The Lonely Pipette : helping scientists do better science

This month Ivan Oransky joins us to talk about his work as a journalist and advocate for monitoring scientific misconduct.

• Ivan confesses about his beginnings as a young playwright of the immune system
• He discusses how and why he left medicine to become a journalist
• Ivan’s mentors encouraged him to develop by getting experience as a journalist and editor
• Ivan reflects on how his training as a physician was helpful and allowed people to trust him
• He stresses how important it is to read in order to develop story-writing skills
• Ivan explains that curiosity and attention can help to hunt for good stories
• He thinks the trend to ‘weaponization’ is central to what’s wrong in science and science communication today
• He suggests that going ‘upstream’ might help to explain the methodology and not just the results of science
• Ivan describes the origins of Retraction Watch and looking for the stories behind the retractions
• He also insists that we need to look upstream to understand what leads to the fraud (or sloppiness) behind the retractions
• Finally, learning to say NO is an important skill to keeping focused

Ivan mentioned these scientists, writers and institutions
Harvard University : https://www.harvard.edu/
The Harvard Crimson https://www.thecrimson.com/
Yale University https://www.yale.edu/
The Scientist https://www.the-scientist.com/
Journal of American Medical Association https://jamanetwork.com/
New York University’s Carter Journalism Institute https://journalism.nyu.edu/
The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com
Lawrence Altman MD https://www.nytimes.com/by/lawrence-k-altman
George Lundberg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_D._Lundberg https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1114712/


To find out more about Ivan and his work visit these links  
at NYU https://journalism.nyu.edu/about-us/profile/ivan-oransky-md/
on Twitter/X https://x.com/ivanoransky
Retraction Watch https://retractionwatch.com/
The Transmitter /Spectrum magazine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Transmitter
Ivan’s first play about the Immune System (aged 11) https://theoranskyjournal.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/immune-system-play.pdf

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This month we enjoyed talking to Arjun Raj about his interdisciplinary approaches to studying biological systems

• Arjun shares how he almost became a truck driver and experimented with a career in an (unnamed) rock band
• He tells us about his journey from mathematics to quantitative biology and he shares thoughts about comparing biology with physics and what they can learn from each other
• He says we all struggle with how to teach creativity and how to evaluate the most promising ideas.
• Arjun discusses how to improve mentoring and practical auto-mentoring. He gives specific examples about learning how to peer-review papers.
• He recommends a narrative-based approach to science communication so that you can leave the audience with a feeling of wonder
• He is inspired by Star Wars storytelling as a science communicator
• He says it's important to go through a period of really paying attention to the small details
• Arjun argues that scientists have become overburdened and that increasing scope creep creates a lot of pressure

He mentioned these labs, scientists and institutions
University of Pennsylvania https://www.upenn.edu/
UC Berkeley https://www.berkeley.edu/
Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University https://cims.nyu.edu/dynamic/
Massachusetts Institute of Technology https://www.mit.edu/
Fred Kramer https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty/fred-russell-kramer/
Sunjay Tyagi https://phri.njms.rutgers.edu/faculty-and-research/faculty/sanjay-tyagi/

To find out more about Arjun visit these links  
Raj Lab https://rajlab.seas.upenn.edu/
on Twitter/X https://x.com/arjunrajla
Random musings Blog https://rajlaboratory.blogspot.com/
Tools for Science resource https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jBGk-u5auVCvI5EMaQnptMWbxHHl3ncIhKgIgEzjylw/edit

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This month Alicia Rojas tells us about her journey from Costa Rica to Israel and back, in search of pathogens and parasites

• Alicia shares the personal difficulties of being far from home and how she missed family and food
• She reflects on coming back to Costa Rica to explore its rich biodiversity
• She recalls the challenges of returning from a luxurious postdoc at the Weizmann Institute to setting up her own lab in Costa Rica during a pandemic
• She discusses the need to be resilient and creative and build collaborations
• She is proud to be “doing the best we can with the limited resources we have”
• As a mentor, she stresses that every student is different and she tries to keep a helicopter-view of everything that is going on 
• Alicia gets up really early to complete work and make time for her family in the afternoon
• She recommends to finish one task before you start the next one

She mentioned these labs, scientists and institutions
University of Costa Rica : https://www.ucr.ac.cr/
Hebrew University of Jerusalem : https://en.huji.ac.il/
Neta Regev-Rudzki laboratory : https://www.weizmann.ac.il/Biomolecular_Sciences/regev/
Weizmann Institute of Science: https://www.weizmann.ac.il/pages/
Research Center for Tropical Diseases.  : http://www.ciet.ucr.ac.cr/en/about-ciet

To find out more about Alicia visit these links
Alicia’s lab : https://www.thetropicalwormlab.com/
Alicia’s LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/alicia-rojas-30215b1aa/
On Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetropicalwormlab_ucr/
On Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/thetropicalwormlabUCR/

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This month Hans Clevers talks to us about his productive career and his pioneering work on organoid technologies.

