Selim Sametoğlu
@selimsametoglu.bsky.social
Postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen
Pinned
Here are some illustrations I’ve made as a hobby project, related to language development and the interplay between genes and the environment :-) Feel free to use them for your presentations, posters, etc., with a small attribution :-) My plan is to create and add more over time.
Pleitropy (a set of known variants influencing the target 'positive' trait yet also potentially influencing another unknown -perhaps negative- outcome is already concern by itself (even if you don't care about the ethics and exacerbeting existing inequalities part of it which obviously you should)
Unregulated and privatized polygenic embryo selection is a profound ethical threat.
It turns reproduction into a commodity, reinforces social inequality, and normalizes genetic essentialism.
Thank you, @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social & @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social for this powerful piece!
It turns reproduction into a commodity, reinforces social inequality, and normalizes genetic essentialism.
Thank you, @arnovanhootegem.bsky.social & @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social for this powerful piece!
There’s a new kid in town!
Companies are now selling IVF and embryo selection based on genetic testing for traits related to health and even intelligence.
We outline methodological and ethical concerns, and warn against risks for social inequality.
With the fantastic @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social
Companies are now selling IVF and embryo selection based on genetic testing for traits related to health and even intelligence.
We outline methodological and ethical concerns, and warn against risks for social inequality.
With the fantastic @gaiaghirardi.bsky.social
November 17, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Pleitropy (a set of known variants influencing the target 'positive' trait yet also potentially influencing another unknown -perhaps negative- outcome is already concern by itself (even if you don't care about the ethics and exacerbeting existing inequalities part of it which obviously you should)
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
Come join us for a 4-year PhD on effects of rare gene disruptions involved in speech disorder, investigated in human neuronal models (via gene-editing, tissue culture, brain organoids, high-res microscopy, transcriptomics, epigenomics).
More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...
#AcademicJobs #PhDJobs
🧬🧪
More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...
#AcademicJobs #PhDJobs
🧬🧪
October 22, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Come join us for a 4-year PhD on effects of rare gene disruptions involved in speech disorder, investigated in human neuronal models (via gene-editing, tissue culture, brain organoids, high-res microscopy, transcriptomics, epigenomics).
More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...
#AcademicJobs #PhDJobs
🧬🧪
More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...
#AcademicJobs #PhDJobs
🧬🧪
Here are some illustrations I’ve made as a hobby project, related to language development and the interplay between genes and the environment :-) Feel free to use them for your presentations, posters, etc., with a small attribution :-) My plan is to create and add more over time.
October 20, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Here are some illustrations I’ve made as a hobby project, related to language development and the interplay between genes and the environment :-) Feel free to use them for your presentations, posters, etc., with a small attribution :-) My plan is to create and add more over time.
Can anyone point me to a personality GWAS paper or summary statistics that I could use to extract polygenic scores in a European sample? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
October 16, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Can anyone point me to a personality GWAS paper or summary statistics that I could use to extract polygenic scores in a European sample? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
Happy to announce that I'll give a talk on how we can make rigorous causal inference more mainstream 📈
You can sign up for the Zoom link here: tinyurl.com/CIIG-JuliaRo...
You can sign up for the Zoom link here: tinyurl.com/CIIG-JuliaRo...
October 6, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Happy to announce that I'll give a talk on how we can make rigorous causal inference more mainstream 📈
You can sign up for the Zoom link here: tinyurl.com/CIIG-JuliaRo...
You can sign up for the Zoom link here: tinyurl.com/CIIG-JuliaRo...
Okay, something non-academic about me: I once sculpted a mini Ottoman-inspired helmet and body armor for an old David de Kabouter figurine I found at home (I had to cut off the top of his hat -- Sorry, David).
October 3, 2025 at 7:39 PM
Okay, something non-academic about me: I once sculpted a mini Ottoman-inspired helmet and body armor for an old David de Kabouter figurine I found at home (I had to cut off the top of his hat -- Sorry, David).
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
I'm looking for a PhD student to do some trailblazing at the frontier of personality genomics and lifespan gene-environment transactions (start Fall 2026)! If you want to work with me: psychology.msu.edu/graduatestud...
(PS @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social is taking a student too, in moral psych/dev!)
(PS @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social is taking a student too, in moral psych/dev!)
September 2, 2025 at 3:57 PM
I'm looking for a PhD student to do some trailblazing at the frontier of personality genomics and lifespan gene-environment transactions (start Fall 2026)! If you want to work with me: psychology.msu.edu/graduatestud...
(PS @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social is taking a student too, in moral psych/dev!)
(PS @drmeltemyucel.bsky.social is taking a student too, in moral psych/dev!)
