Theo Sanderson
@theosanderson
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(increasingly on bluesky, @theo.io) Assistant professor @LSHTM working on viral genomics. Previously: @TheCrick, @GoogleAI, @sangerinstitute 🧪 🤖 🖥️
London, United Kingdom
Joined March 2009
“Not sure where the story broke”? @johncoogan you follow me 😭
Today Karen Hao acknowledged she overestimated water usage for a datacenter by 1000× due to a source material error in her book. We discuss: "3 orders of magnitude is pretty big. It's not great." "It's certainly like, the difference between a big deal and not a big deal..."
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I want to spell this out in case the implications aren't clear: It means public webapps of GISAID data (all the ones you've seen thru the pandemic, as far as we can tell) are prohibited. The file allowed this. Cut that - cut off all tools the public & others were using.
On Oct 1, 2025, @GISAID informed us that they had ended updates to the flat file of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences and associated metadata that we had used to update Nextstrain analyses since Feb 2020. GISAID's stated rationale was that their "resources are limited". 1/5
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This is a total outrage and has crippled SARS-CoV-2 variant tracking and evolutionary analysis. Updating a file and giving access to @nextstrain & @GenSpectrum does not require extensive resources. There has to be an ulterior motive here. This can't be allowed to stand.
On Oct 1, 2025, @GISAID informed us that they had ended updates to the flat file of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences and associated metadata that we had used to update Nextstrain analyses since Feb 2020. GISAID's stated rationale was that their "resources are limited". 1/5
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On Oct 1, 2025, @GISAID informed us that they had ended updates to the flat file of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences and associated metadata that we had used to update Nextstrain analyses since Feb 2020. GISAID's stated rationale was that their "resources are limited". 1/5
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🗓 Pathoplexus turns ONE! 🎂🎉 In the past year we’ve grown from 4 pathogens to a truly global, community-driven platform for transparent, equitable & impactful pathogen sequence sharing. 📰 Read the full update: https://t.co/8tyR0tORdc 1/10
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Prompt Theory (Made with Veo 3) What if AI-generated characters refused to believe they were AI-generated?
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📢Today Pathoplexus announces the inclusion of 2 new viral pathogens: RSV (A & B) and HMPV. These respiratory viruses cause a serious health burden, particularly in infants & the vulnerable, & Pathoplexus aims to support sequence sharing to improve understanding & response. 1/4
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Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab
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We can identify 'anti-supply measures' (a term the Government has used) with a framework: 1. It struggles to achieve its stated goal 2. It has large unintended consequences 3. Other countries do things differently With these rules, we can identify five:
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Westminster Council is being taken to court because it refused to let a jazz bar have a 1am license in… *Leicester Square* Police claim it could cause a public nuisance. A public nuisance is this patronising, anti growth over regulation of any adult having fun.
Battle for Soho: Court fights loom over London venue opening hours as pubs urged to host ‘quiet nights'
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Cryptosporidium modifies intestinal microvilli through an exported virulence factor! (full thread in the other place) https://t.co/Nz4m6Lmzyv
biorxiv.org
Cryptosporidium is a common intestinal infection of vertebrates and a significant threat to public health. Within the epithelial layer of the intestine, the parasite invades and replicates. Infected...
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1 week left to apply!
🎺 PhD studentship available at @LSHTM and @RoyalVetCollege! @influenzal and I are advertising a project to investigate the unexpected phenomenon that mutagenic antiviral drugs can give rise to viruses with hundreds of mutations which are still viable. 🧵 https://t.co/A7PUCzyQCb
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gotta get off this site folks
Unfortunately, @CommunityNotes is increasingly being gamed by governments & legacy media. Working to fix this … It should be utterly obvious that a Zelensky-controlled poll about his OWN approval is not credible!! If Zelensky was actually loved by the people of Ukraine, he
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Mr. President, Ukraine did not “start” this war. Russia launched an unprovoked and brutal invasion claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The Road to Peace must be built on the Truth.🇺🇸🇺🇦 “Russia Invades Ukraine in Largest European Attack Since WWII” @FoxNews (February 24,
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if trump's ukraine post doesn't get community-noted there's no point in the community notes feature
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Trump calls Zelensky “a dictator without elections” having lauded Putin, a man who hasn’t had a free or fair election in years and who has prevented elections in Ukraine because he invaded.
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"USDA says it accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and is trying to rehire them"
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Why don't the Met just cut to the chase and start lobbying for a national compulsory bedtime?
London's Metropolitan Police have objected to the opening of a new jazz bar in Covent Garden because criminals might target drunk jazz fans leaving at 1am. Let's sack the person at the Met whose job is to object to planning applications and put the money into tackling theft.
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Maddening. Letting houses add an extra floor is an incredibly easy way to add extra bedrooms and home offices. Fine to require that the design be in keeping with what's already there, but if conservation areas & listings block these, we're ruling it out in huge swathes of
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