Chris Wallace
@chr1sw.bsky.social
Using statistics and genomics to understand cause and potential treatments for chronic immune mediated diseases.
R, emacs, rake.
Cambridge, UK.
https://chr1swallace.github.io
R, emacs, rake.
Cambridge, UK.
https://chr1swallace.github.io
Reposted by Chris Wallace
Since 2011 the fuel duty freeze has cost the Treasury £133 billion.
This huge amount could have paid for lower train and bus fares, better stations, safer walking, wheeling and cycling and much more!
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
This huge amount could have paid for lower train and bus fares, better stations, safer walking, wheeling and cycling and much more!
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Rachel Reeves will freeze fuel duty to dodge ‘political suicide’
The chancellor will also highlight a rise in the minimum wage and plans to cut energy bills as she tries to win over voters by focusing on cost of living
www.thetimes.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:56 PM
Since 2011 the fuel duty freeze has cost the Treasury £133 billion.
This huge amount could have paid for lower train and bus fares, better stations, safer walking, wheeling and cycling and much more!
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
This huge amount could have paid for lower train and bus fares, better stations, safer walking, wheeling and cycling and much more!
www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/...
Reposted by Chris Wallace
Passive voice should be avoided.
November 20, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Passive voice should be avoided.
Today I learned that one French translation of virtual is dématérialisé. The image in my mind of watching paper forms dematerialise as they become virtual apps is quite compelling!
November 18, 2025 at 9:23 AM
Today I learned that one French translation of virtual is dématérialisé. The image in my mind of watching paper forms dematerialise as they become virtual apps is quite compelling!
Amazing how the numbers vary between years and how the variability seems country specific. Almost as if there's something in their home country that they are trying to get away from, rather than something in the UK pulling them here. The latter would produce similar effects across countries.
Where do refugees to the UK come from? (House of Commons library)
November 16, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Amazing how the numbers vary between years and how the variability seems country specific. Almost as if there's something in their home country that they are trying to get away from, rather than something in the UK pulling them here. The latter would produce similar effects across countries.
Grant applications be like "justify this and that and everything for each item"
but also
"in 300 words" 🤯🤯🤯
but also
"in 300 words" 🤯🤯🤯
November 14, 2025 at 3:32 PM
Grant applications be like "justify this and that and everything for each item"
but also
"in 300 words" 🤯🤯🤯
but also
"in 300 words" 🤯🤯🤯
Reposted by Chris Wallace
Great thread by @pwgtennant.bsky.social about PPI in methodological research.
In my view, people are too hung up on what the 'PP' stands for. Yes, Patients and/or the Public are often the end users of research ... but sometimes they're not!
Were it called 'End-User Involvement' it'd be much better.
In my view, people are too hung up on what the 'PP' stands for. Yes, Patients and/or the Public are often the end users of research ... but sometimes they're not!
Were it called 'End-User Involvement' it'd be much better.
When PPI is appropriate, we should encourage it. When it’d be better to talk to applied researchers, that should be encouraged instead. And when a research team doesn't think either is appropriate, let them justify that decision. But let’s not get too prescriptive.
🧵 12/12
🧵 12/12
November 13, 2025 at 5:49 PM
Great thread by @pwgtennant.bsky.social about PPI in methodological research.
In my view, people are too hung up on what the 'PP' stands for. Yes, Patients and/or the Public are often the end users of research ... but sometimes they're not!
Were it called 'End-User Involvement' it'd be much better.
In my view, people are too hung up on what the 'PP' stands for. Yes, Patients and/or the Public are often the end users of research ... but sometimes they're not!
Were it called 'End-User Involvement' it'd be much better.
Hot tip. Calling me eminent and/or esteemed in an unsolicited email makes me less likely, not more, to want to accept your conference invite. It is possible this may be a British thing.
November 13, 2025 at 6:05 PM
Hot tip. Calling me eminent and/or esteemed in an unsolicited email makes me less likely, not more, to want to accept your conference invite. It is possible this may be a British thing.
This! Fancy web interfaces let you explore the data, but they are not the same as sharing the data. You can do both!
PSA: it’s all great if you provide an interactive dashboard to browse the data you painstakingly generated. But please do back up the data on persistent archive like zenodo. It’s too bad we can’t access the database when inevitably the server goes down and you moved onto other projects/institutions
October 31, 2025 at 7:16 PM
This! Fancy web interfaces let you explore the data, but they are not the same as sharing the data. You can do both!
