Great to have Irene Gallego Romero @ee-reh-neh.bsky.social at UCL for last week’s UGI seminar, where she discussed her work on genomic diversity in Island Southeast Asian populations - from ancient DNA to modern immunity!

Pooja Swali @poojaswali.bsky.social presenting her very interesting work on ancient pathogens. @ugiatucl.bsky.social

Two that I have pictures for, from UCL. Finley Grover presenting his work on the signatures of local adaptation in mtDNA in humans. @ugiatucl.bsky.social

Fantastic Autumn Symposium and Mixer from the London Centre for Ecology and Evolution (CEE @ceevol.bsky.social) at the LSHTM brilliantly organised by Mojca Kristan @mkristan.bsky.social Lots of great talks on ecology and evolution by members of all CEE’s institutions.

A great start to this year’s UGI Seminar Series, with UGI’s Director @aidaandres.bsky.social discussing recent work on local genetic adaptation in chimpanzees.

1/ So pleased to share our paper on genetic adaptation to micronutrients in humans! Our biggest conclusion? Trace minerals in the diet have shaped human evolution far more than previously appreciated 🧬🌍👇 www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...

11/ Side bar: this work was done as part of my PhD, under two incredible supervisors (@aidaandres.bsky.social & Sergi Castellano) and I hope some of the joy of my time at @uclchildhealth.bsky.social & @ugiatucl.bsky.social translated into the paper

Jasmin Rees PhD chapter as a paper just out at the AJHG @ajhgnews.bsky.social, with Sergi Castellano, who first envisioned the study. Jas investigated signatures of human local genetic adaptation in hundreds of micronutrient-associated genes.

Our first UGI seminar of the year welcomed Audrey Lin @undeaddandy.bsky.social telling us all about how a legacy of genetic entanglement with wolves shapes modern dogs. Thanks Audrey for a great talk and visit!

Excited to say we’re hiring 😊. We’re looking for a post-doc in ancient pathogen genomics to join our friendly supportive team in London at @ugiatucl.bsky.social. Start date January 2026. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Published version of our collaborative work! Congrats to @laskyjr.bsky.social @upenn.edu & Lua Lopez who lead the work, and to all the authors. tinyurl.com/mu8uht92 @ucllifesciences.bsky.social @cloeucl.bsky.social

The Centenary Special Issue of The Annals of Human Genetics is now available! First published in 1925, this special issue celebrates recent advances in human genetics, and features contributions from 13 @ucl.ac.uk researchers. Check out the issue online: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14691809...

the best idea anyone ever had. Here's my take with the ever brilliant @ppfideas.bsky.social www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0_0...

We recently published a review reflecting on challenges and opportunities in characterising cancer cell states and niches using spatial transcriptomics and integration with digital pathology, see full thread below. Thank you Molecular Oncology for the opportunity!

New preprint from UGI PhD student @cednotsed.bsky.social , @proffballoux.bsky.social and @lucyvandorp.bsky.social, exploring the microbial and antimicrobial resistance signatures of hospital-acquired pneumonia using nanopore metagenomic sequencing (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...).

🚨 New paper klaxon! 🚨 The History of the Panmictic Population Concept and Its Legacy in Contemporary Population Genetics Quite niche admittedly, one for the historians of evolutionary thought, and population geneticists. doi.org/10.1111/ahg....

An Early View: A new commentary by @andyjmwalton.bsky.social, Dr Aylward, Prof Thomas, and ‪Dr @adamrutherford.bsky.social revisit the intellectual origins of #panmixia, revealing how essentialist assumptions shaped its early adoption in evolutionary theory, long before the Modern Synthesis.

We, Secrier Lab UCL @ugiatucl.bsky.social Genetics Institute, discussed challenges in cell state identification using spatial transcriptomics in cancer research, now out in Molecular Oncology. 
doi.org/10.1002/1878...
#SpatialTranscriptomics #CancerResearch #SpatialNiches

New paper featuring @ugiatucl.bsky.social @aidaandres.bsky.social identifying human specific gene expansions contributing to brain evolution: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@cednotsed.bsky.social presenting at #SMEB2025 on his work on predicting the fitness of mutations in SARS-CoV-2. Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

UGI at the Forbidden City #SMBE2025 @cednotsed.bsky.social, Cameron Ferguson, @nancybird1.bsky.social

New review paper led by @nancybird1.bsky.social which unpacks the complexities of genetic ancestry and examines what genetic data can and cannot tell us 🧬 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

And UGI PhD student Cedric Tan presenting in symposium 21 @official-smbe.bsky.social #SMBE2025 on his work "Intrahost dynamics, together with genetic and phenotypic effects predict the success of viral mutations".

You can catch UGI post-doc @nancybird1.bsky.social presenting at @official-smbe.bsky.social #SMBE next week on her work: "A flexible and efficient new model to infer multiple admixture dates via joint analyses of modern and/or ancient individuals".

Thanks to @gregerlarson.bsky.social for a fabulous talk 'Hunting the Earliest Dogs' which rounded up this academic year's UGI seminar series. It was great to have Greger visit us @ucl.ac.uk.

