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Arslan Zaidi

@aazaidi.bsky.social
182 followers 135 following 67 posts

Genetics, stats, complex traits. Asst. prof. at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. views my own. he/him - Zaidilab.org

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Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
Roshni Patel @roshnipatel.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Would love to hear any feedback, and for more reading on the impact of the 2023 NASEM report, check out our preprint surveying early-career researchers, led by @jayatirsharma.bsky.social and @christacaggiano.bsky.social, from earlier this year: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Recommendations for the ethical and accurate use of population descriptors: a trainee-led survey of early-career researchers
Despite the importance of population descriptors in human genomics research, many scientists struggle to translate evolving ethical guidelines into their computational workflows. To characterize this ...
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Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
Doc Edge @docedge.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Please repost: My department (quantitative and computational biology at the University of Southern California) is hiring a teaching-track faculty member. The new hire will focus on teaching statistics courses to biology students. Apply by Dec 1 usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...
usccareers.usc.edu
Full-Time, Teaching-Track Faculty Position in Quantitative and Computational Biology at USC
Learn more about applying for Full-Time, Teaching-Track Faculty Position in Quantitative and Computational Biology at USC
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Jeffrey M Kidd @jeffreymkidd.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Excited to share that my department has an open faculty search for an Assistant Professor! The search is broad, focused on candidates who plan to address fundamental questions in genetics and genomics. The due date is soon: Nov 13. You can apply through interfolio. apply.interfolio.com/190644
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Collaborator? I hardly know her! @tinalasisi.bsky.social
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Roshni Patel @roshnipatel.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
These are of course very old questions with tremendous recent progress; we focus mostly on the recent progress and what it offers for the next era of studying human genetics in biobanks. Excited this preprint is out and we'd of course love to hear any thoughts!
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The first one was surprisingly good!
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Lab got me an Aang funko pop for my bday. I think they don’t hate me 🥹
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Ha! Love when you don’t have to wait for a sequel.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Same, it comes with a device for physical separation, right?
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 08/08/2026
Congrats. I’ve been Prime free for 7 years now and I love the act of going to a local store to find something. It’s also been great for community building.
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Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
The Genome-Wide Effect of Drift and Selection over a Single Generation www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
Arjun Biddanda @aabiddanda.github.io · 31/07/2026
Amazing to see this online today! A very fun project over the past couple of years (made all the better by a great team of people to work with!)
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
💅
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
The sharpener being brought up
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 07/06/2026
Minneapolis is so wonderfully weird. Sometime ago a beloved giant oak tree at someone’s house fell due to a storm and they made an annual festival of sharpening a pencil out of the stump. People finding reasons to be joyful and celebrate #lakeoftheislespencil.
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Genetics Society of America @genetics-gsa.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
In #GENETICS, @jazlynmooney.bsky.social and the team present a unified theoretical framework for understanding how recombination shapes ancestry patterns after admixture. 🔗 buff.ly/7i4EFAc
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Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
Dr. Arun Sethuraman @arunsethuraman.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Headed to #PEQG26 next week? The Sethuraman Lab will be presenting a buncha recent work! Come find us at both poster sessions, and DM/message me if you'd like to chat about the open postdoc position in my lab.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Student authors: Parisa Riahi, Sharwary Raghupathy, Bryan Le, and @sol-tb.bsky.social
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
More in the paper(!) and this field is new to us so forgive us if we’ve missed good pubs. Happy to include them so please reach out.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Altogether, this paints a complex picture of mtDNA expression regulation. the (disproportionately) minimal role of genetic regulation of mtGE likely reflects the need for it to respond to environmental/cellular cues.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
We found cis and trans-eQTLs of mtGE that point to post-transcriptional (as opposed to transcription initiation) regulation of mtDNA gene expression. But even though mtDNA genes have some of the highest and most variable expression, their genetic regulation appears to be highly constrained.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
There might be other mechanisms (cell stress, compensation for mtDNA mutations etc.) that might associate mtCN with cellular and individual-level traits but these need to be worked out mechanistically.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
We estimate that ~50/800 templates are under transcription, consistent with low accessibility of mtDNA in LCLs. Together, we think that absolute mtCN is not a useful predictor of mt function at least through mtDNA gene expression variation.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
We developed a popgen method(!) to test this in LCLs. Basically, we use heteroplasmy drift between mtDNA and mtRNA to estimate the effective number of templates transcribed - the transcriptional bottleneck. Our method does well in simulations and accounts for a number of things.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
A recent study from @rsisaac.bsky.social etal showed that though there may be 1000s of mtDNA molecules in a cell, a small fraction of them are accessible for transcription. This suggests that template accessibility, not absolute mtCN, is more relevant for mtGE variation.
nature.com
Single-nucleoid architecture reveals heterogeneous packaging of mitochondrial DNA - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology
Isaac et al. present mtFiber-seq, a method that measures individual mitochondrial genome packaging at nucleotide resolution. They show that most nucleoids are in an inaccessible state, modulated by th...
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
The blood association could still be because of residual confounding but even if we assume it’s real, the effect is very small ~2% of the variance in mtGE explained by mtCN. Overall, there’s no evidence of a causal relationship bw mtCN and mtGE.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
