Investigating the evolutionary history of genetic variations to explain biological diversity and disease in modern and ancient human populations.

Joined June 2025
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Gokcumen Lab retweeted
News podcast: @Markusmicrobius (@KingstonUni) on the #hantavirus outbreak; Omer Gokcumen (@UBuffalo) on gene selection in indigenous Andeans; Marcus Michaelangeli (@Griffith_Uni) on salmon on cocaine; and Amy Williams (@UF) on new molecules on Mars thenakedscientists.com/podca…
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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/10.1101/…
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Gokcumen Lab retweeted
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
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✨ 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/scia… #BioRenderForGrants #ScienceAdvances
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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/s41467-0… Write-up: technologynetworks.com/genom…
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Gokcumen Lab retweeted
#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/ne…
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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/s41467-0… Press release: buffalo.edu/grad/news.host.h…
20 Jun 2025
Our new study, "Switch-like gene expression modulates disease risk," is now out in Nature Communications: nature.com/articles/s41467-0… @GokcumenLab @UBBiology @UBCAS @UBuffalo I am summarizing our key findings in this thread (1/8)

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