I am so excited to share new work on a TE insertion that regulates iridescence in swordtails, led by fantastic grad student @nadiahaghani.bsky.social and with help from many coauthors! In a time that has been so difficult to navigate, this & other projects have kept my spirits up: shorturl.at/NE65A

An empirical approach to evaluating the prevalence of long-lived balancing selection in humans--and important limitations. Work by @hannahmm.bsky.social

How is functional variation at large-effect loci maintained in natural populations, even as environments change? In a paper led by @mkarag.bsky.social, we tracked known pesticide resistant alleles in outdoor 𝘋. 𝘮𝘦𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘰𝘨𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 cages & inferred selection and dominance from temporal sequencing data.

Parental care, and more complex cooperative systems of care, have independently evolved in hundreds of animal lineages. In an article published today, we explore how these behaviors evolve 𝘢𝘵 𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘢𝘳 𝘭𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘭l shorturl.at/g5OPw /1

How do GWAS and rare variant burden tests rank gene signals? In new work @nature.com with @hakha.bsky.social, @jkpritch.bsky.social, and our wonderful coauthors we find that the key factors are what we call Specificity, Length, and Luck! 🧬🧪🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thank you so much Ryan!! From the Cpip samples from Iowa to our discussion at Kolymbari, your contributions have been very important to the project -- thank you!

Excited to contribute to this beautiful study led by @yukihaba.bsky.social and @lindymcbr.bsky.social!

New study funded in part by our Rosemary Grant Advanced Award - congratulations @yukihaba.bsky.social !!

Thrilled that this paper is finally out and that I was able to contribute specimens from the metro Atlanta area. Congrats @yukihaba.bsky.social! 🦟🧬🔬

Do flies feel pain? Spooky new preprint from our lab on the cells and circuits that mediate nociceptive behaviors in adult Drosophila, led by graduate student (and newly minted PhD!) @jonesjes.bsky.social. 🪰⚡👻🎃 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thrilled to see this study out in Science! It was a privilege to have had the opportunity to contribute to PipPop alongside such a talented group. Congrats, Yuki, on your leadership and an exciting piece of work! 🌆🦟

A new genetic study in Science overturns the myth of the “London Underground Mosquito,” revealing that this common urban insect originated not below the cities of modern Europe, but in ancient Mediterranean civilizations more than a thousand years ago. https://scim.ag/43xWovB

Happy to share this! 🚀 I’ve contributed as author together @yukihaba.bsky.social on a new international paper in @science.org about the London Underground 🚇 mosquito 🦟 Its adaptation to humans is far older than thought over 1,000 years, from the Mediterranean region 🌍 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The so-called 'London Underground mosquito' linked to West Nile Virus evolved over 1,000 years ago — not 200 years ago in Europe. 🦟 New research reshapes our theories of urban mosquito evolution. 👇 http://bit.ly/4qnJOJi

🗞️ Exciting news - our Belgian house #mosquitoes (Culex pipiens) made it into #Science! Honoured to be part of this amazing research consortium! www.eurekalert.org/news-release... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/....

Out there with @flygirlnhm.bsky.social on the flooded basement floor with underground mosquitoes - one of the happiest moments of my PhD :)

The wonderful @yukihaba.bsky.social and I went beneath London to help solve the riddle of the Underground Mosquito... Debunking rather than spelunking ;) @marakat.bsky.social @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social

A long-held myth about a mosquito evolving in the London Underground has been debunked! 🦟 The insect gained notoriety in the Second World War, when it fed on Londoners seeking shelter in the rail tunnels during the Blitz. Discover its true origin story.👇 www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...

🦟 Publication alert: "Ancient origin of an urban underground #mosquito ( #Culex pipiens form molestus)" by @yukihaba.bsky.social et al. in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congrats to Leon Levy Scholar in my lab, Yuki Haba, on publishing his exciting PhD paper in Science from Lindy McBride’s lab at Princeton.

Where did an underground mosquito in London come from? @yukihaba.bsky.social in @ishmailsaboor.bsky.social ’s lab found that it evolved 1,000+ yrs ago, showing how early societies helped it thrive in modern times and imperil our health. @science.org @princeton.edu www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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

I’ll be starting a lab as an Assistant Professor at Cornell @cornellengineering.bsky.social in 2026! We’ll combine synthetic biology and materials science to engineer microbes into living materials & therapies. We're recruiting PhD students & postdocs - please get in touch! 🔗 harimotolab.com

Neuroscience projects last several years, and you are usually a bit jaded by the time you wrap it up. Not this one– spending several months on an island in the middle of nowhere, away from all the craziness of the world reminds you how beautiful the world really is. www.youtube.com/watch?v=46sv...

1/9 New in @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado8005 How does genetic architecture constrain evolutionary trajectories? To address this question, we inferred the genetic architecture of convergent plumage coloration and its evolutionary history in wheatears.

