Itai Yanai (@ItaiYanai) / X

Itai Yanai

4,378 posts

Itai Yanai

@ItaiYanai

Professor at the NYU School of Medicine. Co-host of the 'Night Science Podcast' @nightsciencepod and Co-founder of the Night Science Institute night-science.org

NYU, School of Medicine

Joined January 2015

Pinned
Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Jul 10, 2024
Published today! We found that cancer cells adapting to drug treatments don't simply switch from a sensitive to resistant state; instead there's a ‘resistance continuum’ of resistant phenotypes with epigenetically reprogrammed states. 🧵⬇️ nature.com/articles/s4158… @Gustavo_SFranca
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Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Oct 6, 2024
Doing good science is 90% finding a science buddy to constantly talk to about the project.
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Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Jan 4, 2023
New Nature paper provides evidence that science has become less innovative since the 1950s. The authors suggest reversing the trend by: 1. reading widely, 2. focusing less on quantity of papers, & more on research quality, 3. taking year-long sabbaticals. nature.com/articles/s4158…
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Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Dec 14, 2021
I must admit that this annotated Nature abstract remains a useful recipe for constructing a summary paragraph. I show it to my students every time we get started.
Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Jul 24, 2021
I met a scientist who was just trying to do good science. No Nobel prize fetish. No imposter syndrome. No deep desire for flashy publications. No venting about evil reviewers. No need to gossip about other scientists. Only doing good science. Like a psychopath.
Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Sep 2, 2022
If you don’t feel stupid doing science you’re not trying hard enough.
Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Jun 29, 2024
Science is not really happening when the goal is a paper, a presentation, a grant, or any product. It only really happens when the goal is a process of discovery.
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Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Nov 10, 2021
Doing a PhD is - at heart - one long discussion with your mentor. The discussion changes over time - with unexpected turns and ups & downs - but through it all is a pair of people discussing a topic endlessly to make sense of it. PhD students: choose someone you like to talk to!
Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Feb 2, 2022
PhD students tend to choose a lab based on the topic, but a creative and supportive environment is more important. If everyone in the lab is miserable, you will probably be miserable there too; and if they are happy and thriving, you'll also likely feel good about yourself there.
Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
May 31, 2025
90% of doing science is being open to new ideas.
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Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Oct 27, 2024
Is the scientific paper a fraud? Peter Medawar (Nobel Prize winner) suggested that publications are overly structured and formal, giving only a sanitized version of the discovery without revealing the thought process that actually led to it.
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Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Nov 1, 2024
If you think the next big idea in your field will come from inside the field, you're probably wrong.
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Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Jan 8, 2024
Out today in @NatureBiotech! PhD students & postdocs: there's a trick – overlooked and underused – for having new ideas in the creative process. Talk science 1 on 1 with a science buddy that you trust and think of it as an improvisation. nature.com/articles/s4158…… @MartinJLercher
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Itai Yanai
@ItaiYanai
Dec 25, 2024
It’s crazy how talking with a science buddy is simultaneously what’s most likely to move the project forward and the thing that’s least prioritized in our schedule.
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