PI @theMehtaLab at @KU_Leuven. Prev @UAlberta @ETH_en, @imperialcollege. Fmr Early Career Advisor @eLife. he/him @devangm.bsky.social

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Joined July 2009
My inaugural lecture at @KU_Leuven from ~2 weeks ago. Presented the lab's plans, as well as my experiences with racism in science, and how this relates to reforming science publishing (this part starts at 16:35). youtu.be/_aS55QgOgfw?si=rCkI…
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
My interview with Yogendra Yadav: newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/i…
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🪴🦠 🍅 Delighted to announce new funding from @FWOVlaanderen to lead a Strategic Basic Research project worth EUR 1.7 million! VIROPROX builds on our expertise in interactomics & plant virology to find new non-insecticidal solutions to plant viruses in sugarbeet & tomato!
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lolwut
I'll tell you why so many people upset about the "no hallucinated citations" ban on the arxiv: because they've all been copying citation lists from each other without checking them since the beginning of time. And why did they do this? Because half of the citations in scientific papers are politics and not to the benefit of the reader. If you don't list the right papers, your paper doesn't look 'right' and reviewers will complain that you didn't cite this-and-that other unrelated work. For what I am concerned, these are all bullshit citations that shouldn't be in the papers in the first place. They can easily be automated by "related papers" links, that are (wait for it) provided by... AI...
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Can’t disagree with the broader point but I think it’s high time the synbio/bioengg communities started contextualising their work with “traditional” industries. The ornamental breeding industry is a fast-growing sector that has in fact been engineering for beauty for centuries.
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Hard disagree
Yesterday, I was giving an intro talk to our dept's new PhD students. Technical things aside, my number 1 suggestion has remained the same over the years: Treat your PhD like a job. - Avoid 1.5h lunch and three tea breaks. - Avoid gossiping and loitering at work. - Lab at 9 am and leave at 6 pm. Being productive till 11 pm in the lab is a lie people till themselves when their day starts at 1 PM. Everything worth doing can be done with high intensity focus during work hours. And having fun in life is the secret to being productive in a marathon.
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
I’ve started a series in The Hindu (@the_hindu ) called the Examined World, a “contemplative series exploring what the sciences reveal about us”. Here is a link (thehindu.com/sci-tech/scienc…) to the first piece l which Is about how ideas can have a long reach and impact, and how impact and application can stimulate such ideas. The title of the piece and the picture in the article is a bit of a ‘click-bait’ into the GMO debate, but that is not the principal thrust—just a very important example. The principal question is really that if ideas and consequential directions can steer biotech in new ways; what is the crucible that can generate such ideas how can their consequences be regulated? Here are excerpts that summarise the thesis. Feedback and critiques much appreciated.
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Someone in the Arabidopsis/clock community seems to deeply dislike my work on research culture. Just want to say: whoever you are, please write & debate me directly instead of cowering behind anonymous grant reviews that threaten my students’ work. (2nd year in a row)
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p.s. none of these papers were cited in my grant application or listed in my CV.
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
Indian “secularism” is not laïcité, and it’s fabulous
Jesus having a rave with his Hindu and Muslim colleagues on Easter day after his resurrection. 😂 Scene from Kerala. xitter.cf/Brutu24/status/2041007…
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
Beware of large AI models especially in biology and healthcare. They can make accurate predictions using all kinds of shortcuts & spurious reasoning. This is very important work.
New AI paper from us this week. When my student first showed me his initial findings, I really didn’t know what to make of them. I felt that this was an interesting but curious loophole phenomenon that would shortly be closed. I was very wrong. arxiv.org/abs/2603.21687
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
My favourite academia joke of all time. "The moral of this story is: The topic of your dissertation isn't really important; what's important is who your advisor is." —Harvey Cox, When Jesus Came to Harvard
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
“Self-admiration is always a dangerous thing in an individual. It is equally dangerous in a nation, for it makes it self-satisfied and indolent and the world passes by leaving it behind.” Jawaharlal Nehru, September 1928.
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I entirely disagree with this. Academics should be judged on their work (distinct from speech outside of their work). In this case the work has no merit, it’s not merely controversial or provocative, it’s pseudoscience. Should the university be obligated to hire any charlatan?
Dr @nathancofnas’s appointment at Ghent University has prompted a campaign by members of the institution calling on the university to reverse course, citing his published work on race, heredity and intelligence. In response, CAF Advisory Board member Professor Abhishek Saha helped organised a counter-petition in support of Cofnas’s right to #academicfreedom of expression. CAF Director Dr Edward Skidelsky is among the signatories, alongside a number of senior academics from leading universities. This is not about endorsing Cofnas’s views, but about defending the principle that disagreements of this kind should be addressed through open inquiry, criticism, and civil debate. Of course, academics must be free to strongly contest ideas they regard as deeply objectionable. But that does not extend to a veto over appointments. Universities cannot function if controversial or provocative lines of research are treated as grounds for exclusion rather than argument. You can read the statement and sign the counter-petition here: drive.google.com/file/d/1RRs… @ObhishekSaha @ProfDHayes @epkaufm @Furedibyte @HJoyceGender @drianpace @aytchellesse @JoPhoenix1 @sapinker
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👀What if my answer to the essay competition about structural problems in science indicts the very idea of science by philanthropy that’s behind the contest itself?
