Svasti Haricharan
@svasti.bsky.social
Cancer biologist interested in host characteristics; advocate for equitable research environments; associate professor at SDSU; posts my own
I gotta take this opportunity to pump up @sandiegostate.bsky.social. I love that we take our mission of keeping higher education affordable quite seriously. At least for now. And still an R1. At least for now.
COME ON...between the cost of living and these tuition hikes, public higher education in California is increasingly out of reach for Californians. The state needs to prioritize support like it used to when a UC education was affordable and accessible.
Students from nine UC campuses plan to rally this week against a regents vote on tuition hikes, arguing possible increases make education more inaccessible. UC officials say changes will shield against inflation & make costs more predictable over time:
www.latimes.com/california/s...
www.latimes.com/california/s...
November 20, 2025 at 4:06 AM
I gotta take this opportunity to pump up @sandiegostate.bsky.social. I love that we take our mission of keeping higher education affordable quite seriously. At least for now. And still an R1. At least for now.
Woot!!
WE JUST KEEP WINNING. (UC President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program RESTORED!!!!)
![On official UC letterhead:
UNIVERSITY
OF
CALIFORNIA
James B. Milliken President
Office of the President
1111 Franklin Street Oakland, CA 94607
universityofcalifornia.edu
CAMPUSES Berkeley
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
Merced
Riverside San Diego San Francisco
Santa Barbara Santa Cruz
MEDICAL CENTERS
Davis
Irvine
UCLA
San Diego
San Francisco
NATIONAL LABORATORIES Lawrence Berkeley Lawrence Livermore Los Alamos
DIVISION OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES
November 18, 2025
Dear Chancellors:
I'm writing with regard to the President's Postdoctoral Fellowship Program (PPFP) and the program's associated faculty hiring incentive.
As you know, for more than 40 years, PPFP has provided postdoctoral research fellowships, professional development, and faculty mentoring to scholars in all fields whose research, teaching, and service advance the academic and research missions of the University of California.
Since 2003, UC campuses that hire current and former PPFP fellows into ladder-rank positions have been eligible for a hiring incentive funded by the University that provides support for newly hired fellows for five years. Since the creation of the incentive, more than $162 million has been invested by the University to support PPFP faculty hires. This commitment has enabled our campuses to successfully recruit and retain outstanding faculty across a range of disciplines.
Given the myriad challenges currently facing UC - including disruptions to billions of dollars in annual federal support, as well as uncertainty around the state budget- reasonable questions were raised in recent months about whether the University could maintain the commitment to current levels of incentive funding. After considering a recommendation to sunset the incentive program due to these significant fiscal constraints, I consulted with all of you as well as faculty and campus academic administrators and systemwide Academic Senate leadership.
[continued on next image]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:rzn6yramffebefeitqifiqqz/bafkreigiwq5ongzwpj4wqmgjam3yfvhyjnv5e3dbq6cnrrbwblqvs624gq@jpeg)
November 19, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Woot!!
It is important to listen to people who are using AI and understand how or why they're using them, and importantly whether they know that using it has different consequences from using, let's say, Google. I talk to my students and my lab members about this a fair bit. Many people just don't know.
There’s a very surreal conversation I keep having on here where people seem unable to hold two ideas at the same time, and I’m not sure why. It’s simply true that the Big AI platforms like ChatGPT are:
1. Extremely bad for society, in many ways.
2. Very genuinely popular with lots of people.
1. Extremely bad for society, in many ways.
2. Very genuinely popular with lots of people.
November 18, 2025 at 6:08 PM
It is important to listen to people who are using AI and understand how or why they're using them, and importantly whether they know that using it has different consequences from using, let's say, Google. I talk to my students and my lab members about this a fair bit. Many people just don't know.
Yet to ever buy a new car. My current car is one I bought in graduate school, second hand. Living the fat cat life here.
I bought my first new car at the age of 55. It was the base model.
