Alex Strudwick Young
@alextisyoung.bsky.social
460 followers 390 following 10 posts
Asst. Prof. @ UCLA Human Genetics. Statistical geneticist & part of the SSGAC. Mendelian inheritance is the most important natural experiment. alextisyoung.github.io
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alextisyoung.bsky.social
I am recruiting a quantitative/computational postdoc to my group at UCLA. This is a great opportunity to work on foundational theory, methods, and software in statistical genetics. Link to apply: recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10275. Please repost!
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
aysuo.bsky.social
PGI Repository v2.0 preprint out! A 🧵 on the main results and updates @robel-alemu.bsky.social @paturley.bsky.social @alextisyoung.bsky.social
biorxivpreprint.bsky.social
An Updated Polygenic Index Repository: Expanded Phenotypes, New Cohorts, and Improved Causal Inference https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.653986v1
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
minomatt.bsky.social
UK Genome Science meeting - Newcastle. 9th - 11th July 2025. Great speakers. Great community.
Early bird registration-16th May
Abstract submission-23rd May
Registration close-26th June
If you want that sweet sweet early bird deal - get going quick!
www.genomescience.org.uk
Genome Science UK 2025
Newcastle University
www.genomescience.org.uk
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
ukuvainik.bsky.social
Siblings are not always 50% genetically similar! The difference may vary from 40 to 60%!

Our preprint uses this difference via sibling regression to estimate "assumption-free heritability" of socio-cognitive traits /1

@eivindy.bsky.social @rafaelahlskog.bsky.social @renemottus.bsky.social
alextisyoung.bsky.social
Great work on estimating heritability using sibling relatedness variation (estimated using my software package snipar). Surprisingly low h2 for education and high h2 for IQ (with large SE). Give it a read!
ukuvainik.bsky.social
Siblings are not always 50% genetically similar! The difference may vary from 40 to 60%!

Our preprint uses this difference via sibling regression to estimate "assumption-free heritability" of socio-cognitive traits /1

@eivindy.bsky.social @rafaelahlskog.bsky.social @renemottus.bsky.social
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
alextisyoung.bsky.social
I am recruiting a quantitative/computational postdoc to my group at UCLA. This is a great opportunity to work on foundational theory, methods, and software in statistical genetics. Link to apply: recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10275. Please repost!
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
aysuo.bsky.social
A great opportunity to work with @alextisyoung.bsky.social if you're interested in methods development!
alextisyoung.bsky.social
I am recruiting a quantitative/computational postdoc to my group at UCLA. This is a great opportunity to work on foundational theory, methods, and software in statistical genetics. Link to apply: recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10275. Please repost!
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
andganna.bsky.social
🚨 EBI has just lunched a new portal to calculate genetic scores from individual-level genetic data.

Check it out 👇. It is very cool!

geneticscores.org

It is linked with the @pgscatalog.bsky.social

This was supported by INTERVENE
GeneticScores.org
GeneticScores.org provides tools and data to help AI developers and human health researchers make better polygenic scores
geneticscores.org
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
mollyprz.bsky.social
Posting on behalf of Shamil Sunyaev: Eimear(Vice Chair) and I (Chair) are organizing the 2025 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Human Genetics and Genomics, which will be held on July 6-11, 2025 in beautiful University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine.
2025 Human Genetics and Genomics Conference GRC
The 2025 Gordon Research Conference on Human Genetics and Genomics will be held in Portland, Maine. Apply today to reserve your spot.
www.grc.org
alextisyoung.bsky.social
I am recruiting a quantitative/computational postdoc to my group at UCLA. This is a great opportunity to work on foundational theory, methods, and software in statistical genetics. Link to apply: recruit.apo.ucla.edu/JPF10275. Please repost!
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
rritunnano.bsky.social
Instead of listing my publications, as the year draws to an end, I want to shine the spotlight on the commonplace assumption that productivity must always increase. Good research is disruptive and thinking time is central to high quality scholarship and necessary for disruptive research.
alextisyoung.bsky.social
Yeah isn't this exactly what one would expect and similar to things like bmi?
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
aaronquinlan.bsky.social
Our UU colleague Wes Sundquist won the 2024 Breakthrough of the year! His long-term research into the structure and function of HIV’s capsid protein has led to the development lenacapavir, a game-changing new treatment that is extremely effective at preventing HIV.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Science’s 2024 Breakthrough of the Year: Opening the door to a new era of HIV prevention
A drug with a novel mechanism protects people against the AIDS virus for 6 months. It could speed the end of the epidemic—if those who need it most get access
www.science.org
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
erichmschwarz.bsky.social
After 5 years, our team has a new telomere-to-telomere gap-free reference genome for C. elegans. We published our first results in 2019; I thought we'd have our loose ends wrapped up by spring 2020. That prediction was ... slightly off.
But here's the genome now!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
CGC1, a new reference genome for Caenorhabditis elegans
The original 100.3 Mb reference genome for Caenorhabditis elegans , generated from the wild-type laboratory strain N2, has been crucial for analysis of C. elegans since 1998 and has been considered co...
www.biorxiv.org
alextisyoung.bsky.social
I see. Well yes but it might be tricky because inherited variants would tend to have smaller effect sizes than de novos independently of assortment.
alextisyoung.bsky.social
I'm not sure why assortment would affect this?
alextisyoung.bsky.social
When there is assortment, common and rare variant contributions will become correlated and this needs to be taken into account when analyzing either.
alextisyoung.bsky.social
This paper provides the first direct evidence of this by showing a surprisingly large correlation between the common variant education polygenic score and a rare variant burden score.
alextisyoung.bsky.social
It's possible that this is because the parents' genetics affect the offspring through the env but it could be assortment: parents with lower education polygenic scores based on common variants are more likely to mate with individuals with rare variants that cause neurodevelopmental conditions.
alextisyoung.bsky.social
Great to see this paper out in Nature today!

One aspect that I worked on was the curious result that the education polygenic score predicts neurodevelopmental conditions but this prediction disappears within family.
emiliewigdor.bsky.social
📣 Big news! Our tag-team effort on common variants in rare neurodevelopmental conditions is now out in Nature 📣

Co-first authoring with the brilliant Qinqin Huang🌟—proof that teamwork does make the dream work. 💪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
a couple of cartoon characters standing next to each other with one wearing a purple earring
Alt: a couple of cartoon characters standing next to each other with one wearing a purple earring
media.tenor.com
Reposted by Alex Strudwick Young
emiliewigdor.bsky.social
📣 Big news! Our tag-team effort on common variants in rare neurodevelopmental conditions is now out in Nature 📣

Co-first authoring with the brilliant Qinqin Huang🌟—proof that teamwork does make the dream work. 💪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
a couple of cartoon characters standing next to each other with one wearing a purple earring
Alt: a couple of cartoon characters standing next to each other with one wearing a purple earring
media.tenor.com