iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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John Hawks @johnhawks.net · 09/09/2026

Always happy to add new Denisovans. This is quite a record now from ancient proteins, five sites that span a geographic area encompassing all of China. These people had remarkable stories we are starting to understand how to tell. www.johnhawks.net/p/new-deniso...

johnhawks.net

New Denisovans from China’s southwest

The site of Bianfu Cave provides evidence that this group spanned all of China during the later Middle Pleistocene.

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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

Something happened in 1837, but it didn't last. Use of Vererbungsfähigkeit ('inheritance capacity' - not yet 'heritability') and Vererbung ('inheritance/heredity') in Austro-Hungarian agricultural journals.

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Lior Pachter @lpachter.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

One of the major pains of academia is having to click through labyrinths of webpages to submit papers. Now, thanks to Joe Rich (and AI), problem solved! His tool is called PaperPush and is available at github.com/pachterlab/p... It's super easy to use! 1/🧵

github.com

GitHub - pachterlab/paperpush

Contribute to pachterlab/paperpush development by creating an account on GitHub.

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Gen Wojcik @genandgenes.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

Here’s the thing. It’s not the three hours that’s a problem. Plenty of parents spend less than that per day with their kids because they are busy working, and they are still good parents. It’s the self-centered idea that parenting (and life) is always supposed to be about you and your happiness.

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Charleston Chiang @charleston.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

With AI being so prevalent these days, i wonder if they helps people be more concrete and accurate when they compose emails even if they aren’t using AI to compose for them. Because, you know, you need to be descriptive for AI…

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Shai Carmi @shaicarmi.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

Happy to share a new preprint, where we studied the expected outcomes of polygenic embryo screening in real-world IVF patients. Key conclusion: gains are very small for most infertility patients, with risk reductions under 5%. 🧵1/12 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

medrxiv.org

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Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 07/04/2025

In light of the latest news from Colossal Biosciences, now is the perfect time to announce my laboratory's groundbreaking Minion de-extinction project, which depends on state-of-the-art gene editing at 20 key sites in the genome of the common banana.

A triumph of genetic engineering - three Minions stand together, with one holding a guitar, smiling and posing for the camera.

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Nicola Rennie @nrennie.bsky.social · 14/03/2026

Happy #PiDay! Here's the first 1,000 digits of pi encoded as colours 🎨 made with #RStats

Digits of pi encoded as colours, arranged as a spiral with the symbol pi in the middle

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Jeffrey Brainard @jeffreybrainard.bsky.social · 24/02/2026

Are #openaccess fees that some journals charge authors too high? The Chinese Academy of Sciences, the world’s largest research institution, reportedly thinks so and plans to stop funding some, a move that could shake up #scientificpublishing. @science.org www.science.org/content/arti...

science.org

Major Chinese funder to stop paying fees for 30 pricey open-access journals

Move comes amid effort to grow the country’s own journals

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Adriaan @adriaan-vd-graaf.bsky.social · 05/02/2026

Mendelian Randomization is powerful but often debated. We benchmarked it against the "ground truth" of human metabolic pathways to see how often it gets it right. 🧬 Result: MR is robust! It matches known metabolism in 43% of cases and identifies valid drug targets. www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...

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Charleston Chiang @charleston.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

People seem to often confuse "I can't" vs. "I don't want to". Using them interchangeably sends mixed messages.

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Vivian U @justtheletteru.bsky.social · 08/01/2026

📣 Today is our @science.org paper's press conference and online publication date! Print version will be out next month. The embargo on the paper will be lifted for our AAS press conference, scheduled at 10:15am MT. 🔭🧪 Here's the AAS live stream link if you're interested: aas.org/meetings/aas...

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Charleston Chiang @charleston.bsky.social · 07/01/2026

This new SciENcv format is so... ugly. Especially the contribution to science part of the biosketch supplement. Who wants to read a jumbled bunch of text together? Did NIH/NSF not learn grantsmanship?

