On my way to #ESHG2026 and very much looking forward catching up with friends and cool science. I'm traveling with 2 great Phd students that are presenting posters for the very first time. Go and say hello if you have the chance 🧪🧬🔬 Details follow 👇🏼

Very cool paper from @mendelrandom.bsky.social & colleagues on whether natural selection has contributed to the higher cardiometabolic disease risk observed in South Asians relative to Europeans. One striking finding around fat distribution.... www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Evaluation of the Contribution of Natural Selection to Greater Cardiometabolic Disease Risk in South Asian Populations

A greater genetic susceptibility has been proposed as an explanation of the greater rates of cardiovascular and metabolic disease in South Asian relative to European populations. We first demonstrate ...

medrxiv.org

🚨 NEW COLLECTION! 💡 Submit your research on “The expanding therapeutic landscape of GLP 1 receptor agonists” This Collection calls for papers that investigate the expanding clinical and biological roles of GLP‑1 RAs. http://dlvr.it/TSMMmV #GLP1Agonists

The expanding therapeutic landscape of GLP 1 receptor agonists

This Collection calls for papers that investigate the expanding clinical and biological roles of GLP‑1 RAs. We welcome studies that examine the mechanisms ...

dlvr.it

“You cannot LLM your way into durable domain knowledge, data analysis expertise, or coding ability—these only come through struggle.”

Andrew Heiss@andrew.heiss.phd · 4mo ago

Got to present this early draft paper today at a neat workshop organized by @rohanalexander.bsky.social. It's my attempt to grapple with the need for struggle and friction in learning in a world where LLMs remove all that friction. Read the whole thing at stats.andrewheiss.com/pinky-lychee/

777 studies, 745 with summary statistics - the @genesandhealth.bsky.social WES study is now in the GWAS Catalog, aiming to improve health outcomes for South Asian populations. Go explore 👇 www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas/publica...

Finally, MRC is reopening applications at the end of April, with some changes to review panels. Still thinking what this means in practical terms and what impact it may have, but it seems now all applicant-led grants will have interviews. www.ukri.org/news/mrc-cur...

MRC curiosity-driven research reopens with new approach

The Medical Research Council (MRC) unpauses curiosity driven research funding and improves the funding process.

ukri.org

I have an opening for a staff scientist or bioinformatician in my group at the Sanger Institute (closing date 24 March). Our current projects focus on disentangling rare and common variant contributions to rare neurodevelopmental conditions and to neurodevelopmental and perinatal traits. 1/2

Fabulous work and interesting use of genetic endotypes to understand shared aetiology!

Vincent Pascat@vpascat-biostat.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🚨 Proud to share that our paper on the genetic links between type 2 diabetes (T2D) and hypertension is now published in @natcomms.nature.com! We dissect the genetic relationship between T2D and hypertension and show it is not driven by a single shared pathway. 🧬 (1/N)

Up front & free to read in our Dec issue #editorspicks: Quantitative analysis of human adult pancreatic histology reveals separate fatty and fibrotic phenotypes in type 2 diabetes link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Quantitative analysis of human adult pancreatic histology reveals separate fatty and fibrotic phenotypes in type 2 diabetes - Diabetologia

Aims/hypothesis The role of intra-pancreatic lipid and collagen in type 2 diabetes pathogenesis remains unclear. We sought to examine this in pancreases from organ donors with and without diabetes. Me...

link.springer.com

We have a new open position to analyze large-scale genomic datasets and EHR data to better understand and improve care for type 2 diabetes and monogenic diabetes, in collaboration with Chirag Patel, Miriam Udler, Aaron Leong, and many others. Please share! broadinstitute.avature.net/en_US/career...

New pre-print "Mendelian randomization in a multi-ancestry world: reflections and practical advice" led by @amymariemason.bsky.social on - arxiv.org/abs/2510.17554

Mendelian randomization in a multi-ancestry world: reflections and practical advice

Many Mendelian randomization (MR) papers have been conducted only in people of European ancestry, limiting transportability of results to the global population. Expanding MR to diverse ancestry groups...

arxiv.org

🔔 Excited to share our preprint from the largest ever exome-wide association study for T2D in South Asians. We make important discoveries implicating the genes HNF4A, GP2, RNF19A in the aetiology of diabetes and metabolic traits in south Asians. 👉 Read it here:

medRxivpreprint@medrxivpreprint.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Exome-wide association study in 54,698 south Asians identifies novel type 2 diabetes associations with RNF19A, HNF4A, and dissects role of coding variants in GP2 and CDKAL1 https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.24.25336527v1

Genetic subtyping of obesity reveals biological insights into the uncoupling of adiposity from its cardiometabolic comorbidities www.nature.com/articles/s41... Cool findings: Two obesity GRSs for stratification, one with cardiometabolic comorbidities (GRS_BFP) and one without (GRS_uncoupling)

Developing type 2 diabetes young+lean is not as uncommon as it may seem. This phenomenon is more common in people of South Asian and East Asian ancestry, but is observed across populations. Why does this happen, how should we screen and treat young+lean T2D. 👉 Read our paper here: rdcu.be/eH0YR

Body fat distribution predicts the pace of cardiovascular system aging, with sex-specific patterns, and protective effect of estrogen academic.oup.com/eurheartj/ad...

