The destruction of the enterprise of US academic science has been one of the most confounding aspects of a hugely confounding year. My @statnews.com colleagues are writing about the consequences for individuals & the country. You want to read this series. www.statnews.com/american-sci...

Take a moment to meet FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. He is the guy who is leading the agency that is working overtime to enrich his MAHA patrons by taking away your kids’ access to vaccines & essential medicines. He’s replacing evidence-based regulation with corruption.

Minister of Jobs and Economic Growth Ravi Kahlon will announce provincial support for B.C.’s life science sector on Monday, as UBC breaks ground on The Edge—the future home of its Advanced Therapeutics Manufacturing Facility. Media are invited to attend:

Learn how #WesternU 's Technology Transfer Office supports researcher #innovation: news.westernu.ca/2025/12/tech... #research

#WesternU welcomes The Canada Impact + Chairs program launched by Minister Joly yesterday. This program will help attract the best and brightest to support innovation, knowledge translation and new discoveries that drive social and economic growth. www.canada.ca/en/impact-pl...

Meet our panelists for our Jan. 14th "Who owns our Knowledge" #OpenScience AI panel! Please join us in welcoming Mark Daley, Joanna Redden, Stephen Spong, and James Shelley. The panel will be moderated by Emiko Muraki. RSVP for the in-person panel here: uwo.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

In a new video, The Save America Movement’s Science & Health Committee, chaired by Dr. Angela Rasmussen, brings together experts to sound the alarm on the Trump administration’s push to rewrite the childhood vaccine schedule. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Alongside its $7.5B investment in Canadian data centres, @microsoft.com is pledging to protect Canada's digital sovereignty by keeping "Canadian data on Canadian soil." But questions remain around if, and how, Microsoft could keep that promise.

I haven’t posted about this subject yet, but it is so deeply concerning & frightening that it’s almost overwhelming. It’s also getting such little attention in the media. For reasons unknown. But the TL/DR of it? Basically, Canada is Ukraine to the Trump regime’s Russia. #cdnpoli #CdnNatSec

David Baltimore obituary: virologist whose enzyme discovery transformed understanding of cancer and HIV/AIDS www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Current NIH policy under Bhattacharya (at the behest of Project2025 architect Russell Vought) is killing the next generation of researchers. If you value research, tell your members of Congress that the NIH needs more than funding. It needs sound leadership. www.statnews.com/2025/12/08/t...

“What have I done!” 🤡

An interdisciplinary team at #WesternU, created through the Bone and Joint Institute's grand challenge, is developing an innovative solution that could bring relief to millions struggling with chronic back pain.

When the oligarchs take over, democracy loses and kleptocracy wins

Canada has a legacy of life-saving vaccine innovation and public immunization. Read more about that, and how it's at risk of being derailed. @utoronto.ca @uguelphhist.bsky.social @uofguelph.bsky.social @uwaterloo.ca @manish--s.bsky.social @bcchresearch.bsky.social tinyurl.com/f3pjhx65

Multiple large natural experiments have documented Shingles vaccine is linked with ~20-25% reduced risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. A new report today adds to that and extends the to slowing the progression of dementia @cellcellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

I hope someone draws this wonderful story about Tom Stoppard's Arcadia and the power of the arts to help us see things differently, to the attention of our Education Secretary. Do read it, it will lift your spirits.

What does manipulating VAERS data have in common with allegations of extramarital tail-chasing? The quality of evidence that 10 kids died from COVID vaccines with VAERS data or that CBER Steve Urkel is trolling for side pieces on the apps is equivalent. rasmussenretorts.substack.com/p/do-unvacci...

The CDC website has been lobotomized. Where it once presented the decades of evidence debunking the false claims of a link between vaccines and autism, that has now been replaced with junk science.

For one dyslexic moment I thought it said, "warning yellow snowfall", and wondered what fresh hell is this.

Extraordinary WSJ reporting today that unveils the extent to which Trump, Witkoff, Kushner and US business executives are salivating over business deals with Russia while Putin’s forces kidnap Ukranian children and bomb civilians in their apartments. 🎁 www.wsj.com/world/russia...

Animal researchers, patients, advocates for health research please note the proposed changes to the Ontario Animals for Research Act and consider providing input to OMAFA www.regulatoryregistry.gov.on.ca/proposal/52653 Process is important here & has implications Canada wide. (1of2)

Save the date📆 for an #OpenScience panel on Jan. 14th, 2026 titled "Who owns our Knowledge?" Interdisciplinary experts will share their knowledge + expertise on intellectual property, AI + equitable access to data. Stay tuned for more on our panelists!

