Illustration by Laurène Boglio
Hello and welcome to SpectrumCommunity newsletter of. In this edition, we bring you some thoughts on social media from # ASHG21, which took place virtually (again) last week – something several attendees lamented online.
According to discussions on Twitter, the posters were particularly problematic. On the one hand, the sessions offered no way to spontaneously video chat with presenters – a serious shortcoming, said Gholson Lyon of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York City. “It seems obvious to do that! “
just realizing that the poster session does not have a video component, so cannot meet or see the presenters. Is it just too expensive to allow video chats during hour-long poster presentations? not good to chat only in the text box…. # ASHG21 Where # ASHG2021
– Gholson Lyon (@GholsonLyon) October 18, 2021
Others even struggled to tune in. “Am I stupid? Asked Clement Chow, associate professor of human genetics at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. People who tweeted the sessions breadcrumbs to her complained, noting that browsing was ‘painful’, the search function wasn’t working and they seemed trapped in an endless loop of clicks between sites. .
Am i stupid I can’t figure out how to watch the poster speak. no link on the online planner? # ASHG21
– Dr Clement Chow (@ClementYChow) October 18, 2021
John Belmont, assistant professor of molecular and human genetics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, did not hold back in a tweet on the virtual assistant chatbot.
# ASHG21 The virtual assistant’s chatbot is pretty bad
– John W Belmont, MD, PhD (@jwbelmon) October 18, 2021
And the lack of easy interaction with his colleagues disappointed Tuuli Lappalainen, associate professor of systems biology at the University of Colombia. “For me, lectures are less about specific scientific content and more about connecting with people,” she tweeted.
I wish we could have # ASHG21 in person. They do a good job of organizing this, but it’s not the same thing at all. For me, lectures are less about specific scientific content and more about connecting with people.
– Tuuli Lappalainen (@tuuliel) October 18, 2021
At least for conference attendees who missed the opportunity to visit Montreal, Canada, where the meeting was originally scheduled to take place, genetic epidemiologist Marie-Julie Favé of the Ontario Cancer Research Institute has them covered. .
Hello Hello # ASHG21!
Sad to miss Montreal this year?
Before I started the discussions this morning, I decided to get on my bike and take you on a quick tour with me to show you what you’ve been missing!
It’s gone under the beautiful sun, the bright blue sky and the falling leaves! # ASHG21 pic.twitter.com/rcKoqzhRPP
– Marie-Julie Favé, PhD (@MJ_Fave) 20 October 2021
The scientific content of the meeting did not disappoint. Spectrum has covered some autism-specific findings, including the unpublished results of two independent teams on the divergent effects of autism-related genes on cognition and disease contributions from non-coding regions of the genome.
Jack Kosmicki, a statistician at the Regeneron Genetics Center in Tarrytown, New York, praised his team’s study, published Oct. 18 in Nature, which sequenced the exomes of 454,787 British biobank participants – and, unlike much previous work, analyzed all of the ancestries represented, not just the European ones.
Big thumbs up to @jdbackman, Manuel Ferreira, @gabecasis, @RegeneronDNA, and co. to @Nature 450k exome @uk_biobank paper ????????????
Particularly exciting to see ALL the ancestry analyzed (not just the euro like most of the other UKB exome papers so far) https://t.co/r62fsuH4wE pic.twitter.com/nmdx25HbXn
– Jack Kosmicki (@jakphd) October 18, 2021
Regeneron collaborator and scientist Veera Rajagopal wrote a thread offering “four key ideas” of “historic achievement”.
Today marks a landmark achievement in the history of human genetics. An analysis of more than half a million human exomes has been published in @Nature by scientists at Regeneron.
A common thread on * four key ideas * of this phenomenal achievement. https://t.co/sfHy0uCBzo
– Veera M. Rajagopal (@doctorveera) October 19, 2021
Don’t forget to register for our October 28 webinar, with Zachary J. Williams, medical student and doctoral student at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, who will speak about measuring alexithymia in people with autism.
That’s it for this week’s community newsletter! If you have any suggestions for interesting social posts you’ve seen in the autism research arena, please feel free to email [email protected] See you next week!
Quote this article: https://doi.org/10.53053/JOHN8300