New preprint (and shameless rhetorical question use) in collab with @neilmdavies.bsky.social Commentary on attributable fractions that approach 100%, with lessons for epidemiologists, statistical genetics, etc. More context in thread... #episky zenodo.org/records/2034...

Join us next week for the @DEMONNetworkUK #Genetics & #Omics meeting 🧬 📅 Thursday 14 May ⏰ 2:30 PM (UK time) Delighted to welcome @dylwil.bsky.social as our invited speaker: 👉 “Considering the case for #gene #therapy to address #Alzheimer’s disease” DM for details. #Dementia

Last few places available for our new in-person short course in genetic & molecular epidemiology at University College London, 19th-21st May. Link for registering and more info below... onlinestore.ucl.ac.uk/conferences-...

Our in-person Mendelian randomisation course is back at University College London this autumn! Join us in Bloomsbury, 15th-17th Sept 2026 Tutors: @emmylooroll.bsky.social, me & @neilmdavies.bsky.social Guest lecturer: Eleanor Sanderson, U.Bristol Sign up: onlinestore.ucl.ac.uk/conferences-...

A couple of months ago, I discussed our recent paper on APOE on NPR's Science Friday podcast. Available to hear here or in the usual apps for podcast streaming: www.sciencefriday.com/segments/alz...

How One Gene Affects Alzheimer’s Risk

An epidemiology study finds variations in one gene, APOE, play a major role in determining the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

sciencefriday.com

Rob Frize@robfrize.bsky.social · 4mo ago

@dylwil.bsky.social I just caught your spot on Science Friday, well done. I found it clear, concise, measured, informative. Thanks for your continuing work into this terrible disease.

Clarifying the scope of gene editing for Alzheimer's disease prevention In response to "Heritable polygenic editing: the next frontier in genomic medicine?" by Visscher et al in Nature last year. zenodo.org/records/1849...

Excited for this one!

Dementia Researcher@dementiaresearcher.bsky.social · 6mo ago

How does genetic risk influence dementia and cognitive decline. Join Donald Lyall for this Research Showcase exploring APOE genotype and brain health. Register for our webinar communities.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/c/events/res...

Stressing to public the overlapping roles of both environment and genes is fine...it is naive scientific responses like the one pictured (cited by the Mail) we took issue with. Taking away risk broadly will remove disease (at population level). Tho we could consider gene therapy over magic to do so

Anneke Lucassen@alucassen.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Publics need to understand not just that the gene matters but how much lifestyle still matters, especially for those who cannot change their genotype. science communication has a responsibility to preserve that distinction

My fave commentary on our paper in the Mail last week Interested to know what @alucassen.bsky.social uses as a definition of causation though! Here's mine: ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.... Further reading WRT the topic: zenodo.org/records/1796...

Well done to our colleague @dylwil.bsky.social

Out now!! www.nature.com/articles/s44... Intro to this paper pictured below Huge thanks to collaborators @neilmdavies.bsky.social, @emmylooroll.bsky.social at @uclbrainscience.bsky.social & Sami Heikkinen and Mikko Hiltunen at @uniuef.bsky.social ... #endalz #episky #medsky

Important review by great colleagues in @uclbrainscience.bsky.social

Nature Reviews Genetics@natrevgenet.nature.com · 7mo ago

New online! Ancestral diversity in complex disease genetics: from discovery to translation

I'm starting a thread on misunderstandings about the role of APOE in Alzheimer's disease / dementia, from the POV of epidemiology / statistical genetics. I will add to this sporadically over time... #endalz #episky #medsky

"Understanding apolipoprotein E as a predominant cause of Alzheimer’s disease" Preprint: zenodo.org/records/1796... Key takeaways below Thx to coauthors @emmylooroll.bsky.social @neilmdavies.bsky.social & N.Mukadam at DOP @ucl.ac.uk Funding @alzheimersresearchuk.org #endalz #episky #medsky

Beware submiting to Scientific Reports... this is what the Research Square page for our article looks like. Yet to get a first decision on it, several months after peer reviews apparently came in and EIGHT after the transfer For-profit publishing racket, which doesn't even bother to publish

@gwascatalog.bsky.social in your study browser, could you plse add a column showing case Ns next to total N for GWAS of diseases? The largest GWAS listed for diseases are now often numerous analyses of biobanks, many with small case Ns. More informative GWAS from case-control consortia get buried

