David Hofer

Some news: Last April, I left Ginkgo Bioworks after 8+ years as a software engineer there. Since then, I’ve been working on starting a new company called GenHub with a couple other ex-Ginkgo people, Bob Van Hove and Chris Mitchell. (1/5)

@RexKwonDo92 @OmicsOmicsBlog The emperor better get his ass to Arrakis and take charge of the situation

Frank Herbert was on so much damn drugs the man was able to see in the future

@NikoMcCarty So it’s like when I used to install linux on a windows machine

Researchers killed Mycoplasma capricolum cells, confirmed they were dead, and then "revived" them by transplanting in a synthetic Mycoplasma mycoides genome. I'll plan to write a longer essay on this.

@bdquinn @OmicsOmicsBlog We aren’t his audience. His audience believes this nonsense because it wants to

His assertion that China doesn't build wind and solar is probably a top 20 Trump delusion. It's so wildly off base that it's hard to know where he even gets it from.

@ddale8 Narrator: They were everywhere

@ddale8 Wow, you’re like the narrator in Arrested Development! Thank you for your work

The month of the speech in which President Trump said, "The roaring economy is roaring like never before." x.com/byHeatherLong/…

GenHub (my company) was at FOSDEM (an open source conference) this year. We presented on gen and GenHub for the computational biology track. Check out the video here! fosdem.org/2026/schedule/…

@DarthPutinKGB Coercing the EU to loan Ukraine 90 billion euros in December was stunning

What's your favourite bit of master strategy from the last 4 years?

@adamscochran I want to see priority funding for any infrastructure project a city in a swing state needs. Anything that helps those cities to grow should help the state they’re in to turn Democratic

The desire for progressivism is not about economic policy - it’s about fucking doing something! There is no such thing as a moderate in this environment. The system is broken. Being a moderate means failing to fix that. I’m a former moderate Republican who has supported blue tickets since 2014. I think we need to: * Tax the rich more. * Guarantee access to healthcare. * Codify Roe v Wade. * Expand the courts. * Strengthen labor unions. * Ban SuperPACs and dark money in our elections. * Abolish ICE. * Massively expand gun control measures. * Ban Congress from trading stocks. * Ban Congress from lobbying for a 5 year term. * Prosecute this entire administration. * Codify Obergefell. * Ban stock buybacks for any company with employees on food stamps. You can believe all that and be: * Pro-business * Pro-technology investment * Pro-capitalism. You were lied to by people who told you the American Dream was a Republican issue while they sold out the middle class to rich oligarchs. Capitalism is at its best, with strong labor unions and fair taxes. It isn’t communism to think you should die because you were too poor to pay your medical bills. And the only way Dems will understand this focus group, is when they understand progressive means action.

@stewartbrand I think they should pour money into any infrastructure project needed by cities in swing states. Anything that grows those cities could help those states become more reliably blue

James Fallows on "What Should the Dems Do to Win—And Then to Govern?" fallows.substack.com/p/what-should-…

@p_maverick_b But I am working on another plasmid viewer, so feel free to block me

@p_maverick_b In my experience working on software for biologists, they are focused on lab work. Any software they use must have a compelling reason, otherwise it’s a distraction. Having a good UI helps. Artists use software to create things. Biologists use labs to create things.

Where did the trope that software needs to be easy to use for biologists come from? Creative software for artists is extremely complex yet PhD biologists need point and click? Please reply below if you’re working on YAPV (Yet Another Plasmid Viewer) so that I can block you

@goldstar002 I saw this and knew you would cover it. Thanks!

#greenscreen #greenscreenvideo #maga #trump #health

@adamscochran And one thing people can do to directly help is to work at the polls

I’ve seen this take a lot “Trump will try to cancel the midterms” He can’t. Here’s what the worst case scenario looks like, but why we will still be ok: -Trump uses claims of violence to try and cancel or delay midterm elections. -Each state has the right to manage its elections so they still continue. -Trump uses ICE as poll watchers suppressing votes. But there are too few of them to be everywhere. -Red States are the most likely to comply with any Trump push back on the vote. -Blue state governors, including in swing states deploy the national guard to keep ICE in check. NG can’t interfere with ICE on legal matters but CAN on illegal matters. -If Trump tries to entirely block elections, Blue states will hold them regardless. -At the end of the Congressional session the Congress members seats all expire even if no election was held. -Congress’ quorum threshold automatically adjust so it is always a majority of the total members of Congress who are sworn in. -Since Blue States still held elections they’d still have more members of Congress. -Only a swing state with a Republican governor is likely to actually try to delay, and that won’t tip the balance. So this time voting may seem scary on unruly. Voting days may get changed last minute and you’ll need to adjust. But you will be safe and you WILL be able to vote. And it is important that you do. It is important that you do NOT let them scare you away from voting. Intimidation is all they have. And if we beat them at the ballot box in this midterm, we can finally push back!

@p_maverick_b A few years ago I resolved to run a 5K every month for the year. I enjoyed it because it forced me to run some unusual and interesting races

What's a good new years resolution for people who already quit their job and got jacked this year. Asking for a friend

New GenHub post: Pooled designs (AKA combinatorial libraries: genhub.bio/blog/2025/12/2… Earlier we posted about using gen with E.coli. This new post shows the flexibility of representing DNA as a sequence graph. It can track genome changes, and also DNA libraries. Take a look!

@ExpanseNContext I will make some little cucumber sandwiches as a token of apology

@hofer She'll set you straight

@ExpanseNContext *Bobbie

@ExpanseNContext My favorite Bobby line

New GenHub blog post: a tour of our web UI, including a sequence graph viewer: genhub.bio/blog/2025/11/1…

New-ish Genhub post: Viewing sequence graphs in the terminal, using the e coli “repo” we set up in a previous post: genhub.bio/blog/2025/11/3…