iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Why do we still have study section chairs in the era of AI?

Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Clippers get the harshest punishment for a team in NBA history. Kawhi Leonard's uncle get banned from the NBA. Meanwhile Kawhi Leonard is not suspended and he keeps 20 million in laundered money? How does this dude get off scot-free?

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Why can't water-intensive agriculture be moved to places with water? Grow the alfalfa in Texas and ship it cattle in the Colorado river basin. Every other natural resource has figured out how to distribute itself through supply chains.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

My recommendation to CSR... If a grant mechanism has a single digit success rate, allow the applicants to submit Human Subjects and Vertebrate Animals with their JIT documents instead of with the full application.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

I’m noticing an uptick in desperate emails seeking volunteer labor from faculty. It feels like a symptom of the soft-money system reaching its breaking point. What’s striking is how often list-wide requests for unpaid faculty effort go out before remuneration is even considered.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

I love drafting detailed budgets and inclusion/enrollment reports for grants with a 6% funding rate!

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

The regulatory burden for awards with a less than 10% success rate is a pure waste. Initial submissions should just be aims and research strategy. Invite discussed applications to submit all the other stuff in a 2 week window after learning that they will be discussed.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

I think this is actually good. Application length more than doubles with all these boilerplate letters

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I am being asked to review a lot of papers/grants on topics where I have not published yet, but I do have active research. My theory is that AI is recommending me to editors. If correct, it is creepy that it seems to know so much about our behind-the-scenes work

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 23/07/2026

I was just asked to review. The mail came from a "no-reply@" address. The only way to decline was to create a 2-factor login, fill in a dozen required fields, and navigate through a user portal. If this was a predatory, no-name entity, I would ignore it, but this was a serious request

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Celeste Eggermont, Amanda Bas-Cristóbal Menéndez, Tamar Nijsten, Harmen van de Werken, Antien Mooyaart, Domenico Bellomo, Marlies Wakkee & Loes Hollestein. Funding from NIH, #HTAN, SkylineDx, and Health∼Holland, Top Sector Life Sciences & Health

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

This was a deeply collaborative effort. Barbara Rentroia-Pacheco with @sharmaharsh.bsky.social, Lara Pozza, Joleen Traets, @bishaltandukar.bsky.social , Olivia Steijlen, Romy Ruiter, Noel Cruz-Pacheco, Daphne Huigh, Arne Van Hoeck, Yan-Ting Chen, Beatriz Infante, Defne Baskurt, Vignesh Arunachalam,

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Importantly, SCCore-GEP performed well on biopsy material. That creates the possibility of estimating metastatic risk before definitive excision—when the result could help guide surgical planning, imaging, follow-up and consideration of (neo)adjuvant therapy.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

SCCore-GEP was validated in 2 independent cohorts, where it outperformed staging systems and provided prognostic information independent of clinical models.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

We distilled these transcriptional programs into SCCore-GEP: a 23-gene signature that largely measures tumor differentiation, with additional contributions from normal epithelial, stromal and immune cells.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Gene expression told an especially clear story. Tumors formed differentiated, basal-like and mesenchymal-like groups with progressively worse metastasis-free survival. Differentiation state—not immune programs—was the dominant axis separating outcomes.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

A key strength of this study is that we have outcome information on each tumor. Poor outcome was associated with alterations in SWI/SNF, RAS–MAPK/PI3K and TGF-β pathways, as well as several arm-level copy-number changes. These features reveal genetic routes to metastatic competence.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

We identified 38 driver genes converging on a core set of pathways. This was NOT easy because of the high mutation burden in these tumors. This is IMHO the cleanest and most curated list of driver genes in this cancer subtype to date

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

The mutational landscape was dominated by UV radiation, with additional contributions from aging, APOBEC activity and—in immunosuppressed patients—azathioprine exposure.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

We started by assembling the D-SQUAME study: a nationwide Dutch cohort of 19,120 patients with detailed clinicopathologic annotation and long-term outcomes. From these, we profiled 378 tumors by RNA-seq and 147 by whole-exome sequencing, balancing tumors that did and did not metastasize.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

cSCC is extraordinarily common with an absolute mortality on par with melanoma, yet cSCC was omitted from TCGA and is excluded from many cancer registries. We need better biology and better ways to identify high-risk tumors.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Major preprint from our group is out. Feedback welcome! We built the largest molecular atlas of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) to date – linking somatic mutations and gene expression patterns to metastatic outcome. A thread 🧵 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

medrxiv.org

Comprehensive molecular characterization of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma reveals determinants of metastatic progression

Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) is the second most common form of cancer worldwide. While most cSCCs are not life-threatening, 2-5% of patients develop metastases. To better understand what c...

