I am recruiting graduate students to my genomics-focused lab in EEB at Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Please spread the word if you know any students with an interest in a computational focus to genomics research! evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

an angel loses its wings every time there is a publication that lists what software was used without specifying any flags or options 🫩 like… HOW dare you say “we used standard parameters” for a program that doesn’t even have ANY! 😭

Hi! We need lice for our diversity and adaptation project. Specifically, we need lice from zebras, camelids (camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, guanacos) & aardvarks. If you or someone you know might have lice, I'm happy to discuss our inclusive collaboration plans! sites.google.com/nhm.org/anop...

🚂 The T2T train keeps rolling: "The formation and propagation of human Robertsonian chromosomes" with Gerton and Garrison labs is out! What's a Robertsonian chromosome? Let Jen tell you herself in this great video, or read our paper: [1/3] 📺 youtu.be/JmlY5omxQVc 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Any academic folks on H1B visas (even with stamps in passports) please get legal advice from your University attorneys before leaving the US.

Got to spend this morning teaching R to a bunch of excited students & faculty! Feels nice to come back as an instructor for the same software carpentry workshops I attended as a first year PhD :’) many thanks to @dwbapst.bsky.social & Heather Baldi for being awesome and organizing this event.

I'm hiring a postdoc to work in theoretical / computational phylogenomics! More info at tinyurl.com/63hb5ew8. Please share!

Longdust, a new tool to identify highly repetitive STRs, VNTRs, satellite DNA and other low-complexity regions (LCRs). Similar to SDUST but for long regions. github.com/lh3/longdust

I'm recruiting students / postdocs to join my new lab at the University of Rochester for Fall 2025 onwards! If you're interested in phylogenetic comparative methods, genome evolution, and/or computational biology, please get in touch! More info: mhibbins.github.io

There is one month left to apply for our Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution! These awards provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in #ecology and #evolution. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons... #science

The @sse-evolution.bsky.social public policy committee is organizing folks to send postcards to Congress from #Evol2025, stop by the booth in the exhibition hall

Really great group of scientists working on really cool stuff! Come say hi and learn more about the project.

My heart is with my Iranian friends and their families. May everyone live.

Check out this brand new fellowship from the Simon’s Foundation in Ecology and Evolution. Incoming grad students this year are eligible to apply. No citizenship restrictions. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

TBH I’ve been overwhelmed, and occasionally discouraged, by the world recently. I was awarded best talk at a symposium last week. One of the judge’s comments was “presenter’s enthusiasm and passion for her research is contagious.” 🥲 ‘Twas a much needed win. My love for science will not falter!

We are looking for new manager for our computing unit! If you have experience in both biology and computers, this might be the perfect job for you! UBC is a lovely place, and Zoology is a fantastic, collaborative and kind department. Apply by May 4th at ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcstaffjobs...

omg how exciting! I can’t tell you how many times I cited Presgraves 2010 for my candidacy exams - it endeared itself to me after a while. 🙈 I’m certain this paper will too!

Hello graduate students! Volunteer travel award applications are due March 21, 2025. In return for working two ~4h shifts, graduate student members of one or more of our societies can receive a rebate equal to 100% of the regular early student member registration fee.

Besides being adorable tactical assault possums, ALMOST ALL ARMADILLOS ARE BORN AS IDENTICAL QUADRUPLETS. (sorry, I *have* to shout this) It's a quirk of their reproductive system called polyembryony, an adaptation to an incredibly small implantation site in the 'dillo uterus.

"When you hear about patients surviving stage 4 cancer because of immunotherapy, that was based on NIH research over many decades. When you hear about sickle cell disease being cured because of CRISPR gene editing, that was built on years of research supported by NIH" apnews.com/article/nih-...

New @erc.europa.eu funded #ConvergeAnt preprint on using the evolution of pseudogenes to document the parallel regression of oral anatomy in myrmecophagous mammals posted at @biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

As a result of Trump’s slashes to research funding, dozens of graduate programs have announced reductions and cancellations of graduate admissions slots. If you are an impacted applicant, please fill out this survey: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... 🧪🧠🧬🔬🥼👩🏼‍🔬🧑‍🔬

Really pleased with this mitosis watercolor. Analog #sciart ftw

Each piece of good news no matter how small is like a knife of light and we will need many to cut through this shroud. There I no question we will need a concerted effort to help our colleagues who find themselves in a terrible situation through no fault of their own. But we can do both. /2

New paper led by @glom.bsky.social! "Unprecedented female female bias in the aye-aye, a highly unusual lemur from Madagascar" 1/ journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Abstract deadline in T - one month! Please consider joining us—it’s a great set of session chairs/speakers.

Comparative genomics needs to use phylogenetic methods: why, how and common questions www.nature.com/articles/s41... @annadewar.bsky.social @lauriebelch.bsky.social

Super excited to see that this work @drpintothe2nd.bsky.social and I collaborated on with some super smart people at NIST for the Genome in a Bottle Benchmarking project is out! A benchmark for X and Y chromosome small variants! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Biology of Genomes 2025 is coming up: - meeting dates: May 6 - 10, 2025 - abstract deadline: Feb 14, 2025 We hope to see you there for another great meeting with a fantastic speaker lineup! meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...

as LA is burning, a swath of the country is recovering from an ice storm, Alabama is preparing for up to 6” of snow and I’m praying for the TX power grid, a reminder: we don’t need climate action just for future generations, we need it now. the climate crisis is here, all around us

PRDM9 helps determine the location of recombination hotspots in many mammals. Study of salmonid fish reveals that #PRDM9 function is conserved across vertebrates, and this peculiar evolutionary runaway caused by PRDM9 has been active for 100s of millions of years🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/3DIvFCG

I started gathering a list for REUs/Summer research opportunities for undergraduate students in Ecology/Conservation/Evolutionary Biology. Feel share to share with any undergraduate students who may be interested in participating in *PAID* research. docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

I’m almost certain you can’t guess what species I’m currently looking at sequencing data for. ;-)

I have an ambitious undergrad who wants to learn Python on her own over the break. Suggestions for online tutorials?

“We found no evidence of introgression between dingoes and domestic dogs and show that previous work has likely mischaracterized shared ancestral genetic variation as evidence for hybridization” ! This completely changes the way we think about dingo conservation & taxonomy

New paper led by @yadirapga.bsky.social! Even though opossums have kids at 0.5 years, they still have typical male-biased mutation (though not quite as high as humans). "Low mutation rate but high male-bias in the germline of a short-lived opossum" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Applications now open for the 2025 International Travel Stipends to attend #Evol2025! Funds cover registration, travel, food, and lodging. Can also be used to attend #ESEB2025! Apply by January 31: https://buff.ly/3ZEWUqe @evolmtg.bsky.social

I'm recruiting a PhD student to join my lab at the University of New Orleans starting in Fall 2025. Research topics will focus on building and using phylogenies to study the diversification of birds, with an emphasis on Neotropical bird radiations. Contact me if interested.

Recent studies have revealed unexpected Y chromosome diversity and suggest that the Y may play a big role in evolution. @vdbijl.bsky.social and I wrote this perspective for @evolletters.bsky.social with a few suggestions and requests. academic.oup.com/evlett/advan... Figs by www.jacelyndesigns.com

Excited that my first bluesky post is to celebrate passing my qualifying exams! I'm a Ph.D. candidate now - woohoo! 🥳🐾🐱