Today we welcomed Alexander Zarebski @aezarebski.bsky.social to @ucl.ac.uk. Alexander gave a great talk on teaching neural networks to do phylodynamics.

✨🧬 Sharing our UCL Genetics Institute starter pack of researchers, friends and alumni past and present 🧬 ✨ #UGISKY (DM us to be added) go.bsky.app/Gw1NqRa

Had an amazing time running a workshop at the University of Yaoundé I Medical School these past few days! We started at statistics and population genetics and moved on to genome-wide association studies with both lectures and practicals 🧬🌍📊 thanks to everyone who came!

Had a chance to present my research on Cameroonian genetic history last Thursday at the conference 'From Genes to Nationhood' in Yaoundé, organised with the Cameroonian ministry for Youth Affairs and Civil Education!

Great to have @ugiatucl.bsky.social alumni Dr Catherine Walker back talking in our seminar series about her work on the epigenetics of lactase persistence and the origins of lactose.

We welcomed @kguschan.bsky.social to @ucl.ac.uk for our UGI Seminar Series. A fantastic talk spanning primate population histories, mito-nuclear interactions, temporal microbiomes, and antimicrobial resistance.

Our #Artist-in-Residence, Mary Yacoob, has produced new large-scale #cyanotype prints reimagining of #scientific visual data from @ucllifesciences.bsky.social #researchers. Faculty private #exhibition details here: tinyurl.com/YacoobUCL #artandscience #art #artwork @ucl.ac.uk @ucl-cdb.bsky.social

A pleasure to welcome Kevin Daly @gingerhowley.bsky.social to @ucl.ac.uk for our UCL Genetics Seminar series. Kevin gave a great talk on reconstructing the relationship between animal herding and pathogen evolution using paleogenomic techniques.

Why is it important to study the genetics of human disease? As part of our Life and Medical Sciences Postgraduate Open Evening on Wednesday 4 June, Nikolas Maniatis, Professor of Human Genetics will be speaking on this topic. Get tickets: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/life-and-m...

New preprint from the Secrier lab. @cenkcelik.bsky.social @mariasecrier.bsky.social present EnrichMap, a Python package to compute gene set enrichment scores in spatial transcriptomics data: tinyurl.com/yc48f4fx. See an explainer thread from @cenkcelik.bsky.social here: bsky.app/profile/cenk....

The UCL Faculty of Life Sciences has been shortlisted for a Heist Award for its campaign to raise awareness of the biodiversity crisis and the work UCL is doing to tackle this global challenge - www.ucl.ac.uk/lifesciences... Check out the Heist Awards 2025: www.heistawards.com/shortlist202...

New preprint from Finley Grover-Taylor @lucyvandorp.bsky.social @proffballoux.bsky.social @aidaandres.bsky.social @fcamus.bsky.social. Analysis of >23K human mtDNA genomes identifies 18 candidate variants associated with climate, suggestive of local adaptation. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thrilled to share our latest preprint! 🎉🔥 We analysed >23k mtDNA genomes & found 18 variants shaped by climate—linked to thermogenesis, metabolism & disease. Led by PhD student Finley Grover-Thomas, and in collab with: @aidaandres.bsky.social @lucyvandorp.bsky.social @proffballoux.bsky.social

Using ancient DNA samples to map the evolution of a fever-causing bacteria, Dr @lucyvandorp.bsky.social, Dr @poojaswali.bsky.social and @ugiatucl.bsky.social and @crick.ac.uk colleagues pinpointed when Borrelia recurrentis evolved to spread through lice rather than ticks @ucllifesciences.bsky.social

Tickets are going fast for our in-person undergraduate open days on Friday 27 and Saturday 28 June. If you're interested in our life sciences courses, we'd love you to visit our campus and meet our academics, student ambassadors and support staff. Book tickets: app.geckoform.com/public/#/mod...

Scientists used to think diseases that jump from animals to people really took off when people started domesticating cattle, sheep and goats 11,000 years ago. A new look at ancient bacterial DNA in @science.org by @poojaswali.bsky.social and colleagues suggests the pivotal moment came much later.

New UCL-Crick led paper out this week in @science.org on the evolution of louse-borne relapsing fever led by @poojaswali.bsky.social. See below for her thread explaining the work and it's relevance to when and how this bacteria has adapted to louse-borne human infection. tinyurl.com/76vzy4tn

Researchers at the Crick and UCL have linked the evolution of a bacteria known as Borrelia recurrentis to historical changes in human lifestyles, pinpointing when it evolved to spread through lice rather than ticks. www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-05...

Today @ugiatucl.bsky.social explored the use of #AI in biology through a special seminar event. Great talks from @mariasecrier.bsky.social, Chris Barnes, Cedric Tan and Alexei Yavlinsky spanning bacterial pangenomes, cancer biology and viral evolution. Thanks to Marina Escalera and UGI seminar team.

In a focused review, UCL student Lea Heinzer provides a thorough account of the insights into schizophrenia pathogenesis provided by genetic studies identifying genes in which sequence variants can exert a dramatic effect on risk. www.oaepublish.com/articles/jtg...