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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 23h

Just saw this post- congrats Mitchell! 🥳

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 1d

Finally, thank you to @naltemose.bsky.social for help accessing his DiMeLo dataset!

Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 1d

Analysis of duplicated and adjacent regions points to altered genome positional effects as a likely larger contributor. We also generated two useful long-read Kinnex datasets from SHSY5Y & GM12878, validating ancestral paralogs generally maintain highest expression across hundreds of gene families.

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 1d

Happy to share work spearheaded by former grad student Colin Shew testing shared duplicated cis regulatory elements (CREs) using an MPRA. While we find some high effect CREs, collectively paralog differences represent modest effects accounting for observed gene expression divergence.

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

Influence of cis-regulatory elements on regulatory divergence in human segmental duplications https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.680410v1

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution @official-smbe.bsky.social · 7d

🔁 Please share - we remind the SMBE community that the Call for Symposia for SMBE2026 in Copenhagen is open.

We invite you to submit a symposium proposal to help shape the scientific content of our annual meeting.

🗓️ Deadline: October 15th

More information: smbe2026.org/symposia

#SMBE2026

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Jeremy BOO! Yoder 🎃💀🕷️ @jbyoder.org · 12d

Really cool, conceptually simple approach here: cross-referencing grant proposal scores with literature citations and explicit acknowledgments in drug patents to identify patents linked to projects that wouldn't have been funded given a smaller budget

Drug Monkey @drugmonkey.bsky.social · 12d

This may be the most important paper ever published about NIH funded research.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

What if NIH had been 40% smaller?

Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research

www.science.org

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 12d

link to paper! www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Human-specific gene expansions contribute to brain evolution

A complete human genome and functional modeling in zebrafish pinpoint gene expansions that may underlie the evolutionary innovations of the human brain.

www.cell.com

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 12d

While I'm sad our cover submission wasn't selected for our recent human duplication paper, check out the super cool illustration created with @lazaroillustration.bsky.social ! Certainly, you will be seeing Dennis lab members running around with "fishman" t-shirts at future meetings, inspired by Ohno

Javier Lazaro - illustration @lazaroillustration.bsky.social · 13d

"Fishman", proposal for a journal cover.
Commissioned by MY Dennis' lab @mydennis.bsky.social for a study focused on identifying human-specific gene duplications and their role in brain evolution using genomics and zebrafish as model. @dcsoto.bsky.social
#art #digitalart #sciart #fish

Illustration of a fishman creature with human limbs and fish head and tail, interacting with a DNA string

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 17d

Bike Life GIF

Alt: Bike Life GIF

media.tenor.com

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · 17d

Lab outing 😍

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Suel-Kee Kim @suelkeekim.bsky.social · 28d

Excited to share our recent study on human-specific features of the cerebellum and the unexpected, novel role of zona pellucida protein 2 (ZP2) in synapse development. Grateful to the Sestan lab and all our collaborators for their outstanding contributions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Human-specific features of the cerebellum and ZP2-regulated synapse development

Understanding the unique features of the human brain compared to non-human primates has long intrigued humankind. The cerebellum refines motor coordination and cognitive functions, contributing to the...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Ardem Patapoutian @ardemp.bskyverified.social · 20d

New preprint alert! The uterus expands ~500-fold in pregnancy, yet we know little about how pressures are sensed. Led by @yunxiao-dr.bsky.social, we show PIEZOs are required for contractions and birth in mice, with dual roles of PIEZO1 in muscle and PIEZO2 in neurons
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

PIEZO channels link mechanical forces to uterine contractions in parturition

Mechanical forces are extensively involved in pregnancy and parturition, but their precise roles and mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we identify mechanically activated ion channels PIEZO1 a...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Marc Tollis @marcanthonytollis.bsky.social · Sep 5

bsky.app/profile/marc...

Marc Tollis @marcanthonytollis.bsky.social · Sep 5

New lab preprint! Vahid Fard looked across mammals and found that species with more recently active LINE and SINE retrotransposons in their genomes also get more cancer, supporting a model where genome instability promotes neoplasia and malignancy

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Aida Andres @aidaandres.bsky.social · 27d

Jasmin Rees PhD chapter as a paper just out at the AJHG @ajhgnews.bsky.social, with Sergi Castellano, who first envisioned the study. Jas investigated signatures of human local genetic adaptation in hundreds of micronutrient-associated genes.

The American Journal of Human Genetics @ajhgnews.bsky.social · 27d

📣New from @aidaandres.bsky.social & co
📄Global impact of micronutrients in modern human evolution

Global impact of micronutrients in modern human evolution

In this study, Rees et al. evaluate the role of dietary micronutrients in driving local genetic adaptation and population differentiation in humans. The authors find evidence that micronutrient-associ...

www.cell.com

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · Jul 31

😭 ooh that had to hurt

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · Jul 31

Juice from a grilled jalapeño once squirted directly into my eye, and I’ve never experienced such pain. I essentially pepper sprayed myself.

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · Jul 31

Thank you Sil!

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Lindsay Rizzardi, PhD @lrizzardi.bsky.social · Jul 25

Privileged to have had the opportunity to advocate for biomedical research funding in #Congress yesterday! It was an honor to represent the @geneticssociety.bsky.social alongside my amazing colleagues @gregorylab.bskyverified.social and #JillFahrner! 🔬 🧠🧬
#ASHG #Genetics #ResearchMatters

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · Jul 26

A recent paper reveals a surprising insight. The length of the cell cycle in a particular tissue determines the oncogenic transformation capacity of particular oncogenes, with tissues with shorter cell cycles most susceptible 3/n

Cell cycle duration determines oncogenic transformation capacity

Danian Chen, Suying Lu, Katherine Huang, Joel D. Pearson, Marek Pacal, Phillipos Peidis, Sean McCurdy, Tao Yu, Monika Sangwan, Angela Nguyen, Philippe P. Monnier, Daniel Schramek, Liang Zhu, David Santamaria, Mariano Barbacid, Nagako Akeno, Kathryn A. Wikenheiser-Brokamp & Rod Bremner

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-08935-x

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Megan Dennis @mydennis.bsky.social · Jul 26

Great work! Super useful resource. Thank you, team!

Reposted by Megan Dennis

KF McReynolds @feministscientist.bsky.social · Jul 26

Happy Birthday, Rosalind Franklin. She captured an X-ray diffraction image of DNA and stated that a helical structure was probable. Watson and Crick then created a detailed model based on her results. They initially received credit for the discovery and were awarded the Nobel Prize after her death.🧪

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Reposted by Megan Dennis

Rajiv McCoy @rajivmccoy.bsky.social · Mar 3

In work led by @lalli.bsky.social, we present recombination maps and a diverse haplotype reference panel (1000 Genomes Project) for the T2T-CHM13 human reference genome. These resources improve the accuracy of phasing and imputation, especially around common CNVs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...