C. Brandon Ogbunu
@cbo.bsky.social
Scientist + Humanist + Pugilist.
"Tip your hat; pop the chain; short Joe Louis; then wipe his nose with the hook. It's that simple." (c) Brother Naazim Richardson
https://linktr.ee/chike98
"Tip your hat; pop the chain; short Joe Louis; then wipe his nose with the hook. It's that simple." (c) Brother Naazim Richardson
https://linktr.ee/chike98
Pinned
How MAHA Exploits the Flaws of Modern Science
Opinion | The weaknesses in science’s processes have been weaponized against it. It’s time to confront those flaws and fix them.
undark.org
"Take away college football tomorrow & watch college towns descend into chaos. But when they came for our pipettes & microscopes, almost nothing happened. "
New thoughts on the War on Science, 1 yr later, for @undark.org:
'How MAHA Exploits the Flaws of Modern Science '
undark.org/2026/01/28/o...
New thoughts on the War on Science, 1 yr later, for @undark.org:
'How MAHA Exploits the Flaws of Modern Science '
undark.org/2026/01/28/o...
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Does the noncoding genome actually carry more genetic information than coding seqs? Motivated by this question we mutated every bp in the 10kb MYC locus. Results are even more exciting: Decoding the MYC locus reveals a druggable ultraconserved RNA element www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org
January 31, 2026 at 1:13 AM
Does the noncoding genome actually carry more genetic information than coding seqs? Motivated by this question we mutated every bp in the 10kb MYC locus. Results are even more exciting: Decoding the MYC locus reveals a druggable ultraconserved RNA element www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Ooh, now with fancy flyer. Zoom link usc.zoom.us/j/96588553185
January 28, 2026 at 8:40 PM
Ooh, now with fancy flyer. Zoom link usc.zoom.us/j/96588553185
"Take away college football tomorrow & watch college towns descend into chaos. But when they came for our pipettes & microscopes, almost nothing happened. "
New thoughts on the War on Science, 1 yr later, for @undark.org:
'How MAHA Exploits the Flaws of Modern Science '
undark.org/2026/01/28/o...
New thoughts on the War on Science, 1 yr later, for @undark.org:
'How MAHA Exploits the Flaws of Modern Science '
undark.org/2026/01/28/o...
How MAHA Exploits the Flaws of Modern Science
Opinion | The weaknesses in science’s processes have been weaponized against it. It’s time to confront those flaws and fix them.
undark.org
January 28, 2026 at 1:37 PM
"Take away college football tomorrow & watch college towns descend into chaos. But when they came for our pipettes & microscopes, almost nothing happened. "
New thoughts on the War on Science, 1 yr later, for @undark.org:
'How MAHA Exploits the Flaws of Modern Science '
undark.org/2026/01/28/o...
New thoughts on the War on Science, 1 yr later, for @undark.org:
'How MAHA Exploits the Flaws of Modern Science '
undark.org/2026/01/28/o...
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
🚨🚨🚨 "At least 63 times since 2007, data from some of the 28 human genomic repositories that the N.I.H. controls was improperly released to researchers, used for unapproved purposes or made vulnerable to theft..." (Gift Link) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...
Genetic Data From Over 20,000 U.S. Children Misused for ‘Race Science’
www.nytimes.com
January 24, 2026 at 12:19 PM
🚨🚨🚨 "At least 63 times since 2007, data from some of the 28 human genomic repositories that the N.I.H. controls was improperly released to researchers, used for unapproved purposes or made vulnerable to theft..." (Gift Link) www.nytimes.com/2026/01/24/u...
Fascinating work from @ssalinas.bsky.social and colleagues
1/12 Really proud of this paper! We borrowed tools from biology to ask a simple question: does who you play with actually matter in football? (Spoiler: it does, a lot.) 🧬 🤝 ⚽
Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mUusArnpe...
Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mUusArnpe...
January 24, 2026 at 4:55 AM
Fascinating work from @ssalinas.bsky.social and colleagues
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
1/12 Really proud of this paper! We borrowed tools from biology to ask a simple question: does who you play with actually matter in football? (Spoiler: it does, a lot.) 🧬 🤝 ⚽
Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mUusArnpe...
Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mUusArnpe...