For all the people who think scientists are getting fat off of federal grants, I would just like to mention that yesterday, at the spry age of 52, I bought the first new car I have ever bought in my life. I don't mean to brag or anything, but it's a 2026 base model Corolla.
November 13, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Yet to ever buy a new car. My current car is one I bought in graduate school, second hand. Living the fat cat life here.
My 6 year old had to decorate this outline of a turkey for school. I came home to find him working hard at the dining table in the middle of what appeared to be a glitter explosion. His dad thinks it's the most Bollywood turkey ever. Can't disagree.
November 13, 2025 at 3:33 AM
My 6 year old had to decorate this outline of a turkey for school. I came home to find him working hard at the dining table in the middle of what appeared to be a glitter explosion. His dad thinks it's the most Bollywood turkey ever. Can't disagree.
Such a thoughtful and heartbreaking piece (gift link). The actions of this administration, their war against biomed research, will leave resounding echoes of the silence of clinical trials that won't happen, and lives that won't be saved. For years to come
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...
Opinion | Cancer Patients Like Me Are Casualties of MAHA’s Hypocrisy
www.nytimes.com
November 12, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Such a thoughtful and heartbreaking piece (gift link). The actions of this administration, their war against biomed research, will leave resounding echoes of the silence of clinical trials that won't happen, and lives that won't be saved. For years to come
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/11/o...
Our latest story in preprint (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) and one of my favorites so far. More detailed thread to come. Tldr we show that the distinctive collagen patterning we see in black breast cancer patients is caused by tumor intrinsic signaling and is critical for metastasis 1/3 🧪
November 11, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Our latest story in preprint (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) and one of my favorites so far. More detailed thread to come. Tldr we show that the distinctive collagen patterning we see in black breast cancer patients is caused by tumor intrinsic signaling and is critical for metastasis 1/3 🧪
One of the many reasons I've often thought that grant awards for federally funded research should be based on performance rather than potential for success 🧪
November 10, 2025 at 10:57 PM
One of the many reasons I've often thought that grant awards for federally funded research should be based on performance rather than potential for success 🧪
We know they have the capacity to be "decent" to people whom they consider to be worthy of decency which is in itself indecent
I also didn't read it as a defense. But it's also not a novel (or necessary) observation that bigoted people aren't terrible all the time. We *know* they have the capacity to be decent and simply refuse to do so. That's part of why it's so awful to experience.
November 9, 2025 at 6:32 PM
We know they have the capacity to be "decent" to people whom they consider to be worthy of decency which is in itself indecent
Before AI and even Grammarly, not just ESL writers but all writers at the beginning of their academic careers would ask more senior academics to give their work a read through. This was a huge entryway to getting senior colleagues to read your work and champion it.
I don't use it, but my colleagues do. They use it to check their grammar after their first drafts (scientific journal articles) as they are non-native English speakers. In my mind, this is what it should be used for. As well as other medical research purposes, like protein structure analysis.
November 9, 2025 at 2:16 PM
Before AI and even Grammarly, not just ESL writers but all writers at the beginning of their academic careers would ask more senior academics to give their work a read through. This was a huge entryway to getting senior colleagues to read your work and champion it.
Reposted by Svasti Haricharan
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
“authors & publishers who filed a lawsuit against the Sam Altman-led firm have secured access to internal Slack messages… discussing the mass deletion of a pirated books dataset… A NY district court ordered OpenAI to hand over the communications regarding data deletion”
futurism.com/artificial-i...
futurism.com/artificial-i...
OpenAI in Danger After Authors Suing It Gain Access to Its Internal Slack Messages
Authors and publishers, who are suing OpenAI, secured access to internal Slack messages and emails discussing the deletion of pirated books.
futurism.com
November 9, 2025 at 7:35 AM
I honestly don’t get the value of this company. They hoover up energy and water. Their product constantly gets things wrong and, in extreme cases, coaches people into suicide.
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
And it’s all built on what seems to be malicious and vast intellectual property theft.
What does OpenAI offer the world?
