Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Aug 7

I was excited to be Dept. Chair as a way to serve, grow, and improve the department I love. The first year has certainly provided ample opportunities to learn the ropes of the role!

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Reposted by Aaron Quinlan (he/him)

Robert Aboukhalil @robert.bio · Jun 10

Excited to announce our first interactive article on sandbox.bio, about genomic ranges: sandbox.bio/concepts/gen...

Move & resize the ranges to see how that affects bedtools operations like merge and intersect in real time!

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Jul 8

Perspective on the impact of cuts to research funding from Jerry Kaplan and Dana Carroll, two science giants from the University of Utah. It highlights the storied history of the fantastic Dept. of Human Genetics that I now have the privilege of leading. www.sltrib.com/opinion/comm...

Voices: Federal funding cuts to genetic research will be devastating for years to come

Proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation “would cause immense and largely irreversible damage to the successful American scientific enterprise,” write Jer...

www.sltrib.com

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Reposted by Aaron Quinlan (he/him)

Billy Hanlon @bhanlon15.bsky.social · Jun 9

Forbes: 'Hundreds Of NIH Staff Send Strong Letter Of Dissent To Their Bosses'

'In addition to Bhattacharya, the letter was sent to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and members of Congress who oversee NIH'

www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

Hundreds Of NIH Staff Send Strong Letter Of Dissent To Their Bosses

More than 300 scientists and other staff at the National Institutes of Health sent NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya an unusually strongly worded letter of dissent on Monday.

www.forbes.com

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Jun 5

You may be excited, @mrvollger.bsky.social, but we are even more so! I can't wait to be your colleague!

Mitchell R. Vollger @mrvollger.bsky.social · Jun 5

Very excited to share I’ll be starting my own group at University of Utah in the Department of Human Genetics in the new year! Reach out if you are interested! vollgerlab.com

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Reposted by Aaron Quinlan (he/him)

Kelley Harris @kelleyharris.bsky.social · May 20

If you’ve ever wondered about the statistical significance of differences among mutational signature profiles, check out our new Aggregate Mutation Spectrum Distance (AMSD) preprint co-led by Sam Hart and @alisonfeder.bsky.social with @nalcala.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

A signature-agnostic test for differences between tumor mutation spectra reveals carcinogen and ancestry effects

Mutational signatures contain valuable information about the mutational processes shaping cancer genomes. However, despite dozens of tools to identify signatures in cancer samples, there is not an est...

www.biorxiv.org

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Apr 28

The symposium will feature rising science stars with research programs in evolutionary genetics and genomics, functional and disease genetics, and computational genomics. This is always a fun, rewarding, and exciting event!

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Apr 28

We invite postdocs to apply and share their research among a broad group of scientists working in broad areas of genetics and genomics.

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Apr 28

The Department of Human Genetics at the University of Utah is sponsoring the Rising Stars in Genetics and Genomics symposium!

- We are seeking nominations bu June 1.
- September 18-19, 2025
- Please share with the star postdocs that you know.

docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Apr 18

Biology of Genomes is only 18 days away. The lineup is stellar!
meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...

Biology of Genomes

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.

meetings.cshl.edu

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Apr 18

Thank you, Bruce!

Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Mar 26

A new article from Laurel Hiatt and @hdashnow.bsky.social describing STRchive is now available at Genome Medicine. genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Check out the database resource, as STRchive "streamlines TR variant interpretation at disease-associated loci."
strchive.org

STRchive: a dynamic resource detailing population-level and locus-specific insights at tandem repeat disease loci - Genome Medicine

Approximately 8% of the human genome consists of repetitive elements called tandem repeats (TRs): short tandem repeats (STRs) of 1–6 bp motifs and variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs) of 7 + bp moti...

genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Mar 18

Sad day for NHGRI. Eric is pure class.
www.statnews.com/2025/03/17/t...

Eric Green is out as head of National Human Genome Research Institute

The longtime director of the National Human Genome Research Institute is stepping down, as the larger NIH braces for more changes.

www.statnews.com

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Mar 16

Cheers!

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Mar 16

anyone have a PDF of this article?
www.statnews.com/2025/03/14/n...

At NIH, ‘everyone is on edge’ as they brace for deep cuts and more centralized control

As the NIH braces for cuts of up to 5,000 of its 20,000 positions, “people are scrambling and freaking out,” a researcher said.

www.statnews.com

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Mar 13

Upgrade.

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Aaron Quinlan (he/him) @aaronquinlan.bsky.social · Mar 9

Congrats to Charlie Murtaugh in our Dept of Human Genetics @utah.edu. His collaborative study with June Round and Zac Stephens describes how a unique neonatal gut microbiome drives development of insulin-producing β-cells. This is now online at Science! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Neonatal fungi promote lifelong metabolic health through macrophage-dependent β cell development

Loss of early-life microbial diversity is correlated with diabetes, yet mechanisms by which microbes influence disease remain elusive. We report a critical neonatal window in mice when microbiota disr...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Aaron Quinlan (he/him)

Rob Patro @robp.bsky.social · Mar 6

This is very cool work and I'm happy to see it published. Vcfexpress by @brent-p.bsky.social and @aaronquinlan.bsky.social allows building (essentially) arbitrary VCF filters expressed in lua code with parsing & eval powered by rust!

academic.oup.com/bioinformati...