January 23, 2026 at 8:56 PM
1/12 Really proud of this paper! We borrowed tools from biology to ask a simple question: does who you play with actually matter in football? (Spoiler: it does, a lot.) 🧬 🤝 ⚽
Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mUusArnpe...
Paper here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mUusArnpe...
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Great thread from our resident expert on industry influence, @cailinmeister.bsky.social, enumerating and contextualizing the key results of our recent preprint.
Who is the Big Tobacco of today?
In new work, we find 50% of high profile social media papers are connected to big tech through funding, collaboration and employment. Most connections aren't disclosed. @jbakcoleman.bsky.social @jevinwest.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com 1
arxiv.org/abs/2601.11507
In new work, we find 50% of high profile social media papers are connected to big tech through funding, collaboration and employment. Most connections aren't disclosed. @jbakcoleman.bsky.social @jevinwest.bsky.social @carlbergstrom.com 1
arxiv.org/abs/2601.11507
Industry Influence in High-Profile Social Media Research
To what extent is social media research independent from industry influence? Leveraging openly available data, we show that half of the research published in top journals has disclosable ties to indus...
arxiv.org
January 19, 2026 at 7:55 PM
Great thread from our resident expert on industry influence, @cailinmeister.bsky.social, enumerating and contextualizing the key results of our recent preprint.
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Social media research has a conflict of interest problem:
“these findings suggest industry influence in social media research is extensive, impactful, and often opaque”
A real concern is that this may incentivize scholars to minimize the harms of social media platforms
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.11507
“these findings suggest industry influence in social media research is extensive, impactful, and often opaque”
A real concern is that this may incentivize scholars to minimize the harms of social media platforms
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.11507
January 19, 2026 at 8:03 PM
Social media research has a conflict of interest problem:
“these findings suggest industry influence in social media research is extensive, impactful, and often opaque”
A real concern is that this may incentivize scholars to minimize the harms of social media platforms
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.11507
“these findings suggest industry influence in social media research is extensive, impactful, and often opaque”
A real concern is that this may incentivize scholars to minimize the harms of social media platforms
arxiv.org/pdf/2601.11507
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Do you study disinformation or want to start working in that area?
Come to the DSI June 15-18th with @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, @rcalo.bsky.social, @naomioreskes.bsky.social, @emmaspiro.bsky.social, and many more.
disinfoinstitute.org
Come to the DSI June 15-18th with @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, @rcalo.bsky.social, @naomioreskes.bsky.social, @emmaspiro.bsky.social, and many more.
disinfoinstitute.org
Disinformation Summer Institute (DSI) - Disinformation Summer Institute
Disinformation Disinformation is false or misleading information created and spread to advance policy, political, economic or ideological goals. It is sometimes used by industries, governments, and ot...
disinfoinstitute.org
January 17, 2026 at 11:47 AM
Do you study disinformation or want to start working in that area?
Come to the DSI June 15-18th with @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, @rcalo.bsky.social, @naomioreskes.bsky.social, @emmaspiro.bsky.social, and many more.
disinfoinstitute.org
Come to the DSI June 15-18th with @cailinmeister.bsky.social, @katestarbird.bsky.social, @jevinwest.bsky.social, @rcalo.bsky.social, @naomioreskes.bsky.social, @emmaspiro.bsky.social, and many more.
disinfoinstitute.org
www.biorxiv.org
January 19, 2026 at 5:01 PM
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
A lovely review of Henri Bergson's masterwork "Creative Evolution" by @asmeincke.bsky.social, and its relevance to current philosophy of biology
Why should we read Henri Bergson's "Creative Evolution" today? There is more than just one reason, see my extended book review, just published in Mind: academic.oup.com/mind/advance... #Bergson #philosophy #philbio #ProcessPhilosophy #biology #science #HenriBergson
Creative Evolution, by Henri Bergson
A search for the term ‘Bergson’ in the search box provided on the website of this journal reveals a lively debate among eminent anglophone philosophers on
academic.oup.com
January 19, 2026 at 1:53 PM
A lovely review of Henri Bergson's masterwork "Creative Evolution" by @asmeincke.bsky.social, and its relevance to current philosophy of biology
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
I’m excited to share a new preprint led by Aishani Ghosal, formerly a postdoc in my group and now an assistant professor at NISER, with experiments led by Lindsay Case’s group at MIT! We show how client recruitment shapes composition in multicomponent condensates.
