Can't stop thinking about the delivery of this line: youtu.be/iB9M0LMJtyk?...
Jurassic Park - He left us, he left us! But thats not... what I'm gonna do.
YouTube video by DestroLennox
youtu.be
Dan Schrider
@samurscicop.bsky.social
An aquatic ape studying population genetics at the University of North Carolina.
I’m also recruiting a postdoc to work on an NSF-funded project focused on using machine learning for population genetic inference. Would love to talk to anyone who is interested! (Official ad to come soon).
Megan Smith@snaildit.bsky.social · 2mo agoThe lab is en route to #Evol2026! We’ve got several talks:
Before 1991, rural and urban America shared similar rates of cancer mortality. When the national rate started to decline, however, rural America lagged behind. Around 458 rural counties even experienced increasing cancer mortality. fortune.com/2026/06/23/c... health disparities are deadly serious
Postdoc search update! I am continuing to solicit applications for a postdoc opening in the lab, and probably around the beginning of July I will start selecting applicants to interview. See evoldir ad here: evoldir.net/brian/evoldi... Please RT or whatever!
evoldir.net
Dylan Ray, a member of my lab whom some of you may know, has asked that I share this GoFundMe that is related to a very unfortunate situation that has affected his family. If you have time, please take a look and consider donating or circulating: www.gofundme.com/f/justice-fo...
Donate to Justice for Shaela Ray, organized by Kathy Ray
My heart is completely broken. We have tragically lost someone who was the absolute center of so many… Kathy Ray needs your support for Justice for Shaela Ray
gofundme.com
One year ago today, 300+ NIH scientists and staff risked their livelihoods by signing the Bethesda Declaration to call out government leadership for harms to science and patients... ...today, their new report documents continuing harm to science and the American public. www.27unihted.org/bd-home
Very happy to announce a big new paper from the lab, led by grad students @smishra677.bsky.social and Laia Pomar-Pallarès (in collaboration with @roblanfear.bsky.social). We introduce a new way to study introgression, with accompanying software (DAFT) 1/n 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Andy Kern, who doesn't (really) have an account here, would like to share his group's new tool for speeding up pop gen summary stat calculations using GPUs. Check it out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... And see his thread over at the other place: x.com/pastramimach...
biorxiv.org
Several people have asked for possible content and structure for comments regarding the proposed OMB regulations. With some suggestions from others, I have posted on example (as a Word document) for downloading). jeremymberg.github.io/jeremyberg.g... I hope this is helpful.
jeremymberg.github.io
This is awful to hear, describing how Sean Eddy (HMMER, infernal, pfam, rfam) has been defunded. The letter said his work "had been determined to be of absolutely no value to the US taxpayer, and therefore it was being specifically terminated," www.npr.org/2026/05/21/n...
Researchers say the Trump administration is finding new ways to punish science
Even with federal grants largely restored, scientists say the Trump administration is still preventing those funds from reaching them. The consequences, they say, are already becoming clear.
npr.org
If you want to see the hugely positive effect of the leadership of the National Academies of Science in shying away from topics that are deemed controversial based on partisan positions, here you go... 1/3
Update! The posting for the postdoc opening in my lab is up! Apply here: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/319...
Post-Doc Research Associate (Schrider)
The Schrider Lab at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is hiring a postdoc in population genetics and/or phylogenetics. The successful candidate will help design and carry out projects re...
unc.peopleadmin.com
Dan Schrider@samurscicop.bsky.social · 3mo agoPlease circulate: I will have a postdoc opening soon, ideally with a start date sometime this summer or fall. If you're interested in empirical population genetics, computational methods development, and/or evolutionary modeling via simulation, don't hesitate to reach out. For more info on the lab:
A survivor of the Kent State Massacre rings the bell on campus today, May 4, at exactly 12:20, the moment his classmates fell, 56 years ago.
Please circulate: I will have a postdoc opening soon, ideally with a start date sometime this summer or fall. If you're interested in empirical population genetics, computational methods development, and/or evolutionary modeling via simulation, don't hesitate to reach out. For more info on the lab:
Probably time to start posting about the lab's research again. We've been doing stuff, I swear!
Was fun to be a part of this study with Enrico Bazzicalupo, José Godoy, and colleagues. Lynx introgression. Check it out!
Molecular Biology and Evolution@molbioevol.bsky.social · 3mo agoBazzicalupo et al analyzed introgression in Iberian and Eurasian lynx with the application of a deep convolutional neural network, detecting specific regions of the genome with signals of gene flow in three populations of these species. 🖌️Paula Martin Art 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molb... #evobio #molbio
This report came out today by minority staff of the House science committee on how three NASA missions were aborted due to NASA illegally following the FY26 president's budget request instead of congressionally approved budget. Very important reading. 🔭🧪 democrats-science.house.gov/staff-report...
Whoa—machine learning strikes again (in a good way) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Coalescence and translation: A language model for population genetics | PNAS
Probabilistic models such as the sequentially Markovian coalescent have long provided a powerful framework for population genetic inference, enabli...
pnas.org
My NIH update Let me start by saying again how glad I am that NIH is now posting these curves on the Reporter front page. It is satisfying that leading by example from outside has led to this change and (I hope) reflects a commitment for NIH_leadership™ to hold itself accountable for this. 1/6
Academics often lament that hardly any master’s projects get published. The student moves on. Other research takes priority. No one has time to do the final analyses. Here I tell how one master’s project was, through persistent teamwork, finally carried over the finish line: go.nature.com/4aKs7N3
On the expansion and evolution of a master’s project
Academics often lament that hardly any master’s projects – even the best ones – get published. The student moves on. Other research takes priority. No one has time to do the final analyses. Here I tel...
go.nature.com
Apparently Jason Locasale and Paul Thacker have a problem with using publicly available data from NIH Reporter about the number of new and competitive renewal grants from fiscal year 2026 compared to previous fiscal years because I first posted it. 1/2
The conference (agreement between House and Senate) appropriations bill that includes HHS and NIH was released this morning. www.appropriations.senate.gov/news/majorit... 1/5
Committee Releases Conferenced Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Bi...
United States Senate Committee on Appropriations
appropriations.senate.gov
NIH funding underlies all of these advances--support fundamental science, and the bridge from there to the clinic 🧪
The Washington Post@washingtonpost.com · 7mo agoFor the first time, the five-year survival rate for all cancers has reached 70 percent, according to a new report, a trend that reflects the effectiveness of early prevention and detection strategies, and advancements in treatment and care, experts say. https://wapo.st/45T6Zm3
It is hard to overstate the impact that the NIH multiyear funding debate happening in congress right now could have on biomedical research over the next few years.
Jenna Norton@jenna-m-norton.bsky.social · 7mo agoA reminder as Congress finalizes NIH appropriations: the bill must limit multiyear funding (MYF), Vought's way of cutting the NIH budget without cutting the budget. MYF will devastate the research workforce. @safa-science.bsky.social wrote this in July. Still relevant: substack.com/@scienceandf...
We wrote a perspective piece about important considerations when building an evolutionary baseline model for population genomic inference in the deadliest malaria parasite- Plasmodium falciparum. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Towards an evolutionary baseline model of Plasmodium falciparum for population-genomic inference
Malaria has caused over 15.7 million deaths in the 21st century and was responsible for ∼600 thousand deaths globally in 2023 alone. Although many effective antimalarial drugs have been developed and ...
biorxiv.org