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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Maria Akopyan, PhD @akopyan.bsky.social · 16d

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...

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 16d

🦇🦠 New preprint - in a long-term effort led by the amazing @mayajuman.bsky.social, we've shown that the ML tools developed by @viralemergence.org let us efficiently screen museum collections for pathogens with pandemic potential

🎉🔓 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Museum collections and machine learning guide discovery of novel coronaviruses and paramyxoviruses

Natural history museum collections are valuable but underutilized resources for viral discovery, offering opportunities to test hypotheses about viral occurrence across space, time, and taxonomic grou...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

marilou boddé @mariloumercedes.bsky.social · 20d

Our paper Genomic diversity of the African malaria vector Anopheles funestus was published in Science today! It features inversions, selection in action, museum specimens and putative new ecotypes. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · 19d

My first Perspective piece was just published in Science! I discuss the new findings by @amandalea.bsky.social and colleagues showing adaptations to water stress in the Turkana, and the implications of past adaptations for future disease risk.

Sarah Lempriere @sarahlempriere.bsky.social · 19d

Trade-offs and human adaptation at the extremes | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Trade-offs and human adaptation at the extremes

Genomic analyses of Turkana pastoralists identify variants that increase water retention

www.science.org

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · Aug 18

I’m excited to be attending #ESEB2025 this week in Barcelona! If you’re interested in chatting about primate population genetics, come chat with me at my poster this evening - P01.275 Genomics of Brazilian howler monkeys reveals recent inbreeding and species-specific positive selection

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Graham Coop @gcbias.bsky.social · Apr 8

Inside me there are two wolves. One of them has a 15 genome edits the other 20 genome edits. Neither of them is a dire wolf.

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · Jan 15

🚨😷🧪 NEW: A growing body of evidence shows that pandemics, biodiversity loss, and climate change are part of a broader polycrisis - but there are no simple solutions. A sweeping overview of "Pathogens and planetary change" for the first issue of @natrevbiodiv.bsky.social, out now 🔓 rdcu.be/d6lHl

Top panels: graphs showing increases in spillover events, extinction rates, and temperature anomalies over the last few centuries. Bottom panel: a map of 10 pandemics since the year 1900. Four were linked to agriculture, two to wildlife use, and one to climate change.

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

The Prehistoric Society @prehistoricsociety.bsky.social · Jan 15

*BREAKING*

"The results revealed that this community was centred around bonds of female-line descent.”

#Archaeology #Prehistory #IronAge

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Continental influx and pervasive matrilocality in Iron Age Britain - Nature

An analysis of ancient mitochondrial and nuclear DNA shows evidence of matrilocal communities in Iron Age Britain.

www.nature.com

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · Jan 12

Absolutely loved hearing about this work at SMBE24 this past summer and subsequently leading a lab meeting discussion on the preprint. Fantastic to see it published!

Clàudia Fontserè @claudiafontsere.bsky.social · Jan 11

Another great paper from the PanAf family, focusing on local adaptaion in chimpanzee populations: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Fecal samples 💩 and target capture 🧬 (exome) going to another level. So proud to have been part of it, amazing work led by Harrison Ostridge and @aidaandres.bsky.social

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

marilou boddé @mariloumercedes.bsky.social · Dec 18

Preprint is out! We investigated the genomic diversity and evolutionary history of Anopheles funestus mosquitoes, one of the main species transmitting human malaria across Africa. Here’s a visual summary. Art by @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social . 1/8 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · Dec 19

Will do!!

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · Dec 19

Congrats to my fellow Duke EvAnth grad student Alisha Anaya 🎉 She put in so much effort scanning and recording this material, it’s great to see it come together!!

Caley Orr @caleyorr.bsky.social · Dec 18

Our new paper announcing a freely available database of 3D scans of primate skeletal material--a major effort led by Sergio Almécija & his team at the American Museum of Natural History.
🧪 🏺 #paleosky #anatomy #primates #anthropology #morphology #zoology #paleoanthropology #openscience

Primate Phenotypes: A Multi-Institution Collection of 3D Morphological Data Housed in MorphoSource - Scientific Data

Scientific Data - Primate Phenotypes: A Multi-Institution Collection of 3D Morphological Data Housed in MorphoSource

www.nature.com

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · Dec 18

Being able to accurately identify physical interactions between host and receptor proteins is critical for research on host shifts/zoonoses as these interactions often mediate susceptibility. This type of research is important for future pandemics and research on treatment and vaccine development.

Vega Shah @dr-alphalyrae.bsky.social · Dec 18

AI-first structural identification of pathogenic protein targets | bioRxiv
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

AI-first structural identification of pathogenic protein targets

The likelihood for pandemics is increasing as the world population grows and becomes more interconnected. Obtaining structural knowledge of protein-protein interactions between a pathogen and its host...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Hernán E. Morales @hernmoral.bsky.social · Dec 18

With the Crane Foundation & amazing co-authors, we analyzed 150+ years of genomic data, revealing whooping cranes have lost 70% of their genetic diversity and accumulated harmful mutations. Despite conservation successes, they remain vulnerable. We argue keeping their endangered status

Clàudia Fontserè @claudiafontsere.bsky.social · Dec 17

I'm super happy to share our newest preprint on whooping crane genomics 🐣🧬

🚨Persistent genomic erosion in whooping cranes despite demographic recovery🚨 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Extremely thankful to @hernmoral.bsky.social and all co-authors!
#conservationgenomics #genomics #whoopingcranes

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · Dec 18

Fantastic to see this research come together! These questions can be addressed with significantly higher certainty using pathogen paleogenomics as shown here.