arxiv.org/abs/2601.11450
arxiv.org/abs/2601.11450
Principles of Client Enrichment in Multicomponent Biomolecular Condensates
Biomolecular condensates are commonly organized by a small number of scaffold molecules that drive phase separation together with client molecules that do not condense on their own but become selectiv...
arxiv.org
January 19, 2026 at 1:27 PM
I’m excited to share a new preprint led by Aishani Ghosal, formerly a postdoc in my group and now an assistant professor at NISER, with experiments led by Lindsay Case’s group at MIT! We show how client recruitment shapes composition in multicomponent condensates.
arxiv.org/abs/2601.11450
arxiv.org/abs/2601.11450
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
SOOFI, an open-source model development project, intends to put out a competitive general purpose language model with roughly 100B parameters within the next year www.wired.com/story/europe... #artificialintelligence #llms #soofi
The Race to Build the DeepSeek of Europe Is On
As Europe’s longstanding alliance with the US falters, its push to become a self-sufficient AI superpower has become more urgent.
www.wired.com
January 19, 2026 at 2:40 PM
SOOFI, an open-source model development project, intends to put out a competitive general purpose language model with roughly 100B parameters within the next year www.wired.com/story/europe... #artificialintelligence #llms #soofi
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
What happens when scientists studying population, evolutionary, and quantitative genetics all get together in one room? You get #PEQG26! Hear why PEQG 2026 stands apart directly from conference organizers: buff.ly/O0jiIBE
1/2🧵
1/2🧵
January 19, 2026 at 2:03 PM
What happens when scientists studying population, evolutionary, and quantitative genetics all get together in one room? You get #PEQG26! Hear why PEQG 2026 stands apart directly from conference organizers: buff.ly/O0jiIBE
1/2🧵
1/2🧵
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Tylenol during pregnancy is safe without increased risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability of offspring
A new review of the evidence just out
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
A new review of the evidence just out
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
January 16, 2026 at 11:43 PM
Tylenol during pregnancy is safe without increased risk of autism, ADHD, or intellectual disability of offspring
A new review of the evidence just out
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
A new review of the evidence just out
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Paper accepted! 😊 "Reframing the Free Will Debate: The Universe is Not Deterministic" will appear in Synthese. Final version available here: arxiv.org/abs/2503.19672 - with Henry Potter and George Ellis
January 15, 2026 at 7:52 AM
Paper accepted! 😊 "Reframing the Free Will Debate: The Universe is Not Deterministic" will appear in Synthese. Final version available here: arxiv.org/abs/2503.19672 - with Henry Potter and George Ellis
From obstacle to lynchpin: the evolution of the role of bacteriophage lysogeny in defining and understanding viruses url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsnr/article...
From obstacle to lynchpin: the evolution of the role of bacteriophage lysogeny in defining and understanding viruses
Abstract. The phenomenon of bacteriophage lysogeny has played a vital role in understanding the nature of viruses more generally. Discovered in 1920, the p
royalsocietypublishing.org
January 15, 2026 at 4:17 PM
From obstacle to lynchpin: the evolution of the role of bacteriophage lysogeny in defining and understanding viruses url: royalsocietypublishing.org/rsnr/article...
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
New preprint on unifying the zoo of multivariate higher-order information measures into a common form.
May be of interest to anyone interested in higher-order interactions, complex systems, emergence, or complexity.
1/N
arxiv.org/abs/2601.08030
May be of interest to anyone interested in higher-order interactions, complex systems, emergence, or complexity.
1/N
arxiv.org/abs/2601.08030
The many faces of multivariate information
Extracting higher-order structures from multivariate data has become an area of intensive study in complex systems science, as these multipartite interactions can reveal insights into fundamental feat...
arxiv.org
January 14, 2026 at 3:43 PM
New preprint on unifying the zoo of multivariate higher-order information measures into a common form.
May be of interest to anyone interested in higher-order interactions, complex systems, emergence, or complexity.
1/N
arxiv.org/abs/2601.08030
May be of interest to anyone interested in higher-order interactions, complex systems, emergence, or complexity.
