Dey @gautamdey.bsky.social · 4d

If you’re applying to your dream lab for an internship/PhD/postdoc, always send a second email 1-2 weeks after the first one if you don’t hear back.

I promise we will be grateful rather than annoyed. My email inbox is a disaster and I’m quite junior - and very few of us have secretarial support

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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 Wolfgang Huber

Paul Hünermund @p-hunermund.com · 5d

Post a favorite econ paper: Lichter et al. (2021, JEEA) @sigginho.bsky.social

Regions with higher Stasi spy density in East Germany still show lower trust, lower incomes, higher unemployment, and less entrepreneurship decades after reunification.

Open-access link: doi.org/10.1093/jeea...

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Reposted by Wolfgang Huber

John Cusack @johncusack.bsky.social · 6d

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Achim Zeileis @zeileis.org · 7d

Web access to R-Forge is live again! 🎉

r-forge.r-project.org

R-Forge: Welcome

R-Forge.R-project.org

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Reposted by Wolfgang Huber

Burrito Justice @burritojustice.bsky.social · 7d

quick while the government is shut down let’s all switch to metric

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Teppo Hiltunen @teppo-h.bsky.social · 8d

Professor (full) or Associate Professor (tenure track) in Microbial Genetics of Health (U. Turku Finland). Competitive starting package included! Please share.

duunitori.fi/tyopaikat/ty...

Professor or Associate professor (Tenure Track/Full) in Microbial Genetics of Health - Turun yliopisto - Työpaikat - Duunitori

Avoin työpaikka: Professor or Associate professor (Tenure Track/Full) in Microbial Genetics of Health - Turun yliopisto, Turku. Duunitorilla lisäksi yli 30 000 muuta avointa työpaikkaa. Lue lisää nyt!

duunitori.fi

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 7d

Exactly! Now that does sound a lot like image segmentation, which can be formulated as simultaneously minimising distances (a) among pixels and (b) among their values (intensities).

Real segmentation algorithms can even do more fancy things, like take into account texture, or use boundary markers.

Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 7d

but the commonalities seem big enough to not justify a completely different name and different set of computational methods?

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 7d

to a metric space (tuples of color intensities or expression levels), such as that distances with a segment (or cluster) in both spaces are simultaneously mimised. I understand that there will be different trade-offs, different useful heuristics etc. depending on application domain and objective,...

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 7d

Thank you! I agree, but I'd call these differences "marketing"; afaIcs, the underlying maths is the same, and algorithms should to a good extent by transferable?

The common mathematical task being something like: partition a metric manifold (or a lattice graph, etc), based on a function from it...

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 8d

Yes, the remark was tongue-in-cheek of course.
There will always be plenty of work for statisticians to deal with observational data, or experimental data from non-ideal assays and designs.

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 8d

Skymind: I'm learning about 'spatially aware clustering' in spatial omics and wondering how it is different from 'segmentation'? (in essence, not by way of marketing)

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 8d

In other words: a good statistician makes themself superfluous.

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Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 8d

Where most of the drama is in most experiments. Classic if you needed fancy statistical test, you didn't design your experiment well enough :)

Though if anyone has a power/design framework for AI interpretation please let me know. It's the wild west out there!

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 8d

Am contributing to a collaborative dry-wet project proposal and everyone incl. myself thinks I should be writing about fancy algorithms. Instead, I spend all time on experimental design,power, what do we know or not, what do we aim to show? And on 2nd thought, that's probably OK for a statistician.

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Dominik Hrebik @dhrebik.bsky.social · 9d

This comic is becoming increasingly realistic.
m.xkcd.com/3056/

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Flora Vincent @floravincent.bsky.social · 9d

Dear all, registration for the upcoming EMBO/EMBL Symposium on "the cellular mechanics of symbiosis" is now OPEN 🤩 ! Feel free to register ! www.embl.org/about/info/c...
#EESSymbiosis #ProtistsOnSky #SymbioSky
@hassansalem.bsky.social @berasymbionts.bsky.social @embl.org

The cellular mechanics of symbiosis: sensing friend from foe

www.embl.org

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 9d

A useful analogy.

One can say that much of the progress in computer programming is aligned with ever increasing levels abstraction.
LLM-based coding tools are "just" a next level.

The choice of objective, and the measure of success, still remains something external to the tool.

Albert Vilella, PhD. @albertvilella.bsky.social · 9d

The new trend of #AI #LLM tools that help people achieve their tasks faster isn't too different to the shift in Computer Programming between the pre-compilers world and the world were compilers allowed scientists to define computer languages in a more natural way:

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · 9d

Do you like theoretical biology, mathematical&conceptual modelling and want to apply yourself to cutting-edge research at all levels of biology, from molecules to ecosystems?

Come to EMBL! Scope includes physics-based models, emergence, statistics, ML/AI
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

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Oded Rechavi @odedrechavi.bsky.social · 10d

How every PhD project develops

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