The program for the 2026 New York Population Genetics meeting, hosted by at the @simonsfoundation.org on March 9th 2026, is now up: events.simonsfoundation.org/event/7c91dd....
Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin
Our work on the generalizability of polygenic scores (PGS) from the @arbelharpak.bsky.social Lab is now officially out!
We examine the accuracy of PGS predictions at the individual level. We make 3 observations that expose gaps in our understanding of PGS “portability.”
rdcu.be/e0LAr
(1/27)
Pregnancy loss is common in humans, and chromosomal abnormalities are the leading cause. Using genetic data from ~140,000 IVF embryos, we show that maternal variation in meiosis genes influences recombination and aneuploidy risk.
First authors: @saracarioscia.bsky.social & @aabiddanda.github.io
Just in: The Trump administration sent hundreds of letters Tuesday terminating federal grants supporting mental health and drug addiction services.
AMNH REU
Come learn with us! #REU!
🚨My department is hiring a full-time Assistant Teaching Professor to teach undergrad Genetics & Genomics, upper-level Genomics, and an inquiry-based Computational Genomics course where students can do authentic research. 🧬💻
I’m on the search committee. DM me if you’re interested. Please share! 🙏
Happy to highlight an essay I wrote together with @marcdemanuel.bsky.social,
@natanaels.bsky.social and Anastasia Stolyarova, trying to think through what sets the mutation rate of a cell type in an animal species: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n
How to keep in step when your (protein) partner speeds up…
Here we investigated the adaptive remodeling of a protein-protein interaction surface essential for telomere protection.
Congrats to whole team!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Excited to share a preprint of my PhD project looking at interactions between SNPs and polygenic scores in the UK Biobank!
A thread... 🧵
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
SAVE THE DATE: the yearly NY Population Genetics meeting will be back on March 9 2026, generously hosted by the
@simonsfoundation.org. Details to follow. Please RT.
An empirical approach to evaluating the prevalence of long-lived balancing selection in humans--and important limitations. Work by @hannahmm.bsky.social
We are searching for a Forest Ecophysiologist (tenure track Assistant or Associate Professor) to join the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia Faculty of Forestry. Please share! Details are here: ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcfacultyjobs
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
When sex chromosomes turnover, they can reset the rules of genomic conflict.
New preprint exploring how turnover reshapes barriers to gene flow through an “escape-hatch” model for mitonuclear conflict.
Any feedback would be welcome! ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
New today: We're petitioning NSF to revert GRFP eligibility criteria to last year's terms, to avoid pulling the rug out from under the earliest of early-career scientists who had every reason to think they'd be able to apply this year. Sign and spread the word!
laurenkuehne.github.io/grfpChanges/
The GRFP announcement from NSF cuts out an entire cohort of 2nd year students from consideration, without warning. This is so deeply unfair that it warrants a formal protest from the scientific community. If someone wants to work with me to craft an open letter and solicit signatures, LMK.
Be a U.S. citizen, national, or permanent resident Intend to enroll or be enrolled full-time in a research-based Master's or doctoral degree program in an eligible Field of Study in STEM or STEM education (See Appendix and Section IV.3 for eligible Fields of Study Never previously accepted a Graduate Research Fellowship Declined any previously offered Graduate Research Fellowship by the acceptance deadline Never previously applied to GRFP while enrolled in a graduate degree program Never earned a doctoral or terminal degree in any field Have completed no more than one academic year (according to institution's academic calendar) while enrolled in a graduate degree program (non-degree coursework must be clearly identified in the transcript and does not count toward this limit) Individuals holding joint Bachelor's-Master's degrees who did not apply while enrolled in the joint program, may apply as second-year graduate applicants if enrolled in an eligible doctoral program the beginning of the academic year immediately following the academic award year of the joint degree Individuals with prior graduate enrollment who have: (i) completed more than one academic year in any graduate degree-granting program, (ii) earned a previous master's degree of any kind (see guidance for joint Bachelor's-Master's degree-holders above), or (iii) earned a professional degree must meet the following requirements: not enrolled in a graduate degree program at application deadline two or more consecutive years past graduate degree enrollment or completion at the application deadline Not be a current NSF employee.
