Andrew Wells
@adwellspenn.bsky.social
Immunologist, molecular biologist, GenX Dad
Congratulations to lead authors Trang, Sharma & Cook on our new Genome Biology study with the Grant, Romberg & Levings labs. V2G across ~60 cell types & 15 autoimmune GWAS link.springer.com/article/10.1...
3D chromatin-based variant-to-gene maps across 57 human cell types reveal the cellular and genetic architecture of autoimmune disease susceptibility - Genome Biology
Genome Biology - Insight into the genetic basis for many common autoimmune disorders has been uncovered by genome-wide association studies (GWAS), but this alone does not reveal causal variants,...
link.springer.com
And based on potential politicization of funding decisions? www.whitehouse.gov/presidential...
Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal
whitehouse.gov
Some concerning changes to how NIH decides which grant applications to fund?? grants.nih.gov/news-events/...
Implementing a Unified NIH Funding Strategy to Guide Consistent and Clearer Award Decisions | Grants & Funding
grants.nih.gov
ft. K. Trang, M. Pahl, J. Pippin, C. Su, S. Littleton, P. Sharma, N. Kulkarni, L. Ghanem, N. Terry, S. Anderson, B. Zemel, @alessandrachesi.bsky.social A. Wells, @struangrant.bsky.social, J. O'Brien, W. Yang, @ptitchenell.bsky.social P. Seale & @kkaestner.bsky.social elifesciences.org/articles/95411
Congratulations to the 3 @pennmedicine.bsky.social honorees elected to the National Academy of Medicine! Election to @nam.edu is considered one of the highest honors in the field of health & medicine. Check back this week as we profile each new member tinyurl.com/ysjzdrbk
Congratulations to the @amundadottir.bsky.social team for their #Gut paper reporting a large-scale multiomic analysis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Delighted to contribute along with @adwellspenn.bsky.social. @chopresearch.bsky.social @penngenetics.bsky.social gut.bmj.com/content/earl...
Large-scale multiomic analysis identifies non-coding somatic driver mutations and nominates ZFP36L2 as a driver gene for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Background The identification and characterisation of somatic cancer driver mutations in the non-coding genome remains challenging. Objective To broadly characterise non-coding driver mutations for p...
gut.bmj.com
My husband was detained by ICE today Juan Muñoz, an American citizen, father of 2, and local government official, was peacefully protesting w. other elected officials. He was assaulted and taken away I have had zero contact or updates since #SOS @duckworth.senate.gov @durbin.senate.gov
A little thread: Science is defiantly anti-fascist because it pursues truth, is necessarily collaborative, and relies on open communication. And because its falsifiability is incompatible with the cultism, faith-based belief systems, disinformation, and propaganda of Christian nationalism.
Our latest paper, just out in #GenomeBiology: "GWAS-informed data integration and non-coding CRISPRi screen illuminate genetic etiology of bone mineral density". @chopresearch.bsky.social @penngenetics.bsky.social genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
GWAS-informed data integration and non-coding CRISPRi screen illuminate genetic etiology of bone mineral density - Genome Biology
Background Over 1100 independent signals have been identified with genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for bone mineral density (BMD), a key risk factor for mortality-increasing fragility fractures; however, the effector gene(s) for most remain unknown. Results We execute a CRISPRi screen in human fetal osteoblasts (hFOBs) with single-cell RNA-seq read-out for 89 non-coding elements predicted to regulate osteoblast gene expression at BMD GWAS loci. The BMD relevance of hFOBs is supported by heritability enrichment from stratified LD-score regression involving 98 cell types grouped into 15 tissues. Twenty-three genes show perturbation in the screen, with four (ARID5B, CC2D1B, EIF4G2, and NCOA3) exhibiting consistent effects upon siRNA knockdown on three measures of osteoblast maturation and mineralization. Lastly, additional heritability enrichments, genetic correlations, and multi-trait fine-mapping unexpectedly reveal that many BMD GWAS signals are pleiotropic and likely mediate their effects via non-bone tissues. Conclusions Our results provide a roadmap for how single-cell CRISPRi screens may be applied to the challenging task of resolving effector gene identities at all BMD GWAS loci. Extending our CRISPRi screening approach to other tissues could play a key role in fully elucidating the etiology of BMD.
genomebiology.biomedcentral.com
Super excited to share my final postdoc paper from Rabinowitz lab- on how whole-body and tissue metabolism changes in viral infection! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40581045/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Here's the NIH's proposed budget - from $48 billion to $27 billion. NIAID, current ~$7 billion cut to ~$4.2 billion. The proposed 15% cap on indirect costs remains. Again, these budgets are passed, and our leadership in science, technology, and innovation is gone. www.hhs.gov/sites/defaul...