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Ming Tommy Tang @tommytang.bsky.social · 25/12/2025

1/You know the feeling. You open a CSV or log file in the terminal— and it’s chaos. Wrapped lines. Misaligned columns. Impossible to read. Here’s how to turn that mess into clarity:

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Rémy Furrer @remyfurrer.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

Polygenic embryo screening is being marketed commercially – but how do IVF clinicians view it? • General approval is low (12%) For specific uses: • 59% approved of health-related embryo selection • 6% approved of trait-based selection 🧵 Survey findings in NPJ Genomic Medicine

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Leyan Wang @leyan-wang.bsky.social · 26/11/2025

We are excited to share our recent work on the surprising robustness of Ancestral Recombination Graph (ARG) inference tools to computational phasing errors, now available on BioRxiv: biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... This work is co-advised by @yundeng.bsky.social and Rasmus Nielsen. 1/7

biorxiv.org

Robustness of Ancestral Recombination Graph Inference Tools to Phasing Errors

Ancestral Recombination Graphs (ARGs) are fundamental population genetic structures that encode the genealogical history of a sample of haplotypes along the genome. They have recently received substan...

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 21/11/2025

I wrote a little bit about the "missing heritability" question and several recent studies that have brought it to a close. A short 🧵

theinfinitesimal.substack.com

The missing heritability question is now (mostly) answered

Not with a bang but with a whimper

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Charleston Chiang @charleston.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

My next R01 for improving robustness of gwas methodology… an automatic self-cleaning computer screen swiper!

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Vivian Link @vivlink.bsky.social · 04/11/2025

Excited to help host the 54th European Mathematical Genetics Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, next spring! Speakers include @timfrayling.bsky.social, @marylynritchie.bsky.social, Dr. Joelle Mbatchou and Dr. Eleonora Porcu Travel grants available - register here: emgm2026.sciencesconf.org?lang=en

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Human Genetics and Genomics Advances @hggadvances.bsky.social · 27/10/2025

📣Online now! 📄The impact of Indigenous American-like ancestry on risk of acute lymphoblastic #leukemia in Hispanic/Latino children 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 @charleston.bsky.social @adamdesmith.bsky.social & co 👉 bit.ly/47qXY3Q

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Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 29/10/2025

More than two decades have passed since we discovered that rare disruptions of the FOXP2 gene disturb development of proficient speech/language skills. Today we know of multiple FOXP genes that are directly implicated in distinct brain-related conditions with differences in symptoms & severity.🧪 1/n

A depiction of expression patterns of the FOXP1, FOXP2, and FOXP4 genes in the brain, based on the developmental human RNA sequencing dataset of BrainSpan (http://www.brainspan.org/). Data cover different prenatal timepoints starting at 8-to-10 weeks postconception (abbreviated as pcs), postnatal timepoints from 0-to-12 months (abbreviated as mos), and expression measured in adulthood. A dashed vertical line represents time of birth. Individual dots are shown each representing one brain sample, and lines show loess curves fitted through the datapoints. The analyzed brain regions are A1C, primary auditory cortex; CB, cerebellum; CBC, cerebellar cortex; DFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; DTH, dorsal thalamic nucleus; HIP, hippocampus; IPC, inferior parietal cortex; ITC, inferior temporal cortex; M1C, primary motor cortex; MD, mediodorsal thalamic nucleus; MFC, medial frontal cortex; OFC, orbitofrontal; S1C, primary sensory cortex; STR, striatum; TC, superior temporal cortex; V1C, primary visual cortex; VFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This image comes from Figure 1 of a paper entitled “Molecular networks of the FOXP2 transcription factor in the brain” written by den Hoed, Devaraju and Fisher, published in the journal EMBO Reports in August 2021 (Volume 22, article e58203).

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Kaixiong (Calvin) Ye @yekaixiong.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

We @uga_genetics are hiring a TT assistant professor in Human Genetics to investigate how genetic makeup influences an individual’s risks for diseases or responses to drugs and therapies. All research approaches will be considered. Please RT. ugajobsearch.com/postings/456597

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Jedidiah Carlson @jedidiahcarlson.com · 18/10/2025

No kings except for (1) the Kingman coalescent and (2) Kinship-based INference for Gwas

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Charleston Chiang @charleston.bsky.social · 15/10/2025

Thanks to the weather I've spent more time at O'Hare than #ASHG25 so far, but I'm now ready to go! As usual, our research is well-represented at #ASHG2025, with four trainees presenting the advances in their research from this past year. Please go bombard them with your questions!

