Sumit Kumar

@EmmanuelMacron Why don't you say that to Donald Trump?

I have just spoken with Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian. I called on him to put an immediate end to the unacceptable attacks Iran is carrying out against countries in the region, whether directly or through proxies, including in Lebanon and Iraq. I reminded him that France is acting within a strictly defensive framework aimed at protecting its interests, its regional partners, and freedom of navigation, and that it is unacceptable for our country to be targeted. The unchecked escalation we are witnessing is plunging the entire region into chaos, with major consequences today and for the years to come. The people of Iran, like those across the region, are paying the price. Only a new political and security framework can ensure peace and security for all. Such a framework must guarantee that Iran never acquires nuclear weapons, while also addressing the threats posed by its ballistic missile programme and its destabilising activities regionally and internationally. Freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz must be restored as soon as possible. I also urged the Iranian President to allow Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris to return safely to France as soon as possible. Their ordeal has gone on for far too long, and they belong with their loved ones.

Harvard scientists just shattered one of biology’s oldest rules. We were taught: Viruses can’t make their own proteins. They hijack yours. That’s why they’re “not alive.” Except giant DNA viruses just crossed that line. Researchers found they carry a full eukaryotic-style translation complex (vIF4F). Translation machinery. Inside a virus. They can keep making proteins even under stress that shuts down normal viral replication. If a virus brings its own protein-making tools… Is it still just a parasite? For decades we’ve drawn a clean boundary: Cell = alive Virus = not alive Nature doesn’t care about our categories. Maybe viruses aren’t just evolutionary side notes. Maybe they helped build complex life. Paper in Cell 👇 cell.com/cell/fulltext/… Harvard news: cellbio.hms.harvard.edu/recent-researc…

11 papers retracted from a PhD student. Surprising? Not really. Just check the recent news: 1. The rector of a Spanish university ran a citation-inflation scheme. He was one of Spain’s most-cited academics. Springer Nature retracted 75 papers linked to him in 2024. 2. Another highly-cited chemist in Spain was suspended for 13 years by his university in 2023. In June 2025, at least 11 of his papers were retracted for fraudulent practices. 3. A German anesthesiologist has had 184 retractions. He was once one of the leading international figures in perioperative medicine Just wow. 4. A French mega-cited scientist, a director of IHU Méditerranée Infection, had 6 retractions for ethics violations and 50 articles marked by PLOS. He retired after that. 5. A Japan scientist in anesthesiology had > 170 fabricated papers. His career ended. 6. A Harvard professor had her tenure revoked and was fired in May 2025 after an internal misconduct finding. 7. The STANFORD PRESIDENT resigned after data manipulation was found in several highly cited papers. Two Science papers were retracted. 8. A tenured professor from the University of Minnesota resigned in March 2025 after the retraction of a highly cited Nature paper in June 2024 due to manipulated images. 9. A very high-profile professor from Cornell resigned after two dozen retractions. 📍 What’s going on? Very simple. Make metrics the aim, and science disappears. Many scientists pursue careers instead of science. They focus on awards, number of papers, citations… Their labs turn into production factories - factories of low-quality research and low-quality graduates. ❗️Remember: Your career should be a by-product of science. Not the opposite.

Promoter variation in Streptococcus: S. pneumoniae promoters contain repetitive nucleotides, driving strand slippage & promoter mutations. This drives population-level heterogeneity in gene expression, offering evolutionary strategy to maximize fitness cell.com/cell-host-micr…

Exciting study from the Dan Neill lab @UoDLifeSciences in @cellhostmicrobe. We explored how promoter diversity in natural isolates of Streptococcus pneumoniae drives infection outcomes. kwnsfk27.r.eu-west-1.awstrack.me/L0/https:%2F%2…

What an elegant paper: intuitive yet unexpected, fiercely uncovering what many of us have suspected but clueless on how. nature.com/articles/s4158…

You want to run antibiotic MICs according to best-practice clinical microbiology protocols, but you are not sure how? Our article will walk you through it all! Great to work with @nikikaderabkova @AyeshaMahmood2 and a pleasure to publish in @npjAMR. rdcu.be/dZp04 #AMR

@SigmaAldrich Sigma oligo evaluator

Let's make a thread of your science search terms from grad school. You know. The one you always had to search. We'll go first: Molarity Calculator

UK doctoral training programmes now expect PhD researchers to submit within 3 years *and* spend 3 months of that on a placement. UKHE needs to touch a lot of grass.

A 1,000,000th reminder the crucial importance of basic research. Ambros and Ruvkun were looking into understanding nematode genetics and development, not looking for a drug, and ended up opening an entire new area in biology

Amazing opportunity for DiMeN students to learn about industrial jobs and startups from various experts throughout the day at The Guildhall, York.

Today, I finally got the visa I applied for nearly 3 years ago to attend a conference in North America. Unfortunately, the conference took place 2 years ago. @AcademicChatter

A team from @uodMedicine has completed Scotland's first ultrasound thalamotomy - a non-invasive operation that will allow people suffering from uncontrolled tremors due to Parkinson's disease to control their movements. For patients like Ian Keir, this is life-changing. 👇

🚨New analysis from @royalsociety UK visa costs for researchers: 🫣 21x higher than France (Talent passport for researchers) 😱34x higher than Germany (Scientific visa) 😬Have increased by 126% since 2019 while other countries have made theirs cheaper royalsociety.org/news-resources…

Good stuff. Sequencing proteins by reverse translating them back into DNA, and then sequencing that.

Secondary messenger signalling influences Pseudomonas aeruginosa adaptation to sinus and lung environments @ISMEJournal by @DRuhluel et al from @MicrobeAdapt academic.oup.com/ismej/advance-…

Last stage of cancer is often very painful, both for the patient and the family. The best one can do is to reduce the pain and provide quality life in those last few weeks or months. Bagchi Karunashraya Palliative Care Centre, Bhubaneswar has started its in-patient services earlier this week. Focus is on providing compassionate care for advanced cancer patients, End of Life, and Respite Care needs. In case you know any patient who needs such care please do connect them. The service is free. Please RT

Predicting microbial growth conditions from amino acid composition biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… #biorxiv_micrbio