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Cormac Sheridan

@cormacsheridan.bsky.social
1.2K followers 808 following 154 posts

Freelance science journalist - I write about what works in biotech - and what doesn't.

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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
@johncreedon.bsky.social Hi John, loved the Jimmy Crowley track & delighted to see the love & support for a national, regional & local treasure. Listening to his singing is an education in itself. Wishing the man himself the very best at this difficult time in his life.
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
www.europeanpressprize.com/article/what...
europeanpressprize.com
What the wounds are telling us - European Press Prize
To view the full article in English in its original layout, including all images and graphics, please follow this link. Please note: the original publication contains explicit and disturbing images an...
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Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · 17/04/2026
Minimal life by computer Progress toward a true virtual cell will depend on uniting AI’s pattern-finding power with the causal rigor of mechanistic models go.nature.com/48muYvd
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Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · 19/03/2026
A decade of research in review For Nature Biotechnology’s 30th anniversary, our editors look back at a few of their favorite papers published in the past decade go.nature.com/4sWhZs1
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Dave Levitan @davelevitan.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
“We can’t afford cancer research but $11 billion for one week of an absurd war is fine” is a hell of an argument
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John Gibbons 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺 @thinkorswim.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Very much looking forward to this public interview with the inimitable Ella McSweeney based around THE LIE OF THE LAND and hosted by UCD One Health. It’s on Weds Mar 25th from 7pm. www.eventbrite.ie/e/ella-ms-sw...
eventbrite.ie
Ella Ms Sweeney interviews John Gibbons on ‘The Lie of the Land'
Ella chats with John Gibbons live about ‘The Lie of the Land’—don’t miss this in-person convo!
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Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · 06/02/2026
The time is ripe for transitioning the field of immunotherapy to in vivo engineering as ex vivo engineering is now mature, with extensive knowledge on the safety & lifesaving aspect of these immunotherapies especially in blood cancers, solid tumors & autoimmunity go.nature.com/4r732m4 rdcu.be/e2yJa
go.nature.com
The dawn of in vivo immune cell engineering in oncology - Nature Biotechnology
Immunotherapy is at an inflection point. After three decades of accelerating progress, immunotherapy is entering the realm of in vivo engineering. This Comment discusses the potential of in vivo engin...
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 22/01/2026
Getting beyond the liver has been a key goal for developers of oligonucleotide-based drugs. For many tissues - notably the CNS, muscle & heart - antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates can elicit therapeutic effects well beyond those of unmodified siRNA or antisense drugs. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Now with oligos: antibody–oligonucleotide conjugates are the new drug modality to watch - Nature Biotechnology
Developers have married gene-modulating oligonucleotides with the targeted precision of antibodies, and the first filings using such conjugates in Duchenne muscular dystrophy are imminent.
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Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
Powerful piece in STAT this morning from some NIH staff members who have resigned www.statnews.com/2026/01/10/n... 1/3
statnews.com
The NIH has lost its scientific integrity. So we left
“We can no longer lend our credibility to an organization that has lost its integrity,” write four scientists and administrators who recently resigned from the NIH.
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 05/12/2025
Dogmatism, not data, drives RFK Jr.'s damaging anti-vax agenda. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
What’s the fuss about aluminum in vaccines?
Despite extensive safety record, U.S. health advisers are set to discuss claimed link to asthma
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Scott Gottlieb, MD @scottgottliebmd.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
12 former commissioners of the FDA came together to write a Perspectives piece for the New England Journal of Medicine; raising our concerns about recent changes to vaccine approval policy at the FDA and its implications for patients and public health.
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Ola Løkken Nordrum @olaln.bsky.social · 02/12/2025
One more lane, one more road won't fix this. It never have and it never will! The only solution is to fundamentally change our transport system away from private cars towards active and public transport.
rte.ie
'We've done all we can do to fix M50,' warns TII
Transport Infrastructure Ireland says there is almost nothing it can do to address traffic gridlock on the M50, while accepting that the road has reached capacity
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
Something is rotten in the state of science publishing... As if the external attacks from RFK Jr. et al weren't enough, dodgy operators are undermining it from within.
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Raywat Deonandan 🍁🇨🇦 @deonandan.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
Pretty much ANY statistic you see cited to frighten you about vaccines comes from the VAERS database. (Including the recent evidence-free missive from Vinay Prasad). Here's why VAERS can NEVER be a proper source for population-level vaccine risk estimates. Thread [1/9]
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
#Measles deaths down 88% since 2000, says @who.int . Vaccines have saved almost 59m lives in this time - but cases are on the rise again - vigilance against the world's most contagious virus is essential. #vaccineswork www.who.int/news/item/28...
who.int
Measles deaths down 88% since 2000, but cases surge
Global immunization efforts have led to an 88% drop in measles deaths between 2000 and 2024, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). Nearly 59 million lives have been saved...
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 23/11/2025
Great to hear a scientist and environmentalist - @elainemcgoff.bsky.social - and a farmer in nitrates derogation separately say the same thing here: that the government-led drive for maximum productivity was a MASSIVE mistake, with our rivers and (now, potentially) farmers paying the price.
