Philip Leftwich
@philipleftwich.bsky.social
Assoc Prof @uniofeastanglia
Scientist
Biology / Genetics / Rstats
Scientist
Biology / Genetics / Rstats
If I wanted to make sure a bunch of universities went belly up, this would seem a pretty solid plan.
🫠
🫠
i: Reeves to unveil £600m raid on foreign student
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
university fees #TomorrowsPapersToday
November 23, 2025 at 10:13 PM
If I wanted to make sure a bunch of universities went belly up, this would seem a pretty solid plan.
🫠
🫠
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Want to build a solid stats foundation using R? Join our online Introduction to Statistics in R course with @philipleftwich.bsky.social, 19–23 Jan 2026! Perfect for beginners wanting hands-on practice and confidence in data analysis.
More info & registration: www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...
More info & registration: www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...
November 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Want to build a solid stats foundation using R? Join our online Introduction to Statistics in R course with @philipleftwich.bsky.social, 19–23 Jan 2026! Perfect for beginners wanting hands-on practice and confidence in data analysis.
More info & registration: www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...
More info & registration: www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬
We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.
Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!
We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.
Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!
November 17, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Join us! 🧬🪰🎉🔬
We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.
Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!
We are currently advertising two #PhD projects to study the #evolution, #development and #genomics of sexual traits in stalk-eyed flies.
Deadline for applying is Wednesday, January 7, 2026. Get in touch for more info!
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Any Italian speakers who might have a little time to proofread some llm-generated pkgdown translations? github.com/r-lib/pkgdow...
Add Italian translations by jayhesselberth · Pull Request #2929 · r-lib/pkgdown
After potools::po_create("it")
Prompt:
You are an experienced translator. Create new a new translation for Italian in po/R-it.po. These are GNU gettext translations for pkgdown, a tool us...
github.com
October 20, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Any Italian speakers who might have a little time to proofread some llm-generated pkgdown translations? github.com/r-lib/pkgdow...
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Are there any Hindi speakers who could help proofread some LLM-generated translations for pkgdown? github.com/r-lib/pkgdow...
Add Hindi translations by jayhesselberth · Pull Request #2931 · r-lib/pkgdown
After potools::po_create("hi")
Prompt:
You are an experienced translator. Create new a new translation for Hindi in po/R-hi.po. These are GNU gettext translations for pkgdown, a tool used...
github.com
October 20, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Are there any Hindi speakers who could help proofread some LLM-generated translations for pkgdown? github.com/r-lib/pkgdow...
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
October 15, 2025 at 3:53 PM
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Last week on Wonkhe: What looks like efficiency in UK higher education often masks systemic injustice. Jim Dickinson explores how policies around reassessment quietly entrench inequality
For students, the costs of failure are far too high
What looks like efficiency in UK higher education often masks systemic injustice. Jim Dickinson explores how policies around reassessment quietly entrench inequality
buff.ly
October 12, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Last week on Wonkhe: What looks like efficiency in UK higher education often masks systemic injustice. Jim Dickinson explores how policies around reassessment quietly entrench inequality
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
📢🚨Please share! We’re hiring! 📢🚨Have a strong interests in wildlife ecology and gut microbiome bioinformatics? 3 year Senior Research Associate for NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant. Apply here: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18.... Informal enquiries welcome! drgldavidson.github.io/ACMEresearch
September 30, 2025 at 10:20 AM
📢🚨Please share! We’re hiring! 📢🚨Have a strong interests in wildlife ecology and gut microbiome bioinformatics? 3 year Senior Research Associate for NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant. Apply here: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18.... Informal enquiries welcome! drgldavidson.github.io/ACMEresearch
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
A new paper in The Lancet, one of the world’s foremost peer reviewed medical journals, estimates that USAID prevented 91 million deaths across 133 countries over 20 years.
The paper estimates that Elon Musk’s DOGE funding cuts to USAID will lead to 14 million deaths by 2030 (4.5 million children).
The paper estimates that Elon Musk’s DOGE funding cuts to USAID will lead to 14 million deaths by 2030 (4.5 million children).
