Ewan Birney
@ewanbirney.bsky.social
Executive Director EMBL. I have an insatiable love of biology. Consultant to ONT and Cantata (Dovetail)
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Today, on World #ScienceDay for Peace and Development, we are joining our EIROforum partners in celebrating how science contributes to society 🌎
Thanks to you, we are able to develop new technologies and make discoveries that help address some of today’s most pressing challenges.
Thanks to you, we are able to develop new technologies and make discoveries that help address some of today’s most pressing challenges.
🌎 On World Science Day for Peace and Development, senior leaders across EIROforum thank citizens for their trust and support.
Peer Bork from EMBL talks about how trust and support helps bring scientists in different disciplines together to make the world a better place for generations to come.
Peer Bork from EMBL talks about how trust and support helps bring scientists in different disciplines together to make the world a better place for generations to come.
November 10, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Today, on World #ScienceDay for Peace and Development, we are joining our EIROforum partners in celebrating how science contributes to society 🌎
Thanks to you, we are able to develop new technologies and make discoveries that help address some of today’s most pressing challenges.
Thanks to you, we are able to develop new technologies and make discoveries that help address some of today’s most pressing challenges.
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Just starting a “House of Guinness” binge, please tell me there is a Student’s T-test plot line?
November 8, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Just starting a “House of Guinness” binge, please tell me there is a Student’s T-test plot line?
Inspired by the AI conference hosted by the Danish Presidency of the EU I've written a probably too long piece about my own shift from a multi-variate/bayesian genomicist to an AI aligned genomicist / biologist.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/though...
www.linkedin.com/pulse/though...
Thoughts on AI, Take 2
Further thoughts about AI brought together for me by the AI Science Summit organized by the European Commission and the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU 2025 - in lovely Copenhagen - this ti...
www.linkedin.com
November 7, 2025 at 5:40 PM
Inspired by the AI conference hosted by the Danish Presidency of the EU I've written a probably too long piece about my own shift from a multi-variate/bayesian genomicist to an AI aligned genomicist / biologist.
www.linkedin.com/pulse/though...
www.linkedin.com/pulse/though...
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Julie Ahringer from @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social @geneticscam.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk gives talk on decoding genome regulation during development. Exploring how chromatin accessibility changes throughout development enable single cells to become multicellular organisms.
November 7, 2025 at 1:48 PM
Julie Ahringer from @gurdoninstitute.bsky.social @geneticscam.bsky.social @cam.ac.uk gives talk on decoding genome regulation during development. Exploring how chromatin accessibility changes throughout development enable single cells to become multicellular organisms.
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Our CEO Prof Sir Rory Collins was speaking at an event at the Labour Party Conference with @zoegrunewald.bsky.social, Andrew McCracken, Nadeem Sarwar & @joshfg.bsky.social MP, a member of the Health and Social Care Committee.
🗞️ Read here: www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/he... by Phin Foster
🗞️ Read here: www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/he... by Phin Foster
Joining the dots through predictive prevention
Predictive prevention could transform healthcare – but only if data, trust and policy align
www.newstatesman.com
November 7, 2025 at 12:12 PM
Our CEO Prof Sir Rory Collins was speaking at an event at the Labour Party Conference with @zoegrunewald.bsky.social, Andrew McCracken, Nadeem Sarwar & @joshfg.bsky.social MP, a member of the Health and Social Care Committee.
🗞️ Read here: www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/he... by Phin Foster
🗞️ Read here: www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/he... by Phin Foster
Reposted by Ewan Birney
💬 “The data is already there, we just need to bring it together.”
The @newstatesman1913.bsky.social reports on the incredible potential of bringing hospital and primary care data together for preventative medicine - and how it could transform healthcare. 🔽
The @newstatesman1913.bsky.social reports on the incredible potential of bringing hospital and primary care data together for preventative medicine - and how it could transform healthcare. 🔽
November 7, 2025 at 12:12 PM
💬 “The data is already there, we just need to bring it together.”