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Arslan Zaidi @aazaidi.bsky.social · 14/10/2025

I will presenting a poster on Thursday on our recent work led by Kelsey Johnson (USC, not on Bluesky) on the genetic architecture of mtDNA copy number in human milk! Board #3049T!

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PacBio @pacbio.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Ahead of #ASHG25, we’re sharing some great news: South Korea has selected #PacBio HiFi sequencing as the core technology for its National Pangenome Project to generate 1,000+ high quality multi-omic Korean genomes and advance precision medicine. Read the press release: bit.ly/4omiz06

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Prasad Jallepalli, MD, PhD @prasad.bsky.social · 23/09/2025

in retrospect, it was a mistake to teach algebra and geometry but not "statistics for everyone" in high school we are drowning in lies, partly because we never learned to swim

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Charleston Chiang @charleston.bsky.social · 19/09/2025

Not sure about this one… & and $ are harder to type. I would just mkdir blah cd bl+ tab

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Kirk Lohmueller @klohmueller.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

In the midst of the darkness, I am pleased to announce that UCLA will be hosting the upcoming Southern California Evolutionary Genetics (SCalE) conference on November 1! Registration & abstract submission is here: www.scalemeeting.org/home Deadline is October 13! Hope to see you at UCLA!

scalemeeting.org

Home

The SCalE Meeting is a free, one day regional academic meeting focused on evolutionary genetics and genomics. This year's SCalE Meeting is hosted by UCLA, sponsored by the Institute for Quantitative ...

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Piali Sengupta @senguptalab.bsky.social · 15/09/2025

A huge shoutout to all the dedicated grants management specialists at the NIH who are working around the clock to push grants out before the Sep 30 deadline. And also to the POs responding to frantic emails. Not an easy job under the best of circumstances and right now it's the pits. Thank you!

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Yun S. Song @yun-s-song.bsky.social · 11/09/2025

SINGER, our ARG inference method, is finally published and freely available online: doi.org/10.1038/s415... It was a long journey – 16 months from initial submission to acceptance. Is it just me, or has peer review gotten more arduous lately? 4+ rounds of review isn't so unusual these days...

doi.org

Robust and accurate Bayesian inference of genome-wide genealogies for hundreds of genomes - Nature Genetics

SINGER is a method for creating ancestral recombination graphs to understand the genealogical history of genomes. The method has increased speed, and thus scalability, without sacrificing accuracy.

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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 03/09/2025

What determines the human gut fungal community? @emilyvansyoc.bsky.social @erdavenport.bsky.social @symbionticism.bsky.social &co present the first #GWAS of human genetic loci that influence the abundance of gut #fungi, linking these to disease risk #mycobiome @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/42bCKou

Human fungi-associated variants (FAVs) associate with 9 fungal taxa and overlap protein-coding genes. A Manhattan plot shows all FAVs and their associated fungal taxa at the three significance levels (exploratory, black; genome-wide, red; study-wide, blue).

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Chase W. Nelson 倪誠志 @chasewnelson.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Announcing SimHumanity, a baseline SLiM 5.0 model of the full human genome, replete with demographic history, autosomes, X/Y, and mtDNA. A shared starting point for reproducible evolutionary simulations. We’d love your feedback! #SLiM #evolution #genomics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

biorxiv.org

SimHumanity: Using SLiM 5.0 to run whole-genome simulations of human evolution

The reconstruction of human evolutionary history has undergone repeated advances, each made possible by methodological innovations. In recent decades, genetic and genomic data played a central role in...

03022

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Erin Goley @goleylab.bsky.social · 17/08/2025

Beautiful mural honoring Henrietta Lacks painted by Baltimore community members popped up near Hopkins med campus recently.

Colorful mural painted on the side of a building with the likeness of Henrietta Lacks and the words “HeLa” and “Middle East” on it.

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Daniel Lakens @lakens.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

An abbreviation (ABB) in a journal article (JA) or Grant Application (GA) is rarely worth the words it saves. Every ABB requires cognitive resources (CR) and at my age by the time I'm halfway through a JA or GA I no longer have the CR to remember what your ABB stood for.