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Lebron should lean into the hoopla and do "The Decision 2.0" with a pre-scheduled TV spot. Then we could all plan our lives around this

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

Lebron should just lean into the hoopla and do "The Decision 2.0"

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I asked my echo to play classic rock, and it started playing Creed. I feel old!

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Richard Scolyer, Cancer Expert Who ‘Became His Own Subject,’ Dies at 59 www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/s...

nytimes.com

Richard Scolyer, Cancer Expert Who ‘Became His Own Subject,’ Dies at 59

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

At my institution, if you are a day late taking an online training module, there is no courtesy warning -- just an email straight to your boss (for me, Dept. Chair).

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

to combat his own glioblastoma have taught us so much. He has done incredible work to help cement the paradigm of neoadjuvant treatment, especially in cancers where this was not even on the radar. Richard will be dearly missed.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

And then I got to meet him in person at several meetings. The jet lag from Australia could never keep him down. He was so energetic and full of great ideas. His contributions to the field of melanoma research, and his aggressive tactics...

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

I remember drafting, editing, and redrafting emails to him (before AI helped with this kind of stuff) because I was so nervous as a trainee to reach out for help, and he would reply instantaneously with enthusiasm "Sure!" to whatever I asked.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Visiting the National Cancer Institute with my colleague, Iwei Yeh, to learn about the cool science being carried out by the #HTAN project.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Apparently, my institution has a committee on committees, and they are seeking members. While I have a soft spot for service, I might pass on this one

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 16/05/2026

Celebrating 4 oral presentations from our team at the Society of Investigative Dermatology Meeting in Chicago! Loes Hollestein @sharmaharsh.bsky.social Bárbara Rentroia Pacheco and myself with support from Arne Van Hoeck and Domenico Bellomo of SkylineDx BV. Look out for new prognostic tests in cSCC

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Why is it so painful to update your CV?

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Original publication is here, though the software has been through many versions since the original manuscript was published. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

STmut can be downloaded here. github.com/limin321/stmut. Thanks to Limin Chen for creating the software and continually updating it to handle higher resolution spatial transcriptomics, as they are rolled out. Thanks to Vignesh Arunachalam for generating the present figures.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

They localize to different areas within the biopsy. The copy number calls can distinguish individual tumor cells from normal cells and from different subclones

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

STmut clearly identified two tumor subclones, distinguished by copy number alterations on 2q, 5q, 6q, 7p, 13, and 18.

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

STmut can now operate on Atera data from 10X Genomics. Here is a breast cancer that was profiled on the Atera platform

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Reposted by Hunter Shain

Bishal Tandukar @bishaltandukar.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Excited to share our latest work from @shainlab.bsky.social lab, now out in Nature Cell Biology: “Somatic mutations distinguish melanocyte subpopulations in human skin.” We find evidence that melanocyte stem cell dynamics shape human skin homeostasis and UV response. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Excited to share that our paper, “Somatic mutations distinguish melanocyte subpopulations in human skin,” is now out in Nature Cell Biology. Reposting the thread below ⬇️

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Reposted by Hunter Shain

Rita Strack @ritastrack.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

For the fourth time in my ~12 year editorial career I was able to accept (in principle) a paper after one round of review. 🥳

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Hunter Shain @shainlab.bsky.social · 19/04/2026

@marinelab.bsky.social rocks it in the opening plenary of #AACR26, describing how to harness cellular plasticity to combat minimal residual disease. And I love the shoutout to STmut! Congrats Chris on all your success.

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