Nicole Haloupek

Science writer at the American Association for Cancer Research. Independent scientific consultant. PhD in molecular and cell biology from UC Berkeley. She/her.

[AI Memes for Artificially Intelligent Teens @ai_memes]

Machine learning pipelines

[Elizabeth McKenna @ElizSMcKenna]

Still thinking about @MeliD32's #AACR21 Plenary and how non-Europeans have a higher rate of VUS that affects trial eligibility: "This a systematic exclusion of these individuals for their access to trials, and being systematically excluded is not the same as poor participation.”

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

@lisaeshunwilson I can teach you, but I’ll have to charge. 🤓

But seriously, ask for some tips from BG Han, noted streptavidin pro and all-around excellent electron microscopist. He’s the one who taught me, although my sloppy, amateurish grids hardly do justice to his technique.

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

Does anyone else just leave wrapping paper under the tree for days after Christmas? I thought it was a tradition meant to savor opening the presents, and I still do it with just my spouse, but now I realize maybe it was simply that no one wanted to clean up when I was a kid.😅

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

Must decorate soon
My home will be seen on screen
At the Christmas Zoom

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

@kirvers Thankfully, I found this paper to be very unconvincing. They claim LINE1-mediated integration but they don't show that there are integrant sequences with the expected pattern...nor do they even try, apparently. The most likely explanation is RNA-seq artifacts, IMO.

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

@ElizSMcKenna The power of highlighting lies within my own mind. Maybe...maybe it was there all along.... 🤯

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

I recently realized that I no longer need to print papers to write articles about them.

So now I’m recycling all the papers about which I’ve written from home since my job went remote March 13th.

Here they are. All with double-sided printing. No supplements included. 9”. 📝💀

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

Watching from my windows as the snow accumulated outside last night almost made me forget it was 2020. Almost.

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

I suggest that we cease to care whether people who have been to neither graduate school nor professional (e.g., medical) school, such as Joseph Epstein, believe that doctors other than MDs should use “Dr.” as a title. Don’t give a second more of your time to @WSJ’s clickbait.

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

@jobairzin Congrats Jo! What amazing news. :)

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

@Juanmabertoldi1 The closest I have seen is their actual Nature paper describing the results, though of course papers are still subject to bias—we all want to present our results in a favorable light. Would love to see a decent piece of journalism on AlphaFold, but I haven't come across one yet.

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

I can’t believe I have to say this, but structural biology isn’t a “solved game” and the decades-old protein-folding problem still exists. Disappointed in how many scientists are completely uncritically hype-tweeting about the #AlphaFold results (interesting as they may be).

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

@NogalesLab @vignesh_k757 @CUBoulder Congrats Vignesh! 🎉 This is awesome. I eagerly await hearing about your first results from Boulder!

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

One of these minuscule bags would fit all the electron microscope grids I used during grad school! There would even be surplus space to store a tiny vial containing a single tear for each time I crashed the column. 😩😂 #CryoEM

[OpenAcademics @OpenAcademics]

Academics, what can you fit in these? #AcademicTwitter #phdchat

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

Kelly is a lovely person whose postdoc in the @NogalesLab overlapped with my PhD there. She was an amazing resource to all of us and was known for brightening people’s days. I’m certain she must be a top-tier group leader now and urge any interested students to apply!

[Kelly Nguyen @KellyTHD_Nguyen]

Come and join our growing lab to work on telomere maintenance in our favorite model organism, the bakers' yeast.

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

@kellogg_liz Haha this is the best! Unfortunately, I broke the pink wand that night when I accidentally smacked something with it while gesticulating wildly. 😅

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

Now that the plague has ruined Halloween, I'm reminiscing about going to the lab every Halloween during grad school as the Nihilism Fairy, a character I invented who was basically just me frowning and saying that nothing matters slightly more than usual for a PhD student.

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

If you missed #DisInHigherEd month, now’s your chance to catch up!

Even if you’re not disabled and think this doesn’t affect you, remember that you know people with disabilities—regardless of whether you’re aware. Not all disabilities are visible, and not everyone discloses.

[Disabled in Higher Ed - #DisInHigherEd @DisInHigherEd]

We are only 36 followers away from 4000 followers. You can help us shape the future of #DisInHigherEd and be a part of a community lifting each other up when academia tries to take us down. This is only the beginning, follow us and stay timed. Please RT!

[Nicole Haloupek @haloupek]

At least once, the postdoc kindly explaining the dire computational situation without directly blaming the culprit was @BJ_Greber, the PI was @NogalesLab, and the PhD student who crashed the cluster...was me. 🙃