Evaluating the impact of two decades of USAID interventions and projecting the effects of defunding on mortality up to 2030: a retrospective impact evaluation and forecasting analysis
USAID funding has significantly contributed to the reduction in adult and child mortality
across low-income and middle-income countries over the past two decades. Our estimates
show that, unless the a...
www.thelancet.com
July 1, 2025 at 10:43 AM
A new paper in The Lancet, one of the world’s foremost peer reviewed medical journals, estimates that USAID prevented 91 million deaths across 133 countries over 20 years.
The paper estimates that Elon Musk’s DOGE funding cuts to USAID will lead to 14 million deaths by 2030 (4.5 million children).
The paper estimates that Elon Musk’s DOGE funding cuts to USAID will lead to 14 million deaths by 2030 (4.5 million children).
Excited to be a part of this new paper with Alphey Lab- out in pre-print.
Multiplexing overrides resistance for #genedrive in Anopheles stephensi
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Multiplexing overrides resistance for #genedrive in Anopheles stephensi
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 21, 2025 at 8:46 AM
Excited to be a part of this new paper with Alphey Lab- out in pre-print.
Multiplexing overrides resistance for #genedrive in Anopheles stephensi
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Multiplexing overrides resistance for #genedrive in Anopheles stephensi
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
This week, the capital of Evolution is Barcelona!
Over 1900 evolutionary biologists are gathering for the biennial meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, coorganised with its Spanish sister #ESEB2025.
Over 540 of us are on Bluesky! You can use these starter packs to connect: 1/n
Over 1900 evolutionary biologists are gathering for the biennial meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, coorganised with its Spanish sister #ESEB2025.
Over 540 of us are on Bluesky! You can use these starter packs to connect: 1/n
August 18, 2025 at 7:02 AM
This week, the capital of Evolution is Barcelona!
Over 1900 evolutionary biologists are gathering for the biennial meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, coorganised with its Spanish sister #ESEB2025.
Over 540 of us are on Bluesky! You can use these starter packs to connect: 1/n
Over 1900 evolutionary biologists are gathering for the biennial meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, coorganised with its Spanish sister #ESEB2025.
Over 540 of us are on Bluesky! You can use these starter packs to connect: 1/n
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Folks going to #ESEB2025 : To help people connect on Bluesky, I've started making starter packs. Here is a first one with the names that were available when I started.
Ping me if you want to be included in the next one!
Ping me if you want to be included in the next one!
August 14, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Folks going to #ESEB2025 : To help people connect on Bluesky, I've started making starter packs. Here is a first one with the names that were available when I started.
Ping me if you want to be included in the next one!
Ping me if you want to be included in the next one!
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Let’s talk about career change. I loved listening to @minecr.bsky.social on The Test Set this week.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
She intially trained as an actuary, determined that she didn’t love that, and decided to do a PhD in statistics.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
She intially trained as an actuary, determined that she didn’t love that, and decided to do a PhD in statistics.
Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel: Teaching in the AI era — and keeping students engaged
Podcast Episode · The Test Set by Posit · 08/11/2025 · 55m
podcasts.apple.com
August 14, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Let’s talk about career change. I loved listening to @minecr.bsky.social on The Test Set this week.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
She intially trained as an actuary, determined that she didn’t love that, and decided to do a PhD in statistics.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...
She intially trained as an actuary, determined that she didn’t love that, and decided to do a PhD in statistics.
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
A reminder you/your lab can support FlyBase at Cambridge through the following link. Every bit helps. Please share if you yourself can't donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
August 14, 2025 at 5:25 AM
A reminder you/your lab can support FlyBase at Cambridge through the following link. Every bit helps. Please share if you yourself can't donate.
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Devastating and idiotic.
It is a no-brainer for the UK to provide emergency funds to host the entirety of FlyBase out of Cambridge and pick up the bill on these salaries. Every individual in FlyBase is an international treasure any country would be lucky to have.
It is a no-brainer for the UK to provide emergency funds to host the entirety of FlyBase out of Cambridge and pick up the bill on these salaries. Every individual in FlyBase is an international treasure any country would be lucky to have.
