Gerome Breen
@psychgenomics.bsky.social
Prof Psychiatric Genetics KCL. Lead King's Genomics facility, Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study, and the UK Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI-UK). Gratitude to my wonderful research group, staff, and collaborators.
Reposted by Gerome Breen
'The DHSC is launching a chickenpox vaccination programme which will protect around half a million children each year. And, from January 2026, eligible children will get an MMRV vaccine to protect against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.'
Report @mirror.co.uk
www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/...
Report @mirror.co.uk
www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/...
Chris Whitty issues 'severe or life threatening' illness warning
England's Chief Medical Officer is urging people to protect themselves and their children
www.mirror.co.uk
August 31, 2025 at 10:59 AM
'The DHSC is launching a chickenpox vaccination programme which will protect around half a million children each year. And, from January 2026, eligible children will get an MMRV vaccine to protect against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox.'
Report @mirror.co.uk
www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/...
Report @mirror.co.uk
www.mirror.co.uk/news/health/...
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Me three months ago:
My prediction is that in that scenario, he blames the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which puts out employment data. Calls them corrupt, run by Democrats, out to get him. Fires people there, insists their numbers cannot be trusted, White House puts out its own fictitious data to make Trump look good
August 1, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Me three months ago:
Reposted by Gerome Breen
NEW: The bipartisan Senate Appropriations Committee has rejected Trump’s proposed $18 billion, 40% cut to the National Institutes of Health budget and endorsed a $400 million increase.
DO NOT GIVE UP! Our advocacy is working. Keep speaking up and calling your elected officials.
DO NOT GIVE UP! Our advocacy is working. Keep speaking up and calling your elected officials.
August 1, 2025 at 1:36 AM
NEW: The bipartisan Senate Appropriations Committee has rejected Trump’s proposed $18 billion, 40% cut to the National Institutes of Health budget and endorsed a $400 million increase.
DO NOT GIVE UP! Our advocacy is working. Keep speaking up and calling your elected officials.
DO NOT GIVE UP! Our advocacy is working. Keep speaking up and calling your elected officials.
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Add a new drug, CETP inhibitor, to the ways beyond lifestyle that we can reduce p-tau 217, the key biomarker for risk of Alzheimer’s disease
ir.newamsterdampharma.com/news-release...
ir.newamsterdampharma.com/news-release...
July 30, 2025 at 10:57 PM
Add a new drug, CETP inhibitor, to the ways beyond lifestyle that we can reduce p-tau 217, the key biomarker for risk of Alzheimer’s disease
ir.newamsterdampharma.com/news-release...
ir.newamsterdampharma.com/news-release...
Reposted by Gerome Breen
#Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a #tsunami warning and advisory for the Pacific coast from #Hokkaido to #Okinawa. The estimate of maximum wave height is now expected to be 3 meter. japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/gene...
JMA Issued a Tsunami Warning for the Pacific Coast, with Estimated Maximum Wave Height 3 Meters (UPDATE2 )
<p>The Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami warning and advisory for the Pacific coast from Hokkaido to Okinawa in Wednesday morning. The estimate of maximum wave height is now expected to be ...
japannews.yomiuri.co.jp
July 30, 2025 at 12:59 AM
#Japan Meteorological Agency has issued a #tsunami warning and advisory for the Pacific coast from #Hokkaido to #Okinawa. The estimate of maximum wave height is now expected to be 3 meter. japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/society/gene...
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Tom Lehrer died today. He was one of the great comedians our culture ever produced. Without Tom, there's no Weird Al, probably no that entire branch of comedy.
He went alone and beat the odds.
youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?...
He went alone and beat the odds.
youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?...
Tom Lehrer - We Will All Go Together When We Go
YouTube video by The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel
youtu.be
July 27, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Tom Lehrer died today. He was one of the great comedians our culture ever produced. Without Tom, there's no Weird Al, probably no that entire branch of comedy.
He went alone and beat the odds.
youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?...
He went alone and beat the odds.
youtu.be/frAEmhqdLFs?...
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Yes - I think the one exception is the first time you study a phenotype as black swans may be found. When that not found (unfortunately they are rare). So suggests standard nested - from initial small core multi-modal, then larger and lighter clinical, then online remote sampling population level.
<big sigh>. As a rule of thumb, if you gather more multi-modal data, you are going to need more samples (patients) rather than less to be confident of results. Importantly you need some sort of credible belief that for the measurements you propose to do you have some hope of the analysis working
July 25, 2025 at 4:20 PM
Yes - I think the one exception is the first time you study a phenotype as black swans may be found. When that not found (unfortunately they are rare). So suggests standard nested - from initial small core multi-modal, then larger and lighter clinical, then online remote sampling population level.
