Jerome (he/him) 🧬🏳️‍🌈

Another NIH institute loses its director Health department declines to renew Lindsey Criswell, head of arthritis institute, to another 5-year term

The chief of NIAMS, Lindsey Criswell, has told her staff that her 5-year leadership appointment had not been renewed, meaning 16 out of 27 NIH institutes and centers will be operating without a permanent director. https://scim.ag/4cr5wHI

Immune Cells Linked to Epstein-Barr Virus May Play a Role in MS A study from UCSF shows a previously unknown connection between the Epstein-Barr virus, known to play a role in MS, and an understudied type of immune cell.

Some “killer” T cells associated with Epstein- Barr virus may trigger the damaging immune response in MS, a study finds. That “connects a lot of different dots and gives us a new window on how EBV is likely contributing to this disease,” senior author Dr. Joe Sabatino says. https://ucsfh.org/4qqdQuN

Specificity, length and luck drive gene rankings in association studies - Nature Genetic association tests prioritize candidate genes based on different criteria.

How do GWAS and rare variant burden tests rank gene signals?

In new work @nature.com with @hakha.bsky.social, @jkpritch.bsky.social, and our wonderful coauthors we find that the key factors are what we call Specificity, Length, and Luck!

🧬🧪🧵

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

California’s $23 Billion Plan to Restore Federal Cuts to Scientific Research

California is devising a plan to create their own National Institutes of Health to counter federal cuts to science research.

🤯 "Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution"

I read the headline and was super skeptical…but….

BIOLOGY OF ANTS BE CRAZY

Cardboard box of apples that says “Free Lemons”

starting to suspect my neighbor is a large language model

Protein language models reveal evolutionary constraints on synonymous codon choice Evolution has shaped the genetic code, with subtle pressures leading to preferences for some synonymous codons over others. Codons are translated at different speeds by the ribosome, imposing constrai...

This preprint from Helen Sakharova is one of the coolest things to come out of my lab: “Protein language models reveal evolutionary constraints on synonymous codon choice.” Codon choice is a big puzzle in how information is encoded in genomes, and we have a new angle. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Same.

The new special issue @science.org
features Immunity with 4 outstanding review papers, 5★ science.org/toc/science/...
Our immune system over the lifespan (figure at right on path to inflammaging and immunosenescence), sex differences, influence on physiology, and host antiviral defenses

🚨 Join us at #ASHG25!🚨
We’re unveiling a new standard for Predicted Effector Gene (PEG) data - designed to make gene prioritisation more transparent, reusable, and #FAIR.
#HumanGenetics #GeneticsDiscoveries #EffectorGene #GWAS #FunctionalGenomics #PEGstandard👇

Vitamin B2 metabolism promotes FSP1 stability to prevent ferroptosis Ferroptosis, a regulated form of cell death driven by excessive lipid peroxidation, has emerged as a promising therapeutic target in cancer. Ferroptosis suppressor protein 1 (FSP1) is a critical regul...

Excited to share our new preprint, led by Kirandeep Deol! 🤩 Genetic screens uncover mechanisms regulating FSP1 abundance in cancer. Vitamin B2 metabolism promotes FSP1 stability via FAD synth / binding, further linking nutrient metabolism to ferroptosis.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

EBV induces CNS homing of B cells attracting inflammatory T cells - Nature Epstein–Barr virus infection generates a neuroinvasive B cell subset, which recruits activated T cells to the central nervous system, promoting multiple sclerosis.

How does Epstein- Barr virus induce multiple sclerosis?
The infection leads to B cells that get into the brain, attracting pro-inflammatory T cells (mouse model)
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This study with @ukbiobank.bsky.social will deepen our understanding of the human genome, support the development of more effective treatments, and pave the way for precision medicine 🧬

Learn more about our journey with UK Biobank here: sangerinstitute.blog/2022/09/26/o...

Whole-genome sequencing of 490,640 UK Biobank participants - Nature A study reports whole-genome sequences for 490,640 participants from the UK Biobank and combines these data with phenotypic data to provide new insights into the relationship between human variation a...

✅ Published in @natureportfolio.nature.com today, the paper describing the initial whole-genome sequencing analysis of 500,000 UK Biobank participants.

Read here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We're committed to finding new ways of getting important, original research into scientists’ hands as quickly as possible.

Take a look at the other formats you can publish in, from Tools and Resources to Research Advances to Short Reports: buff.ly/GXKivkm

Scaling DNA sequencing is a notable success story.

Scaling protein analysis is harder since the proteome is a much taller mountain: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@asimovpress.bsky.social writes about @parallelsq.bsky.social's approach to scale up proteomics.

Yosemite employees worked for weeks with no pay before the government hired them Seasonal employees counting on housing at Yosemite were asked to volunteer for the park while the government was unable

Thanks to Trump's cuts, seasonal employees at Yosemite worked for as long as six weeks without pay.

The National Park Service is one of our most popular government agencies.

It's being gutted to fund enormously unpopular tax cuts for the super-rich.

E Life's new open access publishing agreements. Supporting a more actable and sustainable system.

We’re pleased to offer open access agreements for research institutions in support of a more equitable and sustainable system for scientific publishing, including uncapped and centralised schemes.
buff.ly/wuB4xoO
#OpenScience #AcademicChatter

3 groups use generative AI to design high-specificity pMHC-binding “artificial TCRs” for more precise targeting of tumor antigen @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

EMBL researchers and their collaborators have provided exciting new insights into human genetic variation by building upon the 1000 Genomes Project dataset.

The two studies constitute what may be the most complete overview of the human genome to date.

www.embl.org/news/science...

In the world of sphere packing, there’s been debate about whether order or a dash of chaos will give the best results. A recent proof marks a win for order. www.quantamagazine.org/new-sphere-p...

This spot is always empty

Eric Green was the first institute director forced out of NIH. He still hasn’t been told why Eric Green said the process leading to his ouster as a NIH institute director by the Trump administration remains "shrouded in mystery"

STAT story about Eric Green, former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute

www.statnews.com/2025/06/26/n...

1/n

This a really exciting leap forward for genomic sequence to activity gene regulation models. It is a genuine improvement over pretty much all SOTA models spanning a wide range of regulatory, transcriptional and post-transcriptional processes. 1/

This so amusingly absurd 😂

Insanity
today @newyorker.com

Cocrystal structure reveals the mechanism of FSP1 inhibition by FSEN1 | PNAS FSP1 is an FAD-dependent oxidoreductase that uses NAD(P)H to regenerate the reduced forms of lipophilic quinone antioxidants, such as coenzyme Q10 ...

Thrilled this paper is out! We solved the first cocrystal structure of FSP1 with an inhibitor (FSEN1), providing mechanistic insight & a foundation for medchem. Led by Amalia Megarioti & Sitao Zhang. A terrific collaboration with Da Jia.
Brief Skytorial!
1/9

Industry friends, now is the time for MUCH more speaking out on behalf of academic colleagues under duress. Here are core open source methods that many of your products doubtlessly depend on either directly or indirectly (see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMMER) being abruptly defunded. Make noise.