Arbel Harpak
@arbelharpak.bsky.social
Evolutionary, statistical and population genetics at UT Austin. http://www.harpaklab.com
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547
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November 13, 2025 at 3:23 PM
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547
apply.interfolio.com/177547
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
An empirical approach to evaluating the prevalence of long-lived balancing selection in humans--and important limitations. Work by @hannahmm.bsky.social
November 11, 2025 at 7:14 PM
An empirical approach to evaluating the prevalence of long-lived balancing selection in humans--and important limitations. Work by @hannahmm.bsky.social
@jbenning.bsky.social @jedidiahcarlson.com
et al. exemplify how confounding can lead to flawed inference on genetic causality. In studies of human behavior and social outcomes, the cost of downplaying this problem can be steep. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.... bsky.app/profile/jben...
et al. exemplify how confounding can lead to flawed inference on genetic causality. In studies of human behavior and social outcomes, the cost of downplaying this problem can be steep. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.... bsky.app/profile/jben...
November 7, 2025 at 8:07 PM
@jbenning.bsky.social @jedidiahcarlson.com
et al. exemplify how confounding can lead to flawed inference on genetic causality. In studies of human behavior and social outcomes, the cost of downplaying this problem can be steep. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.... bsky.app/profile/jben...
et al. exemplify how confounding can lead to flawed inference on genetic causality. In studies of human behavior and social outcomes, the cost of downplaying this problem can be steep. royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.... bsky.app/profile/jben...
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
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/...
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
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/...
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/...
If you are at #ASHG2025 and would like to chat in person, please reach out! My lab is looking for curious scientists to join us, especially (but not limited to) postdoctoral researchers.
October 14, 2025 at 3:45 PM
If you are at #ASHG2025 and would like to chat in person, please reach out! My lab is looking for curious scientists to join us, especially (but not limited to) postdoctoral researchers.
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Delighted that our paper about the distribution of genomic spans of clades/edges in genealogies (ARGs), and using this for detecting inversions and other SVs (and other phenomena that cause local disruption of recombination) is out in MBE academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... (1/n)
The Length of Haplotype Blocks and Signals of Structural Variation in Reconstructed Genealogies
Abstract. Recent breakthroughs have enabled the accurate inference of large-scale genealogies. Through modelling the impact of recombination on the correla
academic.oup.com
October 3, 2025 at 9:54 AM
Delighted that our paper about the distribution of genomic spans of clades/edges in genealogies (ARGs), and using this for detecting inversions and other SVs (and other phenomena that cause local disruption of recombination) is out in MBE academic.oup.com/mbe/article/... (1/n)
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Bittersweet to be leaving @docedge.bsky.social after a wonderful postdoc, but excited to share that I'm joining @uoregon.bsky.social next month as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Data Science.
August 6, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Bittersweet to be leaving @docedge.bsky.social after a wonderful postdoc, but excited to share that I'm joining @uoregon.bsky.social next month as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Data Science.
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
1/13 In a new preprint, we (with @xliaoyi.bsky.social in the @arbelharpak.bsky.social lab) find that expression from the “inactivated” X (Xi) is consequential for both female-male differences in gene expression and variation among females in disease and physiology: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Escape from X inactivation drives sex differences and female trait variation
X chromosome inactivation (XCI) partially balances gene dosage between sexes, yet expression from the inactive X (Xi) is variable across genes. In this study, we investigate whether gene-level Xi expr...
www.biorxiv.org
August 6, 2025 at 2:42 AM
1/13 In a new preprint, we (with @xliaoyi.bsky.social in the @arbelharpak.bsky.social lab) find that expression from the “inactivated” X (Xi) is consequential for both female-male differences in gene expression and variation among females in disease and physiology: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Applications for the 2026 Stengl-Wyer Scholars Program are open! The program provides up to 3 years of support for talented postdoctoral researchers in the broad area of the diversity of life and/or organisms in their natural environments. Learn more here: utexas.infoready4.com/CompetitionS...
August 5, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Applications for the 2026 Stengl-Wyer Scholars Program are open! The program provides up to 3 years of support for talented postdoctoral researchers in the broad area of the diversity of life and/or organisms in their natural environments. Learn more here: utexas.infoready4.com/CompetitionS...