New: GWAS of serurm antibody levels. Interesting findings include genetically correlated traits with hard-to-find shared causal variants, and apparently genetically uncorrelated traits sharing causal variants that operate in inconsistent directions www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
Large-scale GWAS meta-analysis of serum antibody levels reveals distinct genetic architectures
Antibodies are the principal effector proteins of humoral immunity. Dysregulated antibody production is a feature of a number of heritable immune-mediated diseases, such as the antibody deficiencies a...
www.medrxiv.org
October 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
New: GWAS of serurm antibody levels. Interesting findings include genetically correlated traits with hard-to-find shared causal variants, and apparently genetically uncorrelated traits sharing causal variants that operate in inconsistent directions www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...
This is a perennial issue with grant applications. They want to support blue sky, ground breaking research, but do not want to maintain the useful tools that result from such research. Science cannot build and grow without sustaining our foundations.
3/3 So, if anybody out there fancies making a donation to support this work or has a good idea where to get the money from contact me by DM.
Note that every grant I have ever written to support PREDICT breast has been rejected. The web tool has been used over 4 million times.
Note that every grant I have ever written to support PREDICT breast has been rejected. The web tool has been used over 4 million times.
October 28, 2025 at 8:18 PM
This is a perennial issue with grant applications. They want to support blue sky, ground breaking research, but do not want to maintain the useful tools that result from such research. Science cannot build and grow without sustaining our foundations.
Reposted by Chris Wallace
You never know which straw will break the camel's back. This, it turns out, is mine. The Tory shadow home sec gives a frankly racist statement about deporting people here legally in order that we have a mostly "culturally homogeneous" population. Just horrific. /1
“We welcome those who come to this country, legally, and give more than they take. We believe the right to stay here must not be automatic, but that those who play their part should be able to earn that right."
October 21, 2025 at 10:19 AM
You never know which straw will break the camel's back. This, it turns out, is mine. The Tory shadow home sec gives a frankly racist statement about deporting people here legally in order that we have a mostly "culturally homogeneous" population. Just horrific. /1
Reposted by Chris Wallace
Given Lam's appalling comments, the UK government needs to make it free for those with permanent leave to remain to obtain British citizenship, to promote people making the change, and to make it quicker.
They need to do that to remove understandable anxiety.
They need to do that to remove understandable anxiety.
October 20, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Given Lam's appalling comments, the UK government needs to make it free for those with permanent leave to remain to obtain British citizenship, to promote people making the change, and to make it quicker.
They need to do that to remove understandable anxiety.
They need to do that to remove understandable anxiety.
Reposted by Chris Wallace
I'm very excited to be attending my first #ASHG25 this week! Come find me at poster board 1090F to talk about flexible and efficient eQTL mapping with quasar!
October 13, 2025 at 1:23 PM
I'm very excited to be attending my first #ASHG25 this week! Come find me at poster board 1090F to talk about flexible and efficient eQTL mapping with quasar!
Reposted by Chris Wallace
The PhD opportunities in our group and in many others at @mrc-lms.bsky.social are now open!
lms.mrc.ac.uk/work-and-stu...
lms.mrc.ac.uk/work-and-stu...
October 10, 2025 at 11:57 AM
The PhD opportunities in our group and in many others at @mrc-lms.bsky.social are now open!
lms.mrc.ac.uk/work-and-stu...
lms.mrc.ac.uk/work-and-stu...
Reposted by Chris Wallace
📣Preprint alert - a tricky one, as there are no significant results (and we all know null-results are hard to publish)
Do PCSK9 levels affect survival in breast cancer patients?
We tried to replicate findings in cell lines and mouse model using 3 Mendelian Randomization approaches, but failed.
Do PCSK9 levels affect survival in breast cancer patients?
We tried to replicate findings in cell lines and mouse model using 3 Mendelian Randomization approaches, but failed.
PCSK9 and breast cancer survival: a Mendelian Randomization study https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.03.25337270v1
October 6, 2025 at 4:50 PM
📣Preprint alert - a tricky one, as there are no significant results (and we all know null-results are hard to publish)
Do PCSK9 levels affect survival in breast cancer patients?
We tried to replicate findings in cell lines and mouse model using 3 Mendelian Randomization approaches, but failed.
Do PCSK9 levels affect survival in breast cancer patients?
We tried to replicate findings in cell lines and mouse model using 3 Mendelian Randomization approaches, but failed.
This type of thread is so important to those preparing to leave school and trying to decide what university courses to consider.
We could do something similar for #maths! /1
We could do something similar for #maths! /1
Physics students are told their degree is a ticket to anything but during their time at university, it's rarely elaborated on. So Toni Feder has gone out and interviewed physicists with varied careers away from the field (Posts the physicist whose job title is digital experience director...)
What can physicists do?
Interviews offer a glimpse of how physicists get into—and thrive in—myriad nonacademic careers.
pubs.aip.org
October 6, 2025 at 3:29 PM
This type of thread is so important to those preparing to leave school and trying to decide what university courses to consider.
