Beeswarm plot of the prediction error across different methods of double perturbations showing that all methods (scGPT, scFoundation, UCE, scBERT, Geneformer, GEARS, and CPA) perform worse than the additive baseline.
Line plot of the true positive rate against the false discovery proportion showing that none of the methods is better at finding non additive interactions than simply predicting no change.
Our paper benchmarking foundation models for perturbation effect prediction is finally published ππ₯³π
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
We show that none of the available* models outperform simple linear baselines. Since the original preprint, we added more methods, metrics, and prettier figures!
π§΅
04.08.2025 13:52 β π 102 π 45 π¬ 2 π 6
You link #phenotype π¦ to #genotype 𧬠with #comparative #genomics π»?
This #review is for you π: authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
We review new #methods, remaining #challenges and #future directions and highlight recent key studies.
Thanks @hillermich.bsky.social!
Please share! π
24.07.2025 08:00 β π 36 π 19 π¬ 1 π 1
Diet/microbes place the gut epithelium as a nexus for evolutionary change. With Jason Spence and Craig Lowe labs we use #organoids to explore how evolution prepared the developing human intestine for exposure to the environment. @science.org #evodevo www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 1/11
24.07.2025 12:32 β π 39 π 9 π¬ 3 π 1
Check out our latest work co-led by @dcsoto.bsky.social and @jmuribescr.bsky.social identifying hundreds of human duplicated gene families using the new T2T-CHM13 assembly, with a focus on those potentially contributing to brain evolution π§ͺ: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lTQtL7PXu...
21.07.2025 16:26 β π 54 π 24 π¬ 7 π 5
Thrilled to see our revised preprint now published in Nature Ecology & Evolution!
If youβre curious about how to build a bat wing by re-using existing gene programs, check out the link or the tutorial below. Big congratulations to all co-authors!! Thanks to reviewers!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
17.07.2025 07:35 β π 34 π 12 π¬ 4 π 2
My postdoc work at Treutlein lab and @graycamplab.bsky.social with @jasperjanssens.bsky.social is out in @science.org ! We screen for neuron subtypes using pro-neural TFs + morphogen combinations + scRNA-seq and profiled over 700,000 cells in 480 conditions. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
12.07.2025 22:11 β π 81 π 23 π¬ 5 π 0
Decoding cnidarian cell type gene regulation
Animal cell types are defined by differential access to genomic information, a process orchestrated by the combinatorial activity of transcription factors that bind to cis -regulatory elements (CREs) to control gene expression. However, the regulatory logic and specific gene networks that define cell identities remain poorly resolved across the animal tree of life. As early-branching metazoans, cnidarians can offer insights into the early evolution of cell type-specific genome regulation. Here, we profiled chromatin accessibility in 60,000 cells from whole adults and gastrula-stage embryos of the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis. We identified 112,728 CREs and quantified their activity across cell types, revealing pervasive combinatorial enhancer usage and distinct promoter architectures. To decode the underlying regulatory grammar, we trained sequence-based models predicting CRE accessibility and used these models to infer ontogenetic relationships among cell types. By integrating sequence motifs, transcription factor expression, and CRE accessibility, we systematically reconstructed the gene regulatory networks that define cnidarian cell types. Our results reveal the regulatory complexity underlying cell differentiation in a morphologically simple animal and highlight conserved principles in animal gene regulation. This work provides a foundation for comparative regulatory genomics to understand the evolutionary emergence of animal cell type diversity. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, https://ror.org/0472cxd90, ERC-StG 851647 Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciΓ³n, https://ror.org/05r0vyz12, PID2021-124757NB-I00, FPI Severo Ochoa PhD fellowship European Union, https://ror.org/019w4f821, Marie SkΕodowska-Curie INTREPiD co-fund agreement 75442, Marie SkΕodowska-Curie grant agreement 101031767
I am very happy to have posted my first bioRxiv preprint. A long time in the making - and still adding a few final touches to it - but we're excited to finally have it out there in the wild:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Read below for a few highlights...