Hans admits that he initially found biology frustrating and disappointing

• But then he learnt to enjoy the rare spark of excitement from discoveries
• He managed to get his PhD in just one year!
• You need to trust yourself and learn to share with others
• Hans warns new group leaders not to expect too much from younger colleagues
• It’s important to give your students their own space
• He paints a metaphoric image of research - Push against the dark wall until the window opens on a new valley
• His search for stem cells in the gut led his lab to develop organoid approaches and 3D culture technologies
• Hans describes his unexpected move to Roche and “large pharma”
• He describes his role bridging the gap between scientists and industry leadership
• Hans talks about the benefits of interacting with artists
• He warns about being too attached to your hypothesis and the importance of being wrong

He mentioned these labs, institutions and companies

Roche Pharma R&D (pRED):  https://www.roche.com/innovation/structure/pred
Utrecht University : https://www.uu.nl/en
Dana Farber Cancer Institute :  https://www.dana-farber.org/
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences : https://www.knaw.nl/en
Cox Terhorst :  https://immunologyphd.hms.harvard.edu/people/cox-terhorst

To find out more about Hans visit these links   
X-Twitter https://x.com/hansclevers?lang=en
Hubrecht Institute
https://www.hubrecht.eu
https://www.hubrecht.eu/research-groups/clevers-group/
Wikipedia page
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Clevers
Utrecht University
https://www.uu.nl/staff/JCClevers
Google Scholar
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jTAHhTQAAAAJ&hl=en

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

Today we chat with postdoc Nour El Houda Mimouni about her passionate commitment to improving womens’ health.

• Nour urges young scientists to get themselves a support group from the beginning
• She also insists on the importance of developing interests outside of the lab
• Addressing womens’ health issues is ‘not just a job’ for Nour
• She recommends students to not alway blindly follow other people's advice
• She discusses her advocacy work at the European Health Parliament
• She thinks that every scientist should play a role in public outreach, from a young age

She mentioned these labs, scientists, institutions and companies

• Cité des sciences et de l'industrie https://www.cite-sciences.fr/fr/accueil
• Zuckerman Institute https://zuckermaninstitute.columbia.edu/
• Columbia University https://www.columbia.edu/
• Bianca Marlin Jones https://www.biancajonesmarlin.com/
• L'ORÉAL-UNESCO Programs for Women in Science https://www.forwomeninscience.com/
• European Health Parliament https://www.healthparliament.eu/
• Collectif de Femmes de Santé https://www.femmesdesante.fr/
• Joëlle Cohen-Tannoudji https://bfa.u-paris.fr/equipe-3/team-members/?lang=en
• Simone Veil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_Veil
• Jacinda Ardern https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacinda_Ardern

To find out more about Nour visit these links 
X-Twitter https://twitter.com/NourMimouni5
Nour’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/nour-el-houda-mimouni-2b9933a4/
Nour in the lab https://www.biancajonesmarlin.com/nour-mimouni

You want to support our work ? Buy us a coffee !  ==> https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lonelypipette

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

In this episode, we kick off our Season 3 guests with David Fajgenbaum who shares his extraordinary journey to cure himself from Castleman disease.

• David shares his very personal story of searching for a cure to his own disease
• He describes how having a vision for the future helped him to survive
• He insists that patients can be part of the process and can be active collaborators in the search for cures
• He pleads for a shift from an Investigator initiated model to a Community initiated model involving collaboration between researchers, clinicians and patients
• David also insists that approved drugs could be used to treat additional diseases
• He tells us about why and how he wrote a book, “Chasing My Cure” about his journey
• He describes the value that good mentors bring
• He advises to keep focused, surround yourself with good people, learn to delegate and to take important recruitment decisions
• David recommends getting as much feedback as you can from many people

He mentioned these labs, scientists, institutions and companies

• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine : https://www.med.upenn.edu/
• Georgetown University : https://www.georgetown.edu/
• Castleman Disease Collaborative Network : https://cdcn.org/
• Castleman Disease : https://rarediseases.org/rare-diseases/castlemans-disease/
• University of Oxford : https://www.ox.ac.uk/
• National Institutes of Health (NIH) : https://www.nih.gov/
• Janet Woodcock from the FDA : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janet_Woodcock
• Brian Wallach : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Wallach
• I am ALS : https://www.iamals.org/
• Frits van Rhee : https://cdcn.org/leadership-team/frits-van-rhee/ | https://uams-triprofiles.uams.edu/profiles/display/127377
• Sharon Terry : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharon_F._Terry
• Arthur Rubenstein : https://www.med.upenn.edu/endowedprofessorships/arthur-h-rubenstein-university-professorship.html
• Benjamin Castleman : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Castleman

To find out more about David and Every Cure visit these links 
X-Twitter  : @DavidFajgenbaum
Every Cure https://twitter.com/EveryCure
David’s LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfajgenbaum/
Every Cure’s LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/company/every-cure/
David’s Book “Chasing My Cure: A Doctor's Race to Turn Hope Into Action” : https://chasingmycure.com/

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

In this episode Renaud and Jonathan share their excitement about the launch of Season 3 of The Lonely Pipette podcast. BUT this time, they are not the ones asking the questions.