We could do something similar for #maths! /1
We could do something similar for #maths! /1
Reposted by Chris Wallace
![[Scene is ANCIENT GREECE - where SOCRATES and PLATO and others are sitting round, thinking]
1
SOCRATES:
Plato..
PLATO:
Yes Socrates?
2
SOCRATES:
Can you tell me, are you human?
PLATO:
Why… yes, Socrates
3
SOCRATES:
And would you agree, Plato, that a human knows what a chariot is?
PLATO:
Um, yep
4
SOCRATES:
So you can tell me, then
5
[Socrates produces a papyrus, showing a drawing of the corner of a chariot wheel]
SOCRATES:
*Is that a chariot*?
6
PLATO:
Well
that’s more just a bit of wheel
7
SOCRATES:
So not a *chariot*.
PLATO:
No.
8
SOCRATES:
[Producing another papyrus with the full drawing of the chariot, chopped into boxes]
So if a man were challenged to “tap the boxes containing chariots to prove you’re human” when he was just trying to check his ClubCard points... *where could he tap*?
9
PLATO:
Well you can’t tap any of them really
10
SOCRATES:
So are we not human?
PLATO:
‘Spose not.
11
[Bleak pause]
12
PLATO:
I’ll get the hemlock
SOCRATES:
Yeah
[ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiazbuxbxnuyt5etli2cjseaychvbuym6n6z33nwx2mutlvoqjdhge@jpeg)
Many recent cyber attacks on business suggest digitised systems lack security and resilience. In a parallel world, AI is going to increase efficiency. Surely further increases in digitisation and joined up systems are required for AI to attempt this. How does that square with security & resilience?
October 2, 2025 at 12:38 PM
Many recent cyber attacks on business suggest digitised systems lack security and resilience. In a parallel world, AI is going to increase efficiency. Surely further increases in digitisation and joined up systems are required for AI to attempt this. How does that square with security & resilience?
Reposted by Chris Wallace
You’re right, Ms Mahmood - I don’t.
Because the slippery slope we’ve been going down has been spine chilling.
It started with “illegal migrants.”
That was the “reasonable concern” Just the law, nothing more. Politicians said, “people aren’t anti-immigration, they just want the rules respected.”
Because the slippery slope we’ve been going down has been spine chilling.
It started with “illegal migrants.”
That was the “reasonable concern” Just the law, nothing more. Politicians said, “people aren’t anti-immigration, they just want the rules respected.”
September 29, 2025 at 5:26 PM
You’re right, Ms Mahmood - I don’t.
Because the slippery slope we’ve been going down has been spine chilling.
It started with “illegal migrants.”
That was the “reasonable concern” Just the law, nothing more. Politicians said, “people aren’t anti-immigration, they just want the rules respected.”
Because the slippery slope we’ve been going down has been spine chilling.
It started with “illegal migrants.”
That was the “reasonable concern” Just the law, nothing more. Politicians said, “people aren’t anti-immigration, they just want the rules respected.”
Reposted by Chris Wallace
Dear parents - Yes you can give your sick child paracetamol if they’re >3 months old. It’s an excellent painkiller. It brings down a high temperature. It’s one of the safest drugs available. You are right to want to soothe your child’s distress. Evidence supports your good parenting. Be confident.
September 27, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Dear parents - Yes you can give your sick child paracetamol if they’re >3 months old. It’s an excellent painkiller. It brings down a high temperature. It’s one of the safest drugs available. You are right to want to soothe your child’s distress. Evidence supports your good parenting. Be confident.
When you have to draw up schematic diagrams, what do you use? I vary between tikz, R, and PowerPoint, but they all have different advantages. None ever seems fully satisfactory.
September 26, 2025 at 9:00 AM
When you have to draw up schematic diagrams, what do you use? I vary between tikz, R, and PowerPoint, but they all have different advantages. None ever seems fully satisfactory.
There are just too many interesting papers and too little time...
September 23, 2025 at 1:24 PM
There are just too many interesting papers and too little time...
In modern datasets, very large sample sizes combined with slight differences in information across SNPs (eg die to imputation) can mislead fine mapping algorithms, and in turn colocalisation.
A pre-print for Chris Wallace's colocPropTest method for proportional colocalization is available online: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @chr1sw.bsky.social
Variable information across SNPs in GWAS data can cause false rejections of colocalisation which can be resolved by proportional colocalisation tests
Fine-mapping is now a standard post-GWAS analysis, but it has been shown to be potentially inaccurate for large meta-analysis GWAS. We show how this can be caused by variable amounts of statistical in...
www.biorxiv.org
September 23, 2025 at 1:03 PM
In modern datasets, very large sample sizes combined with slight differences in information across SNPs (eg die to imputation) can mislead fine mapping algorithms, and in turn colocalisation.