New video feature on our work by the Blavatnik Foundation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCNo...
11.03.2026 10:31
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New video feature on our work by the Blavatnik Foundation. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCNo...
Applications welcome to be a PhD-student in my ancient DNA research programme at @crick.ac.uk:
🏰 Ancient human history in Europe and beyond.
⚕️ Statistical genetics to understand human biology with ancient genomes.
🦠 Pathogen genomics of past infections.
Apply at www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-...
Very interesting perspective article by @caina89.bsky.social et al on genetic studies in psychiatry.
The authors argue that studies increasingly rely on "shallow" phenotyping (self-reported), leading to biases in estimation of genetic relationships between disorders.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
At least we know the rest of the year will be uneventful...? 🙃
This is great stuff. Huge difference in SPPV proportion between teeth and petrosals, very useful to see the matched comparison of elements from the same individuals.
Researchers discovered early signs of domestication by analysing the remains of two wolves who lived in modern-day Sweden 3-5,000 years ago.
www.crick.ac.uk/news/2025-11...
It was great to work with @flinklinus.bsky.social, @anders-bergstrom.bsky.social Jan Storå, Erik Ersmark, @lovedalen.bsky.social, Anders Götherström and everyone else on this! Thanks to funders @scilifelab.se, @erc.europa.eu, @ukri.org and @crick.ac.uk.
Open access: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
One wolf had survived a crippling injury, and had low genetic diversity on par with dogs.
These observations are consistent with human control, but other scenarios are hard to rule out. Regardless, to me they shift the dial to make the "taming" hypothesis of dog origins more plausible.
🐺 Wolves in dog's clothing 🐺
Our latest in @pnas.org uncovers a surprise three to five thousand years ago: 2 canids in human contexts on a tiny island in the middle of the Baltic Sea, that ate marine food—but had 100% gray wolf ancestry.
Where they tame wolves, or even an incipient domestication?
Speakers included @chrisbstringer.bsky.social, @ceciliapad.bsky.social, @moorjanipriya.bsky.social, @stephanepeyregne.bsky.social, @mathiesoniain.bsky.social @marinasdsilva.bsky.social, and @lucyvandorp.bsky.social .
Last week we had a great meeting on "Ancient genomes: perspectives on human biology and medicine" at the @royalsociety.org and the @crick.ac.uk.
It was an amazing set of talks and posters. Thanks to the @gensocuk.bsky.social, co-host @janetk.bsky.social and all participants for a great day!
‼️📢 Neandertal as prey‼️
We demonstrated selective cannibalism behavior at the end of the Middle Palaeolithic in Northern Europe
#Neandertal #Prehistory #Cannibalism #MiddlePaleolithic #Goyet
Degraded DNA will be riddled with errors, mutations happening after death.
Polygenic risk for the psychiatric conditions quoted in the media campaign is driven by rare variants of big effect.
A potential problem could thus be uncorrected errors artefactually increasing the AH DNA risk estimate.
More information at www.embl.org/about/info/c...
Speakers include @lucyvandorp.bsky.social @helenfewlass.bsky.social @evanirvingpease.bsky.social @mitopr.bsky.social @lauritsskov.bsky.social and many more.
The 2026 EMBL symposium 'Reconstructing the human past using ancient and modern genomics' is live with a fantastic invited speaker lineup!
Abstract deadline 9 June. If work is ongoing, plan for Heidelberg in September😉.
Organised by Maanasa Raghavan, @matejahajdi.bsky.social, Choongwon Jeong & me.
A PhD project on historical genomics in the declining red squirrel in Britain is available in my group, through the @aries-dtp.bsky.social. Use historical genomes to track the effects of decline and genetic rescue in this charismatic species. aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...
I’m not an expert on polygenic scores for mental health, but a concern I would have is whether something has gone wrong with the genotyping, leading to misestimated polygenic scores that look extreme.
In particular, the claims that “[Hitler’s polygenic] score for schizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder was actually higher than 99% of the individuals.” and " It is also rare to have a high polygenic risk score for all three conditions" strike me as strange.
I think we can say confidently that there is zero scientific value in such 'celebrity' genomes, notorious or otherwise, and probably little or no historical value either.
As I told the CNN, without details and data it is not possible to assess the claims.
More importantly, the scientific value of this media campaign, balanced against the possible stigmatization of individuals with these real conditions today, is highly questionable. edition.cnn.com/2025/11/13/s...
Correct
Seems not be controlled with estimated PRSs for similarly lower-quality genomes. For 80-year old blood from a sofa, what is the X-fold coverage and genotyping strategy?
If there is a higher error rate than the modern panel, then the scores for rare-variant-driven traits like this could be inflated.
Ok thanks Adam...
Where is the technical information available?
Just a few weeks left to apply for our clinical PhD programme.
We're looking for clinicians who are passionate about research to join the 3-year fully funded programme.
Learn more and see what positions are available ⬇️
www.crick.ac.uk/careers-and-...
In case you missed it, catch the Question of Science podcast on ancient DNA on your favorite platform. We cover why ancient DNA studies can make a difference not only to understanding history, but also health and disease.
Are you obsessed with archaeological or historical questions and easily get into coding?
Or a computational scientist that want to understand biology and disease evolution, and curious about the ancient past?
If you have these or other burning questions that fits into our programme, apply below!
We have an exciting line-up of speakers already confirmed for our Ancient Genomes meeting in November. If you want to be one of the speakers or present a poster, submit your abstract by 31 July!
genetics.org.uk/events/ancie...
Join us at the The Francis Crick Institute for a lecture by the one and only Svante Pääbo on November 13.
The next day, join us for a symposium at the Royal Society featuring Svante and many others.
Episode graphic titled “Why Does Ancient DNA Matter?” featuring several speakers and a large question mark background.
NEW EPISODE: Who are our ancestors and why does it matter?
Join our expert panellists as they answer audience questions about ancient DNA.
Listen on your favourite podcast platform: lnk.to/AQOSAncientD...