Maddy Comerford
@maddycomerford.bsky.social
PhD student interested in human evolutionary genetics and archaic introgression @ SVIResearch + UniMelb
Pinned
Mapping the gene regulatory landscape of archaic hominin introgression in modern Papuans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.04.652069v1
Interested in the impact of Denisovan and Neanderthal introgression, or using high-throughput assays to answer evolutionary questions? Check out our work MPRA’ing Denisovan and Neanderthal variants in present-day humans to characterise their impact on gene expression ⬇️
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
GitHub - hadley/genzplyr: dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap
dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap. Contribute to hadley/genzplyr development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
DNA from Napoleon’s 1812 army identifies the pathogens likely responsible for the army’s demise during their Russian retreat. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Nicolás Rascovan & colleagues
@currentbiology.bsky.social
Nicolás Rascovan & colleagues
@currentbiology.bsky.social
October 24, 2025 at 3:00 PM
DNA from Napoleon’s 1812 army identifies the pathogens likely responsible for the army’s demise during their Russian retreat. www.cell.com/current-biol...
Nicolás Rascovan & colleagues
@currentbiology.bsky.social
Nicolás Rascovan & colleagues
@currentbiology.bsky.social
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
A high-coverage genome from a 200,000-year-old Denisovan https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.20.683404v1
October 20, 2025 at 3:33 PM
A high-coverage genome from a 200,000-year-old Denisovan https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.20.683404v1
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
In a new paper led by Jiaqi Yang we trace the distribution of Denisovan introgressed DNA in ancient modern human genomes over time.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
An early East Asian lineage with unexpectedly low Denisovan ancestry
Yang et al. study Denisovan ancestry in ancient and present-day humans. In contrast
to other East Asians, genomic comparisons suggest that the Jomon derived most of their
ancestry from a deep lineage ...
www.cell.com
October 20, 2025 at 7:39 PM
In a new paper led by Jiaqi Yang we trace the distribution of Denisovan introgressed DNA in ancient modern human genomes over time.
www.cell.com/current-biol...
www.cell.com/current-biol...
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
My non-MPRA phd work! 😄
New, from @navya-shukla.bsky.social and me:
You have a new genome and want to test it for acceleration against other genomes:
Tired: add it to an existing WGA with much toil and tears
Wired: use our new approach to only add conserved regions!
🧬🧪🖥️
You have a new genome and want to test it for acceleration against other genomes:
Tired: add it to an existing WGA with much toil and tears
Wired: use our new approach to only add conserved regions!
🧬🧪🖥️
Lift&Add - rapid and robust addition of new species to alignments of conserved non-coding sequences https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.14.682260v1
October 15, 2025 at 10:49 PM
My non-MPRA phd work! 😄
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
Just discovered {ggcats} and yes, it does exactly what you think: adds cats to your ggplots. 🐈📈 Because sometimes your data visualisation needs a little more purr-sonality.
👉 github.com/R-CoderDotCo...
#RStats #ggplot2 #dataviz #catsinstats
👉 github.com/R-CoderDotCo...
#RStats #ggplot2 #dataviz #catsinstats
GitHub - R-CoderDotCom/ggcats: The geom you always wished for adding cats to ggplot2
The geom you always wished for adding cats to ggplot2 - R-CoderDotCom/ggcats
github.com
July 24, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Just discovered {ggcats} and yes, it does exactly what you think: adds cats to your ggplots. 🐈📈 Because sometimes your data visualisation needs a little more purr-sonality.
👉 github.com/R-CoderDotCo...
#RStats #ggplot2 #dataviz #catsinstats
👉 github.com/R-CoderDotCo...
#RStats #ggplot2 #dataviz #catsinstats
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
"Decoding Genomic Landscapes of Introgression"
by Martin Kuhlwilm (@kuhlwilm.bsky.social) & co
"The detection of introgressed loci has evolved into a diverse methodological field encompassing summary statistics, probabilistic modeling, and supervised learning."
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
by Martin Kuhlwilm (@kuhlwilm.bsky.social) & co
"The detection of introgressed loci has evolved into a diverse methodological field encompassing summary statistics, probabilistic modeling, and supervised learning."
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
July 23, 2025 at 1:18 PM
"Decoding Genomic Landscapes of Introgression"
by Martin Kuhlwilm (@kuhlwilm.bsky.social) & co
"The detection of introgressed loci has evolved into a diverse methodological field encompassing summary statistics, probabilistic modeling, and supervised learning."
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
by Martin Kuhlwilm (@kuhlwilm.bsky.social) & co
"The detection of introgressed loci has evolved into a diverse methodological field encompassing summary statistics, probabilistic modeling, and supervised learning."
authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
🧪🖥️🧬 It's here!! Our second MPRA, which is totally different from the first. For starters, there's no human sequences anywhere!
