iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 1h

“Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast, and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.” —Marcus Aurelius

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

“Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind” — JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Love Taiwan’s cigarette labels. Big graphic warnings are among the WHO’s most cost-effective strategies to reduce tobacco use. Studies suggest most head & neck cancers could be prevented by 1) eliminating tobacco and 2) HPV vaccination. Other causes: alcohol & (esp. in Taiwan) betel nut.

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Seems like a bad idea. Indexes resembling this fund are up >400% since 2020, so if you buy now you’re “chasing returns” and “buying high.” Likely top holdings include Google & Nvidia—just more concentration. And if I had the secret to *future* returns, I wouldn’t plaster the metro. I’m skeptical!

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Absentee ballot MAILED from Taipei! 🗳️ I'm voting in Michigan for Abdul EL-SAYED & many others. Our government has been purged of many of its regulators and experts while the President profits. We're in pointless wars & destroying lives. (All views my own.) I hope you’ll join me and vote.

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

For colleagues: our Supplementary Data 1 may interest you, where we have compiled tons of molecular features like variation at every codon in the HPV16 genome. We hope this resource will be put to lots of use! It’s a pleasure to be part of this research in the @lisamirabello.bsky.social group! 2/2

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I am stunned and filled with gratitude to have our recent paper on HPV16 featured as “Paper of the Week” by the International Papillomavirus Society! It means so much to be part of this research community and to have our work highlighted. 1/2

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Some bangers in last week’s New Yorker

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I invite you to join me in Athens for IPVS 2026, the 38th Annual Conference of the International Papillomavirus Society (Oct 22-25). 🏛️ Connect, learn, and share insights on the latest #HPV research. More info here ➡️https://invt.io/1txb5wivrq5 #IPVS2026 #HPVPreventionAndCare #HPVConference

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

New TreasuryDirect email full of superfluous spaces and needless newlines does not inspire confidence that care is being taken in the lamentable switch to IDme

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Decided to start the week by printing out several papers to review—even got a paper cut in the process. I am filled with the joy of learning again. It feels like a return to a past age, where the ideas come slower but they’re better and they last longer. We are tactile creatures.

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

This challenges the adequacy of a simpler approach that categorizes each sample only by its HPV type — or even only by its type’s sublineage. We’re really looking forward to discussing these ideas, and to hearing the latest insights from our colleagues working on HPV. 3/3

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

My presentation will document what we’re learning in the Lisa Mirabello lab, in collaboration with Chad Brenner and colleagues, about oropharyngeal tumor samples that are coinfected by multiple sublineages of the same HPV type, in this case HPV16. 2/3

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Joyful to learn that our HPV research was accepted for a talk at #IPVS2026 in Athens, Greece (October 22–25). 1/3

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Congratulations to Rasmus Nielsen and Ziheng Yang for receiving The Balzan Prize! For "Molecular Evolution: Decoding Patterns of Genomic Change... their pioneering and complementary contributions to molecular evolution... have transformed the study of evolutionary adaptation."

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David Maddock @davidm54.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Left my copy of Gillespie out a few too many days in the sun

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

The way I see it, the current false equation of democratic socialism (with carve outs for Social Security and libraries, it would seem) with communism has one purpose only: scare voters away from those who would see tax dollars used to benefit the majority instead of the ultrawealthy. 2/2

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

For anyone who enjoys the wisdom of George Orwell; for anyone who refers to the Ministry of Truth, Thought Police, or Big Brother; consider that “every line” Orwell wrote was “against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism.” 1/2

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Does anyone have experience with the Trader Joe’s product, or knowledge on how it can possibly be so cheap (if the same)? I really trust TJ’s so I’m inclined to think the formulation has simply never been that expensive. I’d certainly welcome paying 1/14th the price! Welcome thoughts! 5/5

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Today I tried them both and they SEEM almost identical. They have similar viscosity, appearance, and smell (that characteristic hint of freshly opened hot dogs). The Trader Joe’s might have been SLIGHTLY runnier and slightly more translucent (a thick drinking alcohol look). 4/5

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

HOWEVER, the SkinCeuticals patent expired in March 2025, and I just found the exact same formulation (on paper) at Trader Joe’s for ~$13. 3/5

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

The problem is that the formulation of C with the strongest evidence — the “CE Ferulic” formula by SkinCeuticals with 15% L-ascorbic acid, 1% alpha tocopherol, and 0.5% ferulic acid for stability — is WILDLY EXPENSIVE at ~$180. 2/5

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

One is 14x more expensive. I recently became obsessed with skincare, settling on Vitamin C as one of the only substances with real evidence (with moisturizer, sunscreen, niacinamide, retinol). Taiwan even has a phrase “早C晚A”, meaning C in the morning and A (retinol) in the evening. 1/5