Reposted by Gerome Breen
<big sigh>. As a rule of thumb, if you gather more multi-modal data, you are going to need more samples (patients) rather than less to be confident of results. Importantly you need some sort of credible belief that for the measurements you propose to do you have some hope of the analysis working
July 25, 2025 at 9:20 AM
<big sigh>. As a rule of thumb, if you gather more multi-modal data, you are going to need more samples (patients) rather than less to be confident of results. Importantly you need some sort of credible belief that for the measurements you propose to do you have some hope of the analysis working
Reposted by Gerome Breen
1. The pediatric death toll from #flu for 2024-25 continues to climb, with #CDC informed of 5 more deaths last week. That brings the season's total so far to 266, which is only 22 fewer than during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic! Of kids eligible for vax & for whom vax status is known, 90% weren't vaxed.
July 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Answer would appear to be yes! "An overwhelming 82% of those who had taken the GCSE CS confirmed that the additional study of Citizenship topics had increased their democratic literacy and confidence about political issues"
Is Citizenship Education the key to unlocking young people’s political engagement? | The Political Studies Association (PSA)
www.psa.ac.uk
July 25, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Answer would appear to be yes! "An overwhelming 82% of those who had taken the GCSE CS confirmed that the additional study of Citizenship topics had increased their democratic literacy and confidence about political issues"
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Structural variants are significant contributor to autism. But many SVs & TRs are hard to detect with short reads. Long read sequencing with @pacbio.bsky.social and @nanoporetech.com captures and maps out alot of what short reads miss. So what can LR-WGS tell us about autism? 🧵
Long Read Genome Sequencing Elucidates Diverse Functional Consequences of Structural and Repeat Variation in Autism https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.20.25331880v1
July 23, 2025 at 10:53 PM
Structural variants are significant contributor to autism. But many SVs & TRs are hard to detect with short reads. Long read sequencing with @pacbio.bsky.social and @nanoporetech.com captures and maps out alot of what short reads miss. So what can LR-WGS tell us about autism? 🧵
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Some good news from this week!
- Rough sleeping is decriminalised in England
- Brazils murder rate has dropped 20% in the past 10yrs
- Solar power was Europe's biggest electric production in June
- Huge pride march in Budapest after Hungary outlawed it
There are good things happening. Keep hope.
- Rough sleeping is decriminalised in England
- Brazils murder rate has dropped 20% in the past 10yrs
- Solar power was Europe's biggest electric production in June
- Huge pride march in Budapest after Hungary outlawed it
There are good things happening. Keep hope.
July 21, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Some good news from this week!
- Rough sleeping is decriminalised in England
- Brazils murder rate has dropped 20% in the past 10yrs
- Solar power was Europe's biggest electric production in June
- Huge pride march in Budapest after Hungary outlawed it
There are good things happening. Keep hope.
- Rough sleeping is decriminalised in England
- Brazils murder rate has dropped 20% in the past 10yrs
- Solar power was Europe's biggest electric production in June
- Huge pride march in Budapest after Hungary outlawed it
There are good things happening. Keep hope.
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Can rightwing press now please agree on the fact that trying to publicise the locations of current Afghan asylum seekers is a stupid idea. www.thetimes.com/article/7a64...
July 21, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Can rightwing press now please agree on the fact that trying to publicise the locations of current Afghan asylum seekers is a stupid idea. www.thetimes.com/article/7a64...
Reposted by Gerome Breen
This is quite a big deal and references the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS) that POCA-enabled law enforcement orgs receive to boost their funding - after HMT has taken its cut and victims of crime receive compensation. www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
Rachel Reeves eyes £5bn Bitcoin sale to help plug black hole
Hoard of seized cryptocurrency could be offloaded to ease pressure on public finances
www.telegraph.co.uk
July 19, 2025 at 10:01 PM
This is quite a big deal and references the Asset Recovery Incentivisation Scheme (ARIS) that POCA-enabled law enforcement orgs receive to boost their funding - after HMT has taken its cut and victims of crime receive compensation. www.telegraph.co.uk/business/202...
Reposted by Gerome Breen
We should be having a debate about how British incompetence put the lives of thousands of Afghans at risk. Instead we're having a debate about 'how many criminals they let in'. Tells you everything you need to know about where we're at as a country inews.co.uk/opinion/tori...
Shockingly, the Tories did the right thing on secret Afghan asylum plan
The initial error was egregious, but the response was, at least, morally clear-sighted and practical
inews.co.uk
July 17, 2025 at 7:53 AM
We should be having a debate about how British incompetence put the lives of thousands of Afghans at risk. Instead we're having a debate about 'how many criminals they let in'. Tells you everything you need to know about where we're at as a country inews.co.uk/opinion/tori...