Recently chatted with people @americancancersoc.bsky.social about this. People are born scientists but often get socialized out of being curious by the time they reach adulthood. But everytime I manage to communicate my research well, I see that scientist inside their eyes peeking out delightedly
When science is understandable, we all win. I've started a national petition calling on all institutions of higher education, and their accreditors, to require science communication and public engagement training for all STEM degrees. Share and sign today, it only takes a few seconds: bit.ly/3LbnfHB
November 8, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Recently chatted with people @americancancersoc.bsky.social about this. People are born scientists but often get socialized out of being curious by the time they reach adulthood. But everytime I manage to communicate my research well, I see that scientist inside their eyes peeking out delightedly
I sometimes teach a critical thinking class to graduate students and this comes up a lot, the way popular and social media have both-sided their way into making it impossible to evaluate the legitimacy of a debate unless you're already a domain expert or have oodles of time to do in-depth research
"Some people say this; however, others say this. . . Only when you stand a little closer . . . do you notice . . . that there is zero, less than zero, stress put on the relation between those two “sides,” or their histories, or their sponsors, or their relative evidentiary authority, or any of it. "
I havent read such a banger of an essay in a very long time. This is so well-written!
November 8, 2025 at 7:47 PM
I sometimes teach a critical thinking class to graduate students and this comes up a lot, the way popular and social media have both-sided their way into making it impossible to evaluate the legitimacy of a debate unless you're already a domain expert or have oodles of time to do in-depth research
AI being forced on us by money grabbing tech powers is like if we all said we need to be asking Grammarly to come up with ideas because it's so good at grammar. Let's hire faculty with Grammarly expertise and write grant apps about how Grammarly can be used to make scientific breakthroughs. Say wut.
November 8, 2025 at 4:30 AM
AI being forced on us by money grabbing tech powers is like if we all said we need to be asking Grammarly to come up with ideas because it's so good at grammar. Let's hire faculty with Grammarly expertise and write grant apps about how Grammarly can be used to make scientific breakthroughs. Say wut.
Wow! The President's Postdoctoral Fellowship was a tremendous opportunity for recruiting the brightest minds into the UC system and keeping them there. When do these shortsighted decisions end? And why are so many people telling on themselves so blatantly.
A devastating set of decisions on the part of UC leadership to withdraw support from our nationally recognized postdoc program that prioritizes research excellence combined with addressing our university public service mission. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...
UC to Stop Funding Systemwide Postdoc Program
Established in 1984 to encourage women and minority Ph.D.s to pursue academia, the program has attracted right-wing criticism for prioritizing diverse candidates.
www.insidehighered.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:32 AM
Wow! The President's Postdoctoral Fellowship was a tremendous opportunity for recruiting the brightest minds into the UC system and keeping them there. When do these shortsighted decisions end? And why are so many people telling on themselves so blatantly.
Truer words. University is an ideal and now it is apparent in all sides that faculty and staff know and live that ideal every day, while underpaid, unsupported and overworked.
While administrators have been negotiating in secret, faculty and staff have been fighting. It just could not be more clear who gives a shit about the university as an ideal and who doesn’t.
November 7, 2025 at 4:28 AM
Truer words. University is an ideal and now it is apparent in all sides that faculty and staff know and live that ideal every day, while underpaid, unsupported and overworked.
I don't know much, I only run a research lab. But if I told my lab members that I didn't know any of the details relating to my job with such frequency, I don't think I'd have much of a lab left to run. And rightly so.
November 4, 2025 at 6:54 PM
I don't know much, I only run a research lab. But if I told my lab members that I didn't know any of the details relating to my job with such frequency, I don't think I'd have much of a lab left to run. And rightly so.
I struggle with this a lot. Should celebrities who have the protection of obscene amounts of money and privilege speak up against injustice? As Burke says, ""When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
De Niro to JLaw: should celebrities be expected to speak out against Trump?
De Niro to JLaw: should celebrities be expected to speak out against Trump?