Instead there's marsupials, wolves, pandas and a lot of hard work from lab members past & present, chief amongst them @navya-shukla.bsky.social (looking for a postdoc btw)
Instead there's marsupials, wolves, pandas and a lot of hard work from lab members past & present, chief amongst them @navya-shukla.bsky.social (looking for a postdoc btw)
Dissecting functional regulatory convergence over 160 million years of therian evolution https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.10.662670v1
July 11, 2025 at 9:46 PM
🧪🖥️🧬 It's here!! Our second MPRA, which is totally different from the first. For starters, there's no human sequences anywhere!
Instead there's marsupials, wolves, pandas and a lot of hard work from lab members past & present, chief amongst them @navya-shukla.bsky.social (looking for a postdoc btw)
Instead there's marsupials, wolves, pandas and a lot of hard work from lab members past & present, chief amongst them @navya-shukla.bsky.social (looking for a postdoc btw)
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
At long last, scientists have a nearly complete cranium from hominins known as Denisovans. scim.ag/4e7QdT4
‘Dragon Man’ skull belongs to mysterious human relative
At long last, scientists have a nearly complete cranium from hominins known as Denisovans
scim.ag
June 20, 2025 at 1:13 PM
At long last, scientists have a nearly complete cranium from hominins known as Denisovans. scim.ag/4e7QdT4
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
Very interesting Massive Parallel Reporter Assay study by @ee-reh-neh.bsky.social and colleagues, refining our understanding of the impact of Neanderthal & Denisovan #introgression in modern Papuans (special focus on immune cell types) 🧪🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Mapping the gene regulatory landscape of archaic hominin introgression in modern Papuans
Interbreeding between anatomically modern humans and archaic hominins has contributed to the genomes of present-day human populations. However, our understanding of the specific gene regulatory conseq...
www.biorxiv.org
May 5, 2025 at 6:46 AM
Very interesting Massive Parallel Reporter Assay study by @ee-reh-neh.bsky.social and colleagues, refining our understanding of the impact of Neanderthal & Denisovan #introgression in modern Papuans (special focus on immune cell types) 🧪🧬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
🎉 This paper has been a long time and a labour of love (and hardship) for multiple group members, but, finally: we MPRA'ed 25k introgressed variants (Denisovan and Neanderthal) segregating at allele frequencies > 0.15 in humans today to evaluate their potential to regulate gene expression.
Mapping the gene regulatory landscape of archaic hominin introgression in modern Papuans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.04.652069v1
May 5, 2025 at 2:43 AM
🎉 This paper has been a long time and a labour of love (and hardship) for multiple group members, but, finally: we MPRA'ed 25k introgressed variants (Denisovan and Neanderthal) segregating at allele frequencies > 0.15 in humans today to evaluate their potential to regulate gene expression.
Interested in the impact of Denisovan and Neanderthal introgression, or using high-throughput assays to answer evolutionary questions? Check out our work MPRA’ing Denisovan and Neanderthal variants in present-day humans to characterise their impact on gene expression ⬇️
Mapping the gene regulatory landscape of archaic hominin introgression in modern Papuans https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.04.652069v1
May 5, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Interested in the impact of Denisovan and Neanderthal introgression, or using high-throughput assays to answer evolutionary questions? Check out our work MPRA’ing Denisovan and Neanderthal variants in present-day humans to characterise their impact on gene expression ⬇️
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
@maddycomerford.bsky.social
Archaic introgression is not evenly distributed between modern human populations. 🧬🌍
Showing differentially active Denisovan SNP predicted to regulate TNFAIP3; genotype at this SNP correlates with TNFAIP3 expression in a single-cell RNAseq dataset.
#HumanEvo25
Archaic introgression is not evenly distributed between modern human populations. 🧬🌍
Showing differentially active Denisovan SNP predicted to regulate TNFAIP3; genotype at this SNP correlates with TNFAIP3 expression in a single-cell RNAseq dataset.
#HumanEvo25
April 28, 2025 at 4:56 PM
@maddycomerford.bsky.social
Archaic introgression is not evenly distributed between modern human populations. 🧬🌍
Showing differentially active Denisovan SNP predicted to regulate TNFAIP3; genotype at this SNP correlates with TNFAIP3 expression in a single-cell RNAseq dataset.
#HumanEvo25
Archaic introgression is not evenly distributed between modern human populations. 🧬🌍
Showing differentially active Denisovan SNP predicted to regulate TNFAIP3; genotype at this SNP correlates with TNFAIP3 expression in a single-cell RNAseq dataset.
#HumanEvo25
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
A fossil Pleistocene-age hominin jawbone discovered in Taiwan has now been identified as belonging to a Denisovan, finds a new study in Science.
