Very cool to be at an over-subscribed hands-on meeting organized by @chemicalprobes.org, GSK and @crick.ac.uk, at which trainees will be guided by experts to learn how to assess the quality of small molecule tools used in the literature. Dozens of Protacs will be assessed today.

A Canadian-led collaboration is leading a global initiative to transform drug discovery with #AI and #OpenScience! 🍁 @uhn.ca, @sickkidsto.bsky.social & @thesgc.bsky.social, are partnering on a $26M grant to support the LIGAND-AI Project—an international effort to advance precision medicine.⬇️

Steve Kerr is an impressive individual. Wins with class, loses with class, and speaks the truth. m.youtube.com/watch?v=5tmX...

After two years of method development, it’s out. Pretty excited about this method, which not only expedites hit-finding, but also expedites hit verification. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I don’t read any scientific papers in which the authors use too many significant digits in their figures. It’s a strong proxy indicator of shoddy science and shoddy thinking. On the up side, it means I only need to read a few papers a week.

I moved to Canada from Wales as a young boy, grew up here, and stayed. A great place to live, raise a family, and do science. We’re a multicultural country of immigrants, and that’s not bad, it’s our superpower. Come explore for yourself! @uhnresearch.ca @utoronto.ca www.science.org/content/arti...

AI in biology: "I read about some new computational method...get excited because it’s exactly what I need...I try the method...Most of the time things don’t work...I have seen this play out so many times my default assumption is nothing is going to work" blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...

Feel good story of day. Went to outdoor movie night at granddaughter’s school yesterday in downtown Toronto. The children and parents comprised a rainbow of colours, speaking a Babel of languages. It was so joyful watching all the children run and play together. Canada has done something right.

If anything, this analysis on “what would have happened if the NIH had spent 40% less over past years” underestimates the impact of NIH on innovation. The most valuable IP walks on two feet. And guess who paid for the training of many industry scientists? www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

In selecting an antibody to use for your experiment, you should look in the literature and find the one that one is most cited. NOT!

For the non-Canadians out there, one of our best just died. Ken Dryden was an athlete, scholar, public servant. Bill Bradley is the closest equivalent in the United States. Dryden was my childhood hero. You want to understand a lot about Canada, read his book “The Game”. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

#ICYMI Congratulations to @uhn.ca’s Drs. Cheryl Arrowsmith and John Dick for receiving the Awards for Excellence in Cancer Research from the Canadian Cancer Society! Read more on their research and awards ➡️ www.uhnresearch.ca/news/recogni...

CACHE 7 is launched with support from the @gatesfoundation.bsky.social and unpublished data from Damian Young at @bcmhouston.bsky.social, Tim Willson @thesgc.bsky.social and Neelagandan Kamaria InSTEM. Design selective PGK2 inhibitors. We'll test them experimentally. bit.ly/4lnVYOs

In 2016, before Trump secured the GOP nomination, the Boston Globe made a fictional dystopian front page of what a nightmare world it would be if Trump won. And those just pretty much are our actual headlines now.

#HepatitisC is a curable disease, but life-saving treatment is priced out of reach for millions of people who need it. On #WorldHepatitisDay, join us as we call for access to affordable treatments globally! 👉 Read more about the study presented at the 2025 #EASLCongress in May: bit.ly/4fdYoxS

After 5 years of planning and pilot projects, Target2035, which aims to develop and share pharmacological probes for all human proteins by 2035, is coming out of stealth mode. Our Roadmap for accelerating small molecule hit discovery is now published. rdcu.be/exxi7

🚀 On July 21, the Chemical Probes Portal celebrates 10 years! Launched after the landmark 2015 @NatChemBio paper by Arrowsmith et al., it now features >1150 compounds, >600 targets, and 1600+ expert reviews—powering better biomedical research. 🧪🔬 👉 chemicalprobes.org #ChemicalBiology @icr.ac.uk

Come join our faculty. Rank is open (assistant, associate, full professor) in experimental physical chemistry. A department with a distinguished past and bright future.

Groan….

Not a minute goes by over the past 60 years that I have regretted my parents’ decision to move us to Canada. A country that is, and has always been, great. Happy Canada Day to all! 🇨🇦

This is heartbreaking, and shame on Trump, Musk and Rubio. But given USAID and the US people did a huge public service by investing in the infrastructure to distribute medicine in Africa, why can’t Canada step up, leverage this, and fund some of the programs? www.nytimes.com/2025/06/21/o...

