Pollard Lab

Katie Pollard spoke about cryptic functional variation in the human microbiome at the 2015 Joint Statistical Meetings. Her talk was highlighted in the media, including on the NPR Blog Shots.

Members of the Pollard lab were featured on LabTV, a project that helps the scientistis of tomrrow meet diverse faces in the field to learn about their biomedical research and career paths.

A feature story about Human Accelerated Regions (HARs) appeared in Science. Liz Pennisi covered the discovery and analysis of HARs by the Pollard lab, as well as recent follow up work by several other groups to show that HARs function as developmental enhancers.

Bioinformatics PhD student Stephen Nayfach received the UCSF Fletcher Jones Fellowship.

Katie Pollard and Shannon Bennett are discussing the human microbiome for a City Arts and Lectures organized by the California Academy of Sciences. The event took place on March 4 at the Nourse Theater and was broadcast on NPR.

We participated in a session on obesity and the human microbiome at the AAAS Meeting in San Jose, CA. Our results about statistical inconsistencies received attention from a variety of media (see press release and news story). This research started with Mariel Finucane’s paper about variability across studies and continued this year with Stephen Nayfach’s observations about average genome size counfounding. Stephen’s paper was accepted at Genome Biology on the day before the talk!

We contributed to an opinion paper in Cell on the importance of developing standards and policies in the emerging field of microbiome research.

We received an NIH grant to study the longitudinal and functional dynamics of the autoimmune microbiome with Shomi Sanjabi and Tom Sharpton.

Katie Pollard was a guest speaker on City Visions Radio: Exploring the Human Microbiome. The show aired on KALW 91.7 and is available online.

Katie Pollard contributed to a white paper on the American Statistical Association’s Big Data R&D Initiative, which responded to calls from the NSF and White House. Details here.

Graduate student Stephen Nayfach received a Genentech Fellowship for his work on genomic variation in the human microbiome

Postdoc Josh Ladau received a poster award at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s Marine Microbiology Initiative RA and Postdoctoral Scholar Summit.

Postdoc Josh Ladau’s figure of predicted microbial diversity in the American tallgrass prairie before agriculture was selected by Wired Magazine as one of the best scientific visualizations of 2013.

Using a combination of bioinformatics and experimental approaches, we showed that many Human Accelerated Regions (HARs) function as developmental enhancers, some with differences in activity between humans and chimps. The paper was published in a special theme issue of Phil Trans Royal Society B on enhancer evolution. Images of HAR enhancers can be viewed through our EnhancerBrowser website. More info here.

Postdoc Josh Ladau and Katie Pollard used niche modeling to predict microbial community diversity in the tallgrass prairie of the United States before agriculture dramatically changed this ecosystem. This project was a collaboration with Noah Fierer and others at University of Colorado. The paper was published in Science and appeared in Nature News. More info here.

Katie Pollard and Gladstone President Sandy Williams were confirmed as Fellows of the California Academy of Sciences. (News story here.)

Katie participated in The New Diagnosis, a panel discussion of technology in health care and research at TechCrunch Disrupt 2013.

The Pollard lab’s work on the human gut microbiome was featured on ABC News. We are collaborating with Shomi Sanjabi’s lab to study changes in the gut microbiome during the onset of autoimmune disease.

Katie Pollard was featured in an Amstat News story about the benefits of postdoctoral fellowships. Amstat News is the magazine of the American Statistical Association.

The Pollard lab’s investigations into the human microbiome and its role in autoimmune diseases was covered in a news story on KQED radio. The lab is collaborating with Carlos Bustamante and colleagues to study the microbiomes of Khoisan people in South Africa (more info here).