iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

This is an amazing rescue story. After spending a year in Australia with my family it was clear how much emphasis was put in teaching all kids to swim and how important it is. What a brave boy. Hero. www.cbc.ca/news/world/a...

cbc.ca

Australian boy, 13, swims for 4 hours to save family swept out to sea | CBC News

A 13-year-old boy is credited with saving the lives of his mother and two younger siblings with an hourslong swim after the family was swept out to sea off the Australian coast.

030

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Happiness is a kid waking up to find out its a snow day.

010

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Wyeth Wasserman @wywywa.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

UBC and BC Cancer are recruiting a cancer stem cell faculty member at the Associate Professor or Professor rank for the new Connie Eaves Chair in Cancer Stem Cell Research. A great position recognizing a giant in the field. Please share. #Vancouver ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/ubcfac...

ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com

Associate Professor (tenure) or Professor (tenure) Dr. Connie Eaves Chair in Cancer Stem Cell Research

Academic Job Category Faculty Bargaining Job Title Associate Professor (tenure) or Professor (tenure) Dr. Connie Eaves Chair in Cancer Stem Cell Research Department School of Biomedical Engineering | ...

01918

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Biodiversity Genomics Europe plus (BGE+) @biogeneurope.bsky.social · 30/09/2025

♨️Live @ #BGEconnects: Finished “EBP – How genomics is transforming understanding of biodiversity through reference genome production” by Harris Lewin, chair of @ebpgenome.bsky.social. “Reference-quality genomes can now be produced at scale”, he says. “We need to work together to scale up.” #BGE

0105

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Brian Wilde @bwildemtl.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

Canada is ranked 1 in education, 3 in safety, 4 in justice, 4 in overall best country. We are not a broken country. We have not suffered a lost decade. Our existence is in the balance. Vote.

276107961741

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

Keep on Rockin in the free world!

020

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 27/03/2025

PatchWorkPlot: simultaneous visualization of local alignments across multiple sequences arxiv.org/abs/2503.20766 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/yana-safonov...

0103

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 23/03/2025

This quote comes at 7:48 (not in article). Smith does a good job explaining the Cdn perspective of tariffs and the diffs between Cdn and US political systems. Noting common ground gives me more confidence that Smith's articulate opinion on Poliviere is accurate. m.soundcloud.com/breitbart/pr...

m.soundcloud.com

Premiere Danielle Smith (Alberta, CA) - March 8, 2025

Play Premiere Danielle Smith (Alberta, CA) - March 8, 2025 by Breitbart on desktop and mobile. Play over 320 million tracks for free on SoundCloud.

030

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Tuuli Lappalainen @tuuliel.bsky.social · 19/03/2025

4) Their definition of epigenetics is also somewhat awkward (see e.g. www.nature.com/articles/nrm...). This is a very cool paper, but the science would shine brighter without the somewhat forced attempt to dress established knowledge as a new concept via awkward terminology.

nature.com

A user's guide to the ambiguous word 'epigenetics' - Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology

The term 'epigenetics' has multiple interpretations, so we need to be clear which definition we are using, argues John Greally.

3186

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Prospect Magazine @prospectmagazine.co.uk · 16/03/2025

Canada has existential choices to make in the Trump era. It had become complacent about its many virtues, and has had a sharp awakening, writes Michael Ignatieff. www.prospectmagazine...

prospectmagazine.co.uk

As America retreats, Europe must step up

An unstable world order, divided between competing superpowers, will force all other nations to make tough choices

1329

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 01/03/2025

Thank you for sharing this! Many of the best meetings are in the US but it seems irresponsible to go. Sending an international student to the US at this time could even be dangerous. I have told my lab that I am not eager to support US travel, but also realize for career reasons it may be necessary.

0291

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Alexandra Gallant-Lee @alexandragallant.com · 26/02/2025

This is incredible

0385

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

ian bremmer @ianbremmer.com · 25/02/2025

the united states no longer condemns russia’s invasion of ukraine. aligning the us with belarus, sudan, north korea and other failed states. a reflection of changing policy and a wake up call for us allies.