🚨 NEW: 45% of UK adults agree that scrapping the two-child limit is the most effective way to tackle child poverty. When the public get more info about the two-child limit, they are in favour of it being scrapped, which is the action the UK Govt correctly took at the Budget. More: bit.ly/48K2WKD

📢 Registration is open for Causal Inference in Practice — a 3-day short course at UCL 🗓️ 18–20 February 2026 Taught by me, @kdiazordaz.bsky.social & Peter Martin. Learn to estimate causal effects from observational data. 👉 www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc... #CausalInference #Epidemiology #DataScience

Causal Inference in Practice Short Course

This course covers the latest developments in causal inference methods and provides practical explanations for applying them to real research questions.

ucl.ac.uk

Do any pre-print servers for biomedical sciences accept Perspective or Comment articles? Most seem to refuse these types of M/S. I'd like to give some draft articles indexed / searchable presence whilst they get reviewed (& likely rejected) by journals, i.e. not just posting them to Github

Apply to do a PhD with me, Laura Corbin, Gareth Hawkes and George Davey Smith ( @mendelrandom.bsky.social) in Bristol on identifying rare effects on health using new and innovative methods. Amazing team, great educational environment, lovely city. Forward to your undergrads wrapping up!

Last chance to sign up for our MR course next week folks!

Emma Anderson@emmylooroll.bsky.social · last yr.

Our in-person Mendelian randomisation course is back at University College London this autumn. Join us in Bloomsbury, 16th-18th September 2025. Tutors: Emma Anderson, Dylan Williams, Neil Davies Guest lecturer: Eleanor Sanderson onlinestore.ucl.ac.uk/conferences-...

Just came across this graphical abstract for a paper. No idea what they were going for with the whale and rainbow, but at least it is very calming

Finally grappled w/ UKB-RAP to update a UK Biobank analysis in past week. Happy to report my sanity is (just about) still intact and I only wasted ~£8 of credit (£5 on a job left running overnight, £3 on other incompetence). Facilitated greatly by ukbrapR by @lcpilling.bsky.social, big thanks Luke!

I have an idea… journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Chris Marcum 📖@csmarcum.sciences.social.ap.brid.gy · last yr.

I'm applauding NIH for putting this out for public comment. Have ideas about how to best limit spending on inequitable and expensive article processing charges? Send them to the NIH: https://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-25-138.html

Withdraw support for the current government of Israel

The Independent@the-independent.com · last yr.

BREAKING | Israel depriving Gazans of ‘human dignity’, says UK and 25 other countries in call to end war now

BREAKING | Israel depriving Gazans of ‘human dignity’, says UK and 25 other countries in call to end war now

UK and 25 other countries accuse Israel of depriving Gazans of ‘human dignity’

David Lammy has joined other foreign ministers in condemning the Israeli government for depriving Gazans "of human dignity" as they called on the war to "end now".

independent.co.uk

Fabulous work by Phazha Bothongo! 2 years and several near mental breakdowns for us both in the making! 🧠 Causes and consequences of vascular dementia across the life course: Evidence from a UK Biobank phenome-wide and Mendelian randomization study 🧠 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Causes and consequences of vascular dementia across the life course: Evidence from a UK Biobank phenome-wide and Mendelian randomization study

Background Vascular dementia (VaD) is the second most common cause of dementia, yet its risk factors and biological mechanisms remain poorly understood. Objective To identify causes and consequences ...

medrxiv.org

Are you looking to learn how to conduct and interpret Mendelian randomization studies? You can register now for our in-person short course at UCL. With @emmylooroll.bsky.social and @dylwil.bsky.social 16th-18th September 2025. Details here: www.ucl.ac.uk/brain-scienc...

Mendelian randomization short course

This course covers the fundamental developments in Mendelian randomization and gives practical explanations about how to apply MR to applied research questions.

ucl.ac.uk

I love this paper ... so many insights, inc importance of ubiquitous exposures, a clear explanation for flaws of heritability (and analysis of variance more generally), and clarification of differences in "causes of cases & causes of incidence" by Rose, which I always thought obtuse and misleading

Tom Yates@tomayates.bsky.social · last yr.

Needed to revisit this great Neal Pearce paper today 'a factor that discourages investigation of near-ubiquitous risk factors is the continued misuse of measures such as the percentage of population variation explained to identify ‘major’ risk factors for disease, genetic or non-genetic' #EpiSky

This is VERY big genetics & health news, Regeneron (Pharmaceutical company with v strong genetics in medicine arm) is going to buy 23andme. investor.regeneron.com/news-release...