💌 Subscribe and receive the next season in you mailbox

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

Dear Lonely Pipetters,
Season 2 has been an amazing journey, BUT Season 3 will be awesome. We are so proud to be still here, with you supporting us. Thank you! In this final episode, we take the chance to give you untold stories about Season 2 making-of, personal stories and what you can do to help us build Season 3. Don’t miss it out !

Subscribe to be updated when Season 3 starts : https://bit.ly/NLTLP

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This week, we talk to Maria Leptin about her path to the head of the European Research Council 

• Maria claims she didn’t receive any formal mentoring advice, but rather absorbed and learnt along the way
• Against the perceived wisdom, Maria warns against the advice to be continually networking. She advises to listen to what others say and then add your own thoughts.
• Maria is sure that if you really enjoy the stuff you're doing, then you will do it well and you'll get something out of it.
• She says that sabbatical breaks can be good to ‘put your brain to air a little bit’
• She says the ERC aims to  select the very best researchers across Europe, across all disciplines, and allow them to make wonderful discoveries. 
• To attract ERC funding, organizations or countries or regions need to create an environment where researchers are happy to work and have good conditions.
• Maria makes a passionate plea for fundamental research and better access for science journalists
• After a lie-in, Maria starts the day with a coffee and a cookie in the office
• Maria likes our question “if you had $100 million or euros to spend in science, how would you spend it?” She uses it herself in interviews.

She mentioned these institutions and researchers

• University of Bonn : https://www.uni-bonn.de/en/university/university
• University of Heidelberg : https://www.uni-heidelberg.de/en
• Basel Institute of Immunology : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basel_Institute_for_Immunology
• MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology : https://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/
• Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology : https://www.mpg.de/151769/biology-tuebingen
• European Molecular Biology Organization : https://www.embo.org/ 
• European Research Council (ERC) : https://erc.europa.eu/homepage
• Fritz Melchers : https://www.tbvi.eu/team/prof-georg-friedrich-fritz-melchers/

To find out more about Maria visit her websites or follow her on Twitter

• Website : https://erc.europa.eu/erc_member/maria-leptin
• Wikipedia : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Leptin
• ORCID : https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7097-348X
• Maria on Twitter :https://twitter.com/mleptin

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/

This week, we meet our first philosopher guest - Thomas Pradeu tells us what scientist can learn from philosophers 

• Thomas shares his journey navigating from philosophy to immunology and biology
• He explains the difference between ‘philosophy IN biology’ compared to ‘philosophy OF biology’
• He mentions ‘mutual ignorance’ - that scientists often don’t know about philosophers who would be interested in their science
• Thomas argues that philosophers should be brought in at the beginning of a project rather than at the end. He describes his model for embedding philosophers within a biology research environment
• He gives lots of specific examples, from immunology and beyond, where philosophers made an impact on science by intervening upstream
• Thomas stresses the importance of challenging the foundations (in the lab and at home)
• He also stresses the importance of reading every day
• Thomas talks honestly about the difficulties of improving life-work balance and gender balance in academia
• Thomas is proud of his success in creating examples of the Philosophy IN Biology networks as a model for interdisciplinary collaboration 

He mentioned these researchers/philosophers

• Jean Gayon : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Gayon
• Edgardo Carosella : https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgardo_D._Carosella
• David Hull : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hull_(philosopher)
• Elliott Sober : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Sober
• Ernst Mayr : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Mayr
• Richard Dawkins : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins
• Stephen Paget : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Paget
• Lucie Laplane : https://www.cnrs.fr/fr/personne/lucie-laplane
• Francis Bacon : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon
• Dick Lewontin : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Lewontin

To find out more about Thomas visit his websites or follow him on Twitter

• Website : https://www.u-bordeaux.fr/universite/espace-presse/repertoire-dexperts/thomas-pradeu
• ImmunoConcept Lab : https://immunoconcept.cnrs.fr/conceptual-biology-medicine/
• PhilInBioMed:  Institute for Philosophy in Biology and Medicine : https://www.philinbiomed.org/
• Thomas on Twitter : https://twitter.com/pradeu?lang=en

To find out more about Renaud and Jonathan :

• Twitter : https://twitter.com/LePourpre
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/renaudpourpre/
• Twitter : https://twitter.com/Epigenetique
• LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanweitzman/%20

More about the soundtrack :
Music by Amaria - Lovely Swindler https://soundcloud.com/amariamusique/