Oriol Fornés (@ofornes) profile picture

Oriol Fornés

@ofornes

Scientific Lead for CompBiol & AI in Precision Health @BCCHresearch & @UBC. Previously @Genentech, @CMMT_UBC, & @GRIB_Barcelona. I ❤️ @wizards_magic.

 Vancouver, BC, Canada
Joined July 2010
  • Tweets3.9K
  • Following309
  • Followers385
I am super excited to finally share this story about IRF4 published yesterday in @SciImmunology. For me, it all started with an email from @TurveyLab asking what I could tell him about a T95R mutation in IRF4. Many 6AM meetings later, this is the result: tinyurl.com/5xfzskst
3
14
1
36
6,719
Oriol Fornés retweeted
Nathan C. Frey (@nc_frey) profile picture
Nathan C. Frey
@nc_freySep 1
We're launching the Life Sciences Verification Program in partnership with US government so life sciences professionals can use Mythos 5.1 with safeguards designed for R&D. We have enrolled our first participants and plan to expand this program to the broader life sciences community as quickly as we can.
Claude (@claudeai) profile pictureClaude
@claudeaiSep 1
Replying to @claudeai
Claude Fable 5.1 is available everywhere today. Claude Mythos 5.1, our model for cyberdefenders and life scientists, is available through trusted access programs. Read more: anthropic.com/claude-fable-a…
Introducing Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1

Introducing Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1

Our most advanced models for coding and knowledge work. Their research capabilities also offer an early glimpse of how AI models will contribute to scientific progress.

anthropic.com
37
27
10
357
66,060
Check it out! anthropic.com/webinars/claud…
Claude Science AMA: How to accelerate scientific discovery

Claude Science AMA: How to accelerate scientific discovery

A scientist's work is scattered across dozens of disconnected tools, databases, and compute environments — every transition…

claude.com
4
24
4,116
Oriol Fornés retweeted
Quaid Morris (@quaidmorris) profile picture
Quaid Morris@quaidmorrisAug 7
Excited to share the results of the Codebook Project, an international effort to identify accurate DNA-binding motifs and genomic binding loci for >300 uncharacterized human transcription factors (TFs) nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
An expanded codebook of human transcription factor DNA-binding specificity

An expanded codebook of human transcription factor DNA-binding specificity

Nature - Results from a panel of assays that analyse different aspects of DNA sequence specificity reveal more than 100 new motifs to aid the characterization of putative human transcription factors.

nature.com
1
14
47
3,273
Taking our first steps towards sucking less on biology for you (we really are working on it!) anthropic.com/news/improving…
Improving Fable 5's safeguards

Improving Fable 5's safeguards

We’re making updates to Claude Fable 5’s biology safeguards in a way that substantially reduces fallbacks.

anthropic.com
14
8
72
6,228
Go team "Good Enough Genomics"!!! :)
David Garfield (@dagarfield@mstdn.social and post) (@dagarfield) profile pictureDavid Garfield (@[email protected] and post)@dagarfieldJul 21
We did a thing! A great collaboration from my @genentech days biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
Deep learning design and in vivo validation of Müller glia-specific cis-regulatory elements

Deep learning design and in vivo validation of Müller glia-specific cis-regulatory elements

Effective recombinant adeno-associated virus gene therapies require promoters that are compact and cell-type-specific. Ideally, promoters should also exhibit functional conservation when tested in...

biorxiv.org
3
180
Oriol Fornés retweeted
Surag Nair (@suragnair) profile picture
Surag Nair@suragnair10 Nov 2025
You can find the preprint here: biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… This would not have been possible without my amazing colleagues from BRAID @genentech: @gokcen @EhsanHRA @alexmtseng @thisisjohahi Nate Avantika @tbyanc @hcorrada @gabo_scalia. 12/
Nona: A unifying multimodal masking framework for functional genomics

Nona: A unifying multimodal masking framework for functional genomics

The non-coding genome encodes complex regulatory logic that orchestrates gene expression and cell identity. While machine learning models for functional genomics have advanced our understanding of...

biorxiv.org
1
2
16
2,067
Oriol Fornés retweeted
Surag Nair (@suragnair) profile picture
Surag Nair@suragnair10 Nov 2025
And finally, we have a postdoc opening in our team. You’ll get to work on cutting edge models while gaining a unique perspective on how these tools can shape the future of AI in genomics. Join us! 15/15 nitter.gq/gokcen/status/19772375…
gokcen (@gokcen) profile picturegokcen@gokcen12 Oct 2025
We have a postdoc position in my team. Join us if you are passionate about genomics, human genetics, synthetic biology and agentic AI! careers.gene.com/us/en/job/2…
Image from gokcen (@gokcen)
3
8
2,883
Oriol Fornés retweeted
Surag Nair (@suragnair) profile picture
Surag Nair@suragnair10 Nov 2025
Excited to share Nona: a unifying multimodal masking framework for functional genomics. Models for DNA have evolved along separate paths: sequence-to-function (AlphaGenome), language models (Evo2), and generative models (DDSM). Can these be unified under a single paradigm? 1/15
Image from Surag Nair (@suragnair)
5
49
4
227
34,393
Oriol Fornés retweeted
gokcen (@gokcen) profile picture
gokcen@gokcen16 Oct 2025
Our gReLU package is now published! gReLU covers all major steps to analyze DNA sequences with deep learning: data processing, model training, evaluation, interpretation, variant effect prediction, and ML-guided DNA design - all in one place. nature.com/articles/s41592-0…
gReLU: a comprehensive framework for DNA sequence modeling and design

gReLU: a comprehensive framework for DNA sequence modeling and design

Nature Methods - gReLU advances deep-learning-based modeling and analysis of DNA sequences with comprehensive toolsets and versatile applications.