I just got the notice that all the FlyBase people at Harvard, including me, will be laid off on October 12. I'm devastated.
August 12, 2025 at 6:36 AM
Devastating and idiotic.
It is a no-brainer for the UK to provide emergency funds to host the entirety of FlyBase out of Cambridge and pick up the bill on these salaries. Every individual in FlyBase is an international treasure any country would be lucky to have.
It is a no-brainer for the UK to provide emergency funds to host the entirety of FlyBase out of Cambridge and pick up the bill on these salaries. Every individual in FlyBase is an international treasure any country would be lucky to have.
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
🚨New pre-print🚨
Natural DNA variation can slash CRISPR gene drive efficiency by up to 54% in Culex quinquefasciatus, a major West Nile virus mosquito vector.
<10% mismatch at the target site disrupts copying.
#GeneDrive #CRISPR
(with Tim Harvey-Samuel and Alphey Lab)
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Natural DNA variation can slash CRISPR gene drive efficiency by up to 54% in Culex quinquefasciatus, a major West Nile virus mosquito vector.
<10% mismatch at the target site disrupts copying.
#GeneDrive #CRISPR
(with Tim Harvey-Samuel and Alphey Lab)
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
August 5, 2025 at 8:14 AM
🚨New pre-print🚨
Natural DNA variation can slash CRISPR gene drive efficiency by up to 54% in Culex quinquefasciatus, a major West Nile virus mosquito vector.
<10% mismatch at the target site disrupts copying.
#GeneDrive #CRISPR
(with Tim Harvey-Samuel and Alphey Lab)
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Natural DNA variation can slash CRISPR gene drive efficiency by up to 54% in Culex quinquefasciatus, a major West Nile virus mosquito vector.
<10% mismatch at the target site disrupts copying.
#GeneDrive #CRISPR
(with Tim Harvey-Samuel and Alphey Lab)
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
Out now in @molbioevol.bsky.social with Michelle Liu (co-first), Ryan Frost, Matthew Lindsay, Malak Bayoumi, Martin Brengdahl, @ruxmolnar.bsky.social and @aneil-agrawal.bsky.social, we evolved ~40% of the D. melanogaster genome under male-limited inheritance, ...
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Expression Divergence in Response to Sex-biased Selection
Abstract. It remains debated whether greater degrees of sexual dimorphism would evolve if not for intersexual genetic constraints. Here, we used experiment
academic.oup.com
July 9, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Out now in @molbioevol.bsky.social with Michelle Liu (co-first), Ryan Frost, Matthew Lindsay, Malak Bayoumi, Martin Brengdahl, @ruxmolnar.bsky.social and @aneil-agrawal.bsky.social, we evolved ~40% of the D. melanogaster genome under male-limited inheritance, ...
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
Every time a new edition of this course starts, I get a little nervous.
Even though it always gets great feedback, this is a labour of love, and I want everyone to get the confidence in statistics that is essential for good science.
We start today, let’s go!
#rstats
Even though it always gets great feedback, this is a labour of love, and I want everyone to get the confidence in statistics that is essential for good science.
We start today, let’s go!
#rstats
📈 Want to strengthen your statistics skills? Join our course with @philipleftwich.bsky.social & learn how to use R for clear, reproducible data analysis — no prior experience required!
🔍 From descriptive statistics to Linear Models, GLMs, and GLMMs, we’ll guide you step by step.
🔍 From descriptive statistics to Linear Models, GLMs, and GLMMs, we’ll guide you step by step.
June 24, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Every time a new edition of this course starts, I get a little nervous.
Even though it always gets great feedback, this is a labour of love, and I want everyone to get the confidence in statistics that is essential for good science.
We start today, let’s go!
#rstats
Even though it always gets great feedback, this is a labour of love, and I want everyone to get the confidence in statistics that is essential for good science.
We start today, let’s go!
