iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 4h

Celebrating the 3 amigos on their paper identifying metazoan HJURP orthologs: @jeremyahollis.bsky.social (Malik/ Campbell labs), @irinakitop.bsky.social (Nic Lehrbach lab), Jason Stonick (Cecilia Moens lab). @basicsci.fredhutch.org Mugs: sciencegrit.com Paper: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Hanging out with the best people in a great restaurant in Paris. (One should be so lucky) @antoinemolaro.bsky.social Ines Drinnenberg

Harmit Malik visiting former postdocs Ines Drinnenberg (Institut Curie) and Antoine Molaro (GReD)

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Way to keep your eye on what is really important @bsky.app community

Trending topics in bluesky shows that the top discussed topic is the debate over iced coffee at interviews

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

“…the push by AI companies to solve mathematical problems as a benchmark is detrimental to the science of mathematics, and to the mathematical community. The goals of the AI companies and the goals of the mathematical community are severely misaligned.“

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Here's a quick and cool cheat-sheet on all the competitions, eligibility, deadlines (just realizing the dates I wrote above were the opening dates, not the deadlines: please consult the links I posted for the correct dates and more details of why you should absolutely apply)

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

We used structural modeling + minigenome assays to get our first look at this critical host-virus interface. Great collaboration between MSTP student Megan Levy (our lab) & postdoc America Chi in @jagdishpatel.bsky.social’s lab at U Idaho. Preprint online now: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Model of how a critical loop of MxA interacts with the nucleoprotwin (NP) of Thogotovirus, which is distantly related to influenza

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

Wait! I can use ChatGPT®️, Claude®️, and Perplexity®️ in my entire Workday®️ ?

Threads user asks: All the people who are anti-AI or want to slow AI progress, I have one question:

If AI disappeared tomorrow, could you still get through an entire workday without ChatGPT, Claude, or any other AI tool?

Imagine AI was suddenly banned. Would you actually be willing to give it up?

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

And just like that… @pravrutharaman.bsky.social is ready to leave us to start her lab at @umassboston.bsky.social We mark this occasion by the ‘solemn’ passing of the crown and specter to the next seniormost postdoc @tamanash.bsky.social; may his reign be as short as British PMs.

Malik lab passing of the crown and scepter from the departing senior postdoc to the next seniormost postdoc

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Packed house for @psmitchej.bsky.social promotion seminar today! Patrick representing with a snazzy seminar and a snazzy suit!

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

There were so many better possibilities… (Yes I’m revealing my geekdom)

Cover page of DC comics’ first issue of “The new Golden Age”

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I’m sure the most pressing thing in everyone’s mind is… What is that font? And why?

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

My only counter is that ‘all (healthy) poopholes are filled with 💩’ at some point or the other :) Like it says in one my favorite children’s books:

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I wish I did not have to bring up this old tweet from ‘that other place’ every now and again but here we are (again) and here it is…

A reminder: the scientific accomplishments of serial sexual harassers do not make up for the grievous injury caused to science & young scientists over generations (even if this were a simple math argument which... WTF!). This 'genius myth' protects such folks in the first place.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

23 years of trying (and mostly failing) to be a good dad.

Happy birthday cake with the numbers ‘23’ signifying 23rd birthday

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

The remarkable @jeremyahollis.bsky.social defended his PhD thesis on the evolutionary innovations and landscapes of integrin proteins from Melody Campbell & Malik labs today to a packed house @fredhutch.org @basicsci.fredhutch.org Jeremy is a force of nature & one of the kindest people I’ve ever met

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 12/07/2026

I am of course interest in who will be the new owner of the NFL champions @seahawksofficial.com But the biggest good news in all this is that all the philanthropies associated with the late Paul Allen will get an infusion of $9 billion to infuse into their important activities including science.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I think the scorecard tells a very interesting story. Lost in the shuffle is the remarkable consistency of student 22 (whom I hope got at least a B for their honesty) and that several students who cheated still did not get superb scores in their midterms, suggesting they were out of tokens.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

On the eve of a grant submission deadline, this prompt seems genuinely hurtful.

Microsoft prompt in Drafts folder says: "Nothing in Drafts. Start writing something fabulous."

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Their fantastic legacy in the lab is now being carried forward by a single remarkable post-bac scholar, Nelia Perry (mentored by postdoc Grant King), who hopes to fill their shoes before she herself heads to grad school in evolution/microbiology/genetics departments, hopefully by next summer.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

In this business, if you do a good job, you are always saying goodbye. I can scarcely believe we are saying goodbye to six remarkable post-bac scholars who are leaving our lab to pursue their dreams in grad/med school. Bon chance Tiia, Hana, Rebecca, Nic, Michelle, Chelsea!

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

Excited to (finally) get to meet and hear @matthewcobb.bsky.social deliver his Grace lecture @unil.bsky.social to kick off the Center for Integrative Genomics symposium on “Information transfer: From genes to behaviour"

Matthew Cobb getting ready to give the Grace lecture

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

The converse of extremely kind and generous mentorship … can also be highly motivating.

