‘I’ve been swept up by the autism spectrum idea, and it’s only in the past 10 years that I have felt things have gone too far. Very slowly, I have come to say, “No, this is not right”’: Autism expert professor Uta Frith talks to @helen-amass.bsky.social
To be fair, it does feed our unborn babies, and I know a few women who have fried it up after childbirth. But yeah, still not cake :)
📖5th #iWORDD this October: 2 days of reading & dyslexia research, 1 on real-world impact!
Join our outstanding keynote line-up + share your work here by April 15: shorturl.at/lSlBI
@jyeatman.bsky.social @gaablab.bsky.social @drmluciano.bsky.social @standehaene.bsky.social @cassandrapw.bsky.social
GWAS Catalog API v1 retires in May 2026 🧬
Migrating to v2? It's faster, more stable, and gives you better query control.
Docs 👉 www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas/rest/api/v2/docs
Ref 👉 www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas/rest/api/v2/docs/reference
3 months to go
#genomics
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again.
#Pinks #ProudBlue
Mendelian Randomization is powerful but often debated. We benchmarked it against the "ground truth" of human metabolic pathways to see how often it gets it right. 🧬
Result: MR is robust! It matches known metabolism in 43% of cases and identifies valid drug targets.
www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...
what was the take home message for those of us who missed it?
@clydefrancks.bsky.social found what is potentially (likey?!) the first fully hallucinated GWAS paper, of “left handedness”… the Manhattan plot has the wrong number of chromosomes, and genes labels with one wrong chromosome placed in a second wrong chromosome… wild…
Dyslexia isn’t just about reading and writing. Prof Maggie Snowling explains how reading disorders originate in the language system, and why many children also struggle with oral language.
Read the full blog to learn more. https://bit.ly/4qr5SlY
The department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences at Ghent University is proud to present a lecture series on the topic of eugenics. As philosophers and ethicists, we are concerned about the revival and normalization of eugenic discourse.
humanitiesacademie.ugent.be/eugenics
Copy reads: "We’re building a central hub for LPS training - strategic, inclusive & responsive to evolving needs. Neil Kaye, CLOSER Head of Education and Training." Left side: black text on white background. Right side: Neil Kaye headshot. Population Research UK logo at the top left.
🚀The UK’s longitudinal research sector is about to get a major upgrade in training.
CLOSER, supported by Population Research UK, is creating a strategic, UK-wide training resource for LPS.
Find out what’s coming: shorturl.at/guRbh
Same DNA, different cells, different stories 🧬
Some genetic changes arise during life, creating genetic ‘mosaics’ in the body. Here, we explain what somatic mutations are and how we are exploring them.
https://sangerinstitute.blog/2026/01/15/what-are-somatic-mutations/
Just 2 questions: 1) how did personality PGI perform? and 2) is cheese more abundant in Estonian cities :)
Remember the famous UKB migration paper? We found that internal migration also shapes population structure in Estonia. Key patterns replicate within families.
www.cell.com/iscience/ful...
Thanks for sharing - we're looking forward to it!
Clever use of proteomic data to stress-test TWAS and QTL colocalization methods, revealing a high false sign rate. This hypothesis about high-LD and cross-tissue confounding is particularly interesting:
This looks really cool, but where are the brain-related phenotypes @nbaya.bsky.social? N.B. I haven't read the paper, only the abstract and this glorious figure :)
International Workshop on Reading and Developmental Dyslexia is in San Sebastián, 7-9th October 2026, www.bcbl.eu/events/iword... Scientific and Practical Days, see you there!
Some of us from the UK's Specific Learning Difficulties Network @sldnetwork.bsky.social have shared our views on the new Delphi definition of dyslexia onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/..., special thanks to Kinga Morsanyi @kmorsanyi.bsky.social for pulling it together so nicely!
This is great - a clear overview of key principles in data visualisation, written in a super-accessible and interest way, with great examples throughout.
Want to echo Abdel and encourage reading this excellent commentary he put together!
Lovely work, but so disappointed you didn't include dyslexia, it would have opened up that "neurodevelopmental factor" a bit more.
How did DNA changes that alter protein structures impact evolution on the branch that led to modern humans? As we demonstrate today in Science Advances, biobanking initiatives offer ways to directly assess biological effects of rare archaic variants in living people, & (re)evaluate their roles. 🧬🧪
Photographer Martin Parr just passed. If you don't know his work, the Guardian has a really nice introduction here.
h/t @wvschaik.bsky.social
Nominations for the UKRN Dorothy Bishop Prize 2026 have opened!
Named after @deevybee.bsky.social, the prize, first awarded in 2022, celebrates the contributions of early career researchers to research improvement.
Nominations close 18 January 2026.
#AcademicSky #Research
This was a super fun project to do my small part on. @roshnipatel.bsky.social really helped me understand what we're doing when we're trying to "control for genetics" when assessing associations between interventions and outcomes, and how a lot of the standard ways to do so are simply inadequate.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol made $95 million last year. His workers are striking for the bare minimum. Glad to be on the right side of the picket line with them.
Consider submitting an abstract for an invited talk or poster at STATGEN 2026 by December 15th!
Amazing keynote speakers and statistical leaders in #genetics and #genomics! 👏
Hope to see you there! statgen26.emory.edu
🧪 🧬 🖥️ 🧠 #statssky #imaging #SingleCell #spatial #omics #DigitalPathology
Come work with me! Feel free to contact me via email, if you have questions : )
