Charleston Chiang

@charleston.bsky.social

Associate Professor at USC, Center for Genetic Epidemiology. Population genetics, statistical genetics & human genetics/genetic epidemiology. A city, mountain, dance, candy & a drosophila gene. UCLA->Harvard->UCLA->USC. http://chianglab.usc.edu

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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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…

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.

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?

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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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).

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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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!

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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 ...

scalemeeting.org

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!