The @newstatesman1913.bsky.social reports on the incredible potential of bringing hospital and primary care data together for preventative medicine - and how it could transform healthcare. 🔽
The @newstatesman1913.bsky.social reports on the incredible potential of bringing hospital and primary care data together for preventative medicine - and how it could transform healthcare. 🔽
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Excited to share our latest work on the factors that determine what genes we find (and don't find!) in GWAS and burden tests.
We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.
Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi:
We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.
Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi:
How do GWAS and rare variant burden tests rank gene signals?
In new work @nature.com with @hakha.bsky.social, @jkpritch.bsky.social, and our wonderful coauthors we find that the key factors are what we call Specificity, Length, and Luck!
🧬🧪🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
In new work @nature.com with @hakha.bsky.social, @jkpritch.bsky.social, and our wonderful coauthors we find that the key factors are what we call Specificity, Length, and Luck!
🧬🧪🧵
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Specificity, length and luck drive gene rankings in association studies - Nature
Genetic association tests prioritize candidate genes based on different criteria.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Excited to share our latest work on the factors that determine what genes we find (and don't find!) in GWAS and burden tests.
We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.
Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi:
We describe a critical concept that we call *specificity*.
Led by Jeff Spence and Hakhamanesh Mostafavi:
Reposted by Ewan Birney
The rapid growth in Mendelian randomization studies. Gibran Hemani, Stefan Stender, Frank J. Wolters, Albert Hofman & George Davey Smith. European Journal of Epidemiology. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
The rapid growth in Mendelian randomization studies - European Journal of Epidemiology
European Journal of Epidemiology -
link.springer.com
November 6, 2025 at 2:20 PM
The rapid growth in Mendelian randomization studies. Gibran Hemani, Stefan Stender, Frank J. Wolters, Albert Hofman & George Davey Smith. European Journal of Epidemiology. link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Great work by Nicola De Maio and Nick Goldman - not just scaleable to "pandemic scale" trees but - if I have got this right - arguably more valid than traditional column based bootstrap in the context of very tight evolution.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the millions of viral genomes coming in overwhelmed traditional methods for data analysis.
Find out how SPRTA, a new tool, provides a fast, scalable way to measure confidence of phylogenetic trees, helping scientists track outbreaks.
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/t...
Find out how SPRTA, a new tool, provides a fast, scalable way to measure confidence of phylogenetic trees, helping scientists track outbreaks.
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/news/t...
SPRTA: a smarter way to measure evolution uncertainty
A new method from EMBL-EBI and collaborators offers fast, easy-to-interpret confidence scores for phylogenetic trees for pandemic preparedness.
www.ebi.ac.uk
November 5, 2025 at 10:33 PM
Great work by Nicola De Maio and Nick Goldman - not just scaleable to "pandemic scale" trees but - if I have got this right - arguably more valid than traditional column based bootstrap in the context of very tight evolution.
Reposted by Ewan Birney
New 🧬✂️ pre-print! We show that paired prime editing can efficiently generate large deletions — even >1 Mb — with high precision and at scale. We use this to perform the first pooled prime deletion screen across the human genome.
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread (by Juliane Weller)👇
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread (by Juliane Weller)👇
Generating long deletions across the genome with pooled paired prime editing screens
Engineered deletions are a powerful probe for studying genome architecture, function, and regulation. Yet, the lack of effective methods to create them in large numbers and at multi-kilobase scale has...
biorxiv.org
November 5, 2025 at 2:17 PM
New 🧬✂️ pre-print! We show that paired prime editing can efficiently generate large deletions — even >1 Mb — with high precision and at scale. We use this to perform the first pooled prime deletion screen across the human genome.
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread (by Juliane Weller)👇
🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A short thread (by Juliane Weller)👇
Good morning Heidelberg!
November 5, 2025 at 6:13 AM
Good morning Heidelberg!
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Brenner's copy of a New Yorker cartoon that was repeatedly moved around various noticeboards (note the pin holes)
November 4, 2025 at 6:02 PM
Brenner's copy of a New Yorker cartoon that was repeatedly moved around various noticeboards (note the pin holes)
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Have you registered for our annual Scientific Conference on 8th December?