06.07.2025 18:14 β π 58 π 24 π¬ 1 π 2
Range extender mediates long-distance enhancer activity - Nature
The REX element is associated with long-range enhancerβpromoter interactions.
Our paper describing the Range Extender element which is required and sufficient for long-range enhancer activation at the Shh locus is now available at @nature.com. Congrats to @gracebower.bsky.social who led the study. Below is a brief summary of the main findings www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/
02.07.2025 16:17 β π 182 π 90 π¬ 10 π 9
Conference Report: Cerebellar Development and Disease at Single-Cell Resolution - The Cerebellum
The Cerebellum -
Did the miss the Cerebellum Development and Disease conference last year? Never fear, as we wrote up a conference report! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
29.06.2025 09:00 β π 7 π 2 π¬ 2 π 0
Excited to share the first 2(!) preprints from the Kebschull Lab. The amazing @hyopilkim.bsky.social developed MAPseq2 & POINTseq and used them to map the dopaminergic cells of VTA and SNc. tl;dr MAPseq2=10x cheaper, 4x better; POINTseq=easy cell type specific barcoding; DA neurons=very cool.
26.06.2025 16:24 β π 35 π 12 π¬ 2 π 2
Postdoctoral Researcher in Computational Genetics
The research group of Oliver Stegle looks for a postdoctoral researcher to join a collaborative project with GSK with the goal to apply computational methods to investigate the effects of rare variant...
Job alert: Join us for a postdoc in AI in genetics at @EMBL Heidelberg! Great collaboration with @Adrian Cortes @GSK, aiming to develop new tools to elucidate genetic effects using population-scale cohorts and single-cell readouts. Please share!
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/de-DE/EMBL/d...
26.06.2025 10:00 β π 13 π 17 π¬ 0 π 2
New preprint alert!
Corgi imitates cellular gene regulation and integrates DNA sequence and trans-regulator information.
This allows Corgi to make accurate predictions in unseen cell types. Also, it can simulate trans-regulator perturbations in silico.
26.06.2025 07:46 β π 34 π 6 π¬ 2 π 0
Excited to launch our AlphaGenome API goo.gle/3ZPUeFX along with the preprint goo.gle/45AkUyc describing and evaluating our latest DNA sequence model powering the API. Looking forward to seeing how scientists use it! @googledeepmind
25.06.2025 14:29 β π 217 π 82 π¬ 5 π 10
I'm very excited to finally share the main work of my PhD!
We explored the evolutionary dynamics of gene regulation and expression during gonad development in primates. We cover among others: X chromosome dynamics (incl. in a developing XXY testis), gene regulatory networks and cell type evolution.
20.06.2025 08:35 β π 12 π 5 π¬ 1 π 0
We are delighted to share our new preprint βThe evolution of gene regulatory programs controlling gonadal development in primatesβ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
20.06.2025 08:12 β π 89 π 36 π¬ 4 π 1
π§ Excited to share my main PhD project! We mapped the regulatory rules governing Glioblastoma plasticity using single-cell multi-omics and deep learning. This work is part of a two-paper series with @bayraktarlab.bsky.social @oliverstegle.bsky.social and @moritzmall.bsky.social, Preprint at endπ§΅π
16.05.2025 10:04 β π 76 π 29 π¬ 1 π 6
Today in @nature.com , we report a spatial single-cell atlas of human cortical development, revealing surprisingly early specification of human cortical layers and areas.
We built an interactive browser to explore the spatial data: walshlab.org/research/cor...
Paper link below π
14.05.2025 17:24 β π 96 π 39 π¬ 5 π 2
Check out our latest work on the evolution of animal genome regulation out today in @nature.com. Nicely summarized below by @ianakim.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
This is a major output from our ERC-StG project Evocellmap @erc.europa.eu at @crg.eu
07.05.2025 15:32 β π 163 π 55 π¬ 8 π 5
Why does the forebrain expand dramatically while other neural regions grow less? Our new publication reveals progenitor metabolism critically shapes region-specific brain growth. Thread below. authors.elsevier.com/a/1k-udL7PXu...