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
Today, India elected its first lesbian MP. She was among those who led the struggle for decriminalisation only a few years ago. It's a major moment for the world's largest democracy 🇮🇳
Senior Advocate Menaka Guruswamy was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha from the State of West Bengal. She was fielded by the Trinamool Congress Party and was elected unopposed. With this, Guruswamy has become the country’s first openly queer Member of Parliament. Source: Bar and Bench #MenakaGuruswamy #RajyaSabha #WestBengal #Queer #LGBTQ
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reading one of the first publications documenting circadian rhythms in humans and it’s essentially two professors torturing an assistant prof. so i guess not much has changed in academia in 130 years 🙃
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
Dear Minister Sa'ar, Belgium is home to one of Europe's oldest Jewish communities. We are proud of that. And we will do everything to keep it that way. When a synagogue is targeted, we are outraged. When graves are desecrated, we are disgusted. When Jewish students face harassment, we want consequences. And we act, every day. A national antisemitism coordinator leads an interfederal mechanism where Jewish community leaders sit as permanent partners. Our prosecutors work under explicit zero-tolerance instructions for hate crimes. Courts convict those who spread hatred and Holocaust denial, under laws that go beyond European minimum standards. Our new Criminal Code, entering into force in April 2026, makes discriminatory motive an aggravating circumstance for every single crime. When the threat demands it, we protect. Since October 7, 2023, every Jewish school, synagogue and community centre operates under reinforced police surveillance. But Belgium's approach goes far beyond repression and protection. We invest in prevention, education and resilience, because that is how you root out hatred for good. Our schools teach about the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism with dedicated IHRA-aligned programmes. The Jewish Museum of Belgium runs a project bringing Jewish life, culture and identity into classrooms across the country. Football fans caught chanting antisemitic slurs are sent to Kazerne Dossin - the memorial site from which Jews were deported - for mandatory education programmes, with intake, guided visits and supervised reflection. The federal government has commissioned dedicated research into online antisemitism, mapping hate speech patterns, platforms and policy responses. And since April 2024, police register antisemitic incidents under a dedicated indicator, because you cannot fight what you do not measure. Is it enough? As long as one Jewish Belgian feels unsafe walking to shul, we have work to do. We carry that responsibility every single day. Now, Minister Sa'ar, let's be honest with each other. You mention the case of mohels in Antwerp. The judicial investigation was initiated following a complaint by a member of the Jewish community itself, concerning a specific medical practice. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of ritual circumcisions are performed legally in Belgium every year, without any interference. Presenting this as persecution of Jewish life is a distortion of the facts. And it is part of a pattern. You have taken the real fears of real people and turned them into an argument against Belgium's foreign policy. Jewish Belgians deserve our full protection. They do not deserve to be used as leverage in a dispute about international law. Let me be precise. We suspended consular services for Belgian citizens established in settlements that the International Court of Justice has declared illegal. This applies regardless of religion, nationality or background. It is an application of international law, nothing more, nothing less. And let us not be naive about what is really happening here. Ever since Belgium chose to firmly condemn all violations of international law, some Israeli leaders have pursued a campaign of amalgamation, deliberately conflating our principled legal positions with antisemitism. That narrative is false. International and Israeli studies confirm this. The 2026 Annual Report of Tel Aviv University warns explicitly that the inflationary use of the term antisemitism undermines the fight against real anti-Jewish hatred. The same report finds no evidence of broad societal antisemitic sentiment in Belgium, nor of political parties that support or normalise antisemitism. It highlights that Jewish representatives in Antwerp describe their cooperation with police and authorities as effective and reliable. We will protect our Jewish community with everything Belgium has. We will always listen to their concerns. And we will keep calling out violations of international law, by anyone.
Minister Prévot, a few undeniable facts: According to Belgian data, there has been a sharp and consecutive rise in antisemitic attacks in Belgium for more than five years. Jews in Belgium are afraid to wear a Kippah in the streets. Two Jewish cemeteries were desecrated. There was an attempt to set fire to a synagogue in Antwerp. Jewish students report constant harassment and discrimination. Furthermore, the ADL Europe survey shows that antisemitism in Belgium is two to three times more common than in its neighboring countries. Suddenly, after thousands of years of Brit Milah being performed, the Mohel community is being targeted. Jewish Belgian citizens living in Judea and Samaria are denied consular services, while Belgian Muslims are welcomed. Finally, 23 of the 27 EU countries have a strategic plan and a designated coordinator to combat antisemitism. Belgium does not. Dear Minister, I understand that the mirror Ambassador @BillWhiteUSA has held up to you is unpleasant, but one might want to take this opportunity to take a hard look in that mirror and acknowledge reality.
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Does anyone have a clear guide to what constitutes a conflict of interest in grant reviewing in relatively small scientific fields?
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Devang Mehta 🌱👨🏽‍🔬🧬 retweeted
Biolab robots have been a big topic on here this week. Not everyone $2m+ to spend, but plenty of labs have an OpenTrons and we're happy to now share a standard Golden Gate Cloning Workflow for their latest models, that we call "SLOWPOKE" pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs…
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Having been away from this platform for a while, I have to ask, wtf is a “frontier lab?”
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