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

TODAY is voting day in Michigan, 7 AM to 8 PM. Get out there and do it, my friends! 🗳️

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Doing the work is the best cure for the difficulty of doing the work. JULIA CAMERON, FINDING WATER

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Ryan Hisner @ryanhisner.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Haven't seen this shared, but it's a great one by a giant in the field, Trevor Bedford. Finds that fastest SARS-2 fitness growth was 2021 to mid-2022. Since then there's been a steady rate of evolution ("fitness flux") >4x faster than H3N2 flu A, a benchmark for rapidly evolving RNA viruses. 1/2

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Our full catalogue of HPV16 genetic variation is available in our Supplementary Data 1. We hope the research community will take advantage of this painstakingly-compiled resource. Full paper (open access): www.nature.com/articles/s41... 9/9

nature.com

HPV16 genetic variation provides evidence of positive natural selection driven by HLA class I - Nature Communications

Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes more cancer than any other virus, yet for unknown reasons, HPV experiences differential success infecting and persisting in individuals. To investigate how human and ...

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

OUT NOW in Nat Commns @natcomms.nature.com: HPV16 causes the majority of the 1,800 cervical cancers diagnosed every single day, but most infections are controlled by the immune system. Our study shows that these disparate outcomes are shaped by genetic variation in both host and virus. 🧬 1/9

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

This study would not have been possible without endless support from mentors Lisa Mirabello @lisamirabello.bsky.social and Meredith Yeager @meredithyeager.bsky.social. Our team of coauthors combined disparate expertise for a uniquely impactful study. I am deeply grateful to them all. 8/9

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Our work suggests that human variation and HPV16 variation should be studied in combination, as it is their INTERACTION that determines infection outcomes. HLA data will be particularly important for achieving a full understanding viral-host interactions in HPV-associated disease. 7/9

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

The codons with elevated amino acid variation also had more rare variation in precancers/cancers than controls, a difference that was significant for the E1 protein. This suggests a role for specific mutations, such as those allowing immune escape, in HPV16 persistence and progression to cancer. 6/9

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

The human immune allele HLA-B*07:02 is a known risk factor for HPV16-related cervical cancer. Our data suggest a simple mechanistic explanation: its epitopes are functionally unconstrained — free to mutate their amino acids without disrupting the virus — allowing immune escape in B*07:02+ hosts. 5/9

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

We then examined short segments of HPV16 proteins that are recognized by the immune system, called epitopes. We found that epitopes recognized by cytotoxic T cells through the human immune allele HLA-B*07:02 contained disproportionately many positively selected codons. 4/9

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

We discovered 56 codons in the HPV16 genome at which amino acid variation exceeds that expected by chance (dN>dS). This is evidence of selection for functional changes that benefit the virus. These positions — being variable — are important targets to avoid in immunotherapies. 3/9

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Most HPV16 research treats the virus as genetically static. It is not. HPV16 isolates differ by up to ~2% of its ~7900 bp genome, and can differ in cervical cancer risk by >100-fold. We analyzed 4704 carefully-curated HPV16 genomes to study this variability. 2/9

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

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⿻ Audrey Tang 唐鳳 @audreyt.org · 17/07/2026

Proud as Punch to appear in “The Humanist Review of AI”.😎 Our essays by writers, artists, philosophers, investors & technologists examine the intersection of people & technology.🔀 Let’s explore AI’s impact on the world & #FreeTheFuture🖖 — together! ▶️ humanistreview.ai/issue-1/tang...

Humanism After Optimization by Audrey Tang, Taiwan’s cyber ambassador, first digital minister, architect of the Taiwan Model for digital diplomacy and 2025 Right Livelihood laureate, is one of the essays featured in The Humanist Review of AI supported by Microsoft AI. The centre of the light pink essay cover features an abstract, vertically oriented geometric graphic in coral and orange tones, forming a mosaic-like image of a butterfly.
https://humanistreview.ai/
https://civic.ai/

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Huge congrats to Sambit Mishra, Lisa Mirabello @lisamirabello.bsky.social, Meredith Yeager @meredithyeager.bsky.social, and the whole team of coauthors for this important work: Bin Zhu, Laurie Burdett, Robert Burk, Michael Dean, Rolando Herrero, Mark Schiffman, and Ana Cecilia Rodriguez. 5/6

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The above suggests that a negative test between two positive tests may often reflect an undetected (but not cleared) infection. Caution should be exercised in declaring that a virus has been cleared, as opposed to merely immune controlled with a “latent” period of “subclinical persistence”. 4/6

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