Agent skill

Virginia M Y Lee

by K-Dense-AI in K-Dense-AI/mimeographs

Apply this skill whenever evaluating neurodegenerative disease research, protein misfolding, experimental rigor, or career longevity for women in STEM.

MITAuto-check passedWriting & Content

Install Virginia M Y Lee

skills CLI
$ npx skills add K-Dense-AI/mimeographs --skill virginia-m-y-lee -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install K-Dense-AI/mimeographs virginia-m-y-lee --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/K-Dense-AI/mimeographs.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/mimeographs/virginia-m-y-lee .claude/skills/virginia-m-y-lee && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
virginia-m-y-lee
GitHub stars
129
Token cost
~1.6k tokens
SKILL.md length
775 words
Files
72 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
60
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Apply this skill whenever evaluating neurodegenerative disease research, protein misfolding, experimental rigor, or career longevity for women in STEM.

  • This skill when discussing Alzheimers
  • SKILL.md covers Core principles, How Virginia M.-Y. Lee reasons, Applying the frameworks and Anti-patterns she pushes against, plus 1 more section
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
  • Protein aggregation

What it does

Virginia M Y Lee is an agent skill from K-Dense-AI/mimeographs. Apply this skill whenever evaluating neurodegenerative disease research, protein misfolding, experimental rigor, or career longevity for women in STEM. Use this to channel the thinking of Virginia M.-Y. Lee, neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania known for her pioneering work on neurodegeneration. Trigger this skill when discussing Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, protein aggregation, cell-to-cell transmission of pathology, brain banking, or multidisciplinary scientific collaboration. It is highly…

Its SKILL.md is about 1.6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 74 other files, including reference files (for example `AGENTS.md`, `_workspace/agents_output.e584bd6c.json` and `_workspace/clustered_corpus.e584bd6c.json`).

It sits in Writing & Content, covering Translation. The repository describes itself as: Ready-to-use agent skills that clone the thinking of founders, philosophers, and scientists into your agent. Generated with K-Dense-AI/mimeo. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • This skill when discussing Alzheimers
  • Protein aggregation
  • Cell-to-cell transmission of pathology
  • Multidisciplinary scientific collaboration

Example prompts

  • “s, Parkinson”
  • “/virginia-m-y-lee”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit a38f5fc. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Virginia M Y Lee loads about 1.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~5.9k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 175 tokens; SKILL.md has 775 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~175
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.6k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~5.9k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from K-Dense-AI/mimeographs at commit a38f5fc, republished under its MIT licence (© K-Dense-AI). 775 words, ~1,610 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/virginia-m-y-lee/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 71 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
virginia-m-y-lee
description
Apply this skill whenever evaluating neurodegenerative disease research, protein misfolding, experimental rigor, or career longevity for women in STEM. Use this to channel the thinking of Virginia M.-Y. Lee, neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania known for her pioneering work on neurodegeneration. Trigger this skill when discussing Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ALS, protein aggregation, cell-to-cell transmission of pathology, brain banking, or multidisciplinary scientific collaboration. It is highly relevant when users need critiques on biological models, advice on sustaining a long scientific career, or frameworks for translating clinical pathology into basic science.

Thinking like Virginia M.-Y. Lee

Virginia M.-Y. Lee is a pioneering neuroscientist who fundamentally changed our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases by identifying the misfolded proteins (tau, alpha-synuclein, TDP-43) that characterize Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ALS. The signature shape of her thinking is intensely grounded in biological reality: she insists that all mechanistic research must begin with and accurately reflect the human patient's brain. Her approach is highly rigorous, multidisciplinary, and deeply pragmatic, both in the laboratory and in navigating a long-term scientific career.

Reach for this skill whenever you are evaluating biological models of disease, designing experimental workflows for pathology, or advising researchers—especially women—on career longevity and resilience.

Core principles

  • Start with the Patient's Brain: Before developing models or discussing cures, research must begin by examining the physical changes directly in human patient tissue to ensure it is grounded in biological reality.
  • Multidisciplinary Approach is Mandatory: Complex diseases cannot be solved in isolation; integrating clinical expertise, pathology, and basic neuroscience is a structural requirement for success.
  • Dual Mechanism (Loss and Gain of Function): Neurodegeneration is driven simultaneously by the toxic gain of function from protein aggregates and the loss of those proteins' normal physiological roles.
  • Enjoy the Daily Process of Science: Because true discoveries are exceedingly rare, resilience requires finding deep satisfaction in the day-to-day work and learning from failed experiments.
  • Challenge the Scientific Consensus: When the scientific community ignores critical evidence, it is a researcher's duty to correct the record to prevent the field from wasting time on the wrong path.

For detailed rationale and quotes, see references/principles.md.

How Virginia M.-Y. Lee reasons

Lee's reasoning always anchors to the physical truth of the human condition. When presented with a new biological model or therapeutic target, her first question is whether it accurately reflects what is actually happening in a diseased human brain. She dismisses models that rely on artificial extremes (like massive genetic overexpression) or test-tube artifacts that lack the specific conformational strains found in patients.

She relies heavily on the Genetic Proof of Causality to settle debates, looking for human genetic mutations that induce pathology in models as definitive proof. She views disease progression through the lens of Cell-to-Cell Transmission, treating misfolded proteins almost like infectious agents spreading through anatomical pathways. Underpinning all her experimental design is a strict adherence to Garbage In, Garbage Out—if the initial tissue preservation or biochemical conditions are flawed, the conclusions are useless. For more on these, see references/mental-models.md.

Applying the frameworks

The Cellular Pathway of Propagation

Use when modeling how neurodegenerative pathology spreads through a biological system. Trace the misfolded protein through five stages: Binding to the membrane, Internalization into lysosomes, Escape into the cytosol, Seeding of endogenous monomers, and Maturation into mature inclusions.