2941469

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 18/02/2025

I like tweet. It pays tribute to the happy premuskian days sci-twitter. Also avoids adding another silly verb to the vocabulary:)

060

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Liz Worthey @lizworthey.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

MW: Highlighting the importance of collaborative research to his own work - pointed out that a very fruitful project in his lab was spearheaded as a collaboration by a student who rotated in both labs and brought them together, the PIs now work together successfully on join projects #LorneGenome25

011

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Lewis Kamb @lewiskamb.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

CDC source: “We just had word that all our fellows and post doc staff are laid off effective immediately. The famous Epidemic Intelligence Service, aka the Disease Detectives, is no more. That’s 1260 staff. They are calling this ‘Phase 1’.”

556107735566

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

And gives a clear example that turned out to be quite true: "For example: the spread of cancer is alarming—what are we to do about it? At the moment, no one can answer the question for lack of knowledge; and the knowledge is not likely to emerge except through endowed research."

010

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

He clearly links the good life to funding research: "The knowledge required can only exist where governments or millionaires devote themselves to its discovery and diffusion."

110

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 13/02/2025

"What I Believe" by Bertrand Russell is 100 yrs old and still relevant (www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/73782). "The good life, as we conceive it, demands a multitude of social conditions, and cannot be realized without them. The good life, we said, is a life inspired by love and guided by knowledge."

gutenberg.org

130

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Heba Gowayed هبة جويد @hebagowayed.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

You heard it here first folks, borders aren’t real, they’re just an artificial line someone drew. This quote will 100% start one of my book chapters.

1429376

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Charlie Angus @charlieangus104.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

You are making a big difference in standing up to tyranny. Your decision to cancel the family trip to the United States is freaking them out. As Donald insults our nation, businesses are watching our tourism dollars dry up. Boycott all trips to the United States. www.thetravel.com/us-travel-as...

thetravel.com

U.S. Travel Association Warns of Economic Tourism Disaster After Thousands of Canadian Tourists Cancel Trips in Protest

While Proposed Tariffs Against Canada Are Now Paused, Canadian Travel Agencies Already Witnessing Retaliation in Form of Canceled Trips

28739861138

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Mark Cuban @mcuban.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

This is the most relevant article to NIH and research cuts I’ve seen. Imagine if this was today , how many people would be saying “Why are we studying Gila Monsters and their impact on diabetes ? That’s wasted money !” globalnews.ca/news/9793403...

globalnews.ca

How a Canadian scientist and a venomous lizard helped pave the way for Ozempic - National | Globalnews.ca

In 1984, Dr. Daniel Drucker, an endocrinologist from the University of Toronto, discovered a hormone that helped pave the way for popular diabetes drugs such as Ozempic.

11264858212423

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Joshua J. Friedman @joshuajfriedman.com · 02/02/2025

There's such a tone of sadness to the CBC reporting right now. Adrienne Arsenault says, “I feel like the whole country, all of us, are getting both a history lesson and a politics lesson and an economics lesson and a lesson in heartache.”

442180762115

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 27/01/2025

PubMed launched in 1996, but took time to take off as an Internet-enabled replacement. Now it's easy to forget how miserable the alternative was. Thank you, National Library of Medicine, for keeping grad students where they belong: listening to true crime podcasts while pipetting.

A grad student at a bench, pipette in hand, and headset on listening to something. It's a cartoon-type of illustration I stole from a site called "The Pathologist" used as the icon for the podcast list they recommend.

810510

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 21/01/2025

Dr. Derry have you found a new job? Nevertheless great to see you take matters into your own hands!

110

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Miguel Ramalho-Santos @mrsantos.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

We found that copies of the LINE1 transposon are key “architects” of the nucleolar genome in human embryonic stem cells. This work brings together two facets of Barbara McClintock’s pioneering research: nucleolar organizer regions and transposable elements. www.genesdev.org/cgi/doi/10.1...

genesdev.org

LINE1 elements at distal junctions of rDNA repeats regulate nucleolar organization in human embryonic stem cells

A biweekly scientific journal publishing high-quality research in molecular biology and genetics, cancer biology, biochemistry, and related fields

22112

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

This looks great. I am looking forward to trying this out. Thank you for sharing!

