Sophien Kamoun

Biologist at The Sainsbury Lab; passionate about plant pathogens and evolution; open science advocate; loves travel, food and sports; nomad and hunter-gatherer.

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

I just published: What scientists miss when they don’t read patents

Why my lab reads patents to understand plant immunity, and the wiki we built so you can too.

https://t.co/ZBhg6NQedg

[Cristina Muñoz Pinedo @crismunozp]

This paper is pretty amazing.
We knew intuitively that some impact factors just don’t make any sense

[Matthias C. Rillig @mrillig]

Very pleased to see this paper out in print, written with @CStrulluDerrien

The deep-time history of soils and plants

https://t.co/wWhT9Ib2mY

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

So sad 😢 🇺🇸

[Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79]

How bad is administrative bloat in higher ed?

At MIT, the “student body has grown by 8% and its faculty by 9% since the mid-1980s. By comparison, the tally of administrators jumped by 189%.”

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

@OldTiredGrumpy 😂

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

Applies to older Professors too 😝

Profarell (noun; plural profarells): a senior professor who watches others doing lab work, hands clasped behind their back, offering occasional unsolicited advice.

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

In Italy, one of the hobbies for older men is “Umarell”.

Retired men who enjoy watching construction sites while giving unsolicited advice

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

iCountPests--an innovative app that transforms the way you monitor pests on your farm https://t.co/OtZROcjQUC

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

State of the nation 🇺🇸

[The_Real_Fly @The_Real_Fly]

Trump: I called Google Maps to change the name of the Atlantic Ocean to Trump Ocean. Sundar said, “No, no, no. This time I'm not doing it.” He said, “Oceans are different, sir. They cover a lot of countries. Please don't ask us to do that.”

[Nick Volpe @nvolpewild]

BUG with FIREWORKS in the back!
How cool is nature! 🎆

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

@N_F_Mathieu And patents

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

I just published: What scientists miss when they don’t read patents

Why my lab reads patents to understand plant immunity, and the wiki we built so you can too.

https://t.co/ZBhg6NQedg

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

I thought this was company policy 👇🏼

#CellOnions #sciencecrisis

[Retraction Watch @RetractionWatch]

Cell Press investigating editor-in-chief accused of soliciting bribes from authors.
https://t.co/d19wCaqD88

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

@CarlosEAlvare17 You’re assuming I assumed something I never assumed 🤔

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

I wish they would, but they won’t unless they change the incentives and move beyond the toxic obsession with CNS papers towards discoveries with real, transformative impact.

China has been investing massively in biology for over 20 years. Yet breakthroughs that make you stop, rethink everything, and fundamentally change how you work in the lab—like CRISPR and AlphaFold—have been remarkably few.

[Emilio Palomares @PalomaresEj]

China is seeding their Nobel prize winners in 20-25 years...do numbers right and check how long and how much investiment had the actual Nobel awardees in experimental sciences such as chemistry, physics or medicine. Long term funding, superb resources and patience.

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

@soyshadow Cool 😎 🙏 I didnt know this!

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

I just published: What scientists miss when they don’t read patents

Why my lab reads patents to understand plant immunity, and the wiki we built so you can too.

https://t.co/ZBhg6NQedg

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

Oh man, love this! I’m gonna use it, dude 👇🏼

[Odd ☆☆ @nemui_nekoooo]

AI is a mirror. lazy people get lazy results. curious people get superpowers.

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

#sciencecrisis

[Sholto David @addictedtoigno1]

Today I am sharing a new preprint and accompanying blog post. Hundreds of published papers include impossible western blots showing protein expression in cell lines that have deleted or mutated genes. These clumsy mistakes are widespread and repeated by LLMs.

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

Yes, we’ll see. They will need an overhaul of their scientific culture; so far, the ROI is far from impressive and certainly muddied by a massive output of questionable work. Also, science is a team sport…

There are many stories like CRISPR, and in my experience, funding is not the only reason it’s not followed up on. In fact, Danisco followed the Spanish work and demonstrated that CRISPR is an immune system, yet they dropped the research and patents.

[Sophien Kamoun @KamounLab]

And when it happened, my colleagues and I were hugely delighted https://t.co/8iBT42RWiE