nature.com
11
1
40
2,981
Replying to @sara_mostafavi
@sara_mostafavi (@genentech ) & I (@Stanford) r excited to announce co-advised postdoc positions for candidates with deep expertise in ML for bio (especially sequence to function models, causal perturbational models & single cell models). See details below. Pls RT 1/
Image from Anshul Kundaje (@anshulkundaje)
1
47
6
124
37,979
A complementary thread from my colleague Kishore Jaganathan @kjaganatha nitter.gq/kjaganatha/status/1928… (15/)
Kishore Jaganathan (@kjaganatha) profile pictureKishore Jaganathan@kjaganatha29 May 2025
We're thrilled to introduce PromoterAI — a tool for accurately identifying promoter variants that impact gene expression. 🧵 (1/)
Image from Kishore Jaganathan (@kjaganatha)
1
1
3
855
Excited to share my first contribution here at Illumina! We developed PromoterAI, a deep neural network that accurately identifies non-coding promoter variants that disrupt gene expression.🧵 (1/)
Image from Gherman Novakovsky (слава Україні! 🇺🇦) (@NovakovskyG)
2
30
6
108
33,770
(1/4) Thrilled to announce another major release of the HOCOMOCO motif collection, well-known for its silly name and rigorous approach to constructing and benchmarking DNA sequence motifs recognized by human and mouse transcription factors. hocomoco.autosome.org
Image from Vanja (Ivan Kulakovskiy) (@halfacrocodile)
1
11
1
54
4,703
Oriol Fornés retweeted
Peter Koo (@pkoo562) profile picture
Peter Koo@pkoo5625 Feb 2025
[SAVE THE DATE] MLCB 2025 is happening Sep 10-11 at the NY Genome Center—NYC! Attend the premier conference at the intersection of ML & Bio, share your research and make lasting connections! Submission deadline: Jun 1 Details: mlcb.github.io Spread the word—please RT!
1
41
1
109
12,881
Did you think you were too late for a cool summer internship? Think again! 12 weeks of awesomeness on aging and partial reprogramming working with some great post-docs from the Jasper and Marioni labs at Genentech. roche.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/…
4
5
755
Oriol Fornés retweeted
MarigortaLab (@MarigortaLab) profile picture
MarigortaLab@MarigortaLab5 Dec 2024
🚨Hiring a #Postdoc!🚨 Join us to explore the preclinical stage of inflammatory diseases with multiomic integration 🌟 Up to 3 years of salary to work on gearing #omics for #precisionmedicine 🌍 Bilbao, #BasqueCountry, #Spain ⏳ Dec 31! 🔗cicbiogune.es/job-offer-deta… #PostdocJobs #IBD
8
1
7
1,204
Oriol Fornés retweeted
Surag Nair (@suragnair) profile picture
Surag Nair@suragnair5 Dec 2024
We are hiring an intern to work with our team at Genentech next summer, on exciting projects related to deep learning for DNA/RNA sequences. Please share and apply! roche.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/…
7
18
1,911
Oriol Fornés retweeted
Arttu Jolma (@ArttuJolma) profile picture
Arttu Jolma@ArttuJolma15 Nov 2024
(1/8) Thrilled to reveal the results of the Codebook Project, an international effort to identify accurate DNA-binding motifs and genomic binding loci for the >300 uncharacterized human transcription factors (TFs) doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.11.6…
1
8
15
907
Super excited to finally share the results of a massive effort with @ProfTimHughes to characterize the intrinsic sequence binding specificities of human transcription factors, led by @ArttuJolma, @ahcorcha, @AliFathi125, Ally Yang, and Kaitlin Laverty biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/… 1/n
GHT-SELEX demonstrates unexpectedly high intrinsic sequence specificity and complex DNA binding of...

GHT-SELEX demonstrates unexpectedly high intrinsic sequence specificity and complex DNA binding of...

A long-standing challenge in human regulatory genomics is that transcription factor (TF) DNA-binding motifs are short and degenerate, while the genome is large. Motif scans therefore produce many...

biorxiv.org
2
15
2
58
8,466
(1/13) Excited to present the results of the large-scale benchmarking of DNA motif discovery tools using the Codebook data compendium on poorly studied human transcription factors and the Codebook Motif Explorer dx.doi.org/10.1101/2024.11.1… | mex.autosome.org⬇️
Image from Vanja (Ivan Kulakovskiy) (@halfacrocodile)
3
31
4
79
12,141
Load more