We tested this with mtGE and mtCN measured in LCLs from the 1000 genomes using a DAG framework to account for various sources of bias. We show no evidence of a relationship and our tests are well-calibrated. We then tested this in GTEx tissues and found no association in any tissue except blood.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
MtGE~mtCN associations have reported previously but these tend to be across tissues or in tissues with cellular heterogeneity. As such, these associations are confounded by cell composition variation and evidence for a within-cell relationship is missing.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
There’re reasons to believe this. MtDNA has no canonical enhancers and mtDNA copy number (mtCN) and gene expression (mtGE) (co)vary in orders of magnitude across tissues with metabolically active tissues like heart and brain expressing a lot of both.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
MtDNA has emerged as a potential biomarker of mitochondrial (dye)function but a mechanistic model of how it might be related to mt activity is lacking. Here we explore one common hypothesis: it drives mtDNA gene expression.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Our preprint on the genetic regulation of mtDNA gene expression in collaboration with @shwetaramdas.bsky.social and @rajivmccoy.bsky.social .
biorxiv.org
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Gideon Bradburd @gbradburd.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
postdoc alert 🚨! NIH-funded postdoc in my lab to work on Ancestral Recombination Graphs in space. Please spread the word widely in your networks, and please reach out if you're interested! (2-3yr position, start date flexible, pay/benefits good!). details here: careers.umich.edu/job_detail/2...
genescape.org
recruitment
Multiple positions available: ​ Postdoc PhD students
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Julia Kreiner @jmkreiner.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Abstract deadline for Midwest Pop Gen 2026 extended to June 12th! Aug 21-22 at UChicago — free, trainee-oriented meeting with talks, posters + Friday BBQ at Promontory Point. Chicago in August doesn't get better than this... jkreinz.github.io/mwpg2026
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
So how does one say if there truly are differences in avg genetic risk b/w groups. This is not as straightforward as might seem in natural populations and even our best methods are not guaranteed to give the right answers. Read on more about this in the preprint!
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
This directional LD is well known as Bulmer’s effect particularly for stabilizing selection but applies more broadly to all traits. Point being that the presence of allele frequency differences =/= differences in mean genetic risk. The conflation b/w the two is misleading and can be harmful.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
So eg. If the trait/risk increasing allele is more common in pop A (vs B) at one locus and less common at another locus, the net difference in avg genetic risk b/w the pops might be zero.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
The distinction is important because the former does not imply the latter. Allele frequency difference is necessary but not sufficient to produce a difference in avg genetic risk. The direction of those differences wrt each other, ie ‘directional LD’ matters as well.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
It’s argued that if all traits are heritable, and if there are allele frequency differences bw groups, then there will be genetic differences bw groups underlying traits as well. But what’s often implied is not just that there are genetic differences but differences in mean genetic risk.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 28/05/2026
Happy to present our perspective on how to think about group-differences in genetic risk. With @nicole-kleman.bsky.social , Meng Lin, and Chris Gignoux.
arxiv.org
Tread lightly interpreting group differences in genetic risk
Observed differences in mean phenotypic values across human groups have attracted renewed interest with the rise of large-scale genomic studies and polygenic risk prediction. However, the genetic basi...
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 21/05/2026
I try not to complain about things but biorxiv refused to preprint our perspective piece and arxiv wants an endorsement from two unicorns who have preprinted there in the last 5 yrs in the same subsection before we can post anything. Preprinting shouldn’t be this hard.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Yayy looking forward to seeing you there!
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
Geneticists have this problem as well. “Gene(tic)s influences X trait” could mean a lot of things, some more defensible than others.
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Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
Alicia Martin @genetisaur.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
📣 𝐖𝐞’𝐫𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐜 𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐨𝐩𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 & 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬! 🌍📈🧬 If you’re finishing a PhD (or know someone who is) and want to work on complex trait biology + 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙-𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑙𝑑 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑡, read on 👇
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Nicholas Mancuso @nmancuso.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
Please share! The USC Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology is searching for a full-time, teaching-track faculty member for the teaching of QBIO undergraduate statistics and computational biology courses. usccareers.usc.edu/job/los-ange...
usccareers.usc.edu
Full-Time, Teaching-Track Faculty Position in Quantitative and Computational Biology at USC
Learn more about applying for Full-Time, Teaching-Track Faculty Position in Quantitative and Computational Biology at USC
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
Eid Mubarak friends!
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Maria A Nieves Colón @mitopr.bsky.social · 18/03/2026
Friends and Colleagues! I am SO excited to catch up with you all this week at #AABA2026! Here is a quick 🧵summarizing what our 🧪🧬👩🏽‍💻👨🏿‍🔬👩🏼‍🔬🧑‍💻lab will be presenting at the meetings (1/n) @umncla.bsky.social @umnanth.bsky.social www.nievescolonlab.org
nievescolonlab.org
Anthropological Genetics Lab at UMN
Anthropological Genetics Laboratories at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Glad to be part of a community that values the well-being and safety of its neighbors.
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Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 10/01/2026
We visited Renee Good's memorial. There, we met a group of Somali Minnesotans — who too have been viciously attacked for weeks — warmly hosting everyone. Flowers & stuffed animals galore. Neighbors continually offering sambusas & hand-warmers & water. Grief. And belief. Scenes from Minneapolis:
zeteo.com
WATCH: Prem Attends Memorial at Scene of Murder in Minneapolis
See what Prem saw at the memorial for the 37-year-old mother killed by ICE in Minneapolis, plus interview with Omar Fateh and residents.
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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
My phone looks a little different from yours
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