🚨New report with @homesfornorth calls on the government to adopt a novel approach to affordable housing investment: Giving Homes England a ‘National Affordable Housing Bank’ role to invest alongside the private sector in funds set up to deliver discounted rent homes. A 🧵on why this is needed:

Oof felt good to remember reading some of these classics. Night Watch deservedly recognised - my personal favourite. Where to start with: Terry Pratchett www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...

Another fascinating generic repurposing potential use case!

GOOD NEWS! Researchers at the University of Buffalo have developed a nanoparticle-based vaccine candidate for H5N1 avian influenza (clade 2.3.4.4b) that achieved 100% PROTECTION in preclinical trials. The vaccine is under development for potential use in BOTH veterinary AND human medicine. 🧪🧵⬇️

Really lovely story to read and definitely recommend his Substack.

Worrying if true. Brought this quote to mind for me: "Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them."

People born in the late 1960s: one of the measles vaccines in use then generated poor immunity. Check your measles titer – or do what I did today: get a booster shot! @adamratnermd.bsky.social

Sounds like sensible pro growth policy. But I think "lab grown" needs a rebrand. Maybe "cruelty free"?

“For people like myself who have long taken pride in PEPFAR, it’s been painful and horrifying to watch this lifesaving work grind to a halt without a justification or even acknowledgment that it’s happening.”

The new GOV.UK login system is the first step in a radical transformation of the British state (FREE TO READ!) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/login-to-a...

So excited to see this trial start! www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/...

Powerful defence of basic research (with some fascinating examples) asteriskmag.com/issues/09/a-...

Interesting research. I think diabetes also linked with increased likelihood of drug resistant TB...

𝗣𝗿𝗼𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲: 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝗳𝘂𝗲𝗹𝘀 𝗔𝗠𝗥 Staphylococcus aureus evolves antibiotic resistance rapidly in diabetic mice, as hyperglycemia aids the expansion and takeover of resistant mutants VISA strains have a large fitness defect in control mice but not in diabetic mice ➡️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Two weeks into President Trump’s sweeping freeze on foreign aid, HIV groups abroad have not received any funding, jeopardizing the health of more than 20 million people, including 500,000 children.

Research funding opportunities for generic repurposing clinical trials -> www.cureswithinreach.org/programs/fun...

I’m tired of hearing about bats. Do you want to hear a story about jumping spiders and the town that disappeared? I think I might be breaking this story – do come be the first to read it.

Some exciting grants Open Philanthropy made last year. Particularly excited for the work on human colostrum - such an important topic! www.openphilanthropy.org/research/coo...

If you are a medical professional, community health partner or stakeholder join me Friday 7 February in Heene at 1:30pm to feed into the national consultation to reform the NHS. If you would like to attend, please fill in the form here docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI… Places are limited!

Interested in Open Philanthropy? Here's a blog post about the unusual paths many of us took to get here! www.openphilanthropy.org/research/pat...

www.sciencealert.com/scientists-m... Research on this probably a great investment...

Sad to hear about President Carter. A great man and inspiration who I was fortunate to meet a couple of times. Generous with his time and his life.

Running clinical trials of existing drugs against new indications/diseases can turn up happy results. These drugs are often off-patent, so it's an area where public and philanthropic funding can shine. Nice profile of Cures Within Reach and @raykennedy.bsky.social's grants:

New @cgdev.org policy paper: *MALARIA VACCINES* are a huge scientific breakthrough. But the world is dragging its feet on rolling them out. We examine why, and how to go faster. 🧵

That is some graph on bus usage outside London after deregulation on.ft.com/49PfLlV

Pleased to hear that while the column is ending, the blogging is carrying on!

New post: The politics of stupid mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2024/12/the-... The politics of stupid is believing that the way to deal with Farage or Trump type populism is to do what Farage or Trump happens to be shouting about at the time.

To piggyback on Matt, if you’re on the JM with a paper on migration, please let me know about it!

UK adult & paediatric Infectious Diseases clinicians. Would your site be interested in participating in an adaptive platform trial on invasive Group A Strep? We are developing our application currently - so if interested do get in touch with me. #IDSky

This is a remarkable paper. Substantively, it convincingly argues that what looks like weak state capacity is often *captured* capacity. Methodologically, it’s a triumph of mixed qualitative and quantitative approaches. pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/...

Very happy to share our new study out today in the New England Journal of Medicine, showing fewer PCV doses are non-inferior to standard schedules in maintaining control of vaccine-type carriage in Vietnam. This could make vacc programmes much more affordable for LMICs. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

New post on some preliminary – but troubling – signals about the direction H5N1 might be taking: kucharski.substack.com/p/h5n1-influ...

Sickle cell disease is treatable, but many kids around the world don't get the care they need because diagnosis isn't integrated into the health system. Glad we @openphil.bsky.social could support CHAI's work to help change that in Ghana, India, and Nigeria: sicklecellanemianews.com/news/grant-s...

In >60,000 UK Biobank participants an association between higher cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and less Alzheimer's disease (AD) and dementia during 12-year follow-up, mitigating genetic predisposition (w/high CRF, reduced by 35%) bjsm.bmj.com/content/earl... open-access; PRS-polygenic risk score

Really enjoyed this post on underpowered trials and pandemic preparedness: open.substack.com/pub/kucharsk...

For anyone interested, I wrote this piece recently: www.thetransmitter.org/sex-differen... #Alzheimers #womensbrainhealth

I recorded this podcast interview a few months ago, but it's a little... long. There's now a transcript uploaded, if you want to hop around. Topics include TB, monoclonal antibodies, the FDA, PEPFAR, long run impacts of research, Operation Warp Speed and beyond. hearthisidea.com/episodes/tre...

Dyson will lose an unwarranted tax break, but family farms helped by the budget changes. Free to read - timleunig.substack.com/p/how-to-pre...

Y'days post: A budget that points the way but doesn’t get us very far mainlymacro.blogspot.com/2024/10/a-bu... While the revised debt rule is better than the old, it still ignores physical assets. As a result its only purpose when combined with the golden rule is to suppress public investment.

Terrific piece this, both on a big policy challenge facing the new government and on the flaws in the Badenoch pamphlet. In general this is a problem with a lot of “culture-driven” explanations: “culture” is a poor fit for sudden spikes in the graph for obvious reasons!

Nice thinkpiece on mpox & fractional dosing www.cgdev.org/blog/could-f...

This was a really great read - highly recommend his blog.

Fascinating story on how Pfizer had GLP-1 agonists and then cut the program: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...

www.vox.com/future-perfe... I think Kelsey has a good point