Thrilled to see this out. What started out as a chat several years back with @drfejzo.bsky.social about leveraging publicly available data on hyperemesis gravidarum GWAS turned into a wonderful collaboration with April Shu, @mvaudel.bsky.social, @xwww.bsky.social and many others!
rdcu.be/fdl9k
Happy to share our latest work out now in Immunity @cp-immunity.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1016/j.im.... We provide insight into how influenza infections detrimentally impact cardiovascular health. Building on clinical observations, we show that influenza damages the heart and lowers its function.
Influenza hijacks myeloid cells to inflict type-I interferon-fueled damage in the heart: Immunity www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
Influenza hijacks myeloid cells to inflict type-I interferon-fueled damage in the heart @cp-immunity.bsky.social
www.cell.com/immunity/ful... @jeffdowney11.bsky.social @filswirski.bsky.social
Exciting updates!!
(1) I just opened my lab at Boston Children’s Hospital (Harvard-affiliated)
(2) I’m hiring a postdoc focused on integrating GWAS and functional genomic data. Reach out if you’re interested or connect at ASHG next week!
(3) Learn more at stroberlab.com
I'm hiring a computational biologist interested in complex trait genetics using deep learning approaches. Reach out to me, if interested.
yet, I constantly find myself having to explain this in most spaces where important conversations and decisions (regulatory, policy, higher education, etc) take place
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"
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
Staff scientist position (computational):
I am looking for a computational scientist to join my genomics lab at Stanford. They should have an outstanding skillset in ML/statistical methods for genomic applications, postdoc experience and a strong publication record.
#sciencejobs
ICE just arrested Brad Lander, the NYC Comptroller and one of the leading candidates for Mayor, without grounds.
He was conducting routine immigration court work, escorting individuals from hearings.
He asked ICE for their warrant - well within his legal rights.
This is political intimidation.
As Nucleus acquires more customers, Asparouhov says the company’s insights will get even better, the results on a Nucleus dashboard automatically updating with new information. “At some point maybe there will be, like, phenotypic reporting, where you tell Nucleus, I have blue eyes, I have brown hair, maybe you come in for an IQ test, etc., and that actually improves the model,” he said. When asked if linking things like blue eyes, blonde hair, and IQ could be interpreted as eugenics, he clarified with a laugh, “I said brown hair!” Then, miming the same hand motion that Elon Musk performed following President Trump’s inauguration, Asparouhov joked, “My heart goes out to you.”
what the actual fuck
If we want to connect genetic variation to disease, we need to move beyond baseline conditions. Our study shows that dynamic, context-specific regulation holds the key to understanding many unexplained GWAS signals. The preprint again:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Delighted to share that one of my major PhD projects has been published today in Current Biology.
In this paper, we look into the genetic population structure and demographic histories of two populations in Sri Lanka: the Sinhalese and Adivasi [1/n]. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Now published in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
I didn't have much hope that we'd find genetic determinants of long-COVID, but after years of work, Vilma Aho, Tomoko Nakanisha, Hugo Zeberg and Hanna Ollila made it happen! (Among a few others :-))
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
“Should AI be allowed to review papers or grant proposals” always reveals a thing I think people don’t understand about algorithmic bias 🧵
PIs who think their research isn’t political: yes it is, it always is
📣Online now from Fu et al!
📄Role of X chromosome and dosage-compensation mechanisms in complex trait genetics
Scientists must push back against the threat of rising white nationalism and the dangerous and pseudoscientific ideas of eugenics
https://go.nature.com/4jGqiUc
They are coming for every university, if you think you’re safe because it hasn’t been yours yet I don’t know what to tell you. Join AAUP, refuse to comply, organize your colleagues
Biomedical value of studying human diversity spotlighted by 5-nation asian Immune Diversity Atlas (AIDA) of circulating immune cells from healthy donors
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
@cellcellpress.bsky.social @jayshin.bsky.social
NY Times graphic. Conventional computer: One task starts after another completes AI computing: tasks are divided into small parts and happen at the same time.
The @nytimes.com just discovered parallel computing.
How do you study gene-environment (GxE) interactions in humans? Well, there's probably no way to avoid studying each exposure individually, but what about the cellular context? If you choose directed differentiation, you have to study GxE one cell type at a time. If you choose an organoid system -
absolutely devastating — i feel incredibly grateful to have had you as a coach and you will be missed dearly, Sasha 🤍
Here’s what’s what at UChicago. Not good.
The sword has now been brandished over civil society, including scientists, universities, and other NGOs. Who, including university presidents, will have any backbone in defending their jnstitutions’ missions? Or will they take on the Zuckerberg/ Bezos pose? www.nytimes.com/live/2025/01...
Very excited about this new work from our lab! Explainer thread coming soon
@minetoota.bsky.social
Innate Immune Memory is Stimulus Specific www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01....
