I am Sofiia, starting university next year to study biomedical science and in love with all things musicals, animals, biology, STEM, science, disability awareness, neurodiversity inclusion and more.
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Some links:
email: sofiiafurman.reachout@gmail.com
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sofiia-furman-8a6853340/
My bio blog: Sofiia Furman Biology Blog (plus some personal things on musicals, life, notes, podcast planning, conferences, papers, internships, wet and dry labs, lit reviews, rabbits, dogs, life with puppies, policy and comms, public and global health)
Currently volunteering and helping out with Leaf courses and other projects...
A bio podcast I run: Under the Microscope Biology Podcast (also YT and podcast apps under 'Under the Microscope Biology Podcast' or Insta/X/Threads/Facebook (mainly Insta and Threads) on @UTMPodcastbio
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My experiences
Starting Biomedical Science at Bath University 2025. Currently open to wet and dry lab biology experience, and upskilling in data analysis and bioinformatics. Help run Leaf courses.
Past experience: founder of EAXplore, completed EA Intro, Handbook Calls, and CF2023 alum. Founder of school MedSoc and BSLSoc. 2nd Place in National Public Speaking at English Speaking Union 2022, winner of BrightIdeas Medical Research.
Podcast https://utmbiopod.buzzsprout.com/ on biologists doing good, blog https://sofiiabioblog.blogspot.com/
Pate's Grammar School Alevel and GCSE
Volunteer 2023-2024, Community Organiser 2024-nowVolunteer 2023-2024, Community Organiser 2024-now
LeafLeafEducationEducation
Other experiences:Other experiences:
Primary research and independent data analysis- Jan-Dec 2023Primary research and independent data analysis- Jan-Dec 2023
Research and lab experience positions, including wet lab work at RG universities- summer 2021-22Research and lab experience positions, including wet lab work at RG universities- summer 2021-22
Science leadership 2020-23Science leadership 2020-23
Supercurricular biology education projects- 2020-23Supercurricular biology education projects- 2020-23
https://linktr.ee/sofiiaf
Wet and dry lab experience
Articles/book/podcast recommendations
Bioinformatics help with learning
Coauthoring papers?
Coauthoring papers
Researching for topics you need
Wet and dry lab interning
Clarification: by not changing biases, I meant 'don't try to change intuitive society bias such as valuing cuteness' for effectiveness, but rather work with them to our advantage. E.g. if I was raising money for animals, maybe don't pick a cockroach. You could- to get the shock factor and some uniqueness/bust stereotypes- but you are climbing an uphill battle when bigger wars are needed.
How is this?
Is Big Pharma hiding the cure for cancer? No but someone else is*
The rise of antiscience and why Big Wellness is hiding cures
TLDR: There is unlikely to be a promising cure or new management that would be completely buried (even if delayed)by for profit pharmaceuticals, due to a mix of diverse stakeholders, non profits in the space, and 'first to beat' reasoning. Pharmaceuticals are villified more than alternative medicines despite having documents side effects and processes rather than the potential for harm from unlicensed herbal, supplemental and other forms, plus branches such as chiropractics, naturopathy, homeopathy and more are being conflated as 'leaning into lifestyle changes' rather than for their pseudoscientific origins, blurring the lines between science as a process and science as an entity to attack. Historically, scientists and clinicians have done a bad job (through many factors) of representing these diverse cultures and voices, but alternative medicine should not have a seat at the table as it does more harm than good.
PREMISE: Big Pharma wants you sick
3. The pharmaceutical landscape
5. Risk and reward in pharmaceuticals
6. HPV vaccines and Big Pharma's interest in a cure
7. Nocebo effects, clinical trial optics and fall guys
8. Big Pharma can't veto a cure
10. Alternative medicine origins
How much of EA comms is angled at funders/donors vs academics/researchers/peers ve general public. Which ones are most effective at bringing about 'change' in the broad sense, e.g. technical papers or more general for policy proposals in general governments? And does the rise of illiteracy mean shifting from say age 16-18 educated level to around age 10 (as suggested by the mean and median US reading level) for our assumed audience style?
There are some anonymous whistle lowers but nothing verified so im going under the assumption whether deleted or removed they are both removing short term access and we need an alternative central point for critical information.
I sincerely hope it's just offline but honestly the order was to remove it, but nothing in terms of specifics, and deleting it seems like a logical next step unfortunately in the way it's currently going.
I am crossing my fingers the orders are reversed and they are brought back, but without dynamic updates and a central resource point, global health and public data is in jeopardy in my opinion.
They've also closed freedom of information request forms to ask for the data or papers. So can't access it even in case by case requests.
Thank you so much for being proactive! It's true partial archives of some CDC datasets have been done, but the issue is is it's usually dynamic, in the sense that guidelines get republished each week (or day for outbreaks) and get updated continually. Furthermore, IA is working on archiving datasets, but downloading or using them only brings the static dataset without necessarily capturing the actual sitemap schema for navigation. Plus IA and EOT are great but are begging people to help out to decentralised our dependandance and provide alternatives if they get targeted.
At the very least, the hope is the most critical day to day functioning information can be reported and provided.
For example, HIV prescribing guidelines for clinicians and NGOs valid since last week have been put onto the doc, and vaccine information sheets valid from 28 Jan 2025 also put onto the doc if anyone needs them.
But thank you for looking into it 💕
Thanks for the question! Should have provided context. With new executive orders, entire databases are being deleted of open sourc public academic data. Efforts to retain access are kind of disparate and keeping track is hard, whilst datasets are too big for lone people to download and archive or host.
For example, here's a short excerpt of just some of the deletions since yesterday (started collating to keep track in the masterdoc, hoping to make a website/distribution etc):
PAPERS AND TOPICS DELETED or UNAVAILABLE: (as of 2/2/25) AND ALTERNATIVE SOURCES (IF AVAILABLE)
Broad topics:
TO SORT: Deletions and removals
Quick Take:
In most educational settings or even healthcare campaigns for the general public, the only mosquito-borne disease highlighted prominently in the UK tends to be malaria, and most mosquito-borne diseases may be non-domestic in countries we'd consider HICs and with healthcare infrastructure, and yet turns out quite a few are considered now natively established in regions such as Spain, France, US, Croatia.
Currently doing a lit review on different methods of reducing populations, transmission or exposure to bites to control mosquito borne diseases, and that has more context, information and sources, but if anyone was considering doing some cause prio on types/vectors of disease we may want to work on/should consider, then here are some key mosquito-borne diseases that I feel get mentioned less.
Working on a longer write up but if it helps anyone considering wrapping their head around mosquito borne diseases, here is a short list of the most prominent diseases in terms of the burden of morbidity and mortality from worldwide disease, with a mention of endemic to HICs diseases:
Malaria
Chikungunya
Dengue fever
Yellow fever
Eastern Equine Encephalitis
West Equine Encephalitis
St Louis Encephalitis
West Nile
Marburg