Updated preprint available describing our method to identify sex chromosomes from a diploid genome, but better, doi.org/10.1101/2025...

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. 1/n

*me when the ACA subsidies lapse*

Big S/O to other folks who generated and shared their high-quality data with us (some published, some not) to help develop our understanding of the tool and framework. They truly made this work possible! Folks like @tododge.bsky.social @lngray.bsky.social @scarey.bsky.social, to name just a few 🙏🏼🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️🧬

🚨Preprint🚨 Sex chromosome identification & genome curation from a single individual with SCINKD www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Incredible work led by @drpintothe2nd.bsky.social in collaboration w/ @drsimonegable.bsky.social @stuartvnielsen.bsky.social @tonygamble.bsky.social SE Keating & CH Smith

Needs to be said: I've been studying geckos for 10 years now and have so far received a 0% discount on my car insurance.

I am thrilled to announce that I will be starting my lab in the Department of Integrative Biology at Michigan State University in January 2026! I will soon be recruiting graduate students and postdocs, so stay tuned and please reach out if you know anybody that might be interested! 🐍🐻🧬

Gila monsters! One of the rare venomous reptiles. A peptide in their saliva/venom, exendin-4, is the basis of GLP-1 agonists, like semaglutide, to regulate insulin. We developed the first draft sequence of the Gila monster genome and are working on updating this now with newer technology.

Intelligence researcher Robert Sternberg on IQ tests: "Standardized tests, based on modern Western notions of intelligence, are seriously limited and narrow because modern Western notions of intelligence are seriously limited and narrow" link.springer.com/chapter/10.1...

Since a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020, the number of people killed by the police each year has continued to rise — and Black Americans are still killed in disproportionate numbers. Our data reporter explains his findings. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/24/u...

The average American has three friends.

Deaths from heart disease down 75%, that’s NIH. Deaths from stroke down 75%, that’s NIH. HIV/AIDS no longer a death sentence, that’s NIH. 99% of FDA approved drugs in the last decade, that’s NIH. Please show this video to anyone who doesn’t understand why the NIH is so important.

This is what we're up to and couldn't be more excited about it! Come join the party! 🙂

In December I accepted a position as a senior investigator at the NIH in the National Human Genome Research Institute & Center for Genomics and Data Science Research. Bringing the party in the desert to Maryland. We are hiring postdocs & postbacs! Please reach out :)

Here is a little legless lizard from LA County. People often ask, how come it’s a lizard and not a snake? It really comes down to genetics, but there are some big hints in its morphology: eyelids that blink, a tail that can detach. Southern California Legless Lizard - Anniella stebbinsi #herps 🦎

Capitalism will not save us from the problems that it helped create in the first place We need real solutions to our very real climate and biodiversity crises Hank makes great points about why what colossal is doing isnt what they publicly claim (and they know it too): youtu.be/Ar0zgedLyTw?...

Dire wolves were not close relatives of gray wolves. They last shared a common ancestor more than 5 million years ago. What Colossal has done is make something new and slapped a dire wolf sticker on it, as if an organism equals a hypothetical genome.

Colossal Bioscience did not revive dire wolves, despite a sensationalist Time Magazine cover story. Making genetically modified animals that are cosplaying as extinct species is not de-extinction.

I make up a tiny, tiny portion of the HHS contract spending. I still don't know if I'll be cut. Please don't forget that contract spending includes contract workers. These are the folks who have kept the government going through FTE expansions and reductions. They are important federal workers.

Today, G**gle search AI cited my own work to say that a species I study has the wrong number of chromosomes. Never accept AI vomit as fact.

No. Absolutely not.

Me: "Unfortunately, today isn't opposite day.." 8 yo: "Oh, dang!" Me: *whew* Me: "Yeah, big shame that.."