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Amidst all the terrible and terrifying news, so lovely to hear of
@jkpritch.bsky.social's election to the National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations!
@jkpritch.bsky.social's election to the National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations!
April 29, 2025 at 8:52 PM
Amidst all the terrible and terrifying news, so lovely to hear of
@jkpritch.bsky.social's election to the National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations!
@jkpritch.bsky.social's election to the National Academy of Sciences. Congratulations!
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
a quick note on my paper with @jeffspence.bsky.social and @jkpritch.bsky.social on conditional frequency spectra, now out in a @genetics-gsa.bsky.social special issue: doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyae210
Characterizing selection on complex traits through conditional frequency spectra
Abstract. Natural selection on complex traits is difficult to study in part due to the ascertainment inherent to genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Th
doi.org
April 18, 2025 at 7:49 PM
a quick note on my paper with @jeffspence.bsky.social and @jkpritch.bsky.social on conditional frequency spectra, now out in a @genetics-gsa.bsky.social special issue: doi.org/10.1093/genetics/iyae210
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
More recently, Smith et al. (biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) proposed an estimator of polygenic score confounding that can be directly attributable to stratification/ancestry. They show that it is present in target data from Europe, other continents, even ancient DNA!
March 28, 2025 at 9:54 PM
More recently, Smith et al. (biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) proposed an estimator of polygenic score confounding that can be directly attributable to stratification/ancestry. They show that it is present in target data from Europe, other continents, even ancient DNA!
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
I wrote about how population stratification in genetic analyses led to a decade of false findings and almost certainly continues to bias emerging results. But we are starting to have statistical tools to sniff it out. A 🧵:
How population stratification led to a decade of sensationally false genetic findings
Stratification makes environments look like genes
open.substack.com
March 28, 2025 at 9:54 PM
I wrote about how population stratification in genetic analyses led to a decade of false findings and almost certainly continues to bias emerging results. But we are starting to have statistical tools to sniff it out. A 🧵:
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
BREAKING
The Trump administration is maintaining a funding freeze at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in defiance of two federal court orders.
The ongoing freeze was confirmed by an NIH official and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information.
The Trump administration is maintaining a funding freeze at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in defiance of two federal court orders.
The ongoing freeze was confirmed by an NIH official and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information.
Trump maintains funding freeze at NIH, defying court order
The Trump administration is still prohibiting National Institutes of Health (NIH) staff from issuing virtually all grant funding, an NIH official tells Popular Information.
popular.info
February 11, 2025 at 12:19 PM
BREAKING
The Trump administration is maintaining a funding freeze at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in defiance of two federal court orders.
The ongoing freeze was confirmed by an NIH official and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information.
The Trump administration is maintaining a funding freeze at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in defiance of two federal court orders.
The ongoing freeze was confirmed by an NIH official and internal correspondence reviewed by Popular Information.
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
"One thing is certain: The changes we make ourselves will be healthier than the ones our adversaries demand."
New work for @undark.org:
undark.org/2025/02/06/o...
New work for @undark.org:
undark.org/2025/02/06/o...
The End of Science’s Peacetime
Opinion | Defending the practice of science from its adversaries will require dealing with some uncomfortable truths.
undark.org
February 6, 2025 at 1:52 PM
"One thing is certain: The changes we make ourselves will be healthier than the ones our adversaries demand."
New work for @undark.org:
undark.org/2025/02/06/o...
New work for @undark.org:
undark.org/2025/02/06/o...
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Think of a polygenic score you care about. Are direct genetic effects driving variation among people in this predictor? Or perhaps other, confounding factors? We at the @arbelharpak.bsky.social & @docedge.bsky.social Labs developed a method to tackle this question. [1/n]
A Litmus Test for Confounding in Polygenic Scores
Polygenic scores (PGSs) are being rapidly adopted for trait prediction in the clinic and beyond. PGSs are often thought of as capturing the direct genetic effect of one's genotype on their phenotype. ...
www.biorxiv.org
February 4, 2025 at 6:04 PM
Think of a polygenic score you care about. Are direct genetic effects driving variation among people in this predictor? Or perhaps other, confounding factors? We at the @arbelharpak.bsky.social & @docedge.bsky.social Labs developed a method to tackle this question. [1/n]
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
“The distribution of highly deleterious variants across human ancestry groups”. Preprint with Anastasia Stolyarova and @gcbias.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The distribution of highly deleterious variants across human ancestry groups
A major focus of human genetics is to map severe disease mutations. Increasingly that goal is understood as requiring huge numbers of people to be sequenced from every broadly-defined genetic ancestry...
www.biorxiv.org
February 2, 2025 at 7:00 PM
“The distribution of highly deleterious variants across human ancestry groups”. Preprint with Anastasia Stolyarova and @gcbias.bsky.social: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Undergrads: apply to NYU's Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Biology!
