#Bicycle Day is April 19 - the day in 1943 when Albert Hofmann deliberately dosed himself with #LSD & had his lab assistant cycle him home through Basel because wartime restrictions had banned cars. It’s the most consequential commute in the history of #neuroscience.
🩸🧬 Hemophilia awareness starts with genetics. Today is #WorldHemophiliaDay.
The 2026 theme "Equitable Access for All" demands that life-saving genetic care reaches every corner of the globe, not just the few. 🩸🌎
#Hemophilia #HealthEquity #WHD2026
Today in history 🚢👞
A toddler was pulled from the Titanic in 1912. No name. Buried as “The Unknown Child.”
His boots were ordered destroyed. One officer kept them in his desk drawer instead.
99 years later, DNA did what history couldn’t.
His name was Sidney Leslie Goodwin. He was 19 months old. 🧬
April 14, 2003: scientists mapped every gene in the human body. A private company tried to sell the data. The public raced them and gave it away free. They expected 100,000 genes. We have 20,000. Happy 23rd, HGP. 🧬 #HumanGenomeProject #OpenScience
Happy National Scrabble Day 🎲
Alfred Butts built the game by studying letter frequency.
Your #genome runs on the same logic - 4 letters, infinite combinations, and one swap changes everything.
In genomics we call that a variant.
The letters aren’t the game. The interpretation is. 🧬
#Scrabble
Your spice tolerance isn’t a trait — it’s a #gene.
Variants in the TRPV1 receptor determine how loudly your nervous system screams at chilli.
Repeated exposure desensitises it.
Cultures raised on #spicy #food aren’t tougher.
They’re just trained.
Genetics set the line. #Culture moved it. 🌶️
#Space Weekend
In 2015: 🚀🧬
#NASA sent an astronaut to space for a year - and kept his identical #twin on Earth as the control.
Same #genome. Completely different results.
Telomeres grew. Gene expression shifted.
The #DNA didn't change. The reading of it did.
#Artemis
Easter Monday, but make it genomic.
Tardigrades survive 30 years completely dead. No heartbeat. No metabolism. Add water, they walk away.
Two genes do it: CAHS forms protective glass around cells. DSUP armours the DNA.
Scientists just put them in human cells.
Resurrection. Solved 500M years ago.
Today is World #Autism Day
Autism is up to 91% heritable - but there’s no single #gene.
There are thousands. Tiny variants. Rare de novo mutations. A polygenic architecture decades in the making.
The genome doesn’t have an autism switch. It has a dimmer.
#WorldAutismDay #Neurodiversity
Your genome is part human. Part ancient virus. Shaped by pranks running for 130 million years.
Happy April Fools 🧬
We help you read all of it → doppeldata.au
#AprilFools #Genomics #Syncytin #EndogenousRetroviruses #Doppeldata [5/5]
For viruses still arriving today, immune outcome varies by genome.
HLA genes - the most polymorphic loci in the human genome - determine how well your immune cells distinguish pathogen from self.
Same infection. Same trick. Completely different genetic response. [4/5]
One of those sequences builds your placenta.
Syncytin - essential for forming the tissue connecting mother and baby - was originally a retroviral envelope protein.
A virus integrated ~130 million years ago. Evolution kept it. Made it load-bearing.
You exist because a virus never left. [3/5]
Some viruses didn't just get let in.
They moved in. Permanently.
~8% of your genome is ancient viral DNA - retroviruses that infected your ancestors millions of years ago and have been passed down ever since.
They are in your cells right now. [2/5]
🎉 Happy April Fools' Day - from your genome.
Viruses don't break into your cells. They knock, dressed as something familiar, and your cell opens the door.
But that's not the real prank. 🧵 [1/5]
5/ Bottom line: If you can eat cheese without drama, you’re the genetic outlier.
The rest of the world has been side-eyeing your cereal bowl for millennia. 🥛🧬
#FoodFacts #Genetics #LactoseIntolerant #Science
4/ If your ancestors survived winters or droughts because they could digest cow or goat milk, they passed that mutation down to you.
In those specific regions, dairy wasn't just a snack; it was a life-saving caloric hack. 🧀
3/ So, why can some people handle it? 🧬
It’s an evolutionary "glitch" called Lactase Persistence. This trait evolved independently in pastoralist groups across Europe, East Africa, and the Middle East where dairy farming provided a massive survival advantage.
2/ Being able to digest dairy is NOT the default setting.
Roughly 65-70% of the global population stops producing lactase—the enzyme needed to break down milk sugar—shortly after weaning. For most humans, nature intended milk to be a "baby-only" food.
🧵 The Milk Mutation
1/ Most of the world is lactose intolerant. 🥛
If you can drink a glass of milk as an adult without a stomach rebellion, you aren't the "standard" human. You’re actually a genetic mutant.
Let’s talk about Lactase Persistence. 👇
This week in “science refusing to be simple”:
Mark Corbett (Adel Uni)
“A polygenic score for cerebral palsy”
Friday, March 27th | 1.00pm–2.00ish
Because one #gene would be far too convenient.
Statistical genetics, polygenic scores, and biology causing problems.
DM for details.
#bioinformatics
Yes, I know. Five fingers in the video. Six in the image (see reply). Floating #DNA. A pipette that defies physics. #AI is trying.
But here’s the thing - your #genome is now AI-interpreted. The difference? Ours actually knows what it’s doing.
#Doppeldata: real genomics infrastructure, competent AI
Why juggle 12 tools when one does it all? Integrated bioinformatics = less switching, fewer errors, faster results. Swiss Army knife for genomics. 🧬 Join our workshops & community → doppeldata.au #bioinformatics
🍕 That friend who eats everything and stays thin? Partly genetics - FTO, MC4R, 300+ gene variants that tweak appetite, metabolic rate, fat storage.
But they shift the dial by ~5-10kg. Your genome sets the difficulty level. It doesn’t play the game for you.
#Genetics #Metabolism 🧬
Agreed. 💯
Excited to welcome Dr. Thilini Jayasinghe (Uni of Sydney) to our next #Microbiome Analysis Community Meeting! 💻️ 🧬
They’ll be presenting: "The vaginal and oral microbiome of women who experienced miscarriage."
🗓️ 24 March. All welcome!
Agenda & join link 🔗 buff.ly/nxVgbOW
#NCRISImpact
🎤From comedy to founder.
Peter Helliar speaking at SOUTHSTART - sharing the reality of building Sprook.
A shift from entertainment → tech, and what it actually looks like to create something from the ground up.
We all go through the same thing - no matter who you are.
Bioinformatics seminar this Friday 🧬
Join Sarah Shah (@sagenomicscentre.bsky.social) as she turns 💩 into data… and somehow makes it impressive
🗓 Friday, March 20th
⏰ 1.00pm – 2.00ish
DM for zoom / location details
#Bioinformatics #Metagenomics #Genome #Poo
We are heading to SOUTHSTART for three days of start up #networking, VC meet ups and #wine!
See ya there!
#Sinners has vampires, 16 #Oscar noms & a record-breaking campaign.
Real talk: #mutations in the FECH #gene cause extreme UV sensitivity & skin pain — and some researchers link porphyria to early #vampire mythology.
#Science is scarier than fiction. 🧬🧛🏻♀️
#Oscars2026 #Genetics #FunFact
