Publications by authors named "M W Pennell"

The adaptive immune system generates a diverse array of B-cell receptors through the processes of V(D)J recombination and somatic hypermutation. B-cell receptors that bind to an antigen will undergo clonal expansion, creating a Darwinian evolutionary dynamic within individuals. A key step in studying these dynamics is to identify sequences derived from the same ancestral V(D)J recombination event (i.

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Explaining macroevolutionary divergence in light of population genetics requires understanding the extent to which the patterns of mutational input contribute to long-term trends. In the context of quantitative traits, mutational input is typically described by the mutational variance-covariance matrix, or the -matrix, which summarizes phenotypic variances and covariances introduced by new mutations per generation. However, as a summary statistic, the -matrix does not fully capture all the relevant information from the underlying mutational architecture, and there exist infinitely many possible underlying mutational architectures that give rise to the same -matrix.

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Background: The purpose of the Accelerating Colorectal Cancer Screening and Follow-up through Implementation Science (ACCSIS) Program, a Cancer Moonshotâ„  Initiative, is to support research to build the evidence base on multilevel interventions that increase rates of colorectal cancer screening, follow-up, and referral to care to address disparities in colorectal cancer screening. The National Cancer Institute funded eight Research Projects to implement multilevel interventions to improve colorectal cancer screening among communities who traditionally have been medically underserved. To analyze the impact of ACCSIS across Research Projects, the consortium developed a set of common data elements.

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Article Synopsis
  • The goal in both statistical genetics and phylogenetics is to uncover relationships between genetic factors and traits, but their statistical methods differ significantly.
  • The increasing overlap in research areas like medicine and biology necessitates a unified approach, as traditional boundaries between these two fields become less clear.
  • By introducing a general covariance model, the authors illustrate that existing methods can be harmonized, allowing for shared techniques to improve research accuracy and mitigate misleading correlations in both genetics and evolutionary studies.
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Article Synopsis
  • The study presents detailed genomes of six ape species, achieving high accuracy and complete sequencing of all their chromosomes.
  • It addresses complex genomic regions, leading to enhanced understanding of evolutionary relationships among these species.
  • The findings will serve as a crucial resource for future research on human evolution and our closest ape relatives.
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