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Denis Mongin @denismongin.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

So if you take 1+2+3+4: --> contact tracing does nothing (inverse swiss cheese as @dcourvoisier.bsky.social says) But why simulation studies say it should work ? Because nobody in the simulation studies dares taking number as bad as the reality. Dear simu friends: consider that life is shitty 6/6

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Sasha Gusev @sashagusevposts.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

I wrote about how genetic risk works in the context of embryo selection and how people often think about it all wrong. A short 🧵:

open.substack.com

What we talk about when we talk about risk

How embryo selection exploits our flawed intuitions about risk

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Charleston Chiang @charleston.bsky.social · 10/08/2025

Maybe the level of the worst PhD student ever. My worry isn’t so much AI can do PhD level work, but mentors will lose the motivation to train students to think, as it may be more efficient to tell AI to execute the analysis without thinking.

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Graham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · 02/08/2025

It is depressing, but all too predictable, how swiftly we’ve gone from the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium offering reassurances about the uses of behavioural polygenic scores to one of their lead authors marketing embryo selection for IQ

Text from an FAQ in Okbay et al 20222:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-022-01016-z
a similar same statement is made in an FAQ in 2025: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.653986v1.supplementary-material
Text reads:
"The results of SSGAC studies have sometimes been used by online platforms, including some companies, to predict individual outcomes. We recognize that returning individual genomic “results” can be a fun way to engage people in research and other projects and to feed or stoke their interest in genomics. But it is important that participants/users understand that these individual results are not meaningful predictions and should be regarded essentially as entertainment. Failure to make this point clear risks sowing confusion and undermining trust in genetics research"

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Dr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 01/08/2025

NEW: The bipartisan Senate Appropriations Committee has rejected Trump’s proposed $18 billion, 40% cut to the National Institutes of Health budget and endorsed a $400 million increase. DO NOT GIVE UP! Our advocacy is working. Keep speaking up and calling your elected officials.

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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 28/07/2025

Covid measures pushed down deaths from influenza to remarkably low levels. The death rate is surging back--including 266 children. 90% of children who died in the 2024-2025 flu season were not fully vaccinated against the flu. www.cdc.gov/fluview/surv...

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simoinfinite.bsky.social @simoinfinite.bsky.social · 23/07/2025

If anyone is interested NCI posted their FY25 funding strategy today www.cancer.gov/grants-train... Reasonable to assume other NIH institutes will follow the same guidelines

cancer.gov

Funding Policy - Research Grants

NCI funding policy for research project grant (RPG) awards reflects the funding goals of the institute, NIH, and HHS.

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Brian Allen @allenanalysis.bsky.social · 11/07/2025

🚨BREAKING: Cal State LA just moved classes online and let faculty work remotely, not for a storm, not for COVID, but because ICE is in the area. Let that sink in, an entire university is treating immigration enforcement like a public health crisis.

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Ryan Marino, MD @ryanmarino.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

RFK Jr’s ACIP pick, Martin Kulldorff, said one of the most disturbing images from the pandemic was a toddler crying about having to wear a mask. I see toddlers cry about everything all the time, and I found it far more disturbing to see refrigerator trucks full of body bags outside of the hospitals…

Martin Kulldorff & @MartinKu...•9/10/23 S.••
"One of the most disturbing images of the Covid-19 pandemic was when a teacher .. forced a mask on a crying toddler ..
In some ways, the U.S. government.. treated all of us like toddlers, compelling us to endure draconian Covid measures" - @HRaleighspeaks

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Charleston Chiang @charleston.bsky.social · 06/06/2025

Cool to see a study with N = 1200 can be informative of height genetics! X and Y gene dosage effects are primary contributors to human sexual dimorphism: The case of height | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1...

pnas.org

PNAS

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...

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Vivian U @justtheletteru.bsky.social · 14/05/2025

Best quote I've heard all day, from @npr.org: "I don't know where Elon Musk is going to get his engineers in the future if you have drastic cuts in science and in technology." -- Donna Shalala, former US Secretary of Health and Human Services www.npr.org/transcripts/...

npr.org

Medicaid cuts will hurt families and cost GOP politically, says Kentucky governor

Republicans' proposed Medicaid cuts will cause 8.6 million people to lose health insurance by 2034, an estimate shows. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said it will cost Republicans seats in Congress.

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