Melissa Wilson

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is funded by the National Science Foundation to create "points of entry" for students interested in research. Students apply from across the country to spend 10 weeks in Bozeman, Montana this summer (May 26, 2026 - August 1, 2026). Admitted students are paired with a faculty mentor, who serves as an advisor for a student's summer project. Each student receives a stipend ($7000 for 10 wks). Travel compensation, room, and board are also provided. Our program leverages MSU’s unique microbiology expertise, focusing specifically on microbes living with little or no oxygen (like those in the hot springs of nearby Yellowstone). Low oxygen microbes are essential to human and ecosystem health. They influence (or control) such processes as the breakdown of food in the GI tract, removal of toxins from our bodies and the environment, and production of greenhouse gases. They are also models for understanding the origins of life on this planet, and the potential for life on other planets. A key goal of our program is to recruit students from schools with limited research infrastructure. Being in Montana, a state with a vibrant Native American community, we are particularly interested in applications from students at tribal colleges. However, ANYONE with an interest in microbiology - or biology/science in general - can and should apply. If willing and able, please share/tweet/spread the word far and wide. Applications are due February 14, 2026. Full details can be found through our website http://www.montana.edu/mbi/reu/

Friends, please help spread the word about our microbiology REU program at Montana State University.
www.montana.edu/mbi/reu/

Each student receives a stipend ($7000 for 10 wks). Travel compensation, room, and board are also provided.

Details in the attached pic--Feb 14 deadline
🧫🧪🦠#microsky

(3/5) What we found:
X-chromosome regulation spans a spectrum across cell types.
Some cells show lower activity, some are well balanced, and others show higher-than-expected activity.
Not a simple on/off switch.

Genome report: de novo genome assembly of the greater Bermuda land snail, Poecilozonites bermudensis (Mollusca: Gastropoda), confirms ancestral genome duplication Abstract. Poecilozonites bermudensis, the greater Bermuda land snail, is a critically endangered species and 1 of only 2 extant members in its genus. These

New genome for the Bermudian land snail, with Stevie Winingear, Anne Stone, @sexchrlab.bsky.social, Gerardo Garcia, and Mark Outerbridge
academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Thank you!! :)

Poster advertising the 6th X-inactivation meeting from Oct 19-23 2026 in Sapporo, Japan. The organizers are Asato Kuriowa, Edda Schulz, Ikuhiro Okamoto, Rafael Galupa, Takashi Sado, Mitinori Saitou.

📣 SAVE THE DATE
Next X-inactivation meeting in Sapporo, Japan, 19-23 October 2026. Visit x-inactivation-meeting.org to join our mailing list. 🧬 speakers @dandergassen.bsky.social @marnieblewitt.bsky.social @heard65.bsky.social @crougeulle.bsky.social @sexchrlab.bsky.social @zhouqi1982.bsky.social

Scientists discover genetic adaptations can help those living in dry climates | ASU News A team of international scientists has uncovered key genetic adaptations underlying survival in hot and dry environments, revealing how natural selection may have enabled some pastoralist populations ...

With a nice feature in ASU news! news.asu.edu/20250918-sci...

Adaptations to water stress and pastoralism in the Turkana of northwest Kenya The Turkana pastoralists of Kenya inhabit arid, water-limited environments and rely largely on livestock for subsistence. Working with Turkana communities, we sequenced 367 whole genomes and identifie...

Adaptations to water stress and pastoralism in the Turkana of northwest Kenya | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Characterizing the impacts of menopause stage, sex hormones, and sex chromosomes on brain aging and disease Alex DeCasien, Ph.D.

Up now!!

Characterizing the impacts of menopause stage, sex hormones, and sex chromosomes on brain aging and disease

Alex DeCasien, Ph.D.
@coevolvinglab.bsky.social

overview

after a long effort, gathering a lot of input from many people, we finaly put it all together:
Ten Common Misconceptions About Galaxy (and Why They Are Wrong!)
https://www.preprints.org/manuscript/202509.0823
Thank you very much to all people involved !

