iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 14h

Next Thursday at UNSW: BGI Group CEO Dr Ye Yin will present Life Data as Infrastructure: #AI and #Multi-Omics in #Health and #Industry, followed by a panel with John Mattick, Fatemeh Vafaee & Richard Harrison. 22 Oct | 11am–1pm | Free + light lunch Register for catering: tinyurl.com/4jewu9da

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

I've always been a scientific optimist, but I have seldom been this excited about the future of this field!

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

With direct RNA sequencing and frontier AI models, we now have the tools to start moving beyond the genome and dive into the mysterious world of RNA biology, deciphering its secrets and discovering new ways to engineer better therapies and molecular computing systems.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

It forms dynamic 3D structures that can have enzymatic activity, it binds to proteins and other RNAs is a sequence and structure-specific manner, it acts as a regulatory sensor and can change its sequence and structure from environmental cues, it targets other sequences of RNA and DNA, and more.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

RNA is a digital molecule that encodes biological function on multiple levels. mRNA vaccines are a simple model of this: design and antigen sequence, compile it into a nucleotide polymer, prepare and inoculate. But we know RNA is so much more than a messenger for proteins.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

The past 12 months have been the most exciting of my scientific career, largely fuelled by advances in AI. Genomic technologies have long been held back by software development. This is no longer a bottleneck thanks to LLMs and agentic workflows. But the kicker is how RNA ties into this...

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Reposted by Martin Smith

Bioplatforms Australia @bioplatformsaus.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Launching the Australian Sentinel Species Genomics Initiative 🌿 A new collaboration between Bioplatforms and Minderoo Foundation will harness genomics to better understand ecosystem resilience, environmental change and early biological signals of stress. Learn more: bioplatforms.com/project/sent...

bioplatforms.com

Sentinel Species Genomics Initiative - Bioplatforms Australia

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

The curative potential is there when immunotherapy is possible. mRNA vaccines, checkpoint inhibitors and CAR-T are transformative, but earlier detection/intervention/implementation is required. Monitoring is also critical, as is patching the remaining therapeutic gaps.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Tomorrow I’ll be at Parliament House with Pall Thordarson discussing how genomics, AI and RNA technologies can help build sovereign precision medicine capability for Australia. The question is whether we build that system here, or import it later on someone else’s terms. (5/5)

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Cancer genomics should become front-line health infrastructure: the foundation for better treatment decisions, faster clinical trial matching, AI-enabled interpretation, RNA therapeutics and smarter evidence around expensive medicines. (4/5)

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Australia has proof points. ZERO Childhood Cancer performs whole-genome sequencing for children with cancer. Omico’s PrOSPeCT program is building precision oncology pathways for adults with advanced, incurable and poor-prognosis cancers. The challenge now is scale. (3/5)

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

The piece begins with Rosie, a staffy cross with incurable cancer. Her story made the future feel practical: sequence the tumour, understand its biology, design a response, and learn carefully from what happens next. But the broader argument is about national capability, not one case. (2/5)

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Sequencing is not just a test. It is the front door to the next cancer system. My OpEd in The Australian is online today, ahead of tomorrow’s UNSW Showcase at Parliament House. 🧵⬇️ www.theaustralian.com.au/health/medic...

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

2/ The goal: use AI to understand how HLA diversity influences susceptibility to immune escape. The bigger picture: personalised MHC modelling is becoming a key foundation for next-generation immunotherapies and #PrecisionMedicine

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

1/ Impactful #genomics doesn’t always require expensive infrastructure. In our new preprint, we developed a long-read HLA profiling workflow costing ~US$20/sample using an Opentrons OT-2 robot, enabling high-resolution profiling across 500+ participants. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Reposted by Martin Smith

Lorne Genome Conference, Australia @lornegenome.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

Lorne Genome 2027 will be held 14 to 17th February in Lorne Australia. Our invited speakers will include Karen Arndt, Neil Brockdorff, Laura Banaszynski and Fides Zenk.

Lorne Genome 2027 Poster: 14 to 17th February, at Lorne Australia. Background shows the coast off Lorne. Invited speakers include Karen Arndt, Neil Brockdorff, Laura Banaszynski and Fides Zenk.

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Reposted by Martin Smith

Timothy Bredy @twbredy.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

Our latest work is online. An interesting observation about the contents of vaults in the absence of the key ncRNA vaultRC5. Seems important for memory.Well done Mason! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Dynamic regulation of neuronal vault trafficking and RNA cargo by the noncoding RNA, Vaultrc5

Vaults are large ribonucleoprotein complexes of unknown function. Here, we report that the vault-associated noncoding RNA, Vaultrc5, is highly enriche…

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Reposted by Martin Smith

Selene FeRNAndez @selfdz.bsky.social · 09/04/2026

📢 Sydney #RNA scientists: our next #SydneyRNASalon event is coming up! 🧬 ECR, student, or just RNA-curious? This one's for you! 📅 Thu 30 April · 2:10–4:30pm 📍 Room G07, Biosciences Building D26 UNSW 🥐 Refreshments sponsored by @rnasociety.bsky.social, Lexogen & @ramacgenomics.bsky.social

