Hello from the PGC Africa working group 👋 Today, we begin our takeover to share with you exciting happenings from the working group and its members🎉This takeover is proudly brought to you by @pgc-africa.bsky.social Africa Comms and Outreach team. Stay tuned!

Today, we would highlight the Master plan from the DepGenAfrica Study Protocol by one of PGC Africa's @pgc-africa.bsky.social co-chairs Dr. Adeniran Okewole and colleagues 📝🌍 wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/10-...

Take a look at the “Behind-the-Scenes Journey” from the Editorial on Challenges and Strategic Insights of the DepGenAfrica study as provided by @pgc-africa.bsky.social Comm’s rep Dr. Jared .G. Maina and Colleagues 🛠️🚀 www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Next is our own Vangelis Vassos talking about the implementation of polygenic scores in psychiatry, and whether we are ready yet

I'm in the London Genetics Network annual meeting. First up is Sanjay Sisodiya, who is talking about genetic complexity in a monogenic epilepsy

Next is Oyesola Ojewunmi discussing foetal haemoglobin (HbF) persistence in sickle cell disease (SCD). SCD is a disease of haemoglobin, with HbA replaced by HbS, causing sickling of the haemoglobin, deforming the blood cell and causing occlusions in vessels and downstream stroke and other sequelae

As we continue to celebrate the life of our colleague, mentor and friend, Prof Dan Stein, we invite our community to share messages, memories, publications, photos etc on his Kudoboard linked below: www.kudoboard.com/boards/LL8Zv... 1/2

Kudoboard for Dan Stein | Kudoboard

Kudoboard is an online replacement for the greeting card that you pass around and sign!

kudoboard.com

Wishing the @pgc-africa.bsky.social community a joyful, restful and peaceful holiday season As we reflect on the year, we are grateful for the collaboration, commitment, and shared vision strengthening psychiatric genetics research across Africa and beyond We wish you a hopeful and impactful 2026

An exciting opportunity is coming up in early January to learn about scientifically accurate and ethically responsible science communication; a crucial topic particularly among underrepresented populations such as those in Africa See the poster below for details #Science #Communication

Behavior Genetics Association@behaviorgenetic.bsky.social · 9mo ago

The BGA public outreach committee, Psychiatric Genomics Consortium outreach committee and IBANGS have joined forces for the webinar "scientifically accurate & ethically responsible science communication" with J9 Austin, Nicholas Clifton, Ziada Ayorech and Robbee Wedow; scan the QR code to sign up 📷

PGC Africa is deeply saddened to share that our friend and colleague, Professor Dan Stein, has passed away. 1/4

As we draw 2025 to a close, we would like to thank all the brilliant @pgc-africa.bsky.social scientists who shared their work with us in the second half of 2025. We look forward to more collaborative and productive exchanges in 2026! 👏🏽🎉 #AzmerawAmare #AnanyoChoudhury #AminaAbubakar

🚨 PGC Africa Monthly Meeting Alert! We are delighted to have Prof Amina Abubakar from the Aga Khan University Institute for Human Development join this month's virtual meeting 📆20th November 2025 ⏲️9AM ET | 2PM GMT | 3PM WAT | 4PM SAST | 5PM EAT Details in the flyer below #ADHD #PGCAfrica

Attending the @ldngenenet.bsky.social summer lecture @ucl.ac.uk by Abdel Abdellaoui

🚨PGC Africa Monthly Meeting Alert! We are delighted to have Dr @olivia-wootton.bsky.social from Dr @hilarycmartin.bsky.social's group @sangerinstitute.bsky.social join the 5th virtual PGCAfrica meeting of 2025 📆 26th June 2025 ⏰ 2PM GMT|2PM WAT|3PM CAT|4PM EAT 📢 Details in the flyer #PGCAfrica

Attending the Genomic Diversity Symposium at @qmullibrary.bsky.social Looking forward to a day of thought-provoking discussions on driving actionable solutions for inclusive genomics.

Our paper on the theoretical properties of SNP heritability in admixed populations is out in Genetics: academic.oup.com/genetics/adv... with @jinguohuang.bsky.social, @nicole-kleman.bsky.social , Saonli Basu, and Mark Shriver

Interpreting SNP heritability in admixed populations

Abstract. SNP heritability (h2snp) is defined as the proportion of phenotypic variance explained by genotyped SNPs and is believed to be a lower bound of h

academic.oup.com

Arslan Zaidi@aazaidi.bsky.social · last yr.

An update to our preprint led by @jinguohuang.bsky.social and @nicole-kleman.bsky.social on interpreting SNP heritability in admixed populations, now with HE regression and LD Score regression in addition to GREML.

