Way to go Ricky & Nandita! It was such a joy to hear about this work developing and now to see it finally out! I remember, Nandita, that you pitched this in your chalk talk during your interview way back when:)
New research in #GENETICS from @azurita.bsky.social, Christopher Kyriazis, and @klohmueller.bsky.social demonstrates how unmodeled selection on synonymous mutations may affect downstream inferences of the distribution of fitness effects. buff.ly/IDY87W1
Apple pie and page proofs are a good start to the week after a holiday weekend!😀
Lastly, I’m excited to (belatedly) announce that as of July, I am the Director of the Bioinformatics IDP at UCLA and am also the Interim Home Area Director for Bioinformatics. I’m grateful to have the chance to help steer our graduate programs through this critical challenging juncture. (3/3)
Learn about our three training Home Areas within the Bioinformatics Interdepartmental PhD (program (IDP). These include Bioinformatics, Medical Informatics, and Systems Biology. We’ll provide information to help you decide which Home Area to apply to. (2/3)
Interested in learning more about PhD programs in computational biology and genomics at UCLA? Join our virtual Open House on Monday, Nov 3 at 1:30pm. More info: bioinformatics.ucla.edu/event/gpb-vi... (1/3)
It could be quite the day!
In the midst of the darkness, I am pleased to announce that UCLA will be hosting the upcoming Southern California Evolutionary Genetics (SCalE) conference on November 1! Registration & abstract submission is here: www.scalemeeting.org/home Deadline is October 13! Hope to see you at UCLA!
Genome-wide associations of fitness components reveal antagonistic pleiotropy and sexual conflict in the Florida Scrub-Jay https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.09.673786v1
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!
This is a perfect example of how IS science is being destroyed. I hope you write about it somewhere with higher visibility
lol! Love it!😀
That's a cool idea! BTW, this our paper I was referring to: www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... Though we called our stat ID_risk, and it combines pi within non-ROHs with FROH.
Is this a subtweet of our recent paper😂?
Information on Jonah’s talk: Domestication genomics of the society finch (Wed, August 13 at 11:30-11:45 am), Genomics 2, Room Grand C
Info on Jenna’s talk: is structural white color rare in birds? Wednesday Aug 13 at 11:30-11:45, in Grand Ballroom A
Info on Devon’s talk: How are new species formed on islands? Superficial signals of sympatric ecological speciation actually result from massive and ongoing gene flow; Thursday, August 14 at 2:45-3:00pm, Room Grand F
Info on Claire’s poster: Strong selection maintains a narrow, stable avian tension zone in the Great Plains; Wednesday evening from 7-9pm, Poster Number 2
Excited to be heading to St. Louis for #AOS2025! Be on the lookout for talks from our lab!:
- Jenna McCullough (PD) and Jonah Alderson (grad) are up against each other on Wed. morning
- Claire Geiman (grad) will present a poster Wed evening
- Devon DeRaad (PD) will give a talk on Thur afternoon
Congratulations!!!!
Symposium 17: Thematic symposium: regulatory genomics and non-coding elements
#SMBE2025
Come join us at UCLA!!! We have a growing population genetics community here and Nandita and her lab are outstanding!
Having major FOMO about #SMBE2025 in my hometown… but I’m very proud that my postdoc, Susanna Gutierrez, will be presenting our work on inferring the selection history of adaptive introgression candidates in Peruvians at poster S12-P19. Please visit her during poster session 3 if you're interested!
Sad to be missing #SMBE2025. But, the lab will be represented with presentations from (all on Wednesday):
Swetha Ramesh (at 11:50 in Symp 17, Noncoding)
Chenlu Di (at 12:05 in Symp 17, Noncoding)
Diana A Gomez (at 15:45 in Symp 19, Con Gen)
Aina Mi Zurita (at 16:40 in Symp 22, Theory Adv)
Congratulations Ran!!!🥳
Congratulations Joana!!!!😀🥳
Schlichta, Peischl & Excoffier reveal how purifying selection on deleterious mutations impacts diversity: while codominant variants create diversity dips, recessive mutations can preserve diversity in bottlenecks through pseudo-overdominance.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf107
#genome #evolution
Kirk with large barrel.
Castle and ruins. But still here. Perhaps a metaphor..
Heidelberg overlooking the Neckar River.
Kirk at Bruce Springsteen concert.
Bruce Springsteen.
Kirk and kids at Bruce Springsteen concert.
Heidelberg castle.
Quick visit to Heidelberg and Frankfurt to visit family and Bruce Springsteen….this helped refresh my soul in these bizarre and trying times.
I hope you feel better soon! I'm sorry we gave you such a yucky souvenir from your visit!
Kirk standing with Bruce Springsteen at his concert at the Kia Forum in LA in 2024.
Thank you @brucespringsteen.net for (yet again) meeting the moment and speaking up for America in these dangerous times...and giving us some hope in the Promised Land.
Tonight, Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band opened their Land of Hope & Dreams Tour. Bruce launched this run of shows with three statements about the situation in the United States, with comments preceding his songs Land of Hope and Dreams, House of a Thousand Guitars and My City of Ruins.
This made me smile, thank you!😀 The last few weeks have definitely felt like The Bear. Also submitting a proposal too! It's been oddly rejuvenating for my soul to be moving projects over the finish line with all the awfulness RE science funding going on....
Conference organizers with Mark Stoneking
Thank you @martamlahr.bsky.social @lquintanamurci.bsky.social @aliceleplongeon.bsky.social @cschlebu.bsky.social for organizing a such a fantastic mtg!!! Lots of great science and fun!😃👏 #HumanEvo25