Join @jeffbarrett.eu from @nightingalehealth.com and many more researchers, industry experts and the UK Biobank team for a day of innovation and discovery.
Join @jeffbarrett.eu from @nightingalehealth.com and many more researchers, industry experts and the UK Biobank team for a day of innovation and discovery.
November 4, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Have you registered for our annual Scientific Conference on 8th December?
Join @jeffbarrett.eu from @nightingalehealth.com and many more researchers, industry experts and the UK Biobank team for a day of innovation and discovery.
Join @jeffbarrett.eu from @nightingalehealth.com and many more researchers, industry experts and the UK Biobank team for a day of innovation and discovery.
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Oocyte-like mouse cells made from stem cells even without the guiding signals from ovarian cells. Another step towards in vitro gametes.
www.cell.com/developmenta...
www.cell.com/developmenta...
In vitro oogenesis breaks free of the ovary
In this issue of Developmental Cell, Nosaka et al. differentiate mouse pluripotent
stem cells to large germinal vesicle-stage oocyte-like cells in the absence of ovarian
somatic cells. Their paradigm ...
www.cell.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Oocyte-like mouse cells made from stem cells even without the guiding signals from ovarian cells. Another step towards in vitro gametes.
www.cell.com/developmenta...
www.cell.com/developmenta...
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Bonjour! Masters students in France 🇫🇷, we’ve got an internship for you, in collaboration with the French Embassy in London.
Aimed at students of computer science, statistics or bioinformatics.
Deadline: 7 December 2025
Find out more and apply:
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/jobs/i...
Aimed at students of computer science, statistics or bioinformatics.
Deadline: 7 December 2025
Find out more and apply:
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/jobs/i...
November 3, 2025 at 11:00 AM
Bonjour! Masters students in France 🇫🇷, we’ve got an internship for you, in collaboration with the French Embassy in London.
Aimed at students of computer science, statistics or bioinformatics.
Deadline: 7 December 2025
Find out more and apply:
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/jobs/i...
Aimed at students of computer science, statistics or bioinformatics.
Deadline: 7 December 2025
Find out more and apply:
www.ebi.ac.uk/about/jobs/i...
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Exciting day for the lab: our 1rst paper is officially out in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🥳 Wonderful collaboration wt @gautamdey.bsky.social showing how Cryo-ExM achieves consistent immunostaining in diverse diatoms, from the lab and the natural environment 1/n
#ProtistsOnSky
tinyurl.com/2zxaund7
#ProtistsOnSky
tinyurl.com/2zxaund7
October 31, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Exciting day for the lab: our 1rst paper is officially out in @currentbiology.bsky.social 🥳 Wonderful collaboration wt @gautamdey.bsky.social showing how Cryo-ExM achieves consistent immunostaining in diverse diatoms, from the lab and the natural environment 1/n
#ProtistsOnSky
tinyurl.com/2zxaund7
#ProtistsOnSky
tinyurl.com/2zxaund7
British electricity grid is on a real renewable (windy) roll this week and at the moment, during the day, we're exporting more electricity (to Norway, Ireland, Belgium and Denmark) than we're producing in fossil fuel generation. We often do this overnight - during the day is ... a bit more novel!
November 1, 2025 at 12:06 PM
British electricity grid is on a real renewable (windy) roll this week and at the moment, during the day, we're exporting more electricity (to Norway, Ireland, Belgium and Denmark) than we're producing in fossil fuel generation. We often do this overnight - during the day is ... a bit more novel!
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Four feet higher and rising: Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia becomes world’s tallest church
Four feet higher and rising: Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia becomes world’s tallest church
Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork is still under construction but now stands taller than Ulm Minster in southern Germany
Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica became the world’s tallest church on Thursday after a part of its central tower was lifted into place.