#rstats
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
We are still looking for a motivated student to join us in the wonderful world of mosquito microbiome genomies! Funding unfortunately only for UK students for this one. If interested, please send CV & letter of motivation (email in image below) #MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky 💻🧬 🧪Please share widely😊 1/2
#PhD alert, here @unistrathclyde.bsky.social in the very friendly, diverse, artsy & welcoming city of Glasgow 🏴
Disentangling the functional modules of #mosquito #microbiomes - what puzzle pieces build our #holobionts?
#MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky 💻🧬🧪
More here 😊 www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/...
Disentangling the functional modules of #mosquito #microbiomes - what puzzle pieces build our #holobionts?
#MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky 💻🧬🧪
More here 😊 www.strath.ac.uk/studywithus/...
June 5, 2025 at 9:34 AM
We are still looking for a motivated student to join us in the wonderful world of mosquito microbiome genomies! Funding unfortunately only for UK students for this one. If interested, please send CV & letter of motivation (email in image below) #MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky 💻🧬 🧪Please share widely😊 1/2
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
I'm really looking forward to delivering this talk about creating data for teaching and testing using the {messy} package for the @royalstatsoc.bsky.social Manchester Group!
📅 Thursday 10 July 2025
⌚ 1 - 2PM BST
📌 Online (everyone welcome!)
Register: rss.org.uk/training-eve...
#RStats #StatsEd
📅 Thursday 10 July 2025
⌚ 1 - 2PM BST
📌 Online (everyone welcome!)
Register: rss.org.uk/training-eve...
#RStats #StatsEd
June 5, 2025 at 2:38 PM
I'm really looking forward to delivering this talk about creating data for teaching and testing using the {messy} package for the @royalstatsoc.bsky.social Manchester Group!
📅 Thursday 10 July 2025
⌚ 1 - 2PM BST
📌 Online (everyone welcome!)
Register: rss.org.uk/training-eve...
#RStats #StatsEd
📅 Thursday 10 July 2025
⌚ 1 - 2PM BST
📌 Online (everyone welcome!)
Register: rss.org.uk/training-eve...
#RStats #StatsEd
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
⁉️Why are students at UEA supporting members of staff on strike?
📽️Watch this video to hear from the amazing students who came to join lecturers and professional services staff on the picket line.
📣Stop the cuts! #SaveUEA
📽️Watch this video to hear from the amazing students who came to join lecturers and professional services staff on the picket line.
📣Stop the cuts! #SaveUEA
May 6, 2025 at 6:56 PM
⁉️Why are students at UEA supporting members of staff on strike?
📽️Watch this video to hear from the amazing students who came to join lecturers and professional services staff on the picket line.
📣Stop the cuts! #SaveUEA
📽️Watch this video to hear from the amazing students who came to join lecturers and professional services staff on the picket line.
📣Stop the cuts! #SaveUEA
As seen on LinkedIn😂
Learning R in 2025...
Learning R in 2025...
April 28, 2025 at 8:57 AM
As seen on LinkedIn😂
Learning R in 2025...
Learning R in 2025...
Reposted by Philip Leftwich
💬 “Europe and the UK have in general been very good at recognising the need for FAIR data and #metadata, so I would say we are in a very strong position.”
📄 #AI and life sciences: why #FAIR #data is essential 💻 🗃️ 🧬
📄 #AI and life sciences: why #FAIR #data is essential 💻 🗃️ 🧬
AI and life sciences: why FAIR data is essential
DNA sequencing has unlocked massive amounts of complex information. AI can help us analyse this. But it’s only effective with the right data.
buff.ly
April 26, 2025 at 1:04 PM
"The authors also found that the effect size — the magnitude of the observed impact in the experiments — was, on average, 60% larger in the original papers than in the experimental follow-ups"
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Huge reproducibility project fails to validate dozens of biomedical studies
Unique reproducibility effort in Brazil focuses on common methods rather than a single field ― and prompts call for reform.
www.nature.com
April 26, 2025 at 8:19 AM
"The authors also found that the effect size — the magnitude of the observed impact in the experiments — was, on average, 60% larger in the original papers than in the experimental follow-ups"
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...