The results provide direct molecular evidence that Denisovans occupied diverse climates and offer new insights into this hominin lineage. scim.ag/4joSUBh
The results provide direct molecular evidence that Denisovans occupied diverse climates and offer new insights into this hominin lineage. scim.ag/4joSUBh
April 10, 2025 at 7:51 PM
A fossil Pleistocene-age hominin jawbone discovered in Taiwan has now been identified as belonging to a Denisovan, finds a new study in Science.
The results provide direct molecular evidence that Denisovans occupied diverse climates and offer new insights into this hominin lineage. scim.ag/4joSUBh
The results provide direct molecular evidence that Denisovans occupied diverse climates and offer new insights into this hominin lineage. scim.ag/4joSUBh
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
Splicing in ancient DNA from a greek poet into a wolf embryo to make Canis orpheusis, the lyre wolf.
Splicing DNA sequenced from Rev. Thomas Bayes's crypt into a wolf embryo to make Canis parameterensis, the priorwolf
splicing random eDNA from a peat bog into a wolf to make canis sphagnumis, or the quagmire wolf
April 9, 2025 at 4:29 AM
Splicing in ancient DNA from a greek poet into a wolf embryo to make Canis orpheusis, the lyre wolf.
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
The resurrection circus keeps clowning, but make no mistake, Dire wolves remain very extinct.
An angry, sweary piece by a frustrated geneticist.
arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...
An angry, sweary piece by a frustrated geneticist.
arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...
Dire wolves remain very extinct
Despite what you are being fed, de-extinction is a con, full of gloss, bullshit and ghoulish greed.
arutherford.substack.com
April 9, 2025 at 6:22 AM
The resurrection circus keeps clowning, but make no mistake, Dire wolves remain very extinct.
An angry, sweary piece by a frustrated geneticist.
arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...
An angry, sweary piece by a frustrated geneticist.
arutherford.substack.com/p/dire-wolve...
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
April 3, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
#2025MMM #EliteTrait #DivisionTuxedoStyle #DivisionChampion #TeamPolarBear Art by Valeria Pellicer @veppart.bsky.social #mammals #sciart
March 28, 2025 at 1:26 AM
#2025MMM #EliteTrait #DivisionTuxedoStyle #DivisionChampion #TeamPolarBear Art by Valeria Pellicer @veppart.bsky.social #mammals #sciart
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS BRACKET DROP!!!! #2025MMM
Did you get the combatants you dreamed of?
HAPPY RESEARCHING THE SPECIES!!
libguides.asu.edu/MarchMammalM...
Did you get the combatants you dreamed of?
HAPPY RESEARCHING THE SPECIES!!
libguides.asu.edu/MarchMammalM...
February 21, 2025 at 1:57 AM
MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS BRACKET DROP!!!! #2025MMM
Did you get the combatants you dreamed of?
HAPPY RESEARCHING THE SPECIES!!
libguides.asu.edu/MarchMammalM...
Did you get the combatants you dreamed of?
HAPPY RESEARCHING THE SPECIES!!
libguides.asu.edu/MarchMammalM...
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
Thrilled with the release of this Terra Australis volume about the West New Guinea, exploring the rich human past of this fascinating region. Honored to have contributed chapters to this volume.
The latest volume in the Terra Australis series explores the human past in West New Guinea.
It describes the environmental and cultural history of the area and the boundary-making that has formed West New Guinea in the recent past.
Available now doi.org/10.22459/TA5...
It describes the environmental and cultural history of the area and the boundary-making that has formed West New Guinea in the recent past.
Available now doi.org/10.22459/TA5...
February 20, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Thrilled with the release of this Terra Australis volume about the West New Guinea, exploring the rich human past of this fascinating region. Honored to have contributed chapters to this volume.
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
*increasing the line width on my figure*
Hehehe, the plot thickens.
Hehehe, the plot thickens.
February 19, 2025 at 4:43 PM
*increasing the line width on my figure*
Hehehe, the plot thickens.
Hehehe, the plot thickens.
Had a wonderful few days at Lorne Genome 2025! Thank you to all involved for such a great conference in such a beautiful part of the world 🌊☀️🧬
February 19, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Had a wonderful few days at Lorne Genome 2025! Thank you to all involved for such a great conference in such a beautiful part of the world 🌊☀️🧬
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
Parafilm watercolor
February 8, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Parafilm watercolor
Reposted by Maddy Comerford
Maddy Comerford using massively parallel reporter assay to characterise activity of Denisovan and Neanderthal sequences in the modern genome identifying a denisovan snp with immune specific expression. #lornegenome #lornegenome2025
February 17, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Maddy Comerford using massively parallel reporter assay to characterise activity of Denisovan and Neanderthal sequences in the modern genome identifying a denisovan snp with immune specific expression. #lornegenome #lornegenome2025