The masterwork of the architect Antoni Gaudí now rises to 162.91 metres (534ft 8in) above the city, the church said in a statement. That beats the spire of Ulm Minster in Germany, which tops out at 161.53 metres. Continue reading...
www.theguardian.com
October 30, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Four feet higher and rising: Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia becomes world’s tallest church
Reposted by Ewan Birney
I'm tracking down #SciFi stories where genetic manipulation is used to modify species, for obvious reasons, and found Proteus Island; this remarkable novella from 1936 explores how artificial manipulation of chromosome number and X-rays can create new species by a mad scientist in 1918 🧪 1/n
October 30, 2025 at 5:03 PM
I'm tracking down #SciFi stories where genetic manipulation is used to modify species, for obvious reasons, and found Proteus Island; this remarkable novella from 1936 explores how artificial manipulation of chromosome number and X-rays can create new species by a mad scientist in 1918 🧪 1/n
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Can an AI tool help us better understand the origins of cancer?
Researchers from EMBL's Korbel Group have developed a new AI method – MAGIC – which, through a game of molecular laser tag, is shedding light on how chromosomal abnormalities form in cells.
www.embl.org/news/science...
Researchers from EMBL's Korbel Group have developed a new AI method – MAGIC – which, through a game of molecular laser tag, is shedding light on how chromosomal abnormalities form in cells.
www.embl.org/news/science...
October 29, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Can an AI tool help us better understand the origins of cancer?
Researchers from EMBL's Korbel Group have developed a new AI method – MAGIC – which, through a game of molecular laser tag, is shedding light on how chromosomal abnormalities form in cells.
www.embl.org/news/science...
Researchers from EMBL's Korbel Group have developed a new AI method – MAGIC – which, through a game of molecular laser tag, is shedding light on how chromosomal abnormalities form in cells.
www.embl.org/news/science...
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Join us for an extraordinary evening with Nobel Laureate Svante Pääbo!
Prof Pääbo will present a FREE public talk titled “Of Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how they live on in many of us” at the @crick.ac.uk.
Register here: genetics.org.uk/events/of-ne...
Prof Pääbo will present a FREE public talk titled “Of Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how they live on in many of us” at the @crick.ac.uk.
Register here: genetics.org.uk/events/of-ne...
October 27, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Join us for an extraordinary evening with Nobel Laureate Svante Pääbo!
Prof Pääbo will present a FREE public talk titled “Of Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how they live on in many of us” at the @crick.ac.uk.
Register here: genetics.org.uk/events/of-ne...
Prof Pääbo will present a FREE public talk titled “Of Neanderthals and Denisovans, and how they live on in many of us” at the @crick.ac.uk.
Register here: genetics.org.uk/events/of-ne...
Depressingly there is more talk in many places about race and ethnicity, and how certain visible characteristics - most obviously skin colour - define people. This is squarely in the identity discussion; ie, people defining their own identity via these visible characteristics
October 28, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Depressingly there is more talk in many places about race and ethnicity, and how certain visible characteristics - most obviously skin colour - define people. This is squarely in the identity discussion; ie, people defining their own identity via these visible characteristics
Looking forward to going to York on Friday, giving a talk at the York Biomedical Research Institute www.york.ac.uk/biomedical-r...
Genomics, Imaging and AI : three technologies changing research and healthcare
Professor Ewan Birney (EMBL) presents his work on genome biology and biomedical genome analysis. Hosted by Prof Gavin Wright.
www.york.ac.uk
October 27, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Looking forward to going to York on Friday, giving a talk at the York Biomedical Research Institute www.york.ac.uk/biomedical-r...
Reposted by Ewan Birney
Learn more in the open access Nature Genetics paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Complete genome assemblies of two mouse subspecies reveal structural diversity of telomeres and centromeres - Nature Genetics
Telomere-to-telomere assemblies of two mouse inbred strains, C57BL/6J and CAST/EiJ, offer improvements over the current mouse reference genome by adding telomere and centromere sequences that lead to ...
www.nature.com
October 27, 2025 at 11:51 AM
Learn more in the open access Nature Genetics paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41...