Trump’s second term has stars calling out the president – but others choose to remain silent, questioning whether it makes any difference
www.theguardian.com
November 4, 2025 at 6:46 PM
I struggle with this a lot. Should celebrities who have the protection of obscene amounts of money and privilege speak up against injustice? As Burke says, ""When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
There seem to be two types of academics: the ones who understand that critical review of literature & data analysis are integral to being an academic,& ones who consider these tasks to be chores to be outsourced. Understanding that makes all the AI pushing make sense www.nature.com/articles/d41...
PhD training needs a reboot in an AI world
As machines get better at data analysis and writing tasks, doctoral training must evolve to make the most of artificial-intelligence outputs.
www.nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:58 PM
There seem to be two types of academics: the ones who understand that critical review of literature & data analysis are integral to being an academic,& ones who consider these tasks to be chores to be outsourced. Understanding that makes all the AI pushing make sense www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Woot! 🧪
Looking forward to hosting Dr. Jerry Tyler DeWitt from @svasti.bsky.social's lab today in the @calstate.bsky.social bioinformatics webinar! Do join us via Zoom: sdsu.zoom.us/j/88624423158
October 31, 2025 at 6:51 PM
Woot! 🧪
PROPOSAL: Lego sorting chambers that you can put a bunch of Lego bricks into and they will sort them into Lego sets you can build using only them (preferably with the option of providing manuals for selected sets)
PROPOSAL: bathroom centrifuges.
indispensable for getting the last bit out of a toothpaste tube or shampoo bottle
indispensable for getting the last bit out of a toothpaste tube or shampoo bottle
October 29, 2025 at 4:05 PM
PROPOSAL: Lego sorting chambers that you can put a bunch of Lego bricks into and they will sort them into Lego sets you can build using only them (preferably with the option of providing manuals for selected sets)
I truly never know what to make of these arguments. Researchers in hypercompetitive fields, like cancer research, need CNS pubs to make it. This is doubly true if they're not white men. Whether it's Nature or Nat Comm, these are a means to status /1
The truth is that journals like Nature Communications and Science Advances have disrupted the publication industry more than we care to admit, and not in a "good" way. They are wildly successful journals.
I'm not sure we've adjusted to this.
I'm not sure we've adjusted to this.
And of course as a publisher seeks to route submissions to trickle-down journals, the bar to desk rejection will inevitably be lowered.
October 29, 2025 at 3:32 AM
I truly never know what to make of these arguments. Researchers in hypercompetitive fields, like cancer research, need CNS pubs to make it. This is doubly true if they're not white men. Whether it's Nature or Nat Comm, these are a means to status /1
Reposted by Svasti Haricharan
We are in a timeline in which People Magazine is publishing legit hard-hitting news headlines while CBS and CNN publicly humiliate themselves.
I don’t like this timeline. But I’m loving People Magazine right now.
I don’t like this timeline. But I’m loving People Magazine right now.
October 28, 2025 at 10:34 PM
We are in a timeline in which People Magazine is publishing legit hard-hitting news headlines while CBS and CNN publicly humiliate themselves.
I don’t like this timeline. But I’m loving People Magazine right now.
I don’t like this timeline. But I’m loving People Magazine right now.
The question often is Should we do this, not Can we do this. But people, equally often get the question wrong. Unfortunate
When I was in high school, my math teacher said ”w^5” [which was what we wanted] instead of “qed”. Feels appropriate here given the thoughtful framing of the project by @odedrechavi.bsky.social and his colleagues
Here’s how: qedscience.com
October 26, 2025 at 2:34 PM
The question often is Should we do this, not Can we do this. But people, equally often get the question wrong. Unfortunate
So close, Senator Tillis. You should have left out the first clause. Whether you're Rep or Dem, Congress has the power of the purse. You should all be requiring compliance from the Executive branch. For shame, with the partisanship at such a critical time in our history
October 26, 2025 at 2:31 PM
So close, Senator Tillis. You should have left out the first clause. Whether you're Rep or Dem, Congress has the power of the purse. You should all be requiring compliance from the Executive branch. For shame, with the partisanship at such a critical time in our history