Simple poster states “Someone is out there holding their breath waiting for you to fail. Make sure they suffocate.”

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

OMG! I can’t believe someone actually bought insurance for their car and house. This almost certainly means they planned to burn down their belongings! Not to mention life insurance for their spouse. How suspicious is that?! (Viral vaccines in the age of RFK Jr is probably the safest bet of all)

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Well at least I’m glad they did not take this literally.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

I was interviewed by @katiepickup.bsky.social recently for @dmmjournal.bsky.social. This has a little bit of my background, a little bit on science and mentoring, and a little bit (ok, more than a little bit) on funding in science. Check it out at: journals.biologists.com/dmm/article/...

How important do you feel discovery research and ‘basic’ science is for understanding disease?

Well, I have a little bit of a biased view on the topic, since I'm a basic scientist myself. The lab has made more and more discoveries with very strong therapeutic implications, and often people ask me why we are not pursuing these further ourselves. Part of it is that I think about this very much as an ecosystem. People have different skills – I have colleagues who are very good at the application side of things and I have other colleagues, including people in my lab, who are very good at the basic science. There are a lot of very smart people at every stage in the ecosystem and, sometimes, we have to acknowledge that we can't all be experts in every step. A lot of basic science discoveries will end up having profound implications in the clinic – if you don't have the full imagination about how to get it there, that's okay, because you're still a very important piece of the jigsaw puzzle and other people can help. If the basic science discoveries didn't exist, then it's quite possible that the well would run dry. We cannot simply rely on the idea that the therapies currently in clinical trials are going to be enough because we already know that – for diseases, such as cancer, and with rapidly evolving viruses – there needs to be a constant influx of new ideas to stay ahead of the arms race. I'd also make a plug for the fact that, ultimately, we are all interested in human disease, but disease research in humans is not ethical or possible. This is why creating and studying model organisms in a high-throughput, low-investment context is incredibly important. We cannot just say ‘okay, we're going to stop work on anything that is not related to human research’, because – actually – it's all relevant to humans.

Do you think basic science is particularly threatened by cuts to funding?

Science itself is quite uncertain. We do experiments wondering if they will even work. It's discovery, and you don't know where it's going to lead. It could lead to a billion-dollar company, something like mRNA vaccines or CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing, or it could simply be something that interests you. Sometimes it might appear esoteric from the outside, but there are very smart people dedicated to this work. We shouldn't lose sight of the fact that most of this work is paid for by taxpayers, but funding uncertainty creates a very unstable foundation. If the foundations are weak, people are going to get much more conservative about the science that they're doing and worry that ‘blue-skies research’ is not worth pursuing because it won't get funded. And that would be a mistake because all innovation in science really originates from blue-skies, basic research. The second thing that uncertainty does is send a message to our young trainees – who are our future – that this is not a career option that will provide professional and personal stability. I worry that this kind of uncertainty will mean we lose an entire generation of people, and that would be a loss we might not be able to overcome.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Announcing Seattle DROP: Discover Research Opportunities for Postdocs on May 5th Interested in postdoc opportunities in Seattle, WA? Seattle DROP is a virtual biomedical postdoc recruitment event sponsored by @fredhutch.org, @uwnews.uw.edu, and @seattlechildrens.org on May 5th from 8 AM-1 PM PT.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 01/04/2026

Celebrating our lab manager Aida Flor de la Cruz, on her 30th anniversary of working at @fredhutch.org @basicsci.fredhutch.org Aida is absolutely amazing at everything she does, from art, pottery, baking to microscopy, therapy, & drosophila genetics. We’re very lucky to have her.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 27/03/2026

Behold! The entirely predictable lamentable consequences of your impulsive actions.

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Magnesium depletion by Candida albicans unleashes two unusual modes of colistin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa with different fitness costs. @hsiehyp.bsky.social, Robert Ernst lab, @ajaidandekar.bsky.social, my lab. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... ipmb.sinica.edu.tw/en/activitie...

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

Dan was one of my faculty mentors when I started at @fredhutch ; we (I) really miss him

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 08/03/2026

The craziest part is not that India scored 255 runs in 20 overs of a T20 World Cup final, it’s not even that New Zealand is still predicted of a 11% chance to still win. I think the craziest part is that 11% might be an underestimate! What a bowlers’ graveyard!

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Rebecca Tarnopol @tarnopol.bsky.social receives the 2026 Larry Sandler award for best Drosophila PhD thesis

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 05/03/2026

Pictured: Pelin Volkan, Daria Siekhaus, and Suzy Brown- three of the leaders in the Deosophila community (in addition to Cassandra Extavour, Akhila Rajan, Jacob Kagey, and Rodrigo Fernandez-Gonzalez) who are responsible for putting on #Dros26 @genetics-gsa.bsky.social

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Quite literally a ‘protection racket’ (anything is available at a very reasonable price)

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 22/02/2026

Pretty sure the good folks in Denmark and Greenland have read all about the Wooden Horse from Homer’s Odyssey

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Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Speaking of the “staggering sums of money stolen from the State by corrupt politicians” what has happened to the billions of dollars obtained through the tariffs?

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