Excited to share that FLASH-MM is now published in @NatureComms🚀 nature.com/articles/s41467-0… If you are performing differential expression across conditions in large single-cell datasets, FLASH-MM is for you. Differential expression analysis at the cell level requires accounting for hierarchical structure. FLASH-MM introduces a new formulation of linear mixed models, delivering orders of magnitude improvements in speed and memory while maintaining accuracy, and is available as both R and Python packages. Huge thanks to all collaborators, especially #Changjiang_Xu  for co-leading this work, @BioinVeronique , @hheydarii , and @garybader1 for his incredible mentorship.

Iran has now been under a near-total internet and telecommunications blackout for over 70 hours, as protests against the Islamic Republic continue across the country. The limited information that does get out suggests a deadly crackdown, with reports of thousands of protesters brutally killed and hospitals overwhelmed since the blackout began. For those of us outside Iran, the shutdown has meant a complete loss of contact with our families. Many of my friends and former classmates are participating in the protests, and I have no way of knowing whether they are safe or even alive. What is striking is how little international attention this has received. Coverage remains limited, public responses from major human rights organizations have been minimal, and the scale of the protests has often been downplayed. Framing the protests as a foreign conspiracy, or speaking over those facing violence on the ground, is not solidarity; it erases people who have been systematically suppressed through repression, economic dispossession, and routine state violence. #DigitalBlackoutIran

This travel ban has quietly reshaped the personal and scientific futures of many Iranian scholars, including my own. After a full year of planning for a U.S. postdoc, tens of hours of interview preparation, fellowship applications, constant monitoring of whether Harvard’s legal battles would lead to F or J visa revocations, stress over grant freezes, and endless immigration paperwork, the sudden travel ban announced on June 4, 2025 upended everything. After the draft list for the new travel ban appeared in a New York Times article in March, we rushed to reschedule my PhD defense as early as possible. I ended up preparing for my defense in just two weeks in an attempt to get ahead of the ban, which turned out to be pointless. The ban was announced only weeks after my interview at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, and I have not heard back since. This ban is far more expansive than the one in 2017 and includes no exemptions for F or J visas. When I asked about the possibility of an exemption letter, I was told it was unlikely to help, as this administration appears to view science as no longer being in the U.S. national interest. As @genophoria points out, media coverage and the political response around this ban have been surprisingly limited. I wish more senior academics would speak up. Today, many Iranian and other international students and scholars live in a state of permanent uncertainty, where a single policy change can freeze their careers or force them to leave everything behind. Many do not even feel safe sharing their experiences publicly. In the current political climate for immigrants in the U.S., it is heartbreaking to admit that I feel almost relieved I did not end up there. When you are living with constant fear about your status, buried in paperwork, and know your life can be overturned overnight, how much bandwidth remains to do actual science?

sciRED is now officially out @NatureComms !🚀 nature.com/articles/s41467-0… The peer-reviewed version includes several new analyses beyond our preprint, so check it out even if you’ve seen it before! Huge thanks to @garybader1 and @talandrews for their incredible guidance.