Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Graham Murray

Peter Tennant @pwgtennant.bsky.social · 11h

Roll up, roll up. Get your snake oil and miracle cures here!

✅ Precision medicine
✅ Automated causal inference
✅ Polygenic scores
✅ 1000+ outcome prediction models
✅ In sillico trials
✅ Exposomics
✅ Anything involve 'AI'
✅ Any other trend, shortcut, or bandwagon!

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Reposted by Graham Murray

Tamsin Ford @tamsinford.bsky.social · 11h

This was student initiated and led and I am so proud of what they have done

Cambridge Psychiatry @psychiatry-ucam.bsky.social · 11h

Opening Doors to Postgraduate Psychology: The Story of Summer CAMP

👉 www.psychiatry.cam.ac.uk/news/opening...

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Jehannine (J9) Austin @j9austin.bsky.social · 1d

New paper alert!
@zeinawaheed.bsky.social led this scoping review exploring models for delivery of Pharmacogenomic testing. Free access here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #AcademicSky 🧪

Characterizing models for delivery of pharmacogenomic testing: a scoping review

Pharmacogenomic (PGx) testing can help guide medication prescribing for a wide range of health indications. The objective of this scoping review was to understand how PGx testing has been clinicall...

www.tandfonline.com

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Reposted by Graham Murray

Emil Uffelmann @euffelmann.bsky.social · 2d

🚨 The preprint for our GWAS of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is out

Preprint: medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧵

Genomic analyses reveal new insights into Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, with global case numbers projected to reach 153 million in 2050. AD is highly heritable, with twin-based heritability estimates of 60-80%...

medrxiv.org

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Danielle @daniposthu.bsky.social · 2d

Proud that the third GWAS for Alzheimer's dementia from the PGC-ALZ working group was just posted online! Huge amounts of work, and what a great collaboration! Check out our exciting findings below 👇 @pgcgenetics.bsky.social #ctglab #alzheimer #dementia #GWAS

Emil Uffelmann @euffelmann.bsky.social · 2d

🚨 The preprint for our GWAS of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is out

Preprint: medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧵

Genomic analyses reveal new insights into Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, with global case numbers projected to reach 153 million in 2050. AD is highly heritable, with twin-based heritability estimates of 60-80%...

medrxiv.org

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Reposted by Graham Murray

Sam Gershman @gershbrain.bsky.social · 2d

Really interesting work by Bakhurin and colleagues challenging the reward prediction error hypothesis of dopamine:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
I love this figure which both echoes and undermines the famous figure from Schultz et al. (1997).

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FinnGen @finngen.bsky.social · 2d

Just in time for #ASHG2025, a new FinnGen public data release is live!
This release features the first clinical laboratory value association results. Analyses cover 383 lab measurements (OMOPIDs) with data from ≥1,000 participants each.
Access the results here: www.finngen.fi/en/access_re...

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Drew Schreiner @schreinerdrew.bsky.social · 2d

Nice preprint from Veronica Alvarez's group on cortically-evoked DA mediated by ACh! I We observed something quite similar in birds, and interesting to see the sensory/prefrontal distinction

Cholinergic-dependent dopamine signals in mouse dorsal striatum are regulated by frontal but not sensory cortices

Everyday decisions depend on linking sensory stimuli with actions and outcomes. The striatum supports these sensorimotor associations through dopamine-dependent plasticity. Thus, the timing and magnit...

www.biorxiv.org

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Izzy Jayasinghe @ijayas.bsky.social · 4d

🤖 If you use LinkedIn, please be aware that they automatically use your profile to train their GenAI. To turn off, go to Settings > Data Privacy > Data for Gen AI improvements.

Screenshot of LinkedIn’s menu: “How LinkedIn uses your data”. Near the bottom, is the option to turn off “Data for Generative AI improvement”, shown with a red arrow.

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Frank Harrell @f2harrell.bsky.social · 10d

The extremely problematic use of change scores is so poorly understood by researchers that it’s almost sickening. Most don’t even understand what is needed for the subtraction operator to work. hbiostat.org/bbr/change

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Reposted by Graham Murray

Anne Carpenter @drannecarpenter.bsky.social · 6d

Yes!! We've seen it as part of our prior study: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20566748/

Abnormalities in mitochondrial structure in cells from patients with bipolar disorder - PubMed

Postmortem, genetic, brain imaging, and peripheral cell studies all support decreased mitochondrial activity as a factor in the manifestation of Bipolar Disorder (BD). Because abnormal mitochondrial m...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

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Graham Murray @gkmurray.bsky.social · 6d

very interesting work! would you expect this to be visible in postmortem brain specimens? Has anyone looked?

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Eric Topol @erictopol.bsky.social · 7d

Why does the naked mole rat have the longest lifespan of any rodent, nearly 40 years?
A 30-year long mystery unraveled @ScienceMagazine today!
Its cGAS enzyme in cells has 4 missense mutations that upends its function, promoting DNA repair and suppressing inflammation
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Gavin Buckingham @drgbuckingham.bsky.social · 9d

When is work not work? What is the workiest work?

gavinbuckingham.wordpress.com/2025/10/07/w...

Work that isn’t counted as work

An interesting LinkedIn post from some colleagues musing on the “expectation of free service” has been stuck in my head for a few days now. In my university, we have a workload model wh…

gavinbuckingham.wordpress.com

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Bethany Brookshire @beebrookshire.bsky.social · 10d

Some good advice in here but one critical piece I always give is this:

Get a hobby. Preferably a mildly social one. One that has NOTHING TO DO WITH SCIENCE. NOTHING.

You need friends. Not colleagues. FRIENDS. Friends who will love you no matter your research prospects...

Nature @nature.com · 10d

What's one piece of advice you'd give to someone considering a PhD?