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Comparison of different ways of measuring trait polygenicity, and what properties a "measure of polygenicity" should have. Authors have a really useful section on how to interpret deviations between the measures for a specific trait www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Principled measures and estimates of trait polygenicity
The 'polygenicity' of traits is often invoked and sometimes quantified in quantitative, statistical, and human genetics. What do we mean by the polygenicity of a trait? We propose a principled definit...
www.biorxiv.org
July 16, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Comparison of different ways of measuring trait polygenicity, and what properties a "measure of polygenicity" should have. Authors have a really useful section on how to interpret deviations between the measures for a specific trait www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Bad news for dev bio research ... it needs animal models. A total ban would utterly devastate science.
Mathematical modeling is NOT a replication of biology, it's an abstraction. It cannot replace experiments!
But, luckily looks like animal research rn can continue as long as modeling is included
Mathematical modeling is NOT a replication of biology, it's an abstraction. It cannot replace experiments!
But, luckily looks like animal research rn can continue as long as modeling is included
This is extraordinarily dangerous and will slow academic biomedical research and drug development. A total ban is on the horizon. www.drugdiscoverytrends.com/nih-announce...
NIH announces end to funding for animal-only studies - Drug Discovery and Development
Drug Discovery and Development covers strategies and technologies related to pharmaceutical research and development and drug formulation.
www.drugdiscoverytrends.com
July 8, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Bad news for dev bio research ... it needs animal models. A total ban would utterly devastate science.
Mathematical modeling is NOT a replication of biology, it's an abstraction. It cannot replace experiments!
But, luckily looks like animal research rn can continue as long as modeling is included
Mathematical modeling is NOT a replication of biology, it's an abstraction. It cannot replace experiments!
But, luckily looks like animal research rn can continue as long as modeling is included
Reposted by Gerome Breen
This will devastate all of my colleagues that do neuroscience in mice. Drugs don't always translate from mouse to human, But 90% of our genes are shared. They allow recordings and manipulations that cannot be done in humans. We will cede discovery to Europe and China with this unnecessary handicap.
NIH announces end to funding for animal-only studies - Drug Discovery and Development
Drug Discovery and Development covers strategies and technologies related to pharmaceutical research and development and drug formulation.
www.drugdiscoverytrends.com
July 8, 2025 at 3:37 PM
This will devastate all of my colleagues that do neuroscience in mice. Drugs don't always translate from mouse to human, But 90% of our genes are shared. They allow recordings and manipulations that cannot be done in humans. We will cede discovery to Europe and China with this unnecessary handicap.
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Someone's been up to some quality work here.
July 7, 2025 at 8:07 PM
Someone's been up to some quality work here.
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Exciting, but wish the hype was dialled back. "This will enable identification & intervention for individuals at high risk of developing common diseases" probably better as "cheap once in lifetime test will nudge many people over & under certain thresholds for interventions.
The UK Govt just released its 10 year plan for the NHS and it is legitimately ambitious and exciting. Genomic population health features heavily... on the cover even! assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/686638...
July 5, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Exciting, but wish the hype was dialled back. "This will enable identification & intervention for individuals at high risk of developing common diseases" probably better as "cheap once in lifetime test will nudge many people over & under certain thresholds for interventions.
Reposted by Gerome Breen
Quite enjoyed the book and the film, but bloody hell....
I spent months on this investigation and gathered docs from the UK courts, Land Registry and a French local authority, to show that Raynor and Moth Winn's story is not as they claim. @tortoisemedia.bsky.social @observeruk.bsky.social
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
observer.co.uk/news/nationa...
The real Salt Path: how the couple behind a bestseller le...
Penniless and homeless, the Winns found fame and fortune with the story of their 630-mile walk to salvation. We can reveal it was far from the truth
observer.co.uk
July 6, 2025 at 10:43 AM
Quite enjoyed the book and the film, but bloody hell....
Reposted by Gerome Breen
I’m recruiting: 4-year BBSRC-funded PhD studentship in computational genomics of human skin, nutrition & ageing at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social in collaboration w Unilever; co-supervised by @kerrinsmall.bsky.social
Fully funded stipend & tuition fees
Deadline 13 July 2025
tinyurl.com/2edmve5p
Fully funded stipend & tuition fees
Deadline 13 July 2025
tinyurl.com/2edmve5p
Impact of nutrition on molecular mechanisms of skin health
This 4-year PhD studentship is in collaboration with Unilever and includes a 3-month research placement at Unilever’s King’s College London research laboratory and Unilever’s Liverpool laboratories.
tinyurl.com
July 4, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I’m recruiting: 4-year BBSRC-funded PhD studentship in computational genomics of human skin, nutrition & ageing at @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social in collaboration w Unilever; co-supervised by @kerrinsmall.bsky.social
Fully funded stipend & tuition fees
Deadline 13 July 2025
tinyurl.com/2edmve5p
Fully funded stipend & tuition fees
Deadline 13 July 2025
tinyurl.com/2edmve5p