Daniela C. Soto

Summer Undergraduate Research Experience | HHMI The Cech Fellows Program is a paid, nine-week summer research experience empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.

Calling all rising juniors & seniors: Interested in biological or biomedical research? Applications for our ’26 Summer Undergraduate Research Experience Program are now open! Nine weeks, hands-on research, & mentorship from some of the nation’s top scientists — learn more: bit.ly/CechFellows

Come join us at UCLA!!! We have a growing population genetics community here and Nandita and her lab are outstanding!

Outstanding work by @dcsoto.bsky.social @jmuribescr.bsky.social @mydennis.bsky.social (and other collaborators) that massively advances identification of human gene duplicates, with links to important traits and our evolution. So happy to have contributed a bit to this fantastic paper.

Finding Human Brain Genes in Duplicated DNA What makes the human brain distinctive? A new study published July 21 in Cell identifies two genes linked to human brain features and provides a road map to discover many more. The research could lead...

Also, a nice summary from @ucdavis.bsky.social biology.ucdavis.edu/news/finding...

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.

Landmark study using #PacBio #HiFiSequencing reveals human-specific genetic variation not detectable with short reads. Researchers uncover new insights into brain evolution and potential links to cognition and autism.

Read the full paper: bit.ly/3IxQtPR

#BrainResearch

Thank you!!

Thank you! :)

Thrilled to see this story out today! Such a fascinating topic with lots still to discover 🥳

Thrilled that our study on human gene duplications and brain evolution is out! It was a true labor of love, with special shout-outs to my co-first author @jmuribescr.bsky.social and my PhD mentor @mydennis.bsky.social. Huge thanks as well to @aidaandres.bsky.social for all the popgen wisdom!

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 🧪: authors.elsevier.com/a/1lTQtL7PXu...

UCSB postdoc receives competitive award to investigate the genetic changes that shaped the human mind Postdoctoral scholar Daniela Soto has earned a prestigious fellowship from HHMI with eight years of funding to study the evolution of human brains from a genomic perspective.

Thanks UCSB for the shout-out! I am really excited to be part of Dr. Soojin Yi Lab at UCSB :) news.ucsb.edu/2025/021743/...

Check out our new preprint describing CiFi - a method that couples 3C and PacBio HiFi sequencing with low input requirements. We apply it to human GM12878 to better characterize chromatin across repetitive regions, as well as single insect samples (a mosquito and a Mediterranean fruit fly).

HHMI Names the 2024 Hanna Gray Fellows | HHMI The cohort includes early career scientists working in research areas ranging from treatment-resistant cancers to how animals evolved to live on land. The HHMI Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program provides e...

The biggest congrats to former Dennis lab grad student Daniela Soto being named an HHMI Hanna Gray fellow!!! Soooooooo freaking proud and beyond-the-moon happy for her to have received this super well-deserved honor 🤩 www.hhmi.org/news/hhmi-na...

Thank you for the shout-out @mydennis.bsky.social! It was truly amazing to collaborate with Harrison Ostridge and @aidaandres.bsky.social in this study characterizing structural variation in the GYP locus.

Thrilled to have been a part of this study led by @aidaandres.bsky.social that finds evidence of genetic adaptation in chimpanzees to different habitats. Most notably signatures of positive selection in chimpanzees underlie resistance to malaria in humans (GYPA and HBB).