Joseph Powell

Announcing "Fast Biology Bounties." I'm giving away $10,000 for ideas to speed up or reduce costs for wet-lab experiments. I'm looking for ideas that are highly original and technically tractable. A couple paragraphs will suffice. Supported by Astera Institute. Details below.

Join us at Cell Symposia: Single-Cell Biology in the Era of AI (Dec 2–4, 2026, Munich) 🇩🇪 From multi-omics to AI-driven models of cellular dynamics — an exciting lineup across experimental & computational biology. Hope to see you there! 🔗 cell-symposia.com/single-cell-bi…

@shyam_lab @SashaGusevPosts Thanks! This is the TenK10K multiome preprint, including single-cell caQTL mapping. medrxiv.org/content/10.110… @anglixue

@SashaGusevPosts Indeed, that is a very intuitive and satisfying finding. Future larger-scale studies are likely to identify many new eQTLs that are currently only detectable as caQTLs. Another related study: the TenK10K project from @drjosephpowell - medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

Some fascinating results in this single-cell study: - Once statistical power is high, constrained genes have *more* (though weaker) eQTLs. - Chromatin-QTLs near constrained genes have "normal" effect sizes, colocalize more with disease, but exhibit attenuated peak-gene effects.

Human pluripotent stem cells allow scientists to model human tissues and organs without using animals, but labeling cell types and states accurately can be tricky. In this perspective, @twatkeson and colleagues propose a “stem cell-relevant manifold”—a large reference map combining human tissue and stem cell-derived data. This could improve cell annotation, make lab-grown cells more physiologically accurate, and speed insights into development, disease, and potential therapies. Read in @stemcellreports: cell.com/stem-cell-repo… 👥 @Elias_RuizMor, @roserventotormo, @drneavin, @drjosephpowell, et al. 🏛️ @GarvanInstitute, @reNEW_Global, @sangerinstitute, @SCICambridge, @CellularFutures 💰 @nhmrc, @reNEW_Global, @wellcometrust

Amplifying for Trainees attending #ASHG25

A new, tour de force review on the future approaches to treat and potentially cure Type 1 diabetes @TheLancet thelancet.com/journals/lance…

⭐ Congratulations to Dr Albert Henry from Prof Joseph Powell’s lab on being awarded the NSW Health Cardiovascular Research Elite Postdoctoral Researcher Grant. His work combines data science with cardiovascular genetics to identify new therapeutic targets for heart disease.

@dagarfield @dgmacarthur @anglixue It depends on which data you are interested in. Best DM or email us.

@dgmacarthur @anglixue @drjosephpowell When can we have the data :) ?

And now the fourth preprint from the TenK10K phase 1 dataset, led by @anglixue from @drjosephpowell's team - this time looking at genetic impacts on cell type-specific chromatin accessibility in 1,000 individuals, who also have scRNA-seq!

Did a brief interview with @FLGenomics on sctrends.org and our views on what works in single-cell/spatial 'omics! Write up here: hubs.la/Q03qCBPQ0

📢 Up to 10 fully funded PhD scholarships at Human Technopole through @semm_it ! Join our international community & do cutting-edge research in Systems Medicine. Apply by 9 June 👉 humantechnopole.it/en/news/10-ful… #phdlife #phdcareers

Please check out our new manuscript extending the GREML methodology to quantify assortative mating and other forms of trait-associated genetic structures. Thanks to all our co-authors and the study participants! Here: nature.com/articles/s4158…

Oz Single Cell Conference is here & we have much to talk about - @ST_Omics – High-res spatial transcriptomics @MGI_Technology – Sequencing for precision diagnostics @ParseBio – High-throughput single-cell profiling #Genomics #SingleCell #OzSingleCell #EnablingDiscovery

Check out our scPrediXcan paper cell.com/cell-genomics/… Led by talented @Charles_Zhou12, supervised by @MengjieChen6 and me, with thanks to many contributors scPrediXcan integrates deep learning and single cell expression data into a powerful cell type specific TWAS framework.

Heading to Oz Single Cell Sydney @ozsinglecells? Meet Element Biosciences & explore AVITI24™, the first intelligent #multiomics platform. Don’t miss Matthew Kellinger, PhD presentation: "High Dimensional Biology: #SingleCell & Spatial Multiomics Powered by #AVITI24". bit.ly/4m6OZLs #ozsinglecell25

I am recruiting a quantitative/computational postdoc to my group at UCLA. This is a great opportunity to work on foundational theory, methods, and software in statistical genetics. Link to apply below. Please repost!

@pdhsu @SashaGusevPosts Shots fired…

@SashaGusevPosts Correlation and causation, like scRNA seq vs perturb seq

Musk seems to be misinterpreting the arguably true observation that C-sections enable large headed babies to be born for the definitely not true casual claim that C-sections make brains bigger.

Reminder: Early bird registration closes tomorrow! eventbrite.com.au/e/oz-single-ce…

🚨 Our latest GWAS of heart failure subtypes is now out in Nature Genetics! rdcu.be/eb9O0 A massive global collaboration from HERMES Consortium involving >40 studies with >150,000 heart failure cases. @HERMESgenetics @tomlumbers 🧵 highlighting key findings 1/

Dig further into #gwas data on the NEW Open Targets platform! Congrats to the @OpenTargets team on the new release!

@bach_warren Congratulations Warren, it’s been great working with you over the years since I started a lab. Thanks for all your support and enjoy retirement!

Retirement, here I come 🏝️ I am pleased to announce that after a 40 year career in science I have decided it's time to make a lifestyle change and hand back my company laptop. Its been a fun ride with ONT over the past 6 years, helping to establish this exciting tech in ANZ.