New post! It may seem ambitious to ask for individual patient data from clinical trials to be shared, anonymized, for use by other researchers. But the history of medicine shows us that clinical trials have already undergone a series of transformations that once seemed equally bold:

My new essay on why the modern world is so preoccupied with equality and oppression. In a secular age, they often function as a form of consolation. When transcendence recedes, the "non-winners" lose the dignity once grounded in a divine, cosmic order. www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/equality-a...

Amazingly thought provoking from @ruxandrabio.bsky.social : substack.com/home/post/p-...

Abundance, but for research? New drugs are taking a long time to reach the market, in part because of how long clinical trials take. @ruxandrabio.bsky.social explains Australia's model, which makes early clinical trials easier and how it's leading everyone to move their trials there.

The FDA recently published guidance on Bayesian statistics in clinical trials. If there's one thing you read about it, let it be this great post by Adam Kroetsch: www.clinicaltrialsabundance.blog/p/will-bayes...

NEW BLOG! Ruxandra Teslo @ruxandrabio.bsky.social, Adam Kroetsch, Manjari Narayan @neurostats.org, Witold Więcek and I have started a joint blog on clinical trial reform. We'll aim to publish weekly on how to make clinical trials more efficient. Subscribe: clinicaltrialsabundance.blog

This is a really good post. It’s worth reading even if you’re not a health research geek. I find it incredibly useful when someone gives me a sense of how stuff works in a field I am not familiar with, at least not on a suitably granular level, and this post does that.

Great post @ruxandrabio.bsky.social on FDA’s refusal to review Moderna’s flu vaccine, changing its position on what trial design was acceptable. Regulatory uncertainty doesn’t just mean missing out on this vaccine, but also reduces future R&D investment: clinicaltrialsabundance.blog/p/the-modern...

In 2023, papers denying motherhood’s role in the gender wage gap went viral. I called out their flawed assumptions then, and newer results have proven me right. www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/of-course-...

Plus remote or hybrid work. It’s a game changer for us mums who also work outside the home.

Many women face a choice between career advancement and motherhood. But emerging technologies could allow women to have it all. All in this piece on how the gender pay gap arises & fertility tech 🧵 worksinprogress.co/issue/fertil...

A+ piece by @ruxandrabio.bsky.social. IMHO she is one of the sharpest writers about bio today! worksinprogress.co/issue/fertil...

Worth a read. I was excited to support this workshop by @ruxandrabio.bsky.social and Willy alongside @ifp.bsky.social, and eager to help more of these reform ideas get traction in 2025.

Balanced piece by David Wallace-Wells in NYT on the discovery of Ozempic, etc., based on Jeff Flier’s oral history from over the summer. (And as a bonus, it cites @ruxandrabio.bsky.social & Willy Chertman’s great new piece on “clinical trial abundance” too!). www.nytimes.com/2024/12/25/o...

Can preset rules inoculate us against misinformation? Contrary to some, I believe not. I discuss this & the risks of using 'scientific evidence' for top-down information control in my post "Misinformation studies &The Road to Mental Serfdom" www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/the-road-t...

Is egg freezing the future when it comes to extending the female reproductive window? In this piece, I look at the scientific evidence for the potential of this procedure in the preservation of female fertility: www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/is-egg-fre...

It's not quite Follow Friday yet, but what the hell, here's a short list of people who joined bsky recently and who tend to discover interesting things. Follow them — connect the nodes! @marcwatkins.bsky.social @ruxandrabio.bsky.social @dasmiq.bsky.social

Did aristocratic women play an outsized role in the spread of Christianity in the Late Roman Empire? The consensus view is Yes. But Michele Salzman says No. I had fun writing this piece analysing her arguments: www.writingruxandrabio.com/p/did-aristo...

Some things are cultural: female babies were left to die of exposure in Ancient Roman times. This would be unconceivable today! In this piece I reply to comments on my previous post abt the role of aristocratic women in the spread of Christianity open.substack.com/pub/ruxandra...

Did aristocratic women play an outsized role in the spread of Christianity in the Late Roman Empire? The consensus view is Yes. But Michele Salzman says No. I had fun writing this piece analysing her arguments: open.substack.com/pub/ruxandra...

I can post selfies here without feeling cringe

We need to get bowser on BlueSky

Has this person lived in the real world ? 😭

Maybe I can use Bluesky for shitposting and twitter for interacting with professional ppl. I hope the 2 worlds don’t merge

Countries that use “recriprocal kinship” (mother calling her kid “mom”). To be clear, in Romania this can only be done in a specific noun case (vocative), which is used to address ppl. Eg “please mom, do this”