CHARACTERIZING THE IMPACTS OF MENOPAUSE STAGE, SEX HORMONES, AND SEX CHROMOSOMES ON BRAIN AGING AND DISEASE Alex R. DeCasien (NIA), Melissa Wilson (NHGRI), Stefano Marenco (NIMH), Xylena Reed (CARD), Armin Raznahan (NIMH), Mark Cookson (NIA) Abstract: Biological sex influences risk for neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), with Alzheimer's disease occurring more often in females and Parkinson's disease occurring more often in males. Here, we propose to investigate how hormonal fluctuations (associated with menopause and andropause) and sex chromosome dynamics shape both sex differences and within-sex variability in brain aging and NDD risk. We will generate new blood-based endocrine measures and integrate these data with existing intramural and published single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) datasets from various brain regions to examine how menopause stage, sex hormone concentrations, and sex chromosome loss contribute brain aging in specific brain cell types. By sampling males and females across the reproductive aging period - including the menopause transition - this work can illuminate how hormonal fluctuations due to reproductive aging contribute to changes in brain gene expression in ways that may impact susceptibility to NDDs. Our findings will enhance our understanding of how sex-related mechanisms and aging interact to influence brain health, potentially revealing novel therapeutic targets for NDDs. MPIs (L-R, Top-Bottom]: Alex R. DeCasien (NIA), Melissa Wilson (NHGRI), Stefano Marenco (NIMH), Xylena Reed (NIA), Armin Raznahan (NIMH), Mark Cookson (NIA) nih.gov/women 11

Our collaborative project led by @coevolvinglab.bsky.social who assembled an incredible team including @bogglerapture.bsky.social, Mark Cookson, Xylena Reed & Stefano Marenco

Characterizing the impacts of menopause stage, sex hormones, and sex chromosomes on brain aging and disease.

#Research

Welcome by Elizabeth Barr to the Office of Research on Women’s Health Innovation Awards presentation

ORWH INTRAMURAL INNOVATION AWARDS IN WOMEN'S MIDLIFE HEALTH: ABSTRACT BOOK 2025 NIH Research Festival September 10, 2025, 10 - 11 AM ET

So excited to be in person and about to watch my collaborator @coevolvinglab.bsky.social present soon on our newly funded collaborative research.

ORWH Intramural innovation awards in women’s midlife health

2025 NIH Research Festival
September 10, 2025, 10 - 11 AM ET

#Research #Aging

Selfie of a scientist with brown hair, purple glasses, smiling, before giving a remote presentation

Remote talk at Northern Arizona University today with so many student questions!

More about the AnVIL Community Conference: anvilproject.org/events/anvil...

#AnVILCommunity2025

Excited to see you all at #AnVILCommunity2025

Selfie of brunette woman with unicorn purple glasses, a mask, and red scarf on a flight

On my way to Nashville for the AnVIL meeting. See you all soon!

This was both fun and terrifying to tape! Awesome to talk with @glennislogsdon.bsky.social and @aphillippy.bsky.social about our sequencing data / paper, the improvements to large-scale sequencing projects, and what this means for our understanding of our DNA!

65 Genomes Expand Our Picture Of Human Genetics Researchers closely examined the genomes of 65 individuals to paint a more complex, and more complete, picture of human genetic diversity.

Complete genomes alert! @glennislogsdon.bsky.social, @christinebeck.bsky.social, and I were on @scifri.bsky.social today talking about "Complex genetic variation in nearly complete human genomes"
📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📻 www.sciencefriday.com/segments/65-...

Some animals are more equal than others.

Photo of president Harry S. Truman laying the cornerstone of the NIH clinical center.

President Harry S. Truman laid the cornerstone in 1951, saying of the Clinical Center's future work: "Medical care is for the people and not just for the doctors and the rich." He mentioned that 75 million Americans then without health insurance would soon become a "medically indigent class" and he challenged the scientific community to "translate the new knowledge gained by research into better care for more people." "Research to prevent disease" was a better investment for federal dollars than "providing unlimited hospitalization to treat it."