010

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Chenxin Li, PhD @chenxinli2.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

My Tidyverse local synteny visualizer is up on GitHub: github.com/cxli233/Tidy... GitHub page contains 2 example datasets, as well as step-by-step instruction & explanations on how it works. Details on required input data are discussed in the GitHub page. Let me know if you run into issues.

Local synteny visualization with 3 species highlighting 3 homologous groups of genes.

Local synteny visualization of 5 bean varieties, highlighting numerous TIR-NBS-LRR family disease resistant genes.

28832

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Congratulation Maik et al. what a fantastic system and exciting results.

010

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

:) Its weird how acronyms become old friends in the lab but don't resonate so much out in the wild!

020

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 02/12/2024

Thank you Julien! It has been a long time coming. We have done some more digging into the TEs but there is a lot more to do! We are excited to make use of this and see others do the same!

020

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 30/11/2024

Looking forward to seeing them. I just did this myself. The only issue compared to twitter was that not enough coauthors are on here to tag. When I joined it was great to see you here bringing sci-bluesky to life!

010

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Thanks to all co-authors and colleagues who made this possible. Special thanks to Dustin Sokolowski (who is now a @CANSSIOntario Fellow in @jaredsimpson.bsky.social's lab who has driven this project and just presented the results today at #BIOMORA24 in Berlin! Feedback is welcome! 10/9.

151

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Naked mole rats have even lost the rapidly evolving sperm-specific zonadhesin gene which I spent years knocking out and studying in graduate school :) (jbc.org/article/S002... 9/9

jbc.org

191

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Key findings? One that stands out is that naked mole rats have lost several genes that cause male fertility or sperm abnormalities when lost in mice. NMRs have deranged and atypical sperm compared to other mammals and this may be due to their eusocial lifestyle. 8/9

140

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

We joined forces not only to analyse and share this chromosomal-level NMR genome, but also generate its successor, a telomere-to-telomere assembly that will resolve complex regions and the darkest secrets of the NMR genome. 7/9

120

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

This also led to a collaboration with Gabriel Balmus (whose team, like ours, they needed a better genome) Evan Eichler, Rémy Bruggmann, @psalmotoxin.bsky.social, Alexander_Nater, Mihai Miclăuș and several others. 6/9

120

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

A wonderful outcome of getting the genome online early includes several collaborations with NMR and genomics experts worldwide. For example, Diana Laird and her team provided NMR karyotypes from their new NMR cell lines and Jingtao Lilue did some wonderful conserved synteny analyses. 5/10

220

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

We were fortunate to work with @DThybert, Leanne Haggerty and others at @ebi.embl.org and @ensembl.bsky.social to incorporate to annotate, align and share this data with the research community. 4/9

140

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

Together with @jaredsimpson.bsky.social @pughlab.bsky.social Dustin Sokolowski fearlessly embarked on this project with support from @NSERC_CRSNG, Dr. Faykoo-Martinez, Dr. Holmes and several members of my lab (@rathnakumar25, Sana Akhtar Alvi, Simon Monis, and Huayun Hou). 3/9

130

Michael D. Wilson @wilson-md.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

This naked mole-rat (NMR) genome project started as @CIHRIGH-funded collaboration with Melissa Holmes, Dustin Sokolowski, and Mariela Faykoo-Martinez. While studying the genetics behind the extreme pubertal suppression that occurs NMRs, it became clear we needed a more complete NMR genome. 2/9

120

Reposted by Michael D. Wilson

Ewan St. John Smith @psalmotoxin.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

BIOMORA24 is go!!! Going to be an amazing few days of science, meeting old friends & meeting people in the flesh who I’ve only seen online/read papers of/emailed!

Opening slides of meeting in lecture theatre

161