10 weeks of research in a structured setting, featuring terrific mentors, exciting biology, housing in New York, and a stipend.
as.nyu.edu/biology/outr...
10 weeks of research in a structured setting, featuring terrific mentors, exciting biology, housing in New York, and a stipend.
as.nyu.edu/biology/outr...
Simons Foundation-NYU Biology Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP)
as.nyu.edu
January 23, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Undergrads: apply to NYU's Summer Undergraduate Research Program in Biology!
10 weeks of research in a structured setting, featuring terrific mentors, exciting biology, housing in New York, and a stipend.
as.nyu.edu/biology/outr...
10 weeks of research in a structured setting, featuring terrific mentors, exciting biology, housing in New York, and a stipend.
as.nyu.edu/biology/outr...
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
If you’ve been directly impacted by a pause or cancellation of an NIH study session, we @forbes.com would like to talk to you
All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.
January 22, 2025 at 10:59 PM
If you’ve been directly impacted by a pause or cancellation of an NIH study session, we @forbes.com would like to talk to you
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
I am excited to share the first first-author paper of my PhD describing work with Changde Cheng, Mark Kirkpatrick and @arbelharpak.bsky.social has been published at AJHG! We ask if sex-differential gene expression drives sex-differential selection in humans. (1/14)
www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...
www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...
No evidence for sex-differential transcriptomes driving genome-wide sex-differential natural selection
We assess the evidence for a genome-wide relationship between sex differences in gene
expression and sex differences in natural selection. We develop an improved model
for testing this association but...
www.cell.com
January 14, 2025 at 10:35 PM
I am excited to share the first first-author paper of my PhD describing work with Changde Cheng, Mark Kirkpatrick and @arbelharpak.bsky.social has been published at AJHG! We ask if sex-differential gene expression drives sex-differential selection in humans. (1/14)
www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...
www.cell.com/ajhg/fulltex...
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
My lab (aprilweilab.github.io) continues to develop GRG and ARG related methods & more. We are looking for a postdoc to join us.
Wei Lab
Web site created using create-react-app
aprilweilab.github.io
December 5, 2024 at 5:09 PM
My lab (aprilweilab.github.io) continues to develop GRG and ARG related methods & more. We are looking for a postdoc to join us.
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Would you like to see @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social add a share to blue sky button?! I know I would! Share this post to let @richardsever.bsky.social @erictopol.bsky.social and others at bioarxiv know!
December 2, 2024 at 12:10 PM
Would you like to see @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social add a share to blue sky button?! I know I would! Share this post to let @richardsever.bsky.social @erictopol.bsky.social and others at bioarxiv know!
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Three open-rank positions at UT Austin:
Cluster in Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Environmental Systems
Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/158908
Cluster in Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Environmental Systems
Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/158908
Apply - Interfolio
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November 13, 2024 at 8:15 PM
Three open-rank positions at UT Austin:
Cluster in Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Environmental Systems
Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/158908
Cluster in Advances in Artificial Intelligence and Data Science for Environmental Systems
Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/158908
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
For many traits there is a correlation between the number of duplications or loss-of-function (LoF) mutations someone carries, and their phenotype. Curiously, for most traits, these effects are aligned in the SAME direction. Why?
November 12, 2024 at 6:10 AM
For many traits there is a correlation between the number of duplications or loss-of-function (LoF) mutations someone carries, and their phenotype. Curiously, for most traits, these effects are aligned in the SAME direction. Why?
Reposted by Arbel Harpak
Thread of some really great works out this week in the world of countering naive genetic thinking (e.g. hereditarianism, genetic determinism, scientific racism)
November 7, 2023 at 9:42 PM
Thread of some really great works out this week in the world of countering naive genetic thinking (e.g. hereditarianism, genetic determinism, scientific racism)