Kristian G. Andersen@kgandersen.bsky.social · last yr.The end of US leadership in science, technology, and innovation. All in one little table. A tremendous gift to China, courtesy of the GOP. nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/00-NSF...
As the parent of a type-I diabetic, I would like to invite the ignorant piece of shit currently directing the FDA to kiss my ass.
To my fellow colleagues at institutions denied federal funding by the current administration, will you serve on NIH study section panels when requested??
The @upshot.nytimes.com has put together a vivid illustration of how the Trump administration has hollowed out American science. Gift link: nyti.ms/4kBTVql
Trump Has Cut Science Funding to Its Lowest Level in Decades (Gift Article)
The lag in funding extends far beyond D.E.I. initiatives, affecting almost every area of science: chemistry, computing, engineering, materials and more.
nyti.ms
🚨 A new rule would let career scientists like NSF/NIH program officers be replaced by political appointees Already 14,000+ public comments, deadline is Friday 📣 Comments can be short. Courts consider them—and scientists with NSF/NIH experience are especially impactful Speak up! shorturl.at/WKuBj
All of NIH funding to Northwestern University is frozen. This pause includes noncompeting approved funding, new and competing grants with fundable scores. No reimbursements for money already spent have been received since March. This situation is rarely reported so please Please get the word out!
Check this chart. Purple line: NIH actual budget (as passed by Congress) after 2000. This is in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars. The Trump/Vought proposal for 2026 (yellow) is catastrophic, for US science and medical cures for Americans. That's a massive drop.
@maxdudek.bsky.social applied a deep learning algorithm to ATAC-seq from 170 livers to measure TF binding at non-coding variants. We show "footprint QTLs" (#fpQTLs) can fine-map causal variants. @ajhgnews.bsky.social @penngenetics.bsky.social @chopresearch.bsky.social www.cell.com/ajhg/abstrac...
Characterization of non-coding variants associated with transcription-factor binding through ATAC-seq-defined footprint QTLs in liver
Dudek et al. use chromatin accessibility data in liver from 170 human donors to measure transcription factor binding at genetic variants. They observed 809 variants associated with binding. Given bind...
cell.com
Our new paper is out today in AJHG! We applied a "footprinting" algorithm to ATAC-seq data from 170 livers to find non-coding variants associated with TF binding. We show that these "footprint QTLs" (#fpQTLs) can fine-map GWAS loci at base-pair resolution. www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...
Characterization of non-coding variants associated with transcription-factor binding through ATAC-seq-defined footprint QTLs in liver
Dudek et al. use chromatin accessibility data in liver from 170 human donors to measure transcription factor binding at genetic variants. They observed 809 variants associated with binding. Given bind...
cell.com
SCOOP: Internal budget doc reveals extent of Trump’s proposed health cuts. About 1/3 of HHS discretionary budget. Our story w @carolynyjohnson.bsky.social @rachelroubein.bsky.social @joelachenbach.bsky.social @laurenweberhp.bsky.social www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...
Internal budget document reveals extent of Trump’s proposed health cuts
HHS would be asked to absorb a $40 billion cut, about one third of its discretionary budget.
washingtonpost.com
They are now estimating 2.3 million across the country. Keep it going folks. #handsoff #50501protests
open.substack.com/pub/pauloffi... RFK Jr. should apologize to parents for his inaction during this measles epidemic.
Another Child Dies from Measles
RFK Jr. plans to attend the funeral. He should apologize to the parents for his actions during a measles epidemic that likely involves thousands of children.
open.substack.com
New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024. That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved. Show me a better investment than that. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...
NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report
National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.
forbes.com
I am somehow for the first time ever reviewing for PNAS and their reviewer instructions include this BANGER of a line: "The purpose of peer review is not to demonstrate proficiency in identifying flaws" Print it in eleventy point font and hang it from the hillside. Scream it from the rooftops.
Currently there are many more children with measles (a disease that was thought eradicated in 2000) in this country than trans athletes