Pleasure to work on the coding team, including introducing eating disorder diagnostic algorithms to @ukbiobank.bsky.social with @topherhuebel.bsky.social & Zhaoying Yu 🕺 Thanks to Katrina Davis & @jonicoleman.bsky.social

Joni Coleman@jonicoleman.bsky.social · last yr.

Very pleased to see our paper describing the @ukbiobank.bsky.social second online mental health questionnaire has now been published in @plosone.org! This describes the origin of the resource as well as the data. Fantastic work by Katrina Davis in leading this 👏👏👏 dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

"This work is a first step in using health records to define and predict SSRI drug responses." - Professor Cathryn Lewis @cathrynlewis.bsky.social is Deputy Lead of our Trials, Genomics and Prediction theme, and the research was supported by @nihr.bsky.social and @wellcometrust.bsky.social 👇

Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience@kingsioppn.bsky.social · last yr.

Who benefits from antidepressants? New research from IoPPN ( @cathrynlewis.bsky.social) and University of Edinburgh shows how measuring antidepressant ‘switching can help scientists and clinicians understand why antidepressants work for some people and not for others www.kcl.ac.uk/news/who-ben...

You have my £1 to kickstart the drive 🥲

Mike Inouye@mikeinouye.bsky.social · last yr.

NB: The Polygenic Score Catalog has just lost its NIH funding. It was substantial. We are now on auxillary funding sources. If anyone has a spare £1m plz DM

Pleased to have presented a poster on our work aimed at disentangling the genetics of perinatal depression from MDD at the just concluded #ESHG2025 in beautiful Milan 1/4

New publication alert. Elated to have been part of the coding team for this effort. Thanks to Katrina Davis for the excellent leadership on this. Thanks @jonicoleman.bsky.social too!!

Joni Coleman@jonicoleman.bsky.social · last yr.

Very pleased to see our paper describing the @ukbiobank.bsky.social second online mental health questionnaire has now been published in @plosone.org! This describes the origin of the resource as well as the data. Fantastic work by Katrina Davis in leading this 👏👏👏 dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Don't miss out! Happening tomorrow live on Zoom 👇🏽

PGC Africa@pgc-africa.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 PGC Africa Monthly Meeting Alert! We are delighted to have Dr Oliver Matshabane from @suhealthsci.bsky.social join the 4th virtual PGC Africa meeting of 2025 📆 29th May 2025 ⏰ 2PM GMT | 2PM WAT | 3PM CAT | 4PM EAT 📣 More details on the flyer below #Neuroethics #Neuropsychiatry #Africa

Justified standing ovation for Nobel laureate Katalin Karikó at #ESHG2025 She shared her adventurous scientific life and life lessons like "If you want to do something, you find a way. If not, you find excuses", and reminded us scientists to thank our near and dear because "they suffer a little bit"

Did you know just how intertwined anxiety and depression can be? Studies show that >60% of people with anxiety also experience depression, and vice versa. This is called #comorbidity (1/4)

Enjoying the last presentations of the day at #eshg25 @eshg.bsky.social,where Fischer and Burgess gave excellent overviews of the foundations, recommendations and pitfalls of Mendelian randomisation (MR).

Please come and visit me at my poster today！

Gerome Breen@psychgenomics.bsky.social · last yr.

Group poster today - superstar postdoc @rujiawang.bsky.social will present a predictive model for anxiety disorders and their severity in GLAD and UK Biobank-integrating family history, polygenic risk, childhood trauma, and demographics. Poster P11.084.C, 26/5 from 13:00.

Final day (for me) of #eshg2025. I will be talking on using social media for communication and research at 14.15 - where, according to the agenda, I will have to impersonate @doctorveera.bsky.social!

Group poster today from @jaredgm.bsky.social on genetics of perinatal depression. Jared is a DepGenAfrica postdoc - he is looking for collaborators with African PND data also. Visit poster P018.085D today at 4pm! #eshg2025

Come let’s talk PND and #depression genetics; and importantly #African genetics too, and what we can do to improve our understanding of these phenotypes among African ancestry populations

Gerome Breen@psychgenomics.bsky.social · last yr.

Catch group poster from @jaredgm.bsky.social Jared is DepGenAfrica postdoc will present on a new perinatal depression GWAS, meta-analysing UK Biobank and GLAD with prexisting studies - he is looking for collaborators with African PND data also. Visit poster P018.085D on Monday at 4pm! #eshg2025

In Milan, Italy, for a visit to the San Siro stadium, Duomo of Milan, Leonardo’s Last Supper….and importantly the @eshg.bsky.social #ESHG2025 🥳 1/4