Really well put: “The developing organism accretes information as it builds itself.” Increasingly I am coming around to the perspective that nothing in genetics makes sense except in the light of cell biology.

Imagine if our skin was so absorbent that our immersion in liquid caused molecules to enter our bodies. Clearly it isn’t. Histologically we see stratified squamous epithelium covered in supple shell of keratin. And that is why Epsom Salts do absolutely nothing: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

The US health system. So in need of innovation, so refractory to innovation. But we should keep trying to fix this broken system. Fascinating proposal for New York State, may now pass the tipping point of feasibility in an era of savage Medicaid cuts.

I'm going to do a thread of all the references and context behind Bad Bunny's performance and what it means for Puerto Ricans to see this on the biggest stage. The opening title screen is a street mural in Puerto Rico that comes to life with footballs as coconuts. Follow along!

Is the @nytimes.com trolling Gina Kolata? Relentlessly negative about the medical profession, her headline asks what we physicians are really good for? The answer is in the second headline — we are really good at medicine. No apologies, not buying into this ridiculous framing.

The NYTs comment section for our feature yesterday got so heated, they shut it down immediately. However, people want to donate to #IDSov. Here’s ours: www.bonfire.com/store/native... donorbox.org/help-to-empo... www.bonfire.com/store/native... Here’s the movement’s indigenousdata.org nativegov.org

A conservative economist writing about capitalism today. Fascinating perspective. www.nytimes.com/2026/02/06/o...

Maith thú Joe @joseph-yracheta.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/2026/02/05/s...

Please share this with your network: Postdoctoral position available in my group. www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/43...

Please share: we're hiring a new tenure-track faculty member to our Department of Genetics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. faculty-einstein.icims.com/jobs/17847/a...

Please spread the word — a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship is available in my group funded by the Simons Foundation Autism Research Initiative (SFARI) to perform a study testing the contribution of functional non-coding variants in glutamatergic neurons to autism. 1/3

We're testing AlphaGenome. It's a very valuable step forward towards the goal of identifying functional non-coding variants (FNCVs) causing human diseases. Congrats to @avsecz.bsky.social and the team for this landmark publication. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

RIP Sly Dunbar, hopefully back to jamming with Robbie Shakespeare somewhere beyond the clouds youtu.be/o_PNL3djy54

Interested in the genetic history of the island of Ireland? From Edmund Gilbert. Includes relationships with Britain, Vikings, Iceland, and Newfoundland. youtu.be/m5AwYzzCAF4

Geneticist John Greally fears above all that the tests could exacerbate existing inequalities. “I work in the Bronx, where 26 percent of the population lives in poverty and 40 percent receive food assistance,” says Greally,... www.zeit.de/2026/04/kuen...

📺 OMG—who made this?! Noah Wyle has a message for all you—vaccine skeptics… Share with a friend who needs to hear it.

I appreciate these authors publishing a well-powered, entirely negative epigenome-wide association study (EWAS). www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Rare Disease Day 2026 at the New York Center for Rare Diseases (NYCRD) @newyorkcrd.bsky.social This year we are focused on rare disease therapeutics, where there is unprecedented hope for our patients. www.linkedin.com/posts/john-g... @einsteinmededu.bsky.social

Nice interview with Karman Saini up on LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/posts/john-g...

Read our full statement by AAP President Dr. Andrew Racine on today’s HHS announcement about the childhood immunization schedule: www.aap.org/en/news-room...

There is always so much more to learn about Albert Einstein as a person. Such a good guy. Hopefully this link will allow sharing of this fondly-written piece about his life in Princeton. www.theatlantic.com/culture/2026...

I finally got around to putting together a quick overview of what my book is all about. youtu.be/xPt1xy4_i-o?... #epigenetics #epigeneticsbook #epigenome

Ending 2025 w/ our new paper @natcomms.nature.com which shows that the immediate early gene Egr1 induces sex-dependent changes in ventral hippocampal (vHIP) structure and in anxiety- & depression-related behavior, via direct regulation of chromatin structure 🧵👇 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

In Galway this week. Shop Street and Quay Street looking festive. Being home is good for the soul.

