Jazlyn Mooney
banner
jazlynmooney.bsky.social
Jazlyn Mooney
@jazlynmooney.bsky.social
Gabilan Assistant Prof. @ USC | Dept of Quantitative and Computational Biology | 👩🏽‍💻🏃🏽‍♀️🏋🏽‍♀️⛹🏽‍♀️🌯🍔📚🎧 | burqueña 🌵☀️ | Proud Lobo 🐺 | she,her | Views are mine
https://mooney-lab.github.io/
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Kudos to our superstar grad student @sophiejwalton.bsky.social! One of the most interesting and surprising (at least to me) studies I have been involved in. Very curious to know what people think of it! @benjaminhgood.bsky.social
Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 11, 2025 at 5:37 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Excited to share some new work led by grad student Sophie Walton (w/ @petrovadmitri.bsky.social). We used in vitro gut communities to study how natural selection acts on strains of the same species as they compete within larger communities. Check out Sophie's thread below for details!
Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 12, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 11, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Community coalescence reveals strong selection and coexistence within species in complex microbial communities https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.06.687011v1
November 8, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
@brielin.bsky.social's fantastic work on causal gene network inference from Perturb-seq is published! We estimate total causal effects using guides as instruments, then deconvolve into direct & mediated effects with a directed analog of graphical lasso. Deets: nature.com/articles/s41467-025-64353-7
Large-scale causal discovery using interventional data sheds light on gene network structure in k562 cells - Nature Communications
The authors give a method for learning causal gene networks using Perturb-seq data. In K562 cells, they find a network with small-world and scale-free properties. Analysis shows a relationship between...
nature.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
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...
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 12:05 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Registration is now open for SMBE 2026!

Head over to the registration page to find all the details and secure your spot 🏃‍♀️

📝 smbe2026.org/registration
🐦 Early-bird deadline: March 31, 2026

If you are an active member of the SMBE you can register for the meeting with discounts.

#SMBE2026
November 3, 2025 at 11:05 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Millions of specimens, centuries of history — all coming to life online 🌿✨

After nearly four years of dedicated work, our digitisation project is entering its final stretch — and we’re gearing up for an amazing finish by March 2026.
November 3, 2025 at 10:53 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
America’s still terrified of powerful women in politics.

It’s pure misogyny baked into the system. Add race to the mix and it’s on a whole different level of hate that most won’t even admit. Time to get over that shit!

Let’s take a step forward on Tuesday.

[video: @mollyjongfast.bsky.social ]
November 2, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
If you live in Albuquerque and aren’t sure how to feed your family when SNAP benefits end, or if you want to help fund these efforts, this thread has a ton of different options to help out
Yoooo ABQ! Burqueños 505 #NMTrue . Share these around if you have the cash go spend money and make sure they know you are there because they are feeding people!
October 30, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Science is intertwined with eugenics; eugenic ideologies continue to negatively impact #Indigenous communities to this day.

In the October issue of #GENETICS, @jazlynmooney.bsky.social and colleagues offer a timely and important reminder on the perils of eugenics. buff.ly/1Q5r3XF
October 29, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
This is one of my favorite webinar series. Working on polyploidy? Sign-up to give a talk!

If you are a grad student or postdoc, this is a really great opportunity to get feedback and connect with others.
The #PolyploidyWebinar series is back for another season! 🧬 Join us for talks at 9AM Pacific on the second Thursday of each month. Are you working on something exciting in polyploidy? We'd love to have you speak! Sign up for open dates at the link below. Looking forward to the great research ahead!
Polyploidy Webinar Speaker Signup 25-26
docs.google.com
October 28, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
I started a new job in Montpellier, France!
Happy about new opportunities, sad about the state of things in the US.

abetterscientist.wordpress.com/2025/10/26/w...
We left the US and moved to France
Hello readers, I got big updates! Some of you already know this, but it’s getting more real and more official every month: my family and I have left the US and moved to France! A few months ago I q…
abetterscientist.wordpress.com
October 27, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities?

Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation.

🧵(1/n)
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515
Ancient origin of an urban underground mosquito
Understanding how life is adapting to urban environments represents an important challenge in evolutionary biology. In this work, we investigate a widely cited example of urban adaptation, Culex pipie...
www.science.org
October 25, 2025 at 4:46 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Proud of the latest edition of my free intro biostats book.

gitrepo: github.com/ybrandvain/b...
book: ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/

Not complete but at a good point to take a break, and I think its quite usable

dm me with comments , ideas etc
Applied Biostatistics
ybrandvain.github.io
October 24, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Hey Yaniv Brandvain is not on Bluesky but his most recent biostats ebook is live ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/. His stats resources have been so helpful to me as I develop my own stats course, so check it out. Github repo here: github.com/ybrandvain/b...
Applied Biostatistics
ybrandvain.github.io
October 24, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
People on twitter are losing their minds over this, including several scientists who I have to assume have either brain poisoned themselves or were always like this. People don't always cite what's best; they cite what they know & researchers from historically excluded communities get the short end.
October 24, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
@joann-trejo.bsky.social, @marymunson4.bsky.social and I have a commentary in @natcellbio.nature.com on recent attacks on DEI in biomedical research: "If scientific research, especially biomedical research, is meant to serve everyone, then it requires that everyone has an opportunity to participate"
Scaling back DEI programmes and the loss of scientific talent
Nature Cell Biology - Programmes that support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in science are under attack in the USA. Data indicate that diversity in the scientific workforce increases...
www.nature.com
October 23, 2025 at 4:36 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
For population genetics and evolutionary biology folks in the Bay Area: the next BAPG will be hosted by Stanford CEHG and the Petrov lab at Stanford on 12/6.
Registration is free but required. The deadline for talk submission is Nov. 16. Hope to see you soon! Pls RT!
docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
October 20, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Honoured to have done my first ever podcast on The Armen Show! Besides science, math, & academia, we talked about:

-LLMs hyping up bad ideas
-My 5 foster cats, but whether I'm secretly a dog person
-How it would be nice to "skip" & "mute" people in real life 😛

Check it out! 😄

tinyurl.com/yc4hjz2x
456: Kaleda Denton | Following the Majority - How Conformity Shapes Culture and AI
In this episode of the Armen Show, Armen Shirvanian interviews Dr. Kaleda Denton, a post-doctoral fellow at the Santa Fe Institute. They discuss the interdisciplinary nature of the Institute, the concept of niche construction in biology, and the dynamics of decision-making, particularly the differences between following the mean versus the majority. The conversation also explores the limitations of game theory, the role of cultural evolution in cooperation, and the impact of AI on accessibility and learning. They delve into the importance of reducing polarization while maintaining diversity in viewpoints, emphasizing the need for mixing and collaboration across different fields and perspectives. In this engaging conversation, Dr. Kaleda Denton and Armen Shirvanian explore a variety of topics including the distinction between majority and mean opinions, the challenges of reading in the digital age, and the implications of large language models (LLMs) on culture. They discuss the importance of communication in society, the influence of close circles versus wider communities in learning, and the role of influential figures in personal development. The conversation also delves into the concept of memes and cultural transmission, the impact of role models on cumulative culture, and the question of human uniqueness in the context of cultural evolution. Check out Kaleda's website at https://www.kaledadenton.com/ 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guest 03:01 The Santa Fe Institute: A Unique Interdisciplinary Environment 05:56 Niche Construction and Extended Evolutionary Synthesis 08:56 Mean vs. Majority: Insights from Research 12:08 Game Theory and Its Limitations 15:03 Cultural Evolution and Cooperation 17:59 The Role of AI in Learning and Accessibility 20:54 Conformity Across Species and LLMs 23:59 The Importance of Current Information 27:03 Final Thoughts on AI and Human Interaction 36:57 The Quirks of AI Hallucinations 38:53 The Evolution of Language Models 39:35 Agency and Individuality in AI Interactions 41:41 The Flattening of Ideas and Language 43:42 Cognitive Offloading and Its Consequences 45:04 Reducing Polarization Through Interaction 48:39 The Importance of Mixing Perspectives 50:02 The Dangers of Majority Influence 53:51 Understanding Mean vs. Majority Opinions 01:04:32 Risks and Opportunities in Cultural Evolution 01:10:02 The Impact of Headlines on News Consumption 01:11:46 The Need for Positive News 01:15:04 Learning from Close Circles vs. Wider Communities 01:17:23 Influential Figures in Personal Development 01:18:44 The Evolution of Human Uniqueness 01:22:38 Understanding Memes and Cultural Transmission 01:23:10 The Multiplicative Costs of Altruism 01:36:09 The Role of Role Models in Cumulative Culture
tinyurl.com
October 23, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Why do complex traits differ in their genetic architecture?
In our new PLOS Biology paper, we will try to convince you that two simple scaling laws drive differences in the number, effect sizes and frequencies of causal variants affecting complex traits.

Thread:
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Simple scaling laws control the genetic architectures of human complex traits
Genome-wide association studies have revealed that the genetic architectures of complex traits vary widely. This study shows that differences in architectures of highly polygenic traits arise mainly f...
journals.plos.org
October 24, 2025 at 1:51 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Deadline for this PhD position is coming on Friday. Please apply and/or share
🦣🍖🧬 Fully funded 3-yr PhD in palaeogenomics & bioinformatics! Help me push non-model palaeogenomes beyond their limits @DTU in Denmark.

Start: Feb 2026 (flexible)
Application deadline: 24 Oct 2025

For details click here: tinyurl.com/BioExtPhD

Reposts appreciated 😁
October 19, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
October 15, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
Interested in giving a talk at PAG 2026 in the Wildlife Genomics, Comparative Genomics of Animals, OneHealth, Ancient DNA, or Domestication Genomics sessions? We are extending our abstract submission by a few days. We'd love to hear from you! Submit here and please repost! forms.gle/q7j275Di6umY...
PAG 2026 Abstract Submission: Ancient DNA, Domestication Genomics, Comparative Genomics of Animals, Wildlife Genomics, One Health Hologenomics
****DEADLINE: OCTOBER 12, 2025**** This is the abstract submission form for the following PAG 33 workshops: Paleogenomics and Degraded DNA Domestication Genomics Comparative Genomics of Animals Wildl...
forms.gle
October 15, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Reposted by Jazlyn Mooney
I'm recruiting a postdoc for my group (based in beautiful Eugene, OR). Please get in touch if you're interested, esp if you'd like to chat at #ASHG25!
We'll primarily work at the intersection of statistical and population genetics, and we also have active projects related to the ethical and social implications of human genetics (ELSI). Please get in touch if that's a combination that sounds interesting to you!
October 15, 2025 at 12:52 PM