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

I don't think protein structure is generally required for mRNA vaccines (but it is for docking experiments, e.g. drug binding simulations) Neoantigen discovery requires genomic profiling (exome might be sufficient). These mutant proteins are what provides the immune system a cancer-specific target

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Reposted by Martin Smith

Palli Thordarson @palliunsw.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

@ashjogalekar.bsky.social Summarised beautifully on X the most profound lesson re Rosie and her personalised canine cancer vaccine, namely that Paul Conyngham's work here using AI to design the mRNA we made, demonstrates that Dyson's prophecy about "domesticating" Biotech is within reach! #ozchem

Paul Conyngham AI entrepreneur and Rosie's owner, with Prof. Pall Thordarson (myself), Director of the UNSW RNA Institute plus Rosie the staffy getting ready for our interview on Channel 9 Today Weekend show last Saturday.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

AlphaFold was used for molecular docking experiments to identify small inhibitory molecules, but the identified drugs could not be bought/imported, so this led us down the mRNA/neoantigen path

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

I think it's really important to find trusted, open-minded experts in biomedical and clinical research to guide you should you embark on a similar journey.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Agree the Alpha fold part isn't well reported. This is a question for Paul. I believe he used it to model mutated protein structures, the used molecular docking simulations to find a small molecular inhibitor. Ended up hitting a brick wall with that, as reported, which led to mRNA

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Paul has a blog post and the University has a media piece coming out as well. We're focused on the science here, experiments underway for eventual publication.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

It's a good question I don't think I can accurately answer, but I think there's potential for "democratization" of this technology, perhaps one of the best ways to make it scalable for humans. This might interest you: www.scientificamerican.com/article/pers...

scientificamerican.com

Personalized cancer vaccines are almost here—but federal funding cuts could derail them

Vaccines based on mRNA can be tailored to target a cancer patient’s unique tumor mutations. But crumbling support for cancer and mRNA vaccine research has endangered this promising therapy

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Probably correct, but we're comparing apples to oranges here. Don't think dogs get the same level of care as most humans, or at least don't have as many therapeutic options.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Another question for Paul, but I believe yes is the answer. Probably with some AI-influenced filtering beforehand

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Paul performed these steps with the help of ChatGPT. The resulting pipeline isn't public... Yet

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

This is a question for Paul, but I suspect this is unlikely as there may be sensitive intellectual property embedded within the pipeline. You could use ChatGPT to come up with something else though, like Paul did!

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

It's less than 2% of your genome ;) But yes, sequencing costs have gone down... For consumables. Skilled staff wages and quality control / data analysis are still major components of a sequencing service cost recovery model. Throughout helps bring cost down

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

Yes, we do this regularly in the research setting. What's remarkable here is that Paul was able to get upskilled and understand the biology with ChatGPT. It helps that he could afford experiments and had data analysis / AI experience (like how to launch high performance computing jobs)

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 15/03/2026

AU$3k was the initial tumour and normal DNA sequencing data, generated in early 2025. That cost was due to a balance of speed and throughout. We performed additional sequencing thereafter, to help validate the neoantigen selection, and now to see what's happening in the treatment-unresponsive tumor

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 13/03/2026

A good news story for you this morning in The Australian, featuring #genomics, #AI, and #mRNA #vaccines 🧬🐕 www.theaustralian.com.au/business/tec...

theaustralian.com.au

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RNA Society @rnasociety.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

The deadline has been extended to March 15th for the RNA Society's Infographics contest! Get your talent team together and submit! Prizes!! Go to www.rnasociety.org/rna-society-... or scan the QR for details!

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

I reckon there could easily be 3 versions of this, there's already two...

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Zheng Su presents kiloBrains.com, an AI-powered biodata analysis platform. A virtual bioinformatics assistant #AGTA2025

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

Cornetto from @hasindu2008.bsky.social presented by Ira Deveson: T2T assembly of human genomes with @nanoporetech.com adaptive sampling by rejecting the "boring bits". 27/46 chromosomes fully assembled from one flowcell. Can also be used on saliva! #AGTA2025 github.com/hasindu2008/...

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Check out his team's online ressources for long read songle-cell sequencing kinnex-documentation-external.readthedocs.io/en/latest/in... And keep an eye out for LRAA...

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

"Isoforms are important; how come we're not studying them?" #AGTA2025 keynote @azizalkhafaji.bsky.social mentions that we are now at am I flection point, where 100s of millions of reads are produced per run.

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

The great Prof Vanessa Hayes, who sequenced the first African Genome, states "the closer we get to ancestral populations, the more diversity we see in genomes". Presents genomic data from WGS of Khoe-San populations, interesting phylogenetic split between Khoe (hunters) and San (gatherers) #agta2025

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Prof Sean Grimmong from PeterMac Genomic Cancer Medicine on the entire workflow for #cancer #diagnosis, and how to deal with dilemmas, like the 5% of Australians without a clear diagnosis #agta2025

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Martin Smith @martinalexsmith.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

The 🧬🧬🧬 party has started!! First sponsored session by #Roche on #Axelios #SBX #AGTA2025

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Reposted by Martin Smith

Albert Vilella, PhD. @albertvilella.bsky.social · 09/10/2025

@estamatakis.bsky.social , not recently active on #Bluesky, on the health value of each minute of different physical activity intensities against 6 health outcomes.

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