At 1st African Genomics Short Course at University of Cape Town

If there is any doubt about the importance of genetics in complex disease - PRS can predict prevalence quite well pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34903281/

Our latest on possible human-mycobacterium coevolution www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

If everything you do works you are limiting what you can learn

Every time I take a new online "course" how to be a decent human being and not a threat to national security I am reassured that the world is a better place. What did we do before these were available?

Our latest where we used stratified male/female analyses to infer genetic architecture. In favor of omnigenic model? rdcu.be/eIT4E

Completely insane and misleading - intentional and dangerous -

Seems innovative thinking moves much slower than generation of new data. The data is essential but requires proper conceptualization. How can we motivate that among young scientists?

Checkout this article from our groups: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... What does it mean to be heritable and how variable are estimates? These are very real issues that we often downplay and just present one number.

Thinking about how to define PTB risk and etiologies - thanks to PREBIC (Preterm Birth International Collaborative) www.frontiersin.org/journals/med...

I wrote about gene-gene interactions (epistasis) and the implications for heritability, trait definitions, natural selection, and therapeutic interventions. Biology is clearly full of causal interactions, so why don't we see them in the data? A 🧵:

"...higher education is a private good. On this reckoning, its value lies exclusively in the additional lifetime earnings that it affords to graduates." The kiss of death for education. And at at my alma mater. Crushing forme! www.compactmag.com/article/the-...

The health of individuals and populations may intersect but they are not identical

We received 2 new T32 predoc training grants in the last month. If interested in translational studies or gene X environment interactions think about Case Western Reserve for your PhD.

When you pose a question or write a paper make sure it counts. You will work just as hard on something of little import as on a truly important one. Spend the time to think it through before you embark on the journey.

Link between national levels of lipid consumption and dementia incidence - led by Tim Ciesielski - @timcies.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Studies that address a small section of the story can be statistically significant but utterly meaningless with respect to the real question. Perspective and context are so important but so often ignored.

www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025... Quote: "Notably, those with large administrative roles including department chairs and dean/provost level roles are also exempt." We are all in this together aren't we? Or where does the buck stop - at the lowest lever we can blame!

www.nature.com/articles/s44... This is a message that cannot be emphasized enough!!

Context matters. Heterogeneity exists. We ignore these at our peril. These principles are certainly relevant in biomedical research (as I discuss), but they may be generalizable. They may apply to other parts of life (which is super odd given what I just said). www.cell.com/cell-genomic...

And who is bext?

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/17/o... This should be read by all University administrators. And I fear the more elite the school the worse the problem

Checkout this article I found at PLOS: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... We are trying to set standards -

Context is perhaps the single most important thing in understanding disease risk. Virtually noting is deterministic and even likelihood is soft.

Welcome to the brave new world. Will only get worse in short term

Two questions: What is the right thing to do? and what will doing this cost me? The order in which you ask these questions matters

How close are we to when AI generated text will be the epitome of intellectual advancement? At that point we no longer serve any purpose as a species and extinction may be the logical outcome. Talking about the meaning of life - this defines an entire new set of questions.

A proposal for a new requirement to get co-authorship - agreeing to cite the paper at least once within the 24 months following publication. This will drive up everyone's h index, especially for consortia papers.

To get my mind off the crazy rest of the world - has anyone looked at the correlation between the number of authors of a paper and the number of citations?

Is this the new look of a scientist in the US?

Double.

Does performing numerous small, bureaucratic tasks dull your ability to think deeply about a few important things?

How often do we actually expect experiments ot replicate exactly in biology? The systems are complex and designs usually are not precisely reproduced. What the lack of replication tells us maybe the better question - assuming things are carefully done. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19503614/

Perhaps the biggest impediment to gaining new knowledge is our arrogance about what we already know

When science and religion or power collide - remember the sun revolves around the earth and Lysenko was right

A frightening reality. I see similar trens in grad students And then add AI. A recipe for disaster www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

Is it how many papers we publish or what we publish? Just asking for a friend

We need to emphasize that learning to analyze data is different from understanding what data is telling us. It is the knowledge gained not the numbers crunched.

Can we even discover why data is not shared? Tough one... www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

It's time to submit abstracts for ASHG 2025! It's going to be a fantastic meeting in Boston. Hope to see you there! www.ashg.org/meetings/202...

The search for simplicity in a very complex world gives us - "I will solve it on day one". Shouldn't scientists be a little more realistic?

Love seeing my former students going out and being successful. Congrats Rafal! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40383794/

Print out a couple of papers. Leave your office/computer and turn off your phone. Then read papers, carefully (including methods). That is how you learn to do science and to write. Do that long enough and then you can read on your computer - but until you master the skill of reading do it slowly.

This is insane. Why not simply ha e a diploma printed by AI and move on...

As more data becomes available on more people, why do we still limit our conceptualization of complex disease to simple models and testing? For the first time we are able to assess more realistic models, yet often do not do so. Need to get out of 20th century thinking and get real

Really, really looking bad

A very nice piece by a colleague about how our plans aren't really as set as we think - and they shouldn't be. Paths are usually not in straight lines and that is ok. Abandoning my long-held career plans was painful—but I love where I landed | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

What do the numbers for the heritability of Alzheimer really mean? We try to address this. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...