CACHE4 results are out! All previously known CBLCB ligands shared the same scaffold. Congrats to Keunwan Park who successfully designed a chemically novel series, to the experimental team at @thesgc.bsky.social and thanks to @conscience-network.bsky.social for greasing the wheels! bit.ly/4mYNe3r

Jays. So hot right now. Jays. #BlueJays @torontobluejays.bsky.social

Unbelievable www.nytimes.com/2025/05/29/w...

The United States has levied sanctions on Harvard but not on Russia. A curious set of values.

Waiting for Trump to emerge

@thesgc.bsky.social is generating large/open screening data and inviting data scientists to train their ML models via DREAM challenges: 1- train your model on DEL data 2- retrospectively predict 138 ASMS true positives 3- predict new hits. We will test them and publish together. bit.ly/3YXVKoT

Congratulations @tridentpct.bsky.social open science lead Dr. Richard Gold, Faculty of Law, McGill University for being named a Distinguished James McGill Professor. Learn more about Richard here. www.mcgill.ca/law/profs/go...

Santos sentenced to 7 years. His big mistake was not to storm the Capitol. www.cbc.ca/news/world/u...

To me, among the most distressing things in Canadian politics is the tacit acceptance of rude and uncouth words in signs and flags directed at (almost always left-leaning) politicians. I have no idea how this became acceptable.

A new study models the impact of the implosion of U.S.-funded disease treatment and prevention in the developing world — and suggests that Elon Musk and Marco Rubio will go down as among history’s greatest monsters if funding and effective administration are not restored.

20 years ago, we retrofitted our house in downtown Toronto to be heated by closed-loop geothermal, after E had seen it being used in a home in a Swiss mountain village (for 10 years prior to that!). Works great. www.cbc.ca/newsinteract...

Fun things one might not expect to see while cycling through downtown Toronto parks.

I can’t say I’m a fan of the politics of blame and faux rage. It may work to get elected (sometimes), but at the expense of our society and civil discourse, as other countries have shown. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

Watching the Canadian federal leaders debate. One candidate often starts his sentences with “The reality is….” And when that happens, you know what’s coming out of his mouth next is not.

Indeed. And so ironic that while the new administration says it is very keen to understand the effects of food on health, their actions are resulting in the closure of one the US’s most effective labs in that area @kevinh-phd.bsky.social

Steve Kerr wore a Harvard basketball shirt after the Warriors’ win tonight: “Yes, this is me supporting Harvard. Way to go. Way to stand up to the bully.”

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

When I play make-believe with my 4 year granddaughter, she just makes up the story as she goes. She’s practicing for when she is President. www.bbc.com/news/article...

Gotta admit that I think this warning on some CBC stories is exactly the wrong message - if our goal as Canadians is to tackle complex problems together. “Warning: This story includes discussion of offensive and racist language.”

“Data collection and coordination are expensive, so governments and firms will need to step up to fund them. Given the payoffs…..the investments are well worth the costs.” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I just retrieved all the emails I received from one Program Officer at NIA. Of 119 emails over 6 years, 18 were sent in evening, before 7AM or on weekend. The dedication to the public good shown by NIH staff is amazing. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/o...

Congratulations to our Senior Scientist Dr. Daniel De Carvalho for receiving the 2025 Peter Gilgan Canada Gairdner Momentum Award! 🎉 Read the media release here: www.gairdner.org/resource-hub...

C’mon @cbcnews-rss.bsky.social editors. You just manufactured a lead story based on 2 folks’ spouting non-evidence based opinions, complete with talk of conspiracy. What public interest does this serve? www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

David Brooks sees Idiocracy in America’s future. And present.

C’mon @nytimes.com. Would you write a column entitled “Trump claims he saw Sasquatch”…and then devote four more paragraphs on what colour it might be? The 75 countries are fantasy and should not be reported til confirmed independently. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/10/u...

Robert Cook-Deegan and me in @science.org: AI drug development’s data problem: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Kathleen Clark, law prof, on potential market manipulation yesterday by Trump who said “buy now!” and then hours later dropped tariffs. “If we still had a rule of law, a robust system for the rule of law, it would be investigated,”

One way to think about the financial situation is that “it will pass” when there’s a new US election. But the Americans who knowingly voted for a felon/fraudster haven’t gone away. And a Congress afraid of its own shadow won’t either. I honestly don’t see how the US comes back from this.

Jeepers. Who does this sound like? Pierre Poilievre about the size of his Conservative political rally here in Canada. “I think to have 10 to 15,000 people at one political rally, this is a movement like we've never seen”