Arslan Zaidi
@aazaidi.bsky.social
130 followers 97 following 24 posts
Genetics, stats, complex traits. Asst. prof. at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. views my own. he/him - Zaidilab.org
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aazaidi.bsky.social
Our paper on the theoretical properties of SNP heritability in admixed populations is out in Genetics:
academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

with @jinguohuang.bsky.social, @nicole-kleman.bsky.social , Saonli Basu, and Mark Shriver
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
genandgenes.bsky.social
Whoops, wrong hashtag.

If you are going to #ASHG25, check out the line-up!

This is perfect if you are a trainee who needs to network but has no idea how to do it. Instead of trying to corner someone at the posters (which is stressful!), schedule a slot and sit down for 15 minutes to chat!
genandgenes.bsky.social
Are you going to #ASHG2025 next week in Boston? Interested in getting some mentorship from leading figures in the field (and me)?

Check out our speed mentoring event on Thursday! Sign-ups are online so reserve a spot ASAP.

site.pheedloop.com/event/ASHG25...
PheedLoop
PheedLoop: Hybrid, In-Person & Virtual Event Software
site.pheedloop.com
aazaidi.bsky.social
Yes to both. Coverage can be uneven so good to be sure but probably overkill for mtDNA
aazaidi.bsky.social
We’ve done the former with mt genomes. I believe you end up with ./. calls for sites where only a few individuals carried an alt allele. So there’s an extra step (we wrote a script) to go through and fill those in with ref after making sure there were enough reads supporting that site
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
jazlynmooney.bsky.social
Super excited to see our reference bias work out in Cell! Reviewers gave us some excellent ideas, and Maria added on some new analyses that broke down how SNPs from heterospecific references mapped or did not map in a conspecific reference.
akopyan.bsky.social
Now published in Cell! We found that ~15% of SNPs from divergent refs did not liftover as SNPs in the gray fox ref—half mapped to monomorphic sites, half failed to map. Co-authored with Matthew Genchev, @elliecat.bsky.social, and @jazlynmooney.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
jrossibarra.bsky.social
Save the date! #PEQG26 June 9-12 2026 in Asilomar, CA. Happens only every 2yrs, but is my favorite conference. Full website coming soon, and registration and abstract submission opens November 14, but I'm allowed to tease that keynotes will be @jnovembre.bsky.social @jennytung.bsky.social and me!
Homepage - Population, Evolutionary, and Quantitative Genetics Conference
Visit our website to learn more.
genetics-gsa.org
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
pleunipennings.bsky.social
I made a video about my new paper. I hope you enjoy it!

vimeo.com/1113132836?s...
aazaidi.bsky.social
Commensurate with his presence 😂🤣
aazaidi.bsky.social
Another fun year for the #mwpg, this year at the University of Minnesota! Great to see all the trainees participating with their cool work.
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
gregorgorjanc.bsky.social
AlphaSimR course edin.ac/3wfGSEj Week 3 opens with a discussion on genetic variation between relatives, with a focus on siblings. While mutation is the ultimate source of genetic variation (by introducing new alleles), recombination shuffles the existing genetic variation through meiosis.
aazaidi.bsky.social
Many Congratulations Roshni!!
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
genetics-gsa.bsky.social
New in #GENETICS: Huang et al. describe biases in SNP & local ancestry heritability as functions of admixture history and the genetic architecture of the trait, clarifying their interpretation and implication for #GWAS & polygenic prediction in population admixture.

Read more: buff.ly/1xB3Mpu
aazaidi.bsky.social
There’s nothing we can do. Every non violent form of protest has been tried and now even that can land you in prison. The brave carry on and the rest of us mourn the loss of our collective humanity.
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
biorxiv-genetic.bsky.social
Effects of ancestry, agriculture, and lactase persistence on the stature of prehistoric Europeans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.11.664181v1
aazaidi.bsky.social
Short answer: twin estimates aren’t inherently wrong but they’re not the end all be all either.
aazaidi.bsky.social
Human geneticist here. I don’t think we have a gold standard. The estimands are different across approaches bc they make different assumptions esp about the true trait architecture. The true arch is unknown but the hope is diff estimates will converge once we rule out artifacts, confounding etc
aazaidi.bsky.social
last day tomorrow to register for a talk/poster at Midwest popgen. Please RT(? is that what they say here?)!
eshabandyopadhyay.bsky.social
Please register if you haven't already done so.
MidWest PopGen is happening in August at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)—abstract deadline for talk: July 11th, and poster: August 1st.

sites.google.com/umn.edu/mwpg...
MWPG2025
Join us for the 10th Midwest Population Genetics conference, held at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities from August 21 - August 22, 2025.
sites.google.com
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
privefl.bsky.social
I probably won't have time to make a video out of this.

But the materials are available online, and should be pretty self-explanatory.

Hope this is useful to some people.

privefl.github.io/statgen-cour...
aazaidi.bsky.social
Maybe they’re not washing their hands thoroughly after not using water in the bathroom.
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
eshabandyopadhyay.bsky.social
Thrilled to see the latest work from the lab (@genscapelab.bsky.social) out in Current Biology! Congratulations @jaurban2204.bsky.social ! 🎉

Grateful to have had the chance to contribute to this effort.
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
eshabandyopadhyay.bsky.social
Please register if you haven't already done so.
MidWest PopGen is happening in August at the University of Minnesota (Twin Cities)—abstract deadline for talk: July 11th, and poster: August 1st.

sites.google.com/umn.edu/mwpg...
MWPG2025
Join us for the 10th Midwest Population Genetics conference, held at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities from August 21 - August 22, 2025.
sites.google.com
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
eimearekenny.bsky.social
📢 Just posted: Our preprint introducing SPC — Spectral Components — is now live on medRxiv!

Led by Dr. Ruhollah Shemirani and years in the making, this method offers a robust, scalable way to adjust for recent population structure in genomic analyses.
🔗 www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

1/9
SPC: a SPectral Component approach to address recent population structure in genomic analysis
Population structure is a well-known confounder in statistical genetics, particularly in genome-wide association studies (GWAS), where it can lead to inflated test statistics and spurious associations...
www.medrxiv.org
aazaidi.bsky.social
Website and hotel info for Midwest popgen. Please register (free!) and book rooms asap to get ahead of the State Fair crowd.

The world may be aflame but we can try to find some community with each other. #mwpg25 slogan?

sites.google.com/umn.edu/mwpg...
Reposted by Arslan Zaidi
mashaals.bsky.social
Our new work is now out in AJHG "Natural selection acting on complex traits hampers the predictive accuracy of polygenic scores in ancient samples." Great collaboration with @delvecchyo.bsky.social and Emilia Huerta-Sanchez, led by Valeria Añorve-Garibay.