I couldn't resist using the very festive-looking cover art from my book as a holiday card (image attribution to follow).

Incredible piece on Oliver Sacks. If you were ever awed at his supposedly true stories (I remember being stunned by the account of the autistic twins who rattled off large prime numbers), read this. He told wonderful stories, but they were in large part fiction. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

Make it stop

Take a bad idea. Add DNA methylation. Price it for the wealthy. Sell it to the gullible. partners.lifedna.com/methylation-... We can't offer basic health care in the US and yet this kind of nonsense is permitted for direct-to-consumer sales? Something is rotten.

📢 SIGN & SHARE THE PETITION! 📢 New York needs an Empire Biomedical Research Institute to create new statewide funding opportunities for scientists & physician-scientists so that patients and their families get the life-saving and life-changing new therapeutics they're hoping for ✏️ c.org/TDMy2H9JTW

If you want to read something completely nuts from the unregulated world of direct to consumer genomics, look no further. And when I say completely nuts, I’m being restrained and polite. Criminal is another word that springs to mind.

Hey Bluesky arts/music folks in Ireland! At New Music Dublin we are looking to fill a new role: part-time general manager, working closely with our festival director and producer (& board). Role to commence in Jan. Detailed info here: www.newmusicdublin.ie/job-opportun... #SpeirGorm

This garbage is what we’re up against. I have seen multiple families who have received ‘stem cell therapy’ for their child with autism and intellectual disability. Not well-off families, probably spending 5-figure sums. These bottom-feeding influencer scum are preying on the desperate.

These kinds of publications may be the most valuable today. Their impact in terms of guiding sensible grant funding investments, manuscript evaluations, and science communications. Nice work @wiringthebrain.bsky.social and colleagues.

Interesting, from @garvaninstitute.bsky.social. "We identify putative common regulatory variants for 83% of all 21,404 genes tested and cumulative rare variant signals for 47% of genes...about half of the effects are observed only in one or a few cell types" www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Irish culture. No apologies.

When I read the history of Waddington, I realized that, in using the epigenetic landscape model, this geology dropout student may have been trolling the field of biology! www.amazon.com/Epigenetics-...

Relatable

On the event of James Watson's death, I highly recommend this 2023 commentary from @matthewcobb.bsky.social and Nathaniel Comfort with crucial new insights into the discovery of the double helix. (And also check out Cobb's brand new biography of Francis Crick) www.nature.com/articles/d41...

He made a massive impact. Respect.

Hot take — could this be a possible clue as to why @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social did so well in the #NYC election yesterday?

IT'S HAPPENING! 💥 I'm psyched to launch the collaboration between @qedscience.bsky.social & @openrxiv.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Preprint + q.e.d = your science is out there, and anyone can appreciate it. Let's care about making discoveries, and not on “getting published” (1/3) 👇

People cheering in the streets in the East Village #NYC right now.

📣 I am hiring a postdoc! aial.ie/hiring/postd... applications from suitable candidates that are passionate about investigating the use of genAI in public service operations with the aim of keeping governments transparent and accountable are welcome pls share with your networks

‘Exododus’ is an exodus of dodos. Not going to happen for many reasons. Happy Election Day, New Yorkers

Pumpkin carvers in #NYC don’t mess around

Really concerned for Jamaica, this looks like a really horrible situation, only a year after the Southwest of the island took the brunt of another damaging hurricane www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...

The figures from this book are all freely available through @figshare.com, hopefully helpful for presentations and teaching: figshare.com/projects/Epi... Please let me know if you find any inaccuracies and I'll fix them. I've already updated one of the figures. #EpigeneticsBook

Amazing job opportunity at the @institutimagine.bsky.social, Head of the Genomics Platform. I am adding an English translation of the opportunity, but fluency in French is a (reasonable) requirement for the position. Application link below. www.welcometothejungle.com/fr/companies...

It's publication day, and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press is running a promotion bundling the hard cover and e-book, and other offers: cshlpress.com/default.tpl?... #EpigeneticsBook

Watching @wiringthebrain.bsky.social and @aylwyn-scally.bsky.social go at it in this thread, staying polite and respectful but challenging each other, gives me the old #ScienceYwitter vibes. Good on you lads.