Fantastic seminar from @deboraycb.bsky.social discussing some of the challenges and limitations of detecting balancing selection from genomic data and her ongoing work on developing a new ARG-based approach.
See preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6....
A full house for @nancybird1.bsky.social UGI seminar marking the culmination of her many years of work at #UGI on human population genetics and the development of haplotype-based methods. Wishing Nancy all the best as she goes on to an exciting new senior post-doc position.
Job alert: open position for a Professor or Associate Professor of Computational Genomics in Health and Disease at University College London.
Based in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment of UCL, and UGI, and funded by the UCL Health Strategy.
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/... 🧪
Henrik Salje from the University of Cambridge joined us to give a fantastic seminar on the genetic and antigenic diversity of dengue virus.
We sequenced #ancientRNA from an 18th-Century human lung and recovered a rhinovirus genome. Take a look at our preprint. Feedback welcome.
Today we welcomed Dr Verity Hill @viralverity.bsky.social to present her work on disease control in the genomics age. She gave examples of her work on mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue, to illustrate how we can use virus genomes to better control and understand virus evolution and transmission.
See UGI's Dr Marina Escalera Zamudio (Rosetrees Fellow) and Dr Cenk Celik (Research Fellow) @cenkcelik.bsky.social presenting at the Norwich Science Festival @niscifest.bsky.social session on "Reimagining Health with Big Data".
norwichsciencefestival.co.uk/whats-on/rei...
#NISF26
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... It's finally out! Meriam Guellil expertly led this project from the first HHV6 detection to the final paper. We found both human herpesviruses 6A and 6B in ancient remains going back 2500 years.
1/ In a recent @britishacademy.bsky.social video @rebeccasear.bsky.social from @brunelpsy.bsky.social takes a clear-eyed look at the 21st‑century rise of eugenics - an ideology that should have been left behind, yet is now re‑emerging in a number of troubling ways ⚠️🧬 🧪
Watch the full talk here 🎥👇
Great talk from @ugiatucl.bsky.social post-doc @cenkcelik.bsky.social presenting his work developing new approaches to explore the spatial patterns of cancer evolution.
Preprint 👉 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thanks for giving our last seminar of the year!
Lovely is the right adjective. Writing this was so enjoyable in the company of @acstone.bsky.social @blevinske.bsky.social and Verena Schuenemann. Hope you enjoy.
We’re recruiting a PhD student as part of the AI-Intervene DTP to join FlightPath, an exciting project combining viral genomics, bird migration data, and AI-powered phylodynamics to forecast how avian influenza evolves and spreads.
Project Details 🦠🧬🦅🦆🌎: tinyurl.com/2v4xaxmx.
🚨 PNAS Special Feature 2 🐕
We used ancient DNA and dietary isotopes to show that landscape modification and the introduction of European dogs impacted dingo populations across Australia.
🔗 Full paper here: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Despite my insomnia, I'm very happy to share our preprint: a multi-disciplinary assessment of a sheep mass mortality event from ~18th century France. We report the first ancient sheeppox virus (think smallpox) and the Taenia hydatigena (nasty roundworm) genomes.
#aDNA
UK science and technology is suffering from a lack of investment, a hostile immigration system, and fragile university finances, reports @cathleenogrady.bsky.social 🧪 #scipolicy
www.science.org/content/arti...
Our manuscript on bovine deep-time paleogenomics at Denisova Cave and in the broader mid-latitude Asia is online! doi.org/10.1093/gbe/... 🦬🦴🧬
Main findings in the 🧵 below ⬇️
@cpgsthlm.bsky.social @genomebiolevol.bsky.social #aDNA
a life changing opportunity made possible by the Nobel Prize funds awarded to John Sulston -- the @sangerinstitute.bsky.social runs the Sanger Prize scheme, open to an undergrad from any LMIC to spend 3 months here learning all about genomics. more details here www.sanger.ac.uk/about/study/...
Briefly, we identified three extinct mitochondrial bovine lineages in mid-latitude Asia: aurochs basal to haplogroup C, bison clade X, and a previously unknown yak-like clade X sister to all known yak diversity.
This yak X mitochondrial lineage diverged around 675,000 years ago from modern yak!
What an incredible resource for those starting out in ancient DNA! Thanks once again @oskolkov.bsky.social for being our first #AaRCademy speaker
A PhD project on historical genomics in the declining red squirrel in Britain is available in my group, through the @aries-dtp.bsky.social. Use historical genomes to track the effects of decline and genetic rescue in this charismatic species. aries-dtp.ac.uk/studentships...
Applications are now open for the NERC TREES DLA 2026 PhD cohort. If you’re interested in conducting high-impact research in environmental science via an advertised or self-proposed project please take a look: www.trees-dla.ac.uk/news/applica.... #PhDprogramme #PhD #genomics #evolution
Wonderful and engaging talk by
@lucyvandorp.bsky.social
who was invited to speak on the drivers of pathogen evolution using ancient DNA at the Ancient Genomes: Perspectives on Human Biology and Medicine meeting
@gensocuk.bsky.social
🧬🦠
Great to have Priya Moorjani visit UGI and give a talk on inferring Neanderthal ancestry in ancient individuals, and to share a bit about her work on Indian genetics, including insights into the evolution of lactase persistence.
How does life evolve to adapt to modern cities?
Out now in Science, my PhD work with @lindymcbr.bsky.social uncovers the ancient origin of the “London Underground mosquito” – one of the most iconic examples of urban adaptation.
🧵(1/n)
@science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady4515
Dr. Hrushikesh Loya presenting Ghostbusters
Great to have Dr Hrushikesh Loya give a fantastic talk on his tool Ghostbusters: A Genome-Wide Genealogical Approach to Uncovering Hidden Admixture Events in Human Evolution 👻
A scientist (Tim Urich) hammering a core into the permafrost in the Arctic, while in the background, the cores are being sampled.
Fantastic reporting by @kakape.bsky.social on @scs22.bsky.social's work in the Arctic looking for sequenceable ancient RNA viruses. Amazing pictures (including this gem), and as always great story telling and commentary on the topic. Excited to see what they find. www.science.org/content/arti...
Thrilled to share our preprint where we propose that S. enterica Paratyphi C entered Mexico via European conquest and then diversified locally. More evidence is needed to assert whether or not it caused Cocoliztli (a major contact-period epidemic). Comments welcome!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🦠💀🦠 Happy to share our (with @gunnar-u-neumann.bsky.social) new preprint on ancient Salmonella enterica genomes! We analysed 53 new genomes along with published ancient and modern datasets to learn about lineage replacements and host adaptation in prehistory: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Almost 10 years after my masters here, I finally get a chance to talk at @lshtm.bsky.social for CEE's autumn symposium 🍁🧬🦠
