Ryan Hernandez

I could go by my middle name next time I visit (Daniel). It was the name I used to use as a kid when I was pretending to be someone else…

These embryo-selection startups are clearly feeding into an alt-right ecosystem that revels in techno-futurism much as such movements have in the past. GWAS participants & parents navigating IVF deserve better than being used as tools to attract the attention of edge lords.

Text from an FAQ in Okbay et al 20222: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-022-01016-z a similar same statement is made in an FAQ in 2025: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.653986v1.supplementary-material Text reads: "The results of SSGAC studies have sometimes been used by online platforms, including some companies, to predict individual outcomes. We recognize that returning individual genomic “results” can be a fun way to engage people in research and other projects and to feed or stoke their interest in genomics. But it is important that participants/users understand that these individual results are not meaningful predictions and should be regarded essentially as entertainment. Failure to make this point clear risks sowing confusion and undermining trust in genetics research"

It is depressing, but all too predictable, how swiftly we’ve gone from the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium offering reassurances about the uses of behavioural polygenic scores to one of their lead authors marketing embryo selection for IQ

Thread of bioinformatics rock stars.

1) Dexter Holland

A few thoughts on Herasight, the new embryo selection company. First, their whitepaper (drive.google.com/file/d/1EpFi...) implies that competitors like Nucleus have been marketing and selling grossly erroneous risk estimates. This is shocking if true! 🧵

Really excited to share the first paper from my PhD - it’s all about assumptions in modelling and the history of early population genetics… 🧵

doi.org/10.1111/ahg....

The massive list of suspended UCLA grants came out today: 300 NSF and 500 NIH grants. I am miraculously not on the list, but this is devastating. Science will be lost, progress will be frozen, people will lose jobs, and careers in science and medicine are being destroyed. This is not ok.

Jay Bhattacharya once studied health disparities. As NIH director, he’s allowed such research to wither Jay Bhattacharya’s tenure as NIH director has seen health disparities research swept up in the Trump administration’s attack on DEI

Incredibly well reported deep dive on NIH and health disparities research in STAT. 🧵

www.statnews.com/2025/08/01/n...

1/31

Breaking: NSF is suspending roughly 300 grants with UCLA, following a DOJ finding on Tuesday that the university violated Title VI by "creating a hostile educational environment for Jewish and Israeli students."

Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million increase to the budget of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday

🧪
#publichealth
#neuroskyence

A rare piece of good news out of D.C.

www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/n...

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

The rate of identical-by-descent segment sharing between close and distant relatives https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.30.667761v1

I just got an email informing me that my Annual Review on structural racism with @tyson-brown.bsky.social and @pahoman.bsky.social is open access. So, download away.

one cool thing about Scandinavian countries with comprehensive public health insurance is places like Denmark can do a study on… everybody and conclude that yes COVID vaccines are safe

A volcano made out of mashed potatoes with asparagus and broccoli trees mingled around Dino nuggets and a hot dog shaped like a person.

Mashed potato volcano with gravy flowing down the side

Containers full of mashed potatoes in a freezer

Screenshot of texts: this is genuinely impressive and insane. Would love for you to talk to me about what’s going on with the hotdog. Reply reads: that’s hot dog man. He’s a disaster tourist.

My brother did not ask me to do this, nor did he know I was going to, but I made him a mashed potato volcano for his birthday.

The number of potatoes this required was shocking but otherwise it was relatively simple to do. A side effect is a freezer full of leftover mashed potatoes.

A Lady Professor with brown hair and glasses, wearing a scarf in red, green, yellow, & black, a gift from an incredible lactation consultant, sitting in in front of cactus.

I escaped poverty because I am a scientist.

And I am a scientist because of the National Science Foundation.

A 🧵:

I am a first gen college student from a tiny rural farm town in the middle of nowhere in the Midwest where finishing high school wasn’t something everyone did, let alone go to college or even grad school.

And I am a scientist because of the National Institutes of Health.

Court accepting updated list of plaintiffs/grantees impacted! MUST BE SUBMITTED BY AUGUST 1st 5pm EST! Please disseminate!!!

Message from ACLU team below:

1/n

🦠 New @nature.com study finds that respiratory viruses like flu & COVID can wake up dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs, triggering metastatic growth within days. This IL‑6‑driven inflammation correlated w/ higher metastasis & mortality risk in cancer survivors.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I use the built in Apple calendar, and have a calendly account set up for people to book different kinds of meetings. It has been working for me! My challenge is that I have a lot of calendars to manage for family/work… and they are all on different systems that don’t like to talk to each other! GL!

Things are so bad, the planet is calling for Batman.

Picture of a smiling person holding up a copy of a book.

First copies of my book are here!! As a new faculty member, I realized that in addition to my research job, I also had a leadership job…and I wasn’t prepared for that.

This book is the guide I wish I’d had then, with the goal of helping others now.
 
jenheemstra.com/book

The 2026 Probabilistic Modeling in Genomics (ProbGen) meeting will be held at UC Berkeley, March 25-28, 2026. We have an amazing list of keynote speakers and session chairs:
probgen2026.github.io

Please help spread the news.

Nahoft – Navona Records Drawing its name from a melodic motif found in Iranian music, NAHOFT is the culmination of pianist Ava Nazar’s collaboration with the Iranian Female Composers Association, showcasing six woman compose...

A brief musical note: I’m very excited to share that my brilliant wife, a pianist and composer, has just released her debut album featuring works by Iranian women composers, including one of her own. Here is the link in case you’d like to take a listen: www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv67...

#SMBE #SMBE2025
Just notice the preprint of Rare Allele Sharing (RAS) statistics was out on the same day of my talk in @official-smbe.bsky.social . Great thanks to my supervisor @stschiff.bsky.social and co-author Thiseas Christos Lamnidis!

That’s true…

This one was not NCI. NHLBI, and was 6%ile. I am a subcontract on another R01 that was 4%tile through NIGMS, but was told they will not fund it to focus on R35s, which generally do not allow subcontracts… so that one is dead unless we can transfer to another institute… good luck!!

💯

PO just confirmed that our 5th percentile R01 is not getting funded. Past NCI Payline at 4 percent. Cant believe it.

Thank you!