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John Higgins

@jhigginswriter.bsky.social
904 followers 2.6K following 224 posts

Science writer, Fred Hutch News, covering the Basic Sciences and Human Biology research divisions of Fred Hutch Cancer Center @fredhutch.bsky.social. Frmr @seattletimes-rss.bsky.social, Akron Beacon Journal, soljourno.bsky.social, @ksjatmit.bsky.social.

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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
There are raisins, salty from the nuts, but they are not chocolate covered. Mixing those two addictive snacks would bring the full force of the DEA upon my home.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
My daughter has hooked me on Costco Trail Mix with the m&m's and there's an argument to be made that this is elder abuse...also, pass the trail mix, please.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Cosmic Crisp of course!
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Thanks for being there!
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Every word, especially the bits about AI "going rogue," which obfuscates mundane human incompetence at best, reckless pursuit of profit at worst.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
A lovely tribute!
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Is there anyone more clever and delightful on the Internet than Elle Cordova? No there is not.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Less news, more chomping!
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
You can see the Olympic mountains from the north...we see them from the East. Cheers 🥂!
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
We love it. So close to Seattle. In just a few hours, by ferry or seaplane, you find yourself in a free country not in thrall to a lunatic, and it's glorious.
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Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 03/08/2026
How can a tiny worm shape a scientific career? Join 2026 GSA Mentorship Award recipient @irinakitop.bsky.social of @fredhutch.org on August 20 at 1:00 p.m. EDT as she shares how C. elegans has guided discoveries, collaborations, and approaches to mentorship. 🔗https://buff.ly/iUmQCCQ
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Something else to consider: we may be utterly scrupulous on our end, but what about editors/publishers on the other end? Thou shalt not alter a single syllable of the author's work except by thine own hand probably isn't a realistic expectation.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
From the high of welcoming World Cup to the low of another mass shooting in America. Our city and our children and our nation deserve so much better than this ridiculous paralysis and ever mounting death toll.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
I hope prosecutors, judges and juries, as well as historians, take a good long look at this regime.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Some days I scroll this site and despair for modern civilization. But I just left a PhD defense that filled me with hope (more to come soon on that at Fred Hutch News). This place has always made great science but it should also be known that Fred Hutch makes great scientists.
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Donna Minkowitz @donnaminkowitz.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
EVERYONE reading this needs to post a comment on the OMB rule before midnight to stop the government from fucking science forever.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 08/07/2026
Our good friends on Vancouver Island, BC would like a word about the deteriorating Canada-US relationship.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
Folks have the same odd way of thinking about insurance...I don't want to pay for health insurance I'll never use, as if they'd prefer a massive heart attack just to get their money's worth.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
We care about the game in Seattle and Trump's interference just plain sucks. The USA is now playing like a cursed team.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 30/06/2026
So true for all those reasons, plus I have yet to use a CMS that wasn't difficult to edit in except for fixing typos. It's a place for finished work only a button away from publication.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
The costs of losing the last election have only begun to be calculated, but they must be calculated in full.
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Fred Hutch Basic Sciences Division @basicsci.fredhutch.org · 22/06/2026
"Open science before it had a name." @FredHutch.org's Dr. Steve Henikoff has been doing it for 50+ years! Read @springernature.com how he helped shape modern genomics and pushed for more open scientific practices:
springernature.com
Open science before it had a name: An interview with molecular biologist Steven Henikoff | For Researchers | Springer Nature
Dr. Steven Henikoff shares his experiences of how sharing protocols enables other people to use a method you develop, and how this moves the
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The Cancer Letter @cancerletter.com · 22/06/2026
“This is a 5-alarm fire, and we need people, everyone, to first of all, understand the implications of these new policies and make sure that you reach out and make your voice heard,” said Carolyn Bertozzi, Nobel laureate, about the new OMB rule cancerletter.com/the-cancer-letter/…
cancerletter.com
Proposed OMB rule aims at the heart of the U.S. research enterprise—and scientists are fighting back “The question isn’t whether politics will influence research. Under this proposal, that’s the point....
Here are the battle lines: The White House Office of Management and Budget has published a “Regulation for Federal Financial Assistance,” a proposed rule that seeks to fundamentally redraw the ground rules for all federally funded research. On the other side are America’s scientists who aren’t just crying foul—they are readying for a political fight. […]
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Fred Hutch News writer Diane Mapes knows the difference between hope and hype, which is why patients trust her and you should too.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Thus endeth the presentation on Calling Bullshit, by calling BS. Perfect.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