Must, at the time of submission, be a U.S. citizen, national, or a permanent resident (“green-card” holder) Must intend to enroll or be enrolled in an eligible research-based master's or doctoral degree program in an eligible field of study in STEM, including STEM education (See Appendix and Section IV.3 for eligible Fields of Study); Never have previously accepted a Graduate Research Fellowship; Have declined any previously offered Graduate Research Fellowship by the declination deadline (if applicable); Have completed less than one academic year in a graduate degree program (according to the institution’s academic calendar; non-degree coursework must be clearly identified in the transcript and does not count toward this limit). This means individuals in the following statuses at the time of application are eligible: Undergraduate in the final (senior) year of a bachelor’s degree program Bachelor’s degree-holder with NO enrollment in a graduate degree program (non-degree graduate coursework allowed) Individual enrolled in a joint bachelor’s-master’s degree program with at least three undergraduate years completed First-year graduate student in their first graduate degree program with less than one academic year completed in the degree program (according to institution’s academic calendar) Individuals enrolled in joint bachelor’s-master’s degree programs are considered graduate students. For GRFP, joint bachelor’s-master’s degrees are defined as degrees concurrently pursued and awarded. Not be a current NSF employee.
As others have pointed out, the fellowship is now available only to 1st year grad students. (Left is last year, right is this year)
New: After a long wait, the GRFP solicitation is live! Deadlines have been extended to early November, so applicants have a bit over a month to submit. www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...
Delighted to see this paper with @anaignatieva.bsky.social now published in Genetics!
academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...
We tackle a thorny issue arising in statistical tests for genetic interactions (epistasis) using ancestral recombination graphs (ARGs)... 🧵
Top left: Results of genome-wide association study (GWAS) for sex in E. caeruleum, E. radiosum, and E. spectabile showing sex chromosome turnover has occurred repeatedly. Top right: Phylogeny showing sex chromosome turnover in darters and non-darter percids. Chromosome 9 is the putative ancestral sex chromosome, shared by Perca flavescens and multiple members of the orangethroat darter complex (e.g., E. spectabile, E. pulchellum). Bottom: Schematic depicting repeated turnover of sex chromosomes as a mechanism to resolve mitonuclear conflict and promote speciation.
First pop gen paper from our lab! We find repeated evolutionary turn over of sex chromosomes in darters contributes to reproductive isolation. Turnover may be an escape hatch to resolve mitonuclear conflict & neo sex chromosomes evolved via a rare recessive mutation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Very happy to share our work on signature SBS5. See Molly's thread for a short summary
In these dark times, it comes as a rare pleasure to highlight @natanaels.bsky.social & @marcdemanuel.bsky.social's work on germline and somatic mutations in humans. 1/n
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Trump admin planning to change student visas from lasting for duration of academic program to fixed 4-yr term, and then much harder to renew
Could destroy US ability to attract global talent, particularly those seeking advanced degrees in STEM. The median time to complete a PhD is 5.7 yrs per NSF.
From personal experience, an expensive private college school was, in practice, much cheaper than many of my state school options because of need-based financial aid.
This seems like a wildly useful resource for students applying to college and trying to compare costs - collegetables.info
The cost after need-based financial aid varies widely, and often not in ways one might expect
Why do males and females often differ in traits?
The expected answer: selection.
But our new paper in GENETICS shows that genetic drift alone can generate sexual dimorphism — even when male & female optima are the same
Full paper now out in GENETICS:
The relationship between sexual dimorphism and intersex correlation: do models support intuition?
🔗 academic.oup.com/genetics/art...
#Evolution #QuantGenetics @GeneticsGSA
Not sure how many scientists here have tried Claude Code or similar command line coding assistants. I had a complicated family property tax problem that was best solved by a brute force Monte Carlo simulation approach, so I spent a few days coding up and analyzing a model with Claude Code.