05.05.2025 16:52 β π 107 π 40 π¬ 3 π 3
Very cool study from Ikuo Suzuki lab, comparing temporal patterning in mouse and rat cerebral cortex.
Non-uniform temporal scaling of neurogenesis for species-specific dosing of cortical excitatory subtypes.
www.biorxiv.org/content/bior...
01.05.2025 13:42 β π 13 π 5 π¬ 0 π 0
Programmatic design and editing of cis-regulatory elements
The development of modern genome editing tools has enabled researchers to make such edits with high precision but has left unsolved the problem of designing these edits. As a solution, we propose Ledi...
Our preprint on designing and editing cis-regulatory elements using Ledidi is out! Ledidi turns *any* ML model (or set of models) into a designer of edits to DNA sequences that induce desired characteristics.
Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
GitHub: github.com/jmschrei/led...
24.04.2025 12:59 β π 115 π 37 π¬ 2 π 3
Postdoc at UCL with James Reading. Previously at EMBL working with Wolfgang Huber. Biostats, R, cancer immunology
physicist, bioinformatics / biostats researcher at University of Heidelberg
Prof. of Comparative Genomics @ Senckenberg Frankfurt; Genomics, Evolution, Comp Bio & the Phenotype-Genotype Question
Postdoc
@LOEWE_TBG @Senckenberg. Evolutionary genomics, gene expression, global change, novelties, climate, turtles & eels!
He/him
Solve Biology
Head of Generative Genomics, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Cambridge, UK
Systems + Synthetic Biology, CRG, Barcelona
http://barcelonacollaboratorium.com http://allox.bio https://www.sanger.ac.uk/programme/generative-and-synthetic-genomics/
Asst Prof @WeizmannScience. Exploring human evolution through the lens of gene regulation𧬠Still rooting for Neanderthals & Denisovansπβ€οΈ gokhmanlab.com
Postdoc at @crick.ac.uk | HFSP fellow | DevBio, epigenetics, marsupial, evo-devo | Previous Manzanares lab | #embryo2017 | (he/him)
Postdoc @ FMI Basel (Turco Lab) | Exploring endometrium regeneration & niche π±π©Έ | Human model systems + single-cell genomics + evo-devo | Former PhD @ IHB (Camp Lab)
Assistant Prof at D-BSSE, ETH Zurich, studying genetics of psychiatric disorders
www.nacailab.com
Assistant Professor of Genetics and Core Member of the Epigenetics Institute at UPenn | T2T, HPRC, and HGSVC member | Loves genomics, epigenomics, and synthetic biology | logsdonlab.com
Postdoctoral scholar at UCSB. HHMI Hanna Gray Fellow. Human brain evolution. Long-read sequencing enthusiast. dcsoto.github.io
Prof in Human Genetics at McGill, Director of Bioinformatics at the McGill Genome Center and Director of @C3Genomics
https://computationalgenomics.ca/BourqueLab/
Neuroscientist at the Crick studying cortical microcircuits and cell types.
www.znamlab.org
Psychiatrist with philosophical interests | Conversations in Critical Psychiatry (Oxford University Press, 2024) | Psychiatry at the Margins www.psychiatrymargins.com
Group leader at CABD (Seville). Previous at Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics (Berlin). Interested in evolutionary genomics of moles and in any other living creature!
Email: fmarrea@upo.es
Web: https://fmreallab.github.io/website/
Group leader @crg.eu | Cell fate engineering and single-cell technology | A Taiwanese πΉπΌ
Hola! We are the CRG, a research institute exploring the frontiers of biology in Barcelona. Som un centre CERCA. www.crg.eu
Researcher at the Centre for Fertility and Health (NIPH) in Oslo. Interested in assortative mating, behavioral genetics, and bias in research.
Independent Group Leader at the MPI-IE passionate about mechanisms governing embryonic development with a focus on transposable elements𧬠Postdoc @MundlosLab π©πͺ| PhD from @Bourchis lab π«π·| She/her
https://www.julianeglaserlab.com/