Excited to be a part of this new paper with Alphey Lab- out in pre-print.
Multiplexing overrides resistance for #genedrive in Anopheles stephensi
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Takeaway: Gene drive success depends not just on design, but on natural population variation & rigorous analysis.
We must study drives across multiple species + account for real-world genetics to deploy them effectively.

This contrasts with Anopheles mosquitoes, where drives seemed highly efficient. But our study shows:
✅ Lower drive efficiency in Culex makes subtle effects easier to spot
✅ Choice of analysis is key — some methods can hide these mismatches in other systems.
#MosquitoControl #Genetics

🚨New pre-print🚨
Natural DNA variation can slash CRISPR gene drive efficiency by up to 54% in Culex quinquefasciatus, a major West Nile virus mosquito vector.
<10% mismatch at the target site disrupts copying.
#GeneDrive #CRISPR
(with Tim Harvey-Samuel and Alphey Lab)
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

As seen on LinkedIn😂
Learning R in 2025...

Dominant fitness costs demonstrate the difficulties in producing a gene drive - even with highly effective homing rates.
New paper in collab with Alphey Lab parasitesandvectors.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Yes (and yes).
Posted my ballot

Just beautiful work by @soozuk.bsky.social

Suddenly the artistic cover on my maths textbook looks prescient and not just wrong!
#mirrorlife

Waiting to be part of a starter pack

CRISPR-based gene drives generate super-Mendelian inheritance in the disease vector Culex quinquefasciatus - I am thrilled to see this paper out.
It was the result of a fantastic collaboration with multiple research groups!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Quote skeet a picture of street graffiti from your phone

Does anyone remember this from 2020?
Every year, I run a #graphcrimes lecture on bad and misleading figures - I would love to see examples of crimes in data you have witnessed! #rstats
www.boredpanda.com/average-wome...

Okay #rstats people here's another one I like from class. Students took a reaction speed test then reported their dominant hand.
Here we can discuss the unequal sample sizes and whether we have enough data from 'southpaws' to start drawing conclusions

#rstats
What are your favourite examples when teaching students to think critically about data/figures and interpretations?

For example, Simpson's Paradox and the importance of considering important subpopulations - is brilliantly displayed in the Palmer Penguins dataset.

Gillian Keegan and the Conservatives want to bring in "Minimum service levels" at university as the latest strike breaking tactic.
Does anyone still take this government seriously?
Does any serious person know what this would look like?

What's a skeet?