Megan Dennis

Ooh sorry about that @ocklenburg.bsky.social - thx to all authors!

😆

Excellent review from @silparacchini.bsky.social’s lab with a nice bluetorial

Happy to share a new @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social from the lab, led by talented postdoctoral fellow #MinhooKim: "Single-cell exploration of ovarian aging across vertebrate models", a meta-analysis study of public ovarian aging sc/snRNA-seq data! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A 🧵, 1/5 🧬🖥️🧪 #GeroSky

We are thrilled to share our new preprint entitled “The origin and molecular evolution of the mammalian liver cell architecture” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Just saw this post- congrats Mitchell! 🥳

Finally, thank you to @naltemose.bsky.social for help accessing his DiMeLo dataset!

Analysis of duplicated and adjacent regions points to altered genome positional effects as a likely larger contributor. We also generated two useful long-read Kinnex datasets from SHSY5Y & GM12878, validating ancestral paralogs generally maintain highest expression across hundreds of gene families.

Happy to share work spearheaded by former grad student Colin Shew testing shared duplicated cis regulatory elements (CREs) using an MPRA. While we find some high effect CREs, collectively paralog differences represent modest effects accounting for observed gene expression divergence.

SMBE2026 | Final call for symposia

🔁 Please share - we remind the SMBE community that the Call for Symposia for SMBE2026 in Copenhagen is open.

We invite you to submit a symposium proposal to help shape the scientific content of our annual meeting.

🗓️ Deadline: October 15th

More information: smbe2026.org/symposia

#SMBE2026

Really cool, conceptually simple approach here: cross-referencing grant proposal scores with literature citations and explicit acknowledgments in drug patents to identify patents linked to projects that wouldn't have been funded given a smaller budget

Human-specific gene expansions contribute to brain evolution A complete human genome and functional modeling in zebrafish pinpoint gene expansions that may underlie the evolutionary innovations of the human brain.

link to paper! www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

While I'm sad our cover submission wasn't selected for our recent human duplication paper, check out the super cool illustration created with @lazaroillustration.bsky.social ! Certainly, you will be seeing Dennis lab members running around with "fishman" t-shirts at future meetings, inspired by Ohno

Lab biking

Lab outing at brewery

Lab outing 😍

Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development Understanding the unique features of the human brain compared to non-human primates has long intrigued humankind. The cerebellum refines motor coordination and cognitive functions, contributing to the...

Excited to share our recent study on human-specific features of the cerebellum and the unexpected, novel role of zona pellucida protein 2 (ZP2) in synapse development. Grateful to the Sestan lab and all our collaborators for their outstanding contributions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

PIEZO channels link mechanical forces to uterine contractions in parturition Mechanical forces are extensively involved in pregnancy and parturition, but their precise roles and mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we identify mechanically activated ion channels PIEZO1 a...

New preprint alert! The uterus expands ~500-fold in pregnancy, yet we know little about how pressures are sensed. Led by @yunxiao-dr.bsky.social, we show PIEZOs are required for contractions and birth in mice, with dual roles of PIEZO1 in muscle and PIEZO2 in neurons
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

bsky.app/profile/marc...

Jasmin Rees PhD chapter as a paper just out at the AJHG @ajhgnews.bsky.social, with Sergi Castellano, who first envisioned the study. Jas investigated signatures of human local genetic adaptation in hundreds of micronutrient-associated genes.

😭 ooh that had to hurt

Juice from a grilled jalapeño once squirted directly into my eye, and I’ve never experienced such pain. I essentially pepper sprayed myself.

Thank you Sil!

Privileged to have had the opportunity to advocate for biomedical research funding in #Congress yesterday! It was an honor to represent the @geneticssociety.bsky.social alongside my amazing colleagues @gregorylab.bskyverified.social and #JillFahrner! 🔬 🧠🧬
#ASHG #Genetics #ResearchMatters

Cell cycle duration determines oncogenic transformation capacity Danian Chen, Suying Lu, Katherine Huang, Joel D. Pearson, Marek Pacal, Phillipos Peidis, Sean McCurdy, Tao Yu, Monika Sangwan, Angela Nguyen, Philippe P. Monnier, Daniel Schramek, Liang Zhu, David Santamaria, Mariano Barbacid, Nagako Akeno, Kathryn A. Wikenheiser-Brokamp & Rod Bremner https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08935-x

A recent paper reveals a surprising insight. The length of the cell cycle in a particular tissue determines the oncogenic transformation capacity of particular oncogenes, with tissues with shorter cell cycles most susceptible 3/n

Great work! Super useful resource. Thank you, team!

Happy Birthday, Rosalind Franklin. She captured an X-ray diffraction image of DNA and stated that a helical structure was probable. Watson and Crick then created a detailed model based on her results. They initially received credit for the discovery and were awarded the Nobel Prize after her death.🧪

A T2T-CHM13 recombination map and globally diverse haplotype reference panel improves phasing and imputation The T2T-CHM13 complete human reference genome contains ~200 Mb of newly resolved sequence, improving read mapping and variant calling compared to GRCh38. However, the benefits of using complete refere...

In work led by @lalli.bsky.social, we present recombination maps and a diverse haplotype reference panel (1000 Genomes Project) for the T2T-CHM13 human reference genome. These resources improve the accuracy of phasing and imputation, especially around common CNVs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins mediates immunity via the Toll-like receptor pathway Key actors of mammalian immunity originated from bacterial antiphage systems. The full extent of immune system conservation between bacteria and eukaryotes is unknown. Here, we show that the silent in...

Evolutionary molecular biology paying dividends again - this time in finding new modulators of innate immunity - www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Human-specific gene expansions contribute to brain evolution Duplicated genes expanded in the human lineage likely contributed to brain evolution, yet challenges exist in their discovery due to sequence-assembly…

Accessible version here: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thank you, Siobhan !!