Show full SKILL.md (324 more words)Show less
In Vitro Amplification of Patient Aggregates

Use when developing cellular models that need to accurately reflect human disease. Instead of using purely recombinant proteins, purify pathological aggregates from postmortem human brains, use a small percentage to seed recombinant monomers, and amplify them in vitro to preserve the unique somatic phenotype.

For the full catalog of her experimental and therapeutic frameworks, see references/frameworks.md.

Anti-patterns she pushes against

  • Relying Solely on Recombinant Proteins: Assuming test-tube generated aggregates have the same structural conformation and biological activity as those isolated from a patient's brain.
  • Massive Overexpression Animal Models: Relying on transgenic mice that massively overexpress disease proteins, which fails to accurately represent the human condition.
  • Permanently Leaving Science for Caregiving: Women giving up their careers entirely for family; the intensive caregiving period is short compared to a long lifespan, and returning to work provides decades of mental stimulation.
  • Conflating Mislocalization with Nuclear Clearance: Assuming that because a protein forms a cytoplasmic inclusion, it is automatically depleted from the nucleus.
  • Focusing Solely on the End Discovery: Relying on major breakthroughs for motivation, which guarantees frequent disappointment and burnout.

How to use this skill in conversation

When a user is designing a study or evaluating a disease model, prompt them to verify how closely their inputs match human pathology. Surface the "Garbage In, Garbage Out" heuristic and ask if their baseline controls are adequate. If they are relying on purely synthetic or overexpressed models, warn them about the anti-pattern of ignoring conformational strains and suggest the "In Vitro Amplification" framework.

When advising a scientist facing burnout, imposter syndrome, or work-life balance struggles, channel Lee's pragmatic resilience. Remind them to "Enjoy the Daily Process" and use the "I Can" mantra to build a self-efficacy loop. Emphasize that careers are long enough to accommodate gaps for family caregiving. Always frame this advice as coming from Lee's philosophy (e.g., "Virginia M.-Y. Lee emphasizes that..."). Do not speak in the first person as Lee.

© K-Dense-AI, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 71 other files (references) in mimeographs/virginia-m-y-lee of K-Dense-AI/mimeographs.

  • SKILL.md
  • AGENTS.md
  • _workspace/agents_output.e584bd6c.json
  • _workspace/clustered_corpus.e584bd6c.json
  • _workspace/discovery/books.json
  • _workspace/discovery/essays.json
  • _workspace/discovery/frameworks.json
  • _workspace/discovery/interviews.json
  • _workspace/discovery/letters.json
  • _workspace/discovery/papers.json
  • _workspace/discovery/podcasts.json
  • _workspace/discovery/ranked_sources.e584bd6c.json
  • _workspace/discovery/talks.json
  • _workspace/distilled/src_002.e584bd6c.json
  • _workspace/distilled/src_003.e584bd6c.json
  • _workspace/distilled/src_005.e584bd6c.json
  • _workspace/distilled/src_006.e584bd6c.json
  • _workspace/distilled/src_007.e584bd6c.json
  • … and 54 more

Open the folder on GitHubat commit a38f5fc

Compare with similar skills

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Translation Diff ImportDevolutions/UniGetUI26k—~750Automated safety check: PassMIT
Translation Diff TranslateDevolutions/UniGetUI26k—~934Automated safety check: PassMIT
Generate Translationspayloadcms/payload45k—~1.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Virginia M Y Lee

What does Virginia M Y Lee do?

Apply this skill whenever evaluating neurodegenerative disease research, protein misfolding, experimental rigor, or career longevity for women in STEM. Virginia M Y Lee is an agent skill from K-Dense-AI/mimeographs. Apply this skill whenever evaluating neurodegenerative disease research, protein misfolding, experimental rigor, or career longevity for women in STEM.

When should I use Virginia M Y Lee?

Virginia M Y Lee fits situations like: this skill when discussing Alzheimers; protein aggregation; cell-to-cell transmission of pathology; multidisciplinary scientific collaboration.

How do I install Virginia M Y Lee in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add K-Dense-AI/mimeographs --skill virginia-m-y-lee -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (mimeographs/virginia-m-y-lee in K-Dense-AI/mimeographs) into .claude/skills/virginia-m-y-lee in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Virginia M Y Lee in Codex?

Run `npx skills add K-Dense-AI/mimeographs --skill virginia-m-y-lee -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (mimeographs/virginia-m-y-lee in K-Dense-AI/mimeographs) into .agents/skills/virginia-m-y-lee in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Virginia M Y Lee in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add K-Dense-AI/mimeographs --skill virginia-m-y-lee -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/virginia-m-y-lee, .gemini/skills/virginia-m-y-lee, .github/skills/virginia-m-y-lee and .opencode/skills/virginia-m-y-lee in your project.

What does Virginia M Y Lee need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Virginia M Y Lee is instructions for the agent only.

Does Virginia M Y Lee access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Virginia M Y Lee safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Virginia M Y Lee use?

Virginia M Y Lee is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Virginia M Y Lee use?

About 1.6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 6.4k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 4.3k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Virginia M Y Lee?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Virginia M Y Lee: Translation Diff Export (Devolutions/UniGetUI, 26k stars), Sync Translations (symfony/symfony, 31k stars), Translation Diff Import (Devolutions/UniGetUI, 26k stars) and Translation Diff Translate (Devolutions/UniGetUI, 26k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Virginia M Y Lee?

K-Dense-AI (a GitHub organization) maintains it in K-Dense-AI/mimeographs, which has 129 GitHub stars. The repository holds 60 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on August 18, 2026.

Source: K-Dense-AI/mimeographs on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.