How should federal unions respond to Trump's push to cancel union rights for roughly 700K workers? Seize today's media spotlight to call on hundreds of thousands of fed workers — & millions of other union members & supporters — to take to the streets on April 5 Then escalate

Dear Democratic Members of Congress, Stop telling me about what he's doing. We can all see it. Start telling me about what you're doing to stop it! Signed, Americans

If you're a unionized worker looking to fight back, get in touch with your union as well as @fedworkersunited.bsky.social www.federalunionists.net/join-us

We don't actually have to listen and report on what these assholes say. Having billions of dollars does not make your opinions more valuable than anyone else. In fact we shouldn't listen to your opinion on anything because you are a little dragon hoarding wealth and watching people suffer.

thinking of one of abraham lincoln's great quotes this morning: "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy."

Did you know that the genus Prasinohaema is the only amniote (mammals/birds/reptiles) with green blood? We recently accepted an article featuring the first de novo genome assembly of a green-blooded skink, Prasinohaema aff. flavipes. Photo by (c) Donna Belder

longcallD is a new variant caller for genomic long reads. It jointly calls phased small and structural variants. Single binary, one command line for the whole process. Comparable accuracy to mainstream callers. Great work by Yan Gao. github.com/yangao07/lon...

Bernie & AOC's great rallies could be even greater if they made organizing (not just mobilizing) asks Here are some ideas for what these asks could be — and how Bernie & AOC could concretely supercharge today’s incipient grassroots efforts www.laborpolitics.com/p/how-bernie...

We grant EECG awards to graduate and post-doctoral researchers who are at a critical point in their research, where additional funds would allow them to conclude their research project and prepare it for publication.

We are really excited to have notified our newest round of Ecological, Evolutionary, and Conservation Genomics (EECG) Research Awardees! In the coming weeks, we will share a bit more about each researcher and their project. Stay tuned!

Mahmoud Khalil is a legal, permanent U.S. resident and is granted protection under the First Amendment. He is currently being detained without being charged with a crime. The reason for his arrest was due to his political speech. This is a violation of the First Amendment.

Assembling a genome of a non-model species and don't know where to start with curation? A new option is to identify problematic regions and (maybe) the sex chromosomes together using Sex Chromosome Identification by Subtracting Kmer Densities (SCINKD, v2.1.0) now live, github.com/DrPintoThe2n...

y'all remember "super scaffolds"?

Introduced gecko season has begun again in Arizona

Okay boomer

Hello friend

I do see Manhattan plots everywhere.. this is so me! 🙃🦎

🐍 Do you talk about reptiles with strangers🦎 🧬 Do you lay awake thinking about N50 scores? Close your eyes and see Manhattan plots?🧬 Well, have I got the answer for you. Come check out the Open Consortium for Squamate Genomics (OCSG - that’s a mouthful). Sign up here: forms.gle/TTmTwAMUqzWJ...

Super excited to see that this work @drpintothe2nd.bsky.social and I collaborated on with some super smart people at NIST for the Genome in a Bottle Benchmarking project is out! A benchmark for X and Y chromosome small variants! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Research funded by NIH is the foundation for these advances -- contact your Congress person to support continued funding for science. 🧪

Why was @sexchrlab.bsky.social in snowy Bethesda today? Big news coming later this month! Stay tuned… 🧬

Do you adore lizards and snakes (because who doesn't)? Interested in their genetics? Join the Open Consortium of Squamate Genomics!! No need to have specific expertise in genomics. The group is intentionally inclusive and working on building collaborations and training materials.

We're officially official! Announcing that the Open Consortium of Squamate Genomics (OCSG) is officially recruiting!! Website coming soon, sign-up here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... or reach out for more info [email protected]

Disrupting the Reproductive Lives of Japanese American Families During Wartime: The Overlapping Histories of Removal, Incarceration, and Eugenic Sterilization, 1942–1946 journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

New data out from Linck and Cardena in Molecular Ecology -- A Latitudinal Gradient of Reference Genomes. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Okay #Skinktober, day 15 🐪 -- here's a rough-scaled skink (Trachylepis) from the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania! 🦎 #herpetology

Congratz to Simone Gable et al. on this first dive into CR1 transposable element evolution in lizards 🦎 and snakes 🐍!!! academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...