1/N
arxiv.org/abs/2601.08030
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
New publication! Comparing Strategies to Introduce Two New Antibiotics for Gonorrhea: A Modeling Study featuring authors: @mckline98.bsky.social, @kroster.bsky.social, @dhelekal.bsky.social, @rumpl-er.bsky.social, and @yhgrad.bsky.social. Read it here at bit.ly/3Z1Zplh
Comparing Strategies to Introduce Two New Antibiotics for Gonorrhea: A Modeling Study
Immediately introducing 2 new antibiotics to treat gonorrhea alongside 1 currently used therapy is more effective at minimizing drug resistance than holdin
bit.ly
January 9, 2026 at 3:38 PM
New publication! Comparing Strategies to Introduce Two New Antibiotics for Gonorrhea: A Modeling Study featuring authors: @mckline98.bsky.social, @kroster.bsky.social, @dhelekal.bsky.social, @rumpl-er.bsky.social, and @yhgrad.bsky.social. Read it here at bit.ly/3Z1Zplh
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
New preprint from my lab (with Arya Kaul, @fernpizza.bsky.social, and @brinda.eu), in which we explore new genes hitchhiking on the beneficial deletion that fused them together, and find them in the LTEE, M. Tb/bovis, and across the bacterial tree of life
Novel genes arise from genomic deletions across the bacterial tree of life https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.05.697752v1
January 6, 2026 at 4:12 PM
New preprint from my lab (with Arya Kaul, @fernpizza.bsky.social, and @brinda.eu), in which we explore new genes hitchhiking on the beneficial deletion that fused them together, and find them in the LTEE, M. Tb/bovis, and across the bacterial tree of life
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Folks interested in science philanthropy should read this interview w/Simons Foundation President David Spergel on the role of philanthropy, support of early career scientists (from incentives to a call for more retirements), and the pivot point between future scenarios.
issues.org/american-sci...
issues.org/american-sci...
“There Are Two Possible Futures for American Science.”
The Simons Foundation president talks about science philanthropy, the future of the research enterprise, and remaining hopeful.
issues.org
January 6, 2026 at 5:14 PM
Folks interested in science philanthropy should read this interview w/Simons Foundation President David Spergel on the role of philanthropy, support of early career scientists (from incentives to a call for more retirements), and the pivot point between future scenarios.
issues.org/american-sci...
issues.org/american-sci...
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
Two new chapters from my free online book in human genetics out this weekend!
These complete Part 3 of the book, on human population structure and history:
3.3: Human prehistory [separate thread]
3.4: Ancient DNA: a genetic time capsule [this thread]
web.stanford.edu/group/pritch...
These complete Part 3 of the book, on human population structure and history:
3.3: Human prehistory [separate thread]
3.4: Ancient DNA: a genetic time capsule [this thread]
web.stanford.edu/group/pritch...
September 23, 2024 at 9:48 PM
Two new chapters from my free online book in human genetics out this weekend!
These complete Part 3 of the book, on human population structure and history:
3.3: Human prehistory [separate thread]
3.4: Ancient DNA: a genetic time capsule [this thread]
web.stanford.edu/group/pritch...
These complete Part 3 of the book, on human population structure and history:
3.3: Human prehistory [separate thread]
3.4: Ancient DNA: a genetic time capsule [this thread]
web.stanford.edu/group/pritch...
Reposted by C. Brandon Ogbunu
How well does TWAS estimate a gene’s direction of effect on a trait? We think of this as an important stress-test for the accuracy of TWAS.
In a new pre-print, we find that TWAS gets the sign wrong around 20-30% of the time!
doi.org/10.64898/202...
1/n
In a new pre-print, we find that TWAS gets the sign wrong around 20-30% of the time!
doi.org/10.64898/202...
1/n
High false sign rates in transcriptome-wide association studies
Transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) are widely used to identify genes involved in complex traits and to infer the direction of gene effects on traits. However, despite their popularity, it r...
doi.org
January 6, 2026 at 2:30 AM
How well does TWAS estimate a gene’s direction of effect on a trait? We think of this as an important stress-test for the accuracy of TWAS.
In a new pre-print, we find that TWAS gets the sign wrong around 20-30% of the time!
doi.org/10.64898/202...
1/n
In a new pre-print, we find that TWAS gets the sign wrong around 20-30% of the time!
doi.org/10.64898/202...
1/n