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Just out in @natbiotech.nature.com - a deep dive into what's next in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis after the approval of @boehringerglobal.bsky.social's Jascayd (nerandomilast). There's still huge scope for innovation here - & many good ideas being pursued. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
FDA approves new mechanism to treat idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, expanding limited arsenal - Nature Biotechnology
The first-in-class small molecule Jascayd targets a fibrotic signaling cascade, offering new hope in a stagnant therapeutic field, as several other programs near maturity.
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
Good piece by Eric Stokstad on an unusual and very damaging toxic algal bloom - we can expect more of these as #climatechange creates #ecosystems havoc www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
Australia’s unprecedented toxic algal bloom has a surprise culprit
A relatively unknown species is producing a notorious neurotoxin, devastating sea life
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 30/10/2025
You could equally argue that humans are the only irrational species. I have a lot of respect for the decision-making processes of other species.
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Róisín Moriarty @roisinmoriarty.com · 29/10/2025
‪Over the weekend our letter, in response to John FitzGerald's article earlier last week, was published in the @irishtimes.com We corrected several incorrect claims that were made in the article. with @hannahdaly.ie @colmduff.bsky.social David Styles www.irishtimes.com/opinion/lett...
Screenshot of a letter to the editor of the Irish Times, a response to a letter earlier in the week that misrepresented the findings of a scientific paper.
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Philip Ball @philipcball.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
"The argument that paying more for medicines leads to more innovation is unfounded." Good editorial in @thelancet.com www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
Drug pricing and pharmaceutical innovation: a false promise
The UK is facing a pharma exodus. Major pharmaceutical companies have withdrawn about £2 billion in proposed investment from the country, blaming insufficient government investment. Central to the dis...
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Nature Portfolio @natureportfolio.nature.com · 24/10/2025
A paper in Nature reports that mRNA vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, also sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint inhibitors. #medsky 🧪
go.nature.com
SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint blockade - Nature
mRNA vaccines targeting SARS-CoV-2 also sensitize tumours to immune checkpoint inhibitors.
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
@tcddublin.bsky.social clinical trial shows repeated infusions of #ketamine of no benefit to patients hospitalised with #depression jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Serial Ketamine Infusions for Depression
This randomized clinical trial evaluates outcomes following adjunctive ketamine infusions vs midazolam for depression.
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
@johncreedon.bsky.social John, it's actually a murder of crows - but if there are only two or three it can be downgraded to an attempted murder ;)
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RTÉ News @news.rte.ie · 22/10/2025
The upcoming release of the 1926 census records of Ireland will be celebrated across a major public programme of events next year
rte.ie
Centenary celebrations for release of 1926 census
The upcoming release of the 1926 census records of Ireland will be celebrated across a major public programme of events next year.
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Pam Ronald @pcronald.bsky.social · 18/10/2025
No Kings!
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Most transcription factors were historically considered undruggable. But some innovative biotechs are changing all that - & big pharma is starting to pay attention (and big bucks). Out now in @natbiotech.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Big pharma seduced by transcription factors again. What has changed? - Nature Biotechnology
Long considered undruggable, transcription factors have finally become fair game for a clutch of innovative biotechs who are combining biological insights with innovative chemistry to bring into play ...
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Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) @msf.ca · 02/10/2025
MSF strongly condemns the killing of Omar Hayek by Israeli forces this morning in #Gaza. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues. Omar is our fourteenth colleague to be killed in Gaza since the war started. We call yet again for an end to the genocide.
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Ben Adler @benadler.bsky.social · 01/10/2025
Today in @nature.com , we highlight how a cousin of CRISPR-Cas10, mCpol, establishes an evolutionary trap in anti-phage immune systems. Check out @erinedoherty.bsky.social and my work from @doudna-lab.bsky.social lab here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A miniature CRISPR–Cas10 enzyme confers immunity by inhibitory signalling - Nature
Panoptes, an anti-phage defence system against virus-mediated immune suppression, is revealed.
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Dr David Robert Grimes @drg.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Impressive degree of mendacity to try insist on a Tylenol autism link, given its flatly contradicted by better data, like this study of >2 million Danish kids. There's a grim history of false "causes" for autism, a dogwhistle RFK Jr & Trump blowing.. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
jamanetwork.com
Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Children’s Risk of Autism, ADHD, and Intellectual Disability
This nationwide cohort study with sibling control analysis examines the association of acetaminophen use during pregnancy with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability.
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 18/09/2025
@johncreedon.bsky.social Delighted to hear Gavin Friday's Angel John An old favourite & arguably the funkiest tune that ever came out of Ireland
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Tom Fletcher @tomfletcherun.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
The Gaza Famine is the world’s famine. A preventable, predictable famine. Enough. Ceasefire. Open all crossings, north and south. Let us get food in, unimpeded and at massive scale.
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
The main thing - is it not already clear - RFKr Jr is uniquely unqualified to lead the HHS. All main agencies under his watch - NIH, FDA, CMS - are also headed by incompetent contrarian peddlers of disinformation, conspiracy theories, and pseudoscience. This will, and already does, cost lives.
