Jazlyn Mooney

Honestly, kinda makes it worth 1.5 bike rides to work🤷🏽‍♀️

🥲 BEST DAY EVER

We are thrilled to announce the first official release (v0.1.8) of #𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗿, the successor to one of our flagship tool, #𝗯𝗲𝗱𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀! Based on ideas we conceived of long ago (!), this was achieved thanks to the dedication of Brent Pedersen.

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Plot of estimated exposure effect vs true exposure effect for naive estimate, GRM-corrected estimate in 4K individuals, PENGUIN-corrected estimate in 4K individuals, and PENGUIN-corrected estimate in 100K individuals. Genetic correlation between exposure and outcome is simulated at 0.5. Naive estimates are biased towards the genetic correlation between traits. Confidence intervals for GRM-corrected estimates are small and overlap the true effect, while PENGUIN-corrected estimates have 3-4X standard errors and do not always overlap the true effect in small sample sizes.

Table describing concerns about portability of GWAS summary statistics in test cohort. For GRM, concerns are "None; exposure effect can be estimated entirely within-sample for test cohort if genotype available". For PENGUIN, concerns are "Per-SNP heritability is assumed to be identical between GWAS and test cohort, but systematic differences can arise due to demographic history". For polygenic score, concerns are "Variants and effect sizes ascertained from GWAS cohort may not be useful predictors in test cohort when LD patterns or allele frequencies differ".

In small sample sizes and understudied populations, our GRM-based approach outperforms existing methods, all of which rely on GWAS summary statistics. Unlike GWAS, constructing GRMs does not require biobank-scale data, and in-sample GRMs are inherently robust to portability concerns. (5/6)

Observational epidemiological studies can mitigate genetic confounding with the genetic relatedness matrix Observational studies are commonly used in psychology and epidemiology to identify risk factors correlated with health outcomes. However, these studies are vulnerable to confounding when shared geneti...

Excited to share work from my postdoc with @docedge.bsky.social and collaborators Matt Pennell and @jgschraiber.bsky.social, newly out over the weekend: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... (1/6)

Observational epidemiological studies can mitigate genetic confounding with the genetic relatedness matrix https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.24.690292v1

The Genomic Imprint of Chromosomal Inversions and Demographic History in Island Populations of Deer Mice Abstract. Populations that colonize islands experience novel selective pressures, fluctuations in size, and changes to their connectivity. Owing to their u

Howell et al. used WGS of wild-caught deer mice from two islands and one mainland location in British Columbia to investigate chromosomal inversions and non-equilibrium demographic history of this species.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf254

#evobio #molbio #peromyscus

What James Watson got wrong about DNA - The Boston Globe The science he helped pioneer consistently undermines his view that genes determine everything about us.

"What James Watson got wrong about DNA"

By the great Sohini Ramachandran (@sramach.bsky.social) and your boy for The Boston Globe (@bostonglobe.com).

www.bostonglobe.com/2025/11/14/o...

Amazing to have a byline with @cbo.bsky.social - read our take on Watson’s ultimate legacy in the Boston Globe. Will be in Sunday’s print edition.

Kudos to our superstar grad student @sophiejwalton.bsky.social! One of the most interesting and surprising (at least to me) studies I have been involved in. Very curious to know what people think of it! @benjaminhgood.bsky.social

Excited to share some new work led by grad student Sophie Walton (w/ @petrovadmitri.bsky.social). We used in vitro gut communities to study how natural selection acts on strains of the same species as they compete within larger communities. Check out Sophie's thread below for details!

Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Community coalescence reveals strong selection and coexistence within species in complex microbial communities https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.06.687011v1

Large-scale causal discovery using interventional data sheds light on gene network structure in k562 cells - Nature Communications The authors give a method for learning causal gene networks using Perturb-seq data. In K562 cells, they find a network with small-world and scale-free properties. Analysis shows a relationship between...

@brielin.bsky.social's fantastic work on causal gene network inference from Perturb-seq is published! We estimate total causal effects using guides as instruments, then deconvolve into direct & mediated effects with a directed analog of graphical lasso. Deets: nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64353-7

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...

SMBE 2026 | Registration is open

Registration is now open for SMBE 2026!

Head over to the registration page to find all the details and secure your spot 🏃‍♀️

📝 smbe2026.org/registration
🐦 Early-bird deadline: March 31, 2026

If you are an active member of the SMBE you can register for the meeting with discounts.

#SMBE2026

Millions of specimens, centuries of history — all coming to life online 🌿✨

After nearly four years of dedicated work, our digitisation project is entering its final stretch — and we’re gearing up for an amazing finish by March 2026.

America’s still terrified of powerful women in politics.

It’s pure misogyny baked into the system. Add race to the mix and it’s on a whole different level of hate that most won’t even admit. Time to get over that shit!

Let’s take a step forward on Tuesday.

[video: @mollyjongfast.bsky.social ]

If you live in Albuquerque and aren’t sure how to feed your family when SNAP benefits end, or if you want to help fund these efforts, this thread has a ton of different options to help out

Science is intertwined with eugenics; eugenic ideologies continue to negatively impact #Indigenous communities to this day.

In the October issue of #GENETICS, @jazlynmooney.bsky.social and colleagues offer a timely and important reminder on the perils of eugenics. buff.ly/1Q5r3XF

This is one of my favorite webinar series. Working on polyploidy? Sign-up to give a talk!

If you are a grad student or postdoc, this is a really great opportunity to get feedback and connect with others.

Literally. I was BETRAYED, 8/16.

We left the US and moved to France Hello readers, I got big updates! Some of you already know this, but it’s getting more real and more official every month: my family and I have left the US and moved to France! A few months ago I q…

I started a new job in Montpellier, France!
Happy about new opportunities, sad about the state of things in the US.

abetterscientist.wordpress.com/2025/10/26/w...

I'm so excited for you and your family, getting an exciting new start. Also, very much appreciated reading your perspective. I have been thinking along these lines as well, the situation just seems untenable in many ways, especially for international scholars in the US.

Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipie...

How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities?

Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation.

🧵(1/n)
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515

Proud of the latest edition of my free intro biostats book.

gitrepo: github.com/ybrandvain/b...
book: ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/

Not complete but at a good point to take a break, and I think its quite usable

dm me with comments , ideas etc

Hey Yaniv Brandvain is not on Bluesky but his most recent biostats ebook is live ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/. His stats resources have been so helpful to me as I develop my own stats course, so check it out. Github repo here: github.com/ybrandvain/b...

People on twitter are losing their minds over this, including several scientists who I have to assume have either brain poisoned themselves or were always like this. People don't always cite what's best; they cite what they know & researchers from historically excluded communities get the short end.

@joann-trejo.bsky.social, @marymunson4.bsky.social and I have a commentary in @natcellbio.nature.com on recent attacks on DEI in biomedical research: "If scientific research, especially biomedical research, is meant to serve everyone, then it requires that everyone has an opportunity to participate"

For population genetics and evolutionary biology folks in the Bay Area: the next BAPG will be hosted by Stanford CEHG and the Petrov lab at Stanford on 12/6.
Registration is free but required. The deadline for talk submission is Nov. 16. Hope to see you soon! Pls RT!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...