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
Latest processing of UK Biobank brain imaging data - now with 82,000 usable first-scan datasets. Correlating brain IDPs with 13,000 non-imaging variables gives a rich manhattan-stye plot. 324,000 Bonferroni-significant associations.
August 22, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Latest processing of UK Biobank brain imaging data - now with 82,000 usable first-scan datasets. Correlating brain IDPs with 13,000 non-imaging variables gives a rich manhattan-stye plot. 324,000 Bonferroni-significant associations.
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
⏰Volume 55, issue 4 of Behavior Genetics is out, with studies exploring 🧵⬇️
link.springer.com/journal/1051...
link.springer.com/journal/1051...
Behavior Genetics
Behavior Genetics is a leading journal concerned with the genetic analysis of behavioral traits.
The journal offers the most current original research on ...
link.springer.com
August 21, 2025 at 2:49 PM
⏰Volume 55, issue 4 of Behavior Genetics is out, with studies exploring 🧵⬇️
link.springer.com/journal/1051...
link.springer.com/journal/1051...
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
📱 The association between social media use, wellbeing, and depressive symptoms, and the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to this association by @selimsametoglu.bsky.social and colleagues
August 21, 2025 at 2:49 PM
📱 The association between social media use, wellbeing, and depressive symptoms, and the extent to which genetic and environmental factors contribute to this association by @selimsametoglu.bsky.social and colleagues
"...there is the possibility of real damage if selecting for one trait turns out to create risks for others." (On the top of all other ethical issues begin with).
New blog post: The New Eugenics Companies
(Oops, I meant to say generational health and embryo selection)
(Oops, I meant to say generational health and embryo selection)
The New Eugenics Companies
Oops, I meant to say generational health and embryo selection
ericturkheimer.substack.com
August 10, 2025 at 8:27 PM
"...there is the possibility of real damage if selecting for one trait turns out to create risks for others." (On the top of all other ethical issues begin with).
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
GPT-5 regularly asks you why you are not citing its work. GPT-5 always believes your estimator is biased. GPT-5 has more of a comment than a question. Sometimes GPT-5 tells you stories about grad school and expresses regret about getting a PhD. GPT-5's mom wonders when it will start making money.
“GPT-5 is the first time that it feels like talking to an expert in any topic — a Ph.D.-level expert,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said.
OpenAI Unveils GPT-5, Its Latest and Most Powerful Model, After Two-Year Wait
CEO Sam Altman said using the chatbot will be like talking with a doctorate-level expert in any topic.
www.wsj.com
August 7, 2025 at 8:22 PM
GPT-5 regularly asks you why you are not citing its work. GPT-5 always believes your estimator is biased. GPT-5 has more of a comment than a question. Sometimes GPT-5 tells you stories about grad school and expresses regret about getting a PhD. GPT-5's mom wonders when it will start making money.
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
How much do people know and understand what their administrative and health data is used for?
Another story of consent for genetic data use this week.
Another story of consent for genetic data use this week.
The iPSYCH study represents a unique example to understand the ethical and legal challenges of using existing samples/data for health research. A thread 🧵
www.science.org/content/arti...
www.science.org/content/arti...
Blood taken from Danish babies ended up in huge genetic study—without consent
The iPsych project, which investigates the genetics of psychiatric disorders, has sent 140,000 opt-out notices amid backlash
www.science.org
August 6, 2025 at 10:21 AM
How much do people know and understand what their administrative and health data is used for?
Another story of consent for genetic data use this week.
Another story of consent for genetic data use this week.
Next on my reading list.
August 7, 2025 at 9:08 AM
Next on my reading list.
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
Not sure who came up with "Manhattan Plot", but in 2014 I coined the alternative term "Nijmegen Plot" (inspired by the Dutch town where I live) to describe underwhelming results from our earliest genome-wide association scans of language/reading traits.
July 28, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Not sure who came up with "Manhattan Plot", but in 2014 I coined the alternative term "Nijmegen Plot" (inspired by the Dutch town where I live) to describe underwhelming results from our earliest genome-wide association scans of language/reading traits.
We have a new preprint: this work is especially dear to my heart, as it results from the data collection pipeline we established at the Netherlands Twin Register, which enabled us to collect Facebook posts and likes (paid for with plenty of blood, sweat, and tears...)
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
OSF
osf.io
July 11, 2025 at 10:31 AM
We have a new preprint: this work is especially dear to my heart, as it results from the data collection pipeline we established at the Netherlands Twin Register, which enabled us to collect Facebook posts and likes (paid for with plenty of blood, sweat, and tears...)
osf.io/preprints/ps...
osf.io/preprints/ps...
