We are excited to share our pan-pangenome paper! This is a long time coming work of my postdoc with the incredible @psudmant.bsky.social, and a stellar group of people! I hope you enjoy reading it! And I am excited to talk more more about it this week at #PEQG26!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A Pan-pangenome illuminates complex structural variation and selection in humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos

Complete, haplotype-resolved genome assemblies have provided unprecedented insight into the evolution of structurally complex, rapidly evolving regions of human genomes; however, population-scale pang...

biorxiv.org

#PEQG26 such a wonderful meeting at Asilomar. Fantastic science, beautiful views, adorable wildlife, great friends! 🫶

1/n What fraction of the human genome is essential for cells? Excited to share our preprint that explores this question by combining an unusual CRISPR system, phage promoters, and thousands of deletion launchpads. @sudpinglay.bsky.social @jshendure.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We built a joint experimental and computational platform for scalable multi-modal single-cell chemical screens — profiling RNA, protein (including phospho-signaling), and chromatin accessibility responses to thousands of small molecule perturbations in parallel. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Historically Small Population Size Limits Purging of Deleterious Mutations in a Conservation-Reliant Species, the Kirtland’s Warbler www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Accounting for recurrent mutation in the frequency spectrum of rare alleles https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.29.728884v1

This was fitting news to receive on May 1, international workers day. I will be returning to work on Monday after being kept on retaliatory administrative leave for 5 months and 3 weeks. I return along with the brave Katrina Declaration signers from FEMA, also reinstated this week. 🧵1/?

Sheryl Gay Stolberg@sherylnyt.bsky.social · 3mo ago

NEWS: The NIH whistleblower @jenna-m-norton.bsky.social, who was put on paid leave in November after criticizing the Trump administration’s cuts to medical research, has been reinstated — without explanation. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/u...

I'm struck by the bravery of this student and the fantastic way the union handled this allegation. What a model for all of us to follow in terms of how to show up for our members.

UC Berkeley professor Kwabena Bediako under investigation for sexual harassment allegations

Since the allegations were publicized, nearly every graduate and undergraduate student in the Bediako Lab has left the lab.

dailycal.org

May have unlocked a new academic cheat code! 14yo kid just read a 2pg application I wrote for an award. They schooled me on proper comma, colon, and semi-colon use. Also helped me clarify a few sentences (no, structural barriers aren't "physically preventing" scholars from participating in science)

🗓️📍Save the date for UCSF PROPEL’s 6th Annual Symposium on June 1st!! 🧑‍🔬🧫Come support and celebrate our scholars as they present research talks and posters! We look forward to seeing you there!

My goodness SF is beautiful. I had never seen a night rainbow before!!! #doLookUp

Happy to share new manuscript I completed with @ee-reh-neh.bsky.social & @davisjmcc.bsky.social back in Melbourne. The work originally conceived by @ijbeasley.bsky.social focuses on how we can reconcile and meta-analyse eQTL studies across studies cohorts and ancestries. doi.org/10.64898/202...

Irene Gallego Romero@ee-reh-neh.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Finally, today's offering! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This began life as a very different project which failed because we couldn't agree on defining eqtl sharing across cohorts. So two young members of the lab dug deeply into this - first @ijbeasley.bsky.social, then @patrickgibbs.bsky.social

David Botstein has passed away. A true pioneer in the genetics and biotechnology industry, known methods to map genes. While at Stanford he collaborated with Pat Brown in microarrays, co-founded the Gene Ontology and became the CSO of Calico. He worked again with Pat Brown at Impossible Foods. RIP.

1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology. We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.

Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review

The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...

journals.plos.org

"In particular, these models highlight a pernicious feedback loop: increasing submissions to top journals exhausts the pool of suitable peer reviewers, resulting in lower quality peer reviews that encourage yet more authors to take a chance on submitting their paper to a prestigious venue."

Carl T. Bergstrom@carlbergstrom.com · 5mo ago

1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology. We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Glad to see this paper out. I attended Prof. Gürsoy's talk during last year's probgen and the claims were scary. You can literally reverse-engineer GWAS summary statistics and public single-cell RNA-seq data to identify subjects.

We have posted data providing real-time measurement of human neutralizing antibody landscape to seasonal influenza. Data explain spread of subclades K (H3N2) & D.3.1.1 (H1N1), identify subclade K subvariants w reduced neutralization, & can inform choice of strains for next vaccine.

Can we simulate realistic evolutionary trajectories and “replay the tape of life”? In this work, we propose a flexible, generalizable deep learning framework for modeling how the entire protein sequence evolves over time while capturing complex interactions across sites. 1/n doi.org/10.64898/202...

🚨 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)

academic.oup.com/genetics/adv... #histbio #hps

Reflections on the Human Genome Diversity Project: a conversation with Marcus W. Feldman, Henry T. Greely, and Mary-Claire King

Abstract. The Human Genome Diversity Project (HGDP) began in 1991 as an initiative to study genetic variation from human populations worldwide. In 2002, th

academic.oup.com

My colleagues at @sfsu.bsky.social used 3 decades of data to show that students with low undergrad GPA have equal PhD completion rates compared to students with high GPA. @sfstatebio.bsky.social journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

Sad. We are a country in decline www.chronicle.com/article/has-... #gradschool #phd

Has the Graduate-School Collapse Begun?

The Trump administration’s policies, and institutional budget cuts, are straining the delivery of master’s and doctoral degrees.

chronicle.com

So excited to have this study live! Lead by @ee-reh-neh.bsky.social's teram and in collaboration with an incredible team at MRIN in Indonesia. This is the culmination of ~5 years of work including a ton of effort in the field. Really proud of how this came together! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very nice work led @drghawkes.bsky.social, showing convergence between rare and common genetic associations, using whole-genome sequencing data to evaluate the contribution of rare non-coding variants for commonly studied anthropometric traits 🧪🧬 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Science Bluesky is now much better than Science Twitter is… but I still miss peak pre-pandemic Science Twitter.

Katharine Hayhoe@katharinehayhoe.com · 6mo ago

Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes! "Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."

My daughter Maya, who had to wear a scoliosis brace for 2 years, wants to connect with other teens who live with invisible diseases. www.under-the-iceberg.com/about

About | Who We Are — Under the Iceberg

Learn about Under the Iceberg, a youth organization dedicated to nurturing future leaders through education and growth. Contact us to join or collaborate.

under-the-iceberg.com

“Success in US science has come from sustained funding and welcoming the best talent from around the world, yet both of these advantages are in decline” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

China turns the tables in biotech

For at least a century, major scientific research initiatives have reliably occurred in the United States, usually in response to geopolitical competition. This helped establish the country’s status a...

science.org

We are in the middle of MCB graduate admissions interviews. It has renewed my sense of hope—there are so many bright, empathic and resilient young people ready to help advance knowledge and make a difference.

It took scientists 11 years to compute 1-2/3=1/3

Balancing selection alert!! 🧬🧪 New preprint where we try to quantify how likely (or rather, unlikely) it is for balancing selection to maintain stable polymorphism, and how easy (or rather, challenging) it is to identify its signatures in genomes. #Popgen #MolecularEvolution #EvoBio #Science

Max Reuter@maxreuter.bsky.social · 7mo ago

A new preprint from the lab, with postdoc @deboraycb.bsky.social and collaborators @aidaandres.bsky.social and Tim Connallon: “Characterising the detectable and invisible fractions of genomic loci under balancing selection” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...