#WesternU researchers are turning waste into solutions for both industries and the climate. Their ITER Technologies startup uses crop residue to create biochar that improves soil, filters contaminants and captures carbon for centuries:

Ryder James, winner of #WesternU's 2024-25 high school composition and songwriting competition, is now a first-year popular music studies student and was named 'One to Watch' by SOCAN. The competition is open to HS students across Canada until Dec. 15.

Scientists tell Americans not to trust the CDC. Instead of a global leader in science, the CDC has devolved into “a propaganda machine for RFK Jr.'s fixed, immutable, science-resistant theories,” said @pauloffit.bsky.social. www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...

1/ RFK Jr. quietly rewrote how America tracks foodborne outbreaks. The result? Less surveillance, less detection — and more people at risk, especially from raw milk pathogens we used to monitor effectively.

Swedish Deputy PM: Sweden needs to pick its friends wisely, and we are choosing Canada… So when we come to America, we come to Canada now.

"It was joy. It was sublime." Yes, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was wonderful. I highly recommend you see this hilarious musical comedy at @stratfest.bsky.social. #SFScoundrels #Stratford #theatre

RIP Bill Brady. Dedicated Board member of University Hospital and Robarts Research Institute who welcomed me into the London community and taught me everything I know about fundraising. Genuinely funny and oh so kind.

Grateful for our region to be involved in this amazing program 🙏 Most of Canadians are treated outside our biggest centres. Building capacity and linkages to community hospitals ensures access to best care - and that the answers that we get from these big national projects represent our population

New federal funding will help an international team, including #WesternU researchers, using AI to discover new drugs for fighting cancer and infectious disease.

Canada is betting on its own cloud. A “sovereign cloud” could help build a home-grown #AI industry, not just host data. Hear Hypertec Group's Simon Ahdoot, SFU president Joy Johnson, and others discuss at tomorrow's Canadian Science Policy Conference.

Join us Nov 19th at the Southwest Ontario-Parkinson's Research Day! This one-day, multi-sectoral event will showcase how local researchers + community parters support different stages of the Parkinson’s healthcare journey. Learn more: tinyurl.com/28abcfdc

There's a big shift in cardiology to the high-risk, non-obstructed, inflamed artery and reducing heart attacks erictopol.substack.com/p/the-big-sh...

To negotiate a trade deal with the President of the United States, the Swiss government arrived with a "special Rolex desktop clock" and "a 1-kilogram personalized gold bar" www.axios.com/2025/11/14/t...

A high school science fair project is now a promising startup, Sylvara, founded by #WesternU student Aakarsh Garg. His plant-care device is growing strong with coaching, funding and maker space support at Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship available to all students and staff

#WesternU researchers have unlocked the hidden potential in discarded MRI data, developing a new technique transforming how scientists study the brain. @schulichmeddent.bsky.social

Canadian founders in Dubai got a crash course in global speed. At Expand North Star, 22 startups joined the Canada Startup Association to learn how the Gulf moves faster — where policy, capital, and innovation align.

Each year, we come together to honour all who have served our country in times of war, conflict, and peace. #WesternU has been associated with Canada's armed forces throughout our shared history, and many of our members serve in the Canadian Armed Forces. #LestWeForget #LdnOnt

Some close encounters with Jim Watson: www.genengnews.com/topics/omics...

In 1992, Dr. Peter Howitt co-published a paper on “creative destruction” while working at @westernu.ca. In 2025, that paper helped him win the Nobel Prize in Economics. From research in 1992 to global recognition in 2025 – this is a momentous achievement for Canadian research excellence!

As expected, Canada has lost its measles-free status because of the long-running outbreak there. With it goes the #measles elimination status of the entire zone of the Americas, the only division of the #WHO to ever have achieved measles elimination. www.statnews.com/2025/11/10/m...

The HPV vaccine seems to have therapeutic effects, not just preventative. This should be studied in Men as well.

Is Google AI correct?

Sad, but not surprising Alberta leads.

This story didn’t get the traction it deserved at the time. It is a screaming counterintelligence red flag when foreign regimes invite local gov’t officials, politicians or police services, for dubious expensive trips, especially ones where most or all of the expenses are paid. #cdnpoli #CdnNatSec

A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém. www.bbc.com/news/article... @paulisci.bsky.social

U15 Canada welcomes the reintroduction of an exemption for international graduate students from study permit caps, announced as part of the 2026-28 Immigration Levels Plan. u15.ca/publications...

Infants younger than six months old get hit the hardest with RSV, making up almost half of all patients hospitalized for the illness in Canada, according to a new UBC study. via @thetyee.ca