Sex-specific body fat distribution predicts cardiovascular ageing

AbstractBackground and Aims. Cardiovascular ageing is a progressive loss of physiological reserve, modified by environmental and genetic risk factors, that

academic.oup.com

🚨 NEW RESEARCH! ⚕️ 🩺 Dzando et al. identify frailty thresholds for older people in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for differences compared to frailty thresholds in high-income countries. https://bit.ly/44QDcdy #FrailtyResearch

Determining frailty index thresholds for older people across multiple countries in sub-Saharan Africa - Communications Medicine

Dzando et al. identify locally relevant frailty thresholds for older people in Sub-Saharan Africa through Receiver Operating Characteristic analysis and random-effects meta-analysis. Findings demonstrate variability in population level thresholds with a pooled threshold of 0.29 demonstrating good sensitivity and specificity across the populations.

bit.ly

the deepest of sighs....

Dundee UCU@ducuuo.bsky.social · last yr.

The University of Dundee has a women problem “In our view this culture of sexism runs deeper than the sidelining of women speaking up and out and persists beyond the ignominious end of Iain Gillespie’s tenure as Principal of the university.” www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/opinion/c...

Exciting to see this lovely paper out! Many of us have been using the pre-print for a while to demonstrate ancestral heterogeneity in India. Congratulations to the authors!

Elise Kerdoncuff@ekerdoncuff.bsky.social · last yr.

Check out our dive into 50,000 years of Indian genetic history!🇮🇳 🧬~2,700 genomes 🦴Neanderthal/Denisovan DNA 🌾Hunter-gatherer, Iranian farmer & Steppe ancestry 🩺Health-linked, population-specific variants @lauritsskov.bsky.social & Priya Moorjani #Genomics #India #HumanEvolution #PopulationGenetics

Super exciting phase 1-2 results of restorative therapy for T1D just out at NEJM www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... Imagine the transformative potential when paired with genetic + autoantibody screening in early life... nearly every T1D case could be prevented??🤞

Stem Cell–Derived, Fully Differentiated Islets for Type 1 Diabetes | NEJM

Zimislecel is an allogeneic stem cell–derived islet-cell therapy. Data on the safety and efficacy of zimislecel in persons with type 1 diabetes are needed. We conducted a phase 1–2 study of zimisle...

nejm.org

Preprint alert! 🚨 doi.org/10.1101/2025... Our manuscript on Exome sequencing and analysis of 44,028 British South Asians, using @genesandhealth.bsky.social is now available at @medrxivpreprint.bsky.social! We present several great results, and I’m thrilled to highlight the pieces I worked on:

Exome sequencing and analysis of 44,028 British South Asians enriched for high autozygosity

Genes and Health (G&H) is a biomedical study of adult British-Pakistani and -Bangladeshi research volunteers enriched for autozygosity. We performed whole exome sequencing in 44,028 G&H participants, ...

doi.org

The war on science in the US is already having an effect on private sector research like AlphaFold. Bears repeating but the private sector builds on top of things created by academic research for the public good. This hurts everyone.

🎉 This paper has been a long time and a labour of love (and hardship) for multiple group members, but, finally: we MPRA'ed 25k introgressed variants (Denisovan and Neanderthal) segregating at allele frequencies > 0.15 in humans today to evaluate their potential to regulate gene expression.

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · last yr.

Mapping the gene regulatory landscape of archaic hominin introgression in modern Papuans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.04.652069v1

British Steel employs 3.6k people. Coventry Uni group, which auditors say may not survive, employs 7.7k. But there is an emergency debate in parliament for British Steel and nothing for the whole HE sector imploding

Peter Tennant@pwgtennant.bsky.social · last yr.

Why is the government and the news so indifferent to the meltdown happening in UK #HigherEd right now? Our universities are the envy of the world. Yet we are at risk of losing a generation of academics and damaging the sector beyond repair.

"I cannot [bring] myself morally to spend Canadian taxpayers’ money in attending U.S. conferences." My latest story for @science.org—about international scientists rethinking conferences on U.S. soil. www.science.org/content/arti...

International scientists rethink U.S. conference attendance

Opposition to Trump administration and fears of customs run-ins are shifting travel plans

science.org

Managing diabetes during Ramadan is key to fasting safely. Check out this free online course by BIMA & DaR to help healthcare professionals & Muslim patients make informed decisions. 📅 6 Jan – 31 Mar 2025 🔗 Access here: pn.mydiabetes.com/resources/in...

Celebrating the incredible women of Genes & Health on #InternationalWomensDay 💜 👩‍⚕️ 35,920 women participating in the study 👩‍🔬 15 women working across London, Bradford, Manchester, and Birmingham 🙌 16 women on our Community Advisory Board 👩‍🏫 5 women on the Genes & Health Executive Thank you to all!

Genes & Health contributed to a major study on heart failure genetics, published in Nature Genetics. Using data from 1.9M individuals, researchers identified 66 genetic loci, including 37 new discoveries. Inclusive research ensures prevention & treatment for all. Read more: lnkd.in/dFmMHfKi

New research by an international team led by @qmul.ac.uk have found new genetic links between genetically-predicted height and an individual’s likelihood of developing a range of diseases and conditions. These new data could help improve early diagnosis and risk monitoring for patients.

Many scientists like myself have held tepid liberal views, while ignoring genocides and colonisation. Now these forces have joined with research funding cuts, targeting minority, gender+LGBTQI research. Time to wake up and connect the dots. Be like Macklemore✊ youtu.be/sn9EKC9nqU4?...

MACKLEMORE - fucked up (official video)

YouTube video by Macklemore

youtu.be

So delighted to be joining QMUL and Barts at the inaugural Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Predictive Medicine. One of the most technically advanced and largest NHS Trusts in the country in the culturally richest and most diverse parts of the UK

Queen Mary Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry@qmulfmd.bsky.social · 2y ago

A very warm welcome to Professor @juliahcox.bsky.social who will join @qmul-wiph.bsky.social at the beginning of February as the inaugural Professor of Clinical Epidemiology and Predictive Medicine. We're delighted she's joining our Faculty!