In 1951, Harry S. Truman laid the cornerstone of the NIH clinical center, stating, "Research to prevent disease" was a better investment for federal dollars than "providing unlimited hospitalization to treat it."

Ooh, I love to hear it!

Ooh, that's cool.

Is there a ref genome for the species?

Idk genome size, but if possible to generate long reads for the parents (not necessarily assemblies, but the cost has come down a lot) you can try to phase so you will have some haplotypes information to help with imputation of linked SNPs.

Are the grandparents all inbred (homozygous at all/nearly all loci)?

I'm generally always more in favor of WGS over Radseq due to more even coverage across individuals, but curious what arguments there are in the opposite direction.

Yes, I realized I responded thinking of a mouse model but the species and genetic background make a big difference.

Highly recommend the wgs over radseq for more comparable sequence across individuals. Depending on the known parental genotypes, the imputation would work very well. Is this in mice with known parental genome sequences?

Big S/O to other folks who generated and shared their high-quality data with us (some published, some not) to help develop our understanding of the tool and framework.
They truly made this work possible! Folks like @tododge.bsky.social @lngray.bsky.social @scarey.bsky.social, to name just a few 🙏🏼🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️🧬

Opening dissertation defense slide for Stevie Winingear: Interdisciplinary Genomics Research in Life and Social Sciences

Opening slide for Rebecca Siford's dissertation defense: Evaluating Community Receptions and Ethical Considerations in Genomics Research in Small Scale Northern Kenyan Populations

Congratulations to Dr. Winingear and Dr. Siford @rebeccasiford.bsky.social who both successfully defended their dissertations this summer!

Primarily advised by Dr. Anne Stone @acstone.bsky.social. I was lucky to co-advise on some pieces.

Super cool work and tremendous effort by both!

Link to job description flyer can be found here:
tinyurl.com/s3kd7abr

#EndlessFishMostBeautiful

Graphical overview of the biological foundations of the proposed approach.

Application of SCINKD to identify XY chromosomes in the Christmas island skink

Application of SCINKD to identify previously unannotated sex chromosomes in the Lesser electric ray.

🚨Preprint🚨

Sex chromosome identification & genome curation from a single individual with SCINKD
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Incredible work led by @drpintothe2nd.bsky.social in collaboration w/ @drsimonegable.bsky.social @stuartvnielsen.bsky.social @tonygamble.bsky.social SE Keating & CH Smith

Thank you :)

Characterizing the impacts of menopause stage, sex hormones, and sex chromosomes on brain aging and disease Principal Investigators: Melissa Wilson (NHGRI), Stephano Maraceno (NIMH), Alex R. DeCasien (NIA), Xylena Reed (NIA), Armin Raznahan (NIMH), Mark Cookson (NIA) Abstract: Biological sex influences risk for neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), with Alzheimer’s disease occurring more often in females and Parkinson’s disease occurring more often in males. Here, we propose to investigate how hormonal fluctuations (associated with menopause and andropause) and sex chromosome dynamics shape both sex differences and within-sex variability in brain aging and NDD risk. We will generate new blood-based endocrine measures and integrate these data with existing intramural and published single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) datasets from various brain regions to examine how menopause stage, sex hormone concentrations, and sex chromosome loss contribute to brain aging in specific brain cell types. By sampling males and females across the reproductive aging period—including the menopause transition—this work can illuminate how hormonal fluctuations due to reproductive aging contribute to changes in brain gene expression in ways that may impact susceptibility to NDDs. Our findings will enhance our understanding of how sex-related mechanisms and aging interact to influence brain health, potentially revealing novel therapeutic targets for NDDs.

So excited to be part of a group that was awarded an Intramural Innovation Proposal: orwh.od.nih.gov/in-the-spotl...