Public Health Genetics PhD; Stat/Pop Gen. Computational evolutionary genomics and diversity. Ethical, legal, and social implications (ELSI). Black Lives Matter.
UCDavis Public Health Sciences
Joined March 2016
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Thanks so much @GenomicsNZ and @CartneyAnn for hosting me (and @NanibaaGarrison) yesterday.
It was an honor to present our work on the embedded ELSI team of the US @HumanPangenome project.
Our key question for you (and now Twitter): What makes a research partner TRUSTWORTHY?
Yikes! I wonder what part(s) of my genome encode social privilege, and those amazing mentoring relationships that helped me realize my potential as an academic researcher…? Holy hell we need to wake up and smell the wishful thinking amidst wafts of putrid familial confounding.
1/ Excited to share our new #GWAS preprint on the genetics of occupational status using data from @uk_biobank that finally completes the genomic SES-triad of Education, Income, and Occupation! Find the preprint here: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… 🧬📊👩🏫👨🔧👩💼
All about gratitude …
A famous researcher predicts divorce with 91% accuracy.
He invented a game to protect against the #1 relationship killer.
Here it is (in 3 minutes):
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Saving for late-night 👩💻
I needed to generate ROC curves for several multinomial {brms} models in #rstats, but couldn't find an off-the-shelf function for it.
I used {tidybayes} and {yardstick} to generate ROC curves from the expected posterior predictions. Still in progress!
gist.github.com/gongcastro/0…
ALT Bayesian ROC curves
“Perhaps the most long-standing failure within genomics research is the lack of studies in populations of non-European ancestry, mirroring the systemic bias in biomedical research and society at large.” TY @genandgenes for dropping much-needed truth bombs, as usual!
As a preview for the recent Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative (GBMI) pubs, I wrote an epidemiologist's bingo card of:
🪐Why sample size matters (or doesn't)
✨How we're doing better on diversity (or aren't)
🏔What "tall" data will offer (or won't)
authors.elsevier.com/a/1fzsZ…
Yes!!! This is so well-articulated and necessary. Timing couldn’t be better as we determine the next set of samples to sequence #T2T from 1KG dataset for the US @HumanPangenome Project. Congrats @HennLab & colleagues. THANK YOU for fab visual on genomic diversity across Africa!
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Same :/ And it’s not just tech bros. I’ve noticed the only people who don’t bat an eye have mothers who are/were in academia. So…here’s hoping for the next generation? 🙏🏽
When I tell a tech bro that I am a professor of statistics, they often immediately inform me that I am a teacher professor, not a researcher professor. I say no, I am a professor professor, I do research and teach, but mostly research. Then they tell me- oh but I’m an UNDERGRAD
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Or maybe we could just let that whole a$$ word retire, like it’s creepy 300-year-old ancestor from Linnaean taxonomy (« Caucasoid » alongside its disturbing companions « Mongoloid » and « Negroid »). No one is biologically Caucasian; it’s just not a thing. nature.com/articles/d41586-0…
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Just putting this out there…to the top of the feed… Slack or Twitter DM me if you need a response and your outgoing email has slipped through my window of discovery-panic-response while scrolling down in my inbox for >60 seconds. So, give or take, three days ago 🫠
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We need to get our priorities straight. Public health principles are completely missing from U.S. budgeting. Resources abound for global destruction, but not clean water, affordable housing & food, health services, childcare, education? Taxes should pay for these things. Not war.
Amazing, congratulations!!! Very well deserved :)
Last week I transitioned from postdoc to professor! I am honored to have had four wonderful years as a postdoc @StanfordBioethx with the best mentors @hollyktabor and @mildredkcho I learned so much about #Bioethics and #ELSI of #Genetics #Genomics! Pic is 1st quarter @StanfordMed
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@genandgenes for the 🥇
OK BUT HERITABILITY IS NOT A STATIC MEASURE OF HOW GENETIC A TRAIT IS BUT A PROPORTION OF THE VARIANCE SO IT ISN'T RELEVANT AT AN INDIVIDUAL LEVEL AND IF THE ENVIRONMENT CHANGES THE HERITABILITY CAN CHANGE TOO BECAUSE IT TURNS OUT WE DON'T LIVE IN A BUBBLE AND GENES AND ENVIRONM–
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This was a fantastic talk. We’re using contingency tables and hierarchical clustering to map different measures of diversity to HLA variation @jillahjillah @martinmaiers NMDP. Thank you @SherlockpHolmes for laying out the background with such clarity and depth- I learned a lot!
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@daphmarts says funding agencies should require societal impact statements as part of the grant application process. Publishers could require statements in which scientists describe their personal motivations to pursue their study aims. We have a responsibility to prevent harms.
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This sounds like a great opportunity for those pursuing an academic career in Public Health Genetics: Open Position, Assistant/Associate Professor @UPitt cfopitt.taleo.net/careersect…
Important and also sharing with a *trigger warning*. Trying to balance the need to be informed with a desire to stay sane as a woman in this climate feels impossible. Make careful choices about the content you expose yourself to, but also—don’t stick your head in the sand 🤷🏼♀️😞
The power of an educated women to describe our history in terms we never learned in school. Thank you - but makes this week even more troubling.
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Very excited to announce the first session in an important #ELSIconversations series hosted by @ELSIhub and organized by the @ClinGenResource Ancestry & Diversity WG! Please REGISTER TODAY and join us for a conversation about population descriptors on clinical genetics test forms
Apr 29, 12-1pm ET: Shedding Light on the Use of Population Descriptors in Clinical #Genetics, Session 1 of 3 in the new #ELSIconversations series, featuring @AlicePopejoy, @gillianhoo, & @hannah_wand, moderated by @mildredkcho. Learn more & register here: elsihub.org/event/shedding-l…
ALT Black background with light grey network imagery overlaid. Text on image: Shedding Light on the Use of Population Descriptors in Clinical Genetics April 29, 2022 12pm ET/9am PT brought to you by ELSIconversations
Congratulations on getting this out to the masses! We have got to get this right or we’re doomed to repeat bad science while perpetuating myths of biological racism using genetic data and flawed statistical reasoning. We must do better than the Eugenicists who started this field.
1/14 Out today in @ScienceMagazine GETTING GENETIC ANCESTRY RIGHT FOR SCIENCE AND SOCIETY, in which we argue for the scientific and ethical imperative to move away from the use of continental ancestry categories. A 🧵 science.org/doi/10.1126/scie…
Interesting question from @martinmaiers on the preferred terminology for ‘non-whites’ in a non-scientific context. My feeling is that this should be avoided bc it perpetuates black&white thinking and narratives. Would love to hear perspectives from those more qualified to answer.
It is often helpful to ask WHY one is making this distinction. Such broad generalizations rarely hold true. If it’s about group representation, perhaps: ‘underrepresented’ or ‘excluded’. Health equity? Maybe ‘underserved’. The focus should be on structures & systems — not people.