Andrew Curry @spoke32.bsky.social · Dec 18

It's a debate that's raged for more than 500 years: Where did syphilis, first reported in Europe in 1494, originate? DNA from ancient bones, analyzed by @jrockdrigo.bsky.social and colleagues, may help close the case. @science.org

Syphilis microbe circulated in the Americas thousands of years before European contact

But ancient DNA from bony lesions suggests original bacterial strains may not have spread sexually

www.science.org

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Health Nerd @gidmk.bsky.social · Dec 17

Nearly five years after publication, and after 4,000 retractions, the paper that sparked the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19 has been retracted.

The publisher cites a range of scientific and ethical concerns.

I have some thoughts 1/n

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Alida de Flamingh @adeflamingh.bsky.social · Dec 18

Using hair found in the teeth of the infamous lions named the "Tsavo Man-Eater's," scientists uncover their diet consisted of humans, giraffes, and more. @currentbiology.bsky.social

www.cell.com/current-biol...

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · Dec 10

Beautiful paper from the Elizabeth Winzeler laboratory at UC San Diego out today in Science building a predictive model of malaria drug resistance by analyzing the genomes of 724 parasite genomes evolved in the lab to resist one of 118 different antimalarial compounds

today.ucsd.edu/story/a-new-...

A New Approach to Predicting Malaria Drug Resistance

Researchers at UC San Diego analyzed the genomes of hundreds of malaria parasites to determine which genetic variants are most likely to confer drug resistance.

today.ucsd.edu

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · Dec 6

Host specificity can be a super complex phenotype so to see such a clear example of a single mutation driving the shift is both fascinating and worrying!

Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · Dec 5

New @science.org
from my Scripps Research colleagues on H5N1
A single mutation can increase the virus's binding to human receptors, highlighting the need for rigorous surveillance
science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · Dec 4

My sister’s got an epic new paper out!

She’s a PhD candidate working on infectious diseases, including this work on malaria therapeutics:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Potent AMA1-specific human monoclonal antibody against Plasmodium vivax Pre-erythrocytic and Blood Stages - Nature Communications

Here the authors isolate monoclonal antibodies specific for Plasmodium vivax apical membrane antigen 1, and characterize the epitope of one antibody that inhibits invasion of reticulocytes and hepatoc...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Maggie Steiner @maggiesteiner.bsky.social · Dec 4

Excited to share a new preprint with @jnovembre.bsky.social ! We use a combination of population genetic theory, simulation, and data analysis to ask: how does study design in genetic studies (including biobanks) impact the discovery of rare, deleterious variants?

bioRxiv Genetics @biorxiv-genetic.bsky.social · Dec 2

Study design and the sampling of deleterious rare variants in biobank-scale datasets https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626424v1

One key component of study design in population genetics is the "geographic breadth" of a sample (i.

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Meghie Rodrigues @meghier.bsky.social · Nov 26

Thank you so much to whoever put this very comprehensive list of #science Bsky starter packs together. This is just amazing: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Starter packs

BIOLOGY General Science community https://go.bsky.app/HVYAMEA Research Institutions in Life Sciences https://go.bsky.app/LxXpcvJ LGBTQIA+ in STEM https://go.bsky.app/BFc4wgf LGBTQIA+ in STEM 2 h...

docs.google.com

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Katherine McVay @katherinemcvay.bsky.social · Dec 3

Love to see genomics and linguistics analyzed together! Cool paper importantly demonstrating how ancient DNA can answer questions in other disciplines. #aDNA

bioRxiv Genetics @biorxiv-genetic.bsky.social · Dec 2

Ancient genomics support deep divergence between Eastern and Western Mediterranean Indo-European languages https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.02.626332v1

The Indo-European languages are among the most widely spoken in the world, yet their early diversifi

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

Gen Wojcik @genandgenes.bsky.social · Dec 2

Work by PhD student @jayatirsharma.bsky.social on how grouping Hispanic/Latino participants into a single group can obfuscate substantial substructure, leading to false conclusions.

We show how heterogeneity by background group wrt genetic ancestry and environment can affect genetic risk models.

Jayati Sharma, PhD, ScM @jayatirsharma.bsky.social · Dec 2

New preprint! Within the HCHS/SOL study, we looked at the roles of self-identified background and genetic ancestry in describing GxE interactions of a PGS and sociocultural variables in a Hispanic/Latino population. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Influence of Genetic Ancestry on Gene-Environment Interactions of Polygenic Risk and Sociocultural Factors: Results from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos

Background Many present analyses of Hispanic/Latino populations in epidemiologic research aggregate all members of this ethnic group, despite immense diversity in genetic backgrounds, environment, and...

www.medrxiv.org

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Reposted by Katherine McVay

bioRxiv Genomics @biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social · Dec 2

A forest is more than its trees: haplotypes and inferred ARGs https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.30.626138v1

Foreshadowing haplotype-based methods of the genomics era, it is an old observation that the ``junct

www.biorxiv.org

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