Gokcumen Lab

Our preprint, "Read mismapping from segmental duplications drives spurious trans associations," is out! We argue that RNA & DNA read mismapping can lead to false signals in QTLs, Hi-C, GWAS, and gene co-expression. And there is a way to identify them! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

NEW PAPER in GBE! Saliva is key for digestion, teeth, immunity & oral health, but how did saliva proteins evolve? We show that SCPP genes expressed in salivary glands evolved rapidly via duplications, losses, & regulatory shifts, esp. in primates, with signs of positive selection

What have 🦷🦷 #TEETH 🦷🦷, 🥛🥛 #MILK 🥛🥛, and💧💧 #SALIVA 💧💧to do with each other? Ask @PetarPajic93 , Luane Landau, and @GokcumenLab ❗️ academic.oup.com/gbe/article-ab…

✨ one of the proudest achievements of my lab. Oldie but Goldie. we delineated the sex- and diet-dependent effects of an ancient deletion (>Neanderthal–human divergence) in the 3rd, highly conserved exon GHR (GHRd3). science.org/doi/10.1126/sc… #BioRenderForGrants #ScienceAdvances

Great write-up by Technology Networks on our recent work on switch-like gene expression in humans. It is short, clear, and just a 4-min read. If transcriptomic variation interests you, please give it a look! Paper: nature.com/articles/s4146… Write-up: technologynetworks.com/genomics/news/…

#UBuffalo researchers found nearly 500 human genes that act like light switches—either fully on or off! 💡🧬 Led by Omer Gokcumen, Alber Aqil & Naoki Masuda, the study uncovered genetic patterns linked to fertility, COVID-19, cancer & more. Read more: arts-sciences.buffalo.edu/news-and-event…

Our lab's latest paper, "Switch-like gene expression modulates disease risk," led by our PhD student @AlberAqil, was published in Nature Communications. A collaboration with Naoki Masuda. Paper: nature.com/articles/s4146… Press release: buffalo.edu/grad/news.host…