"What OMB is proposing is not a reform of grants management. It is a complete political control apparatus layered over every stage of the federal science funding lifecycle."
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Teaching is the manipulation of attention. It's as simple and as complex as that.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Somewhere in this is a toddler who got a hold of a parents' phone and started ordering rides to the playground.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
I read this book, too, in high school in southern Oregon, but it wasn't until I joined the Akron Beacon Journal many years later that it became real. Kent State is near Akron and the ABJ won a Pulitzer for its coverage of the shooting.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 04/05/2026
Hmmm. Checks Wikipedia. Wow. Absolutely yes.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 24/04/2026
Yuck
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Behnam Nabet @behnamnabet.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Proud to share our latest paper in @rscchembio.rsc.org, where we tackle oncogenic TRK fusions. Together, @sauravk05.bsky.social and Jiewei Jiang develop potent and selective degraders of the TPM3-TRKA fusion, a key cancer driver. pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...
pubs.rsc.org
Development of PROTACs for targeted degradation of oncogenic TRK fusions
Chromosomal translocations leading to the fusion of tropomyosin receptor kinases (TRKs) with diverse partner proteins have been identified as oncogenic drivers in many adult and pediatric cancers. Whi...
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
Good luck @fredhutch.org applicants!
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 13/04/2026
"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."
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
We get plenty of snark and late night comedy, but not a mature forum informed by experts with the gravitas the moment requires.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
We simply don't have the institutional skill, experience or will to even discuss as grownups the mental state of the president: not the cabinet, not the Congress, not the Supreme Court, not the "4th estate" serious media. Just mass paralysis and silence in the face of clear and present danger.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 09/04/2026
@behnamnabet.bsky.social at Fred Hutch Cancer Center is doing important work on KRAS degraders www.fredhutch.org/en/news/cent...
fredhutch.org
Tricking cells into trashing cancer
In a study published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Fred Hutch Cancer Center cancer chemical biologist Behnam Nabet and his collaborators describe how they used targeted protein degradation in mice to rapidly destroy lung and pancreas tumors caused by a variant of a commonly mutated, cancer-driving gene.
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Lucas Sullivan @lucasbsullivan.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Pleased to share our recent work out today in @natmetabolism.nature.com. This study addresses a longstanding mystery - NRF2-driven cancers increase cysteine acquisition (via xCT) by ~5x - so where does all that cysteine go?
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 08/04/2026
Writing makes thinking explicit. There are thoughts we don't know we're thinking until we discover them through writing. Writing teaches us our own minds: what we're thinking and where our thinking needs work. It's diagnostic. My writing teachers (one in poetry, one in journalism) taught me that.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 07/04/2026
Impeach is the word of the day and the week and the month. Impeachment now.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Just scanning his posts I immediately appreciate how non-ideological he is, even on old sandtraps like direct instruction v. Inquiry.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 06/04/2026
Looking forward to reading this. Though it takes a lot of work to build a classroom culture, one of the benefits of harnessing that stubborn sociality is creating opportunities for students to teach each other... sometimes a student can just break it down for a peer better than the teacher can.
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Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
Since I'm getting a questions about the new data - a few _preliminary_ comments: 1️⃣ Are the outbreaks in the US connected? 👉 Very likely. 2️⃣ Does this mean US will lose elimination status? 👉 Yes, but that's been clear for a while. Data: nextstrain.org/measles/geno... A few details + caveats 🧵👇
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
From Newport, Oregon on one end of US 20 to Boston, MA, sea to shining sea.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
#NoKings in Newport, Oregon, one of many up and down the beautiful Oregon coast!
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 28/03/2026
Remember this when you hear someone opine that there's not a dime's worth of difference between the parties, it's just two wings of the business party, etc. There's a cost in human life when D's lose elections. That should count in the moral calculus of withholding support from flawed candidates.
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Helen Branswell 🇨🇦 @helenbranswell.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
1. A #flu update: #CDC has learned of 8 more pediatric flu deaths, bringing this season's total to 123. That number will continue to rise; deaths are often reported on a delay. Case in point: 2024-25's peds death total rose by 1 last week with a death from Feb '25 just reported. ~85% were not vaxed.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Enjoyed many of his books, especially a quiet one called Old Friends about life in a nursing home.
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
Salute to Susan Parkhurst, the newest AAAS fellow from Fred Hutch Cancer Center @fredhutch.org @basicsci.fredhutch.org
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John Higgins @jhigginswriter.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
This is more than a threat to a field of research, it's a threat to 21st century civilization: "We are living through a period in which the scaffolding underpinning entire bodies of knowledge is no longer secure."
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