This evening on my way back home, listening to the audiobook version of 'the Last Question' from Isaac Asimov. Today It inspires very differently than before considering the current rise in the use of LLMs by lots of us.
July 3, 2025 at 6:46 PM
This evening on my way back home, listening to the audiobook version of 'the Last Question' from Isaac Asimov. Today It inspires very differently than before considering the current rise in the use of LLMs by lots of us.
🧵 Just published! (And yes, it has something to say about the social media use + wellbeing debate 👀)
Are the links between social media use (SMU) and wellbeing (WB) or anxious-depressive symptoms (ADS) partly driven by genetics?
Just checkout this thread:
Are the links between social media use (SMU) and wellbeing (WB) or anxious-depressive symptoms (ADS) partly driven by genetics?
Just checkout this thread:
June 23, 2025 at 7:01 AM
🧵 Just published! (And yes, it has something to say about the social media use + wellbeing debate 👀)
Are the links between social media use (SMU) and wellbeing (WB) or anxious-depressive symptoms (ADS) partly driven by genetics?
Just checkout this thread:
Are the links between social media use (SMU) and wellbeing (WB) or anxious-depressive symptoms (ADS) partly driven by genetics?
Just checkout this thread:
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
What is common knowledge in your field but shocks outsiders?
There are two children in your child's classroom with a Developmental Language Disorder ... but probably no one, not even the teacher, knows who they are. kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
There are two children in your child's classroom with a Developmental Language Disorder ... but probably no one, not even the teacher, knows who they are. kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
June 18, 2025 at 2:48 PM
What is common knowledge in your field but shocks outsiders?
There are two children in your child's classroom with a Developmental Language Disorder ... but probably no one, not even the teacher, knows who they are. kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
There are two children in your child's classroom with a Developmental Language Disorder ... but probably no one, not even the teacher, knows who they are. kids.frontiersin.org/articles/10....
I am very pleased to encounter with this work today! A very smart approach to leverage LLMs power to study psychopathology...some good motivation to dive into the old shelves to see if any of my old projects involved open ended questions...!
🚨 New preprint 🚨
Excited to share this work with Dorothée Bentz, where we map the landscape of contamination OCD triggers and analyze individual differences in trigger importance and relatedness.
Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
Excited to share this work with Dorothée Bentz, where we map the landscape of contamination OCD triggers and analyze individual differences in trigger importance and relatedness.
Preprint: osf.io/preprints/ps...
June 5, 2025 at 6:18 PM
I am very pleased to encounter with this work today! A very smart approach to leverage LLMs power to study psychopathology...some good motivation to dive into the old shelves to see if any of my old projects involved open ended questions...!
Does anyone know of a cohort that has data on the personality or temperament of parent-offspring trios? Genotyped data would be a plus!
April 28, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Does anyone know of a cohort that has data on the personality or temperament of parent-offspring trios? Genotyped data would be a plus!
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
Our new study in Molecular Psychiatry, in 1528 children and their parents (@ntrbiopsy.bsky.social) shows that indirect genetic effects—where parental genetics shape offspring traits via environmental influences (genetic nurture)—impact DNA methylation of children. doi.org/10.1038/s413... (1/5)
Intergenerational transmission of complex traits and the offspring methylome - Molecular Psychiatry
Molecular Psychiatry - Intergenerational transmission of complex traits and the offspring methylome
doi.org
April 6, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Our new study in Molecular Psychiatry, in 1528 children and their parents (@ntrbiopsy.bsky.social) shows that indirect genetic effects—where parental genetics shape offspring traits via environmental influences (genetic nurture)—impact DNA methylation of children. doi.org/10.1038/s413... (1/5)
Reposted by Selim Sametoğlu
I am writing book(let) beginners guide (as in I also started as a begginner) on DNA/Protein language modeling/neural networks. I am 12 chapters in. I'll publish it, data, models, scripts, notebooks freely online. I need ppl to read/critique/review chapters, you'd be credited as editor/author obv.
March 19, 2025 at 10:57 AM
I am writing book(let) beginners guide (as in I also started as a begginner) on DNA/Protein language modeling/neural networks. I am 12 chapters in. I'll publish it, data, models, scripts, notebooks freely online. I need ppl to read/critique/review chapters, you'd be credited as editor/author obv.
Brilliant work
🚨NEW PAPER! Together with Wuno Akingbuwa (@wonuola.bsky.social) we developed a way to estimate non-linear genetic correlations. It didnt sit well with us that known non-linear relations (e.g. BMI and MDD with a famous U shaped ) are poorly captured in statistical genetics. 🧵
www.biorxiv.org
February 14, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Brilliant work