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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 14/08/2025
Defending US democracy: the role of scientists @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
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Barbara Marte @barbmarte.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
new out in Nature www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
NNMT inhibition in cancer-associated fibroblasts restores antitumour immunity - Nature
An NNMT inhibitor reduces tumour burden and metastasis in multiple mouse cancer models and restores immune checkpoint blockade efficacy by decreasing cancer-associated-fibroblast-mediated recruitment ...
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APC Microbiome Ireland @apcmicrobiomeirel.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Ivan Sugrue @ucc.ie shares insights in new APC @nature.com - NJP Antimicrobials and Resistance paper: Trans-kingdom conservation of mechanism between bacterial actifensin and eukaryotic defensins. This is an output of the @erc.europa.eu project BACtheWINNER. #ERC #AMR #microbiome ➡️ bit.ly/3H34mox
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Nature @nature.com · 15/07/2025
Researchers have been sneaking secret messages into their papers in an effort to trick AI tools into giving them a positive peer-review report Read the full story: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
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Matthias Huss @matthias-huss.bsky.social · 04/07/2025
The #Glacier Loss Day is reached in Switzerland! From now on all melt that occurs on glaciers until October is unsustainable. This tipping point has only been reached so early in the record-shattering year 2022. Expect big ice loss due to the prolonged melt season and feedback effects
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David Roberts @volts.wtf · 02/07/2025
Elon Musk casually, and illegally, dismantled USAID. According to a new study in the Lancet, that action will lead to *14 million* premature deaths between 2025 and 2030. Again: Elon Musk is directly responsible for 14 million coming deaths. 4.5 million will be children.
thelancet.com
Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis
USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates show that, unless the a...
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Dr Abeba Birhane @abeba.blacksky.app · 25/06/2025
New paper hot off the press www.nature.com/articles/s41... We analysed over 40,000 computer vision papers from CVPR (the longest standing CV conf) & associated patents tracing pathways from research to application. We found that 90% of papers & 86% of downstream patents power surveillance 1/
nature.com
Computer-vision research powers surveillance technology - Nature
An analysis of research papers and citing patents indicates the extensive ties between computer-vision research and surveillance.
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
@johncreedon.bsky.social So lovely to hear Albatross John Was awestruck by its beauty the 1st time I heard it way back when It's a singular piece of music
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🦋 Gourdon Lab 🦠🔬 @delphe.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
🔔🧪 Super interesting… and promising! Stephen Wallace and his team at University of Edinburgh produced #paracetamol using genetically modified #E.coli bacteria from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), the main component of #plastic bottles. 🦠💊 #RecyclingPlastic 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A biocompatible Lossen rearrangement in Escherichia coli - Nature Chemistry
Biocompatible chemistry merges chemo-catalytic reactions with cellular metabolism for sustainable small-molecule synthesis. Now a biocompatible Lossen rearrangement has been demonstrated to control ba...
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 20/06/2025
#Argentina played the percentages so smartly. And they play with such skill, pride and passion. Sky Sports must be fuming, but triumphant neocolonial processions are always a tricky proposition. There won't be a cow milked in the Pampas tonight. Great game of #rugby. #LionsTour
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Cormac Sheridan @cormacsheridan.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
Individualized #cancer #vaccines targeting #neoantigens have shown promise in small-scale studies, but the field is waiting on data from Merck's & Moderna's phase 3 trial of the #mRNA vaccine Intismeran autogene in #melanoma. Just out in @natbiotech.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Individualized mRNA cancer vaccines make strides - Nature Biotechnology
The first cancer vaccines matched to a person’s unique tumor neoantigens are forging ahead, with expectations running high as the field awaits results from the first pivotal trial.
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Hannah Daly @hannahdaly.ie · 04/06/2025
Pleased to share our latest report, coauthored with Ciara Doherty at UCC’s Energy Policy and Modelling Group. We looked at how Ireland’s national carbon budget pathways stack up against EU climate obligations (ETS, ESR, EED, and the proposed 2040 target).
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Patrick Bresnihan @pbresnihan.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
In Orkney, council owned wind farms return £5.5M every year to fund public services. We have nothing like this in Ireland. The entire model is geared towards state facilitation of multinational energy companies and investors. ENGOs need to get behind public-commons partnerships.
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Eoghan Daltun 🌍 @irishrainforest.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
The new Save Our Sprat campaign will be holding a public demonstration in Bantry Square at 11am on Friday (day after tomorrow), calling for a moratorium on sprat fishing in Irish waters. I'll be there, can you come along too? The more, the better!! ✊️✊️✊️ 🐟 🌊 🦭 🐋 🐳🌊
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Scott Waldman @scottpwaldman.bsky.social · 27/05/2025
Elon Musk's Grok AI Chatbot introduces climate denialism when asked about the threat of climate change. It's the only one of the major AI chatbot companies that gives such answers. And it just started doing so a few months ago. www.eenews.net/articles/is-...
eenews.net
Is climate change a threat? It depends, says Elon Musk’s AI chatbot.
The latest version of Grok is promoting fringe climate viewpoints in a way it hasn’t done before, observers say.
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