Twas the night before Christmas

Meetings are not work

In my case, this painstaking labor in the process through which the science gets done. Science isn't measuring stuff in a lab. It's thinking deeply, extracting the heart of idea from the soup of thoughts running through my mind, molding it, and finding a way to communicate that idea to others.

Intraorganellar pH gradient and microdomains because cytoplasm is ordered and crowded and get in the way for protons to get to places

Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH. And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you. A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n

I am a stickler for interdependent aims, related but not completely dependent...then I was thinking, what does it matter if they are dependent on each other? Hypothesis almost always fails and we have to go back to the drawing board. Maybe standard grant formulae are not as effective in practice.

Discovery of a brain circuitry that responds to magnetic field

Christmas Party

Thou shalt always make extra cookies when taking some for work

Our son's former soccer coach detained by ICE

The Faraday Lecture

It's 2025. Anyone can look up on internet to know that "soccer" comes from "association football", which is a British word to differentiate soccer from "rugby football". Also US isn't the only place that uses the word "soccer". Come up with other ways to make fun of Americans. There are plenty.

We should choose allies not based on whether we agree on something, but on how well we can disagree with each other. Disagreements happen and will to continue to happen between any two people. What counts is whether there is a respectable mechanism to resolve these differences.

Y1K

I am now officially one of those PIs that are unapologetic about prioritizing festivities over boundaries

The word "December" in traditional Japanese is "Shiwasu", which literally means everyone is so busy trying to get their shit done before the end of the year so much so that even monks are running.

Christmas sushi

Came here to give 100 Likes. Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving, you filthy animals

Can we talk about how COVID took the costco combo pizza from us.

I had a kind of a Monday where towards the end of day I was so certain that it was Friday that when at the very end of the day an undergraduate student that was interviewing my lab was leaving I uttered the phrase "have a good weekend"

My top three hobbies are watching soccer, skiing, and being compliant to annual trainings

The reason why I can't stand Liverpool is because of that time when Steven Gerard and his pals came back 0-3 from half-time to win the Champions League against AC Milan and I'm just bitter that nothing in life should be that perfect and that squeaky clean, can-do energy is so American and I hate it.

We had a chance to hear a master speaker present his research on osteocalcin. I think I will remember this seminar for a very very long time.

Today I biked in front of a house where 8 years ago I dropped Andrew off so he can hang out with a friend that moved in recently. The house was on market. The boy was a foster child. He and his older sister recently moved in with a couple that was in their late 60s.

Somewhat exhausted from attending the Kidney Week on the heels of attending the Obesity Week but I had a great time catching up with Nephrology colleagues

Precious Opurum and Stephen Decker were both selected for best presentation awards in their sections. Grateful for the American Society of Nephrology that are so welcoming to those like us that are new to the kidney field, providing mentorship and community to these early career scientists.

Katalin Susztak receiving the Homer W. Smith Award at the American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week

Jeff Friedman receiving the Obesity Society Presidential Medal at the Obesity Week

I thought i was being brilliant scoring a seat with extra leg room.

Lactate biosensor

The second highest approval rating historically for the first female Japanese Prime Minister.

What else could you ask for on a birthday morning

I can only be happy for Dave Roberts who gave us that stolen base

ye olde tailgateth

Still the funniest thing I've seen on the internet

HIIT

Precious Opurum now presenting at the Basic Research Forum for Emerging Kidney Scientists

Stephen Decker presenting now at the Basic Research Forum for Emerging Kidney Scientists

Our very first Seminars in Metabolsim speaker since rebranding the former DMRC into the Center of Metabolic Health! We had a chance to welcome our good friend Patrick Seale that described his new work not just in the adipose but also in the smooth muscle.

I thank the almighty for middle school drama teachers

If you regularly donate, donate early and donate now. If you have never donated, the food bank needs your help more than ever.

At Chile-Tepin, celebrating Guoshen's defense, where a large quantity of food was consumed.

The "Two-Hit Model" for our Benning Lecture. The famous metabolic model of cardiovascular disease that has revolutionized mechanistic studies not just for HFpEF but also for many obesity co-morbidities in humans.

I'll be at the Obesity Week in Atlanta Nov 4-6, and Kidney Week in Houston Nov 7-9. Would love to catch up with my science nerds.

Fall

5 boys, 5 yrs of age, 5 hikes. Passed on my father's tradition that he started 40 years ago.

At the Inaugural Cardiorenal Metabolic Center (CRMC) Symposium. I am pleasantly surprised how natural the marriage of topics in kidney and heart feels. It is also very timely particularly with the GLP1s strongly influencing the way nephrologists and cardiologists practice.

still doing this after tenure