Danny Arends

New paper out today in Nature 🧬

We tracked 6,438 mice from puberty to death and mapped the genetics of when you die, not just whether a variant associates with lifespan.

59 loci. Two sexes. Almost completely separate genetic architectures between them — only 2 out of 150 epistatic interactions overlap. If you ignore sex in aging genetics you get the wrong answer. We have the data to prove it.

Some genes help you young and kill you old. Some do nothing for 800 days then suddenly matter. Some reverse polarity entirely with age. We now know which ones, where they are, and what they interact with.

The method that made this possible is actuarial QTL mapping: instead of mapping lifespan once, you remap it 72 times in progressively older survivor subgroups. A gene that only acts after day 900 is completely invisible in standard mapping. This catches it. I plan to do a dedicated video on this.

We also mapped a new class of loci entirely: ones that don't affect lifespan directly but control whether being bigger helps or hurts you at different ages. That required a method called CTL mapping, which I also plan to cover in a video.

Candidate genes were validated in C. elegans using RNAi knockdown and cross-checked against human longevity data from UK Biobank.

All code and data open: github.com/DannyArends/UM-HET3
Full paper: doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10407-9

Drop a comment if you want the Actuarial QTL mapping or CTL video first.

#Longevity #Aging #Genetics #Bioinformatics #OpenScience

2 months ago | [YT] | 19

Danny Arends

Milestone: 13,000 subscribers teaching bioinformatics! 🎉

Three years ago, I started recording lectures with a $20 microphone. Today, our YouTube channel reaches researchers across 100+ countries, democratising access to bioinformatics education.

What started as pandemic teaching has grown into something bigger: a community of scientists learning R programming, RNA-seq analysis, and computational biology together.

The most rewarding part? Messages from PhD students in developing countries who couldn't afford courses, postdocs switching to computational biology, and wet-lab researchers adding bioinformatics to their toolkit.

Some lessons learned:
- Free education creates exponential impact
- Complex topics can be explained simply
- The best time to start sharing knowledge is now

Thank you Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & Northumbria University for supporting open science education, and to YOU the viewer who believed this content was worth watching and sharing.

8 months ago | [YT] | 23

Danny Arends

Finally online 🥳, the largest #QTL study ever done in mice, we use an actuarial approach to map #genetic factors affecting #aging in mice (Vita) and discover that genetics modulates the effect of #bodyweight on #lifespan (Soma).

See the paper at: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.27.649857v…

1 year ago | [YT] | 12

Danny Arends

🚀 Get ready for some exciting NEWS 🧬 I've been working with the brilliant Prof Rob W. Williams from The University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC), and our preprint is ALMOST HERE! 🎉

The upcoming paper, "Genetic Modulation of Lifespan: Dynamic Effects, Sex Differences, and Body Weight Trade-offs" is expected to go on bioRxiv next week. 🤩 Get ready for a deep dive into aging genetics – I'll share the link the second it's up!

We're introducing a game-changing concept: Actuarial QTL mapping! 🤯 Plus, we've developed a cool new way to map genetic regions influencing the correlation between lifespan and body weight, inspired by my PhD work.

I'll be hosting a couple of livestreams once the preprint is on bioRxiv to walk you through Actuarial QTL analysis, correlation mapping, and how we created awesome visualizations! 📊 Stay tuned for dates and times! 😉

#Genetics #AgingResearch #QTLmapping #Lifespan #BodyWeight #BioRxiv #Preprint #Science #Research #DataAnalysis #Bioinformatics #LiveStream #UniversityofTennessee #UTHSC #ExcitingResearch #StayTuned

1 year ago | [YT] | 36

Danny Arends

Exciting new genotype visualization 🎨!

Today I developed a method to visualize amplicon genotypes (reference vs. alternative alleles), with a unique twist: the alternative allele color reflects its collection site 🗺️. For comparison, I've included the original visualization using a uniform light-blue for all alternative alleles.

Let me know what you think in the comments.

#Genomics #Bioinformatics #DataVisualization #ScientificCommunication

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1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 26

Danny Arends

Created a BlueSky 💙 account. For dataviz using R, Bioinformatics, 🐈 photos, upcoming YouTube content, and more. Follow me on bsky.app/profile/dannyarends.nl

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1 year ago | [YT] | 27

Danny Arends

YouTube Bronze 🏆
10.000 Subs 🤯
Thank You 🙏

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 16

Danny Arends

YouTube informed me that today is my channel's birthday 🥳! A massive thanks to everyone who watches videos, follows the channel, and/or joins the live streams. It has been an amazing year with:

👀 125.725 Views
⌛ 14.000 hours watched (580 days of lectures per year ! 🤯)
🔔 4.100 new subscribers.

Thank you all 🙏 for your support, this would not have been possible without you !

1 year ago | [YT] | 37

Danny Arends

🚨 Attention subscribers, followers, and viewers ! 🚨 #ScamAlert 🚨

Just got notified two different platforms are using my name/lectures to sell fake certificates. The companies behind this scam are TERACOURSES (‪@TeraCourses‬) and IT-SHARKS (‪@itsharks3163‬).

I am not affiliated with them in any way, and I am not (and will never) sell course certificates. My lectures are available for free on ‪YouTube at: ‪‪@DannyArends‬

Please do not pay for any courses or certificates that are associated with my name. All of my content is available on YouTube for free. If you have already been scammed, please report it to the authorities.

Please like and share so that we can prevent others from becoming victims.

#ReportTheScam #ScamAlert #FakeCertificate #FreeEducation #YouTubeEducation

Ps. Enjoy the photo of Oscar sticking out his tongue to scammers

1 year ago (edited) | [YT] | 23

Danny Arends

𝗪𝗛𝗢𝗔! 𝗪𝗲 𝗛𝗶𝘁 𝗮 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗠𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗩𝗶𝗲𝘄𝘀!

I'm absolutely blown away to announce that we've officially surpassed 𝟮𝟱𝟬,𝟬𝟬𝟬 views 🤯 on YouTube! This is a HUGE milestone, and I couldn't have done it without 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 incredible support.

Thank you to each and every one of you who has watched, subscribed, commented, and shared my videos. Your engagement means the world to me.

𝗧𝗼 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗯𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝘄𝗲𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁, 𝗜'𝗱 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝘆𝗼𝘂!

- What's your favourite video so far?
- What kind of content would you like to see more of?
- Got any burning questions you'd like answered in a future video?

Leave a comment below and let's chat!

Here's to many more views and an amazing community!

#YouTubeMilestone #ThankYou #Grateful #CreatorsCommunity

2 years ago | [YT] | 22