We asked 3785 doctoral candidates across 107 countries for their hard-won wisdom
go.nature.com/4nDjJ7t

27 things we wish we’d known when we started our PhDs

Nature’s survey of PhD candidates reveals hard-won wisdom on choosing supervisors, managing mental health and surviving academic culture.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Graham Murray

PessoaBrain @pessoabrain.bsky.social · 10d

Michael X Cohen on why he left academia/neuroscience.
mikexcohen.substack.com/p/why-i-left...

Why I left academia and neuroscience

Don't worry, this isn't yet another story of rage-quitting.

mikexcohen.substack.com

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Mark Peifer (He, him) @peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 11d

Fascinating thread about the identification of one of the first genes with a clear role in human speech and language! Extra credit for those who dig in to find out why its called a "forkhead domain" 🧪

Simon Fisher @profsimonfisher.bsky.social · 12d

Twenty-four years ago today, our paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” was published: www.nature.com/articles/350....
A personal thread about the ups & downs of the journey we took to get to that point....1/n
🗣️🧬🧪

Image shows the first two printed pages of the paper “A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder” by Cecilia Lai and colleagues, published in Nature in 2001 (volume 413, pages 519-523). The abstract reads as follows:
Individuals affected with developmental disorders of speech and language have substantial difficulty acquiring expressive and/or receptive language in the absence of any profound sensory or neurological impairment and despite adequate intelligence and opportunity. Although studies of twins consistently indicate that a significant genetic component is involved, most families segregating speech and language deficits show complex patterns of inheritance, and a gene that predisposes individuals to such disorders has not been identified. We have studied a unique three-generation pedigree, KE, in which a severe speech and language disorder is transmitted as an autosomal-dominant monogenic trait. Our previous work mapped the locus responsible, SPCH1, to a 5.6-cM interval of region 7q31 on chromosome 7. We also identified an unrelated individual, CS, in whom speech and language impairment is associated with a chromosomal translocation involving the SPCH1 interval. Here we show that the gene FOXP2, which encodes a putative transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead DNA-binding domain, is directly disrupted by the translocation breakpoint in CS. In addition, we identify a point mutation in affected members of the KE family that alters an invariant amino-acid residue in the forkhead domain. Our findings suggest that FOXP2 is involved in the developmental process that culminates in speech and language.

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Nicole Rust @nicolecrust.bsky.social · 11d

When writing Elusive Cures, a goal was to spell out how research types connect w/ understanding brain disorders. I struggled for evolutionary approaches (ala ‘What did this evolve for?‘ instead of ‘What is it and how does it break?’ But I missed /1
www.unsiloedpodcast.com/episodes/epi...

Episode 45: Randy Nesse — unSILOed Podcast with Greg LaBlanc

University of Michigan

www.unsiloedpodcast.com

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Rik Henson @rhens.bsky.social · 11d

Very useful tips…

profserious @profserious.bsky.social · 11d

Here are your 10 -essential- AI prompts for academics ... make your life easy with help from @profserious.bsky.social profserious.substack.com/p/10-ai-prom...

10 AI Prompts for Academics

making those hard jobs a little easier ...

profserious.substack.com

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Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) @sirsofficial.bsky.social · 14d

⏳ One Week Left! Submit for the SIRS Research Fund Award by 9 October 2025.

This award supports early career investigators in launching innovative projects to advance understanding, prevention, and treatment of schizophrenia.

🔗 Learn More: schizophreniaresearchsociety.org/join/researc...

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Graham Murray @gkmurray.bsky.social · 12d

Helpful blog about ME/CFS GWAS results from DecodeME Medsky 🖥️🧬 🩺🧠

ME/CFS Science @mecfsskeptic.bsky.social · 12d

1) We’ve written an article about the DecodeME results: what the study measured, what the results show, and why its findings are important.

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Mark Laubach @marklaubach.bsky.social · 13d

I'm recruiting a PhD student to study how enkephalins affect cognitive processing in the rodent frontal cortex. The project uses pharmacology, multi-electrode recordings, and fiber photometry, and is funded by NIDA. Please share with trainees applying this cycle. Thanks!

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John Burn-Murdoch @jburnmurdoch.ft.com · 13d

Excellent thread.

I’ve seen the same point made in the US, where the tight post-pandemic labour market saw significantly stronger wage growth among the lowest-paid workers, including hospitality, and sure enough the complaints about the cost of takeaway and eating out came flooding in.

David Henig @davidheniguk.bsky.social · 13d

Ok, been waiting for this one, price rises for going out that affect so many of us... there's a lot of factors here but one of the main ones is... this is what we collectively chose... what do you think happens with more regulations and a higher minimum wage? www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

What a £5 coffee (or a £100 Pizza Express) tells us about a changing Britain | Gaby Hinsliff

For many Gen Xers, it feels like we’re sliding back towards the land of our childhoods: where eating out was for special occasions, and Thermoses were king, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff

www.theguardian.com

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Graham Murray @gkmurray.bsky.social · 14d

@epiellie.bsky.social has written clearly on this epiellie.substack.com/p/time-to-re...

The best evidence Tylenol causes autism isn't great

On Monday, RFK Jr announced Tylenol ‘causes’ autism referencing three studies as evidence. Let's dive in.

epiellie.substack.com

Graham Murray @gkmurray.bsky.social · 14d

🔬 🧬 🩺🧠 Developmental and genetic profile of autism differs substantially by age at diagnosis - fascinating research by @vw1234.bsky.social Xinhe Zhang and colleagues. Medsky

Varun Warrier @vw1234.bsky.social · 15d

It is now clear that more people are being diagnosed as autistic in their teens and as adults than in childhood. A prevailing theory is that those diagnosed later have "milder" form of autism, and later diagnosis entirely due to social factors.

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