Here is a shameless plug for my first postdoc paper, a big collaboration with lots of cool people at UCSC, particularly co-first author Chloe Orland.

Read it to learn about abalone, population bottlenecks, IBD (or lack thereof), and chrom. inversions!
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…

So as Carl Veller & I discuss in our article, while within family-study effect-size estimates for single SNPs are interpretable, the interpretation of the within-family regression of trait value on PGS is more challenging due to confounding.

Thanks to Alexander Strudwick Young for this useful commentary on our paper. As Alex’s piece highlights, family studies are a great way forward. But as he also notes, one issue is that confounding (e.g. AM or env) can be baked into the polygenic scores that are subsequently used within-fam

To accompany Carl Veller and Graham Coop's recent article in PLOS Biology, I wrote an accessible primer on family-based genome-wide association studies:

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) can be affected by confounding. Family-based GWAS uses random, within-family genetic…

.Carl Veller & Graham Coop present a theoretical analysis of the influence of #confounders in population- & family-based #GWAS , showing that family-based studies, though more rigorous, still carry subtle issues that arise from confounding. #PLOSBiology plos.io/3Qmu2hF

Congratulations to Carl Veller on the publication of his article on confounding in population and family GWAS PLOS Biology

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/ar…

New lab preprint by John McAuley : the genetic architecture of recombination rates is sexually-dimorphic and polygenic in wild house sparrows. What have we found…? A 🧵👇 (Image:Tilly (Matilda S) Scott)
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Congratulations to Jeff Groh on the publication of
'The temporal and genomic scale of selection following hybridization' showing how wavelets an be used to determine the timing of selection & drift during hybridization
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

Fwd: Job: IndianaU.LabTech.PheromoneEvolution ift.tt/n2NLFRi

Hey ya'll. Our paper on the phenotypic consequences of intraspecific variation in repeat content and genome size was published over the holidays. Check it out when you get back to work :)

journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/a…

Just in time for the holidays, Jeff Groh cracks the story of ancient balanced polymorphisms for heterodichogamy (male vs female flower order) in walnuts & pecans
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Now online Evolution Journal! academic.oup.com/evolut/advance…

Our first inking that something might be amiss with the accepted story of maize origins occurred 13 years ago. Thanks to the efforts of Ning Yang those hints from long ago are now a new model of maize origins, out today: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

I’m looking for a postdoc to work in theoretical population genetics. Come join our awesome community in lovely Chicago. More info here: voices.uchicago.edu/steinrueckenla…

This was an extremely thought-provoking paper — highly recommended! It's so good to see causal frameworks being applied to GWAS.

Family-based GWAS have become the gold standard for assessing causal genetic effects. They’re often said to offer an unbiased estimate of the average causal effect (ATE) of an allele or PGS. Here, we (Carl Veller Molly Przeworski) evaluate such statements.
biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 1

Just re-upping this to say that I'm recruiting PhD students this fall! Please get in touch if you're interested in sexual selection, genetic conflict, sexual antagonism & sexual dimorphism, sex-determining systems, or any related topics in evolutionary theory! #newPI

Recruiting students and postdocs for work at the intersection of population, statistical and quantitative genetics.
Exciting science, awesome people, lots of fun!

yuvalsimons.org/join-us

I'm thrilled to announce that I've joined the Section of Genetic Medicine at the University of Chicago as an assistant professor! The Simons lab is officially open!

yuvalsimons.org