Reposting this open postdoc position with more detailed specifications. Couldn't find the right fit in the first round—not due to lack of strong candidates, but because we're looking for someone whose expertise matches a specific project. More details in the job ad. Apply! tinyurl.com/2uskxyrp

Excited to share our new #biorxivpreprint We discovered that the fruit fly #drosophila erecta requires food odor to mate and arousal is further enhanced by social group motion. Cross-species analysis of brain activity reveals a novel gate evolved from within a conserved circuit shorturl.at/gGYm7

🧠🌟🐭 Excited to share some of my postdoc work on the evolution of dexterity! We compared deer mice evolved in forest vs prairie habitats. We found that forest mice have: (1) more corticospinal neurons (CSNs) (2) better hand dexterity (3) more dexterous climbing, which is linked to CSN number🧵

Abdus-Saboor lab retreat at Mohonk Mountain House was a blast! I’m fortunate to work with such a great team.

Japanese botanist Kenji Suetsugu studies plants that steal carbon and nutrients from soil fungi. https://scim.ag/3IRHOrW

I’m extremely honored to be a recipient of the NIH Director’s Pioneer Award!

1/ Starting next year, @hhmi.org will require all authors to share their research as preprints under a CC BY 4.0 license as part of its new Immediate Access to Research policy. buff.ly/NrHlEKD

C. elegans is a real animal and we set out to understand how it comes to have its distinctive biogeography. Its ancestral center of diversity is in the higher elevation forests of Hawaii. Its closest relatives are spread across east Asia. Did they travel from Asia? [Preprint 🧵]

I still think this #SciComm deserves a #Pulitzer. #InsectApocalypse www.reuters.com/graphics/GLO...

The final version of our paper on how ants and possibly other insects use a crazy mechanism involving extensive transcriptional interference to regulate odorant receptor expression is now open access in my favorite journal, @currentbiology.bsky.social authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

also really fun to share an issue and a commentary with a big paper on Aedes aegypti 🦟🥂🦟 congrats @mariloumercedes.bsky.social and Jacob E. Crawford www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

New preprint alert! The uterus expands ~500-fold in pregnancy, yet we know little about how pressures are sensed. Led by @yunxiao-dr.bsky.social, we show PIEZOs are required for contractions and birth in mice, with dual roles of PIEZO1 in muscle and PIEZO2 in neurons www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@jpodwyer.bsky.social led this elegant and novel approach using genomic demography to make ecological predictions. I am excited to have played a small part in this elegant work: Genomic demography predicts community dynamics in a temperate montane forest | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Our paper Genomic diversity of the African malaria vector Anopheles funestus was published in Science today! It features inversions, selection in action, museum specimens and putative new ecotypes. doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Had a wonderful time at @bardcollege.bsky.social giving an invited seminar in the Biology Seminar series! Really enjoyed conversations with the curious students and amazing faculty, plus a walk around the gorgeous campus. The Hudson Valley view en route was the cherry on top.

New review on how changes in cell type composition in and outside the brain contribute to the evolution of behavior. 🧪 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lihM,LqAZ...

Excited to share our new paper! ✨Natural habitat and wild behaviors of the dwarf cuttlefish, Ascarosepion bandense✨ tinyurl.com/bdew5x3s Our first cuttlefish expedition - diving in the dark to observe our cuttlefish in the wild... Check out the paper & new expedition tool on Cuttlebase.org 🧠

Octopuses sense environmental microbiomes to drive predatory and parental behaviors. Artwork by Lily Soucy. #evolution #sensation #microbiome @cellpress.bsky.social

A common type of ant in Europe breaks a fundamental rule in biology: its queens can produce male offspring that are a whole different species go.nature.com/4mOb5T9

In these dark times, it comes as a rare pleasure to highlight @natanaels.bsky.social ‬ & @marcdemanuel.bsky.social's work on germline and somatic mutations in humans. 1/n www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Exciting new Ruta lab preprint by @annaryba.bsky.social et al. on the neural underpinnings of intraspecific behavioral variation: Strain variation identifies a neural substrate for behavioral evolution Drosophila www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

If you’re interested in ants, olfaction, gene regulation, or all of the above, here’s a new preprint from the lab for you. It describes an unorthodox mechanism of transcriptional interference by which ant olfactory sensory neurons produce a single functional receptor. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our paper on the evolution of MUC19 in humans, Neanderthals, and Denisovans is finally out today in Science! This has been a six-year effort by 13 authors to weave together 3 separate but related evolutionary stories around this one gene (more on thread 🧵). www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Very excited to announce our latest paper uncovering circuit, cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the formation and maintenance of social hierarchy, another terrific collaboration with @neurovenki.bsky.social, Vic Kapoor and Adam Nelson (not on bsky) www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New preprint about open science in eco-evo! We sampled 110 journals, 550 articles, and assessed whether data and code are accessible: (1/5) ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v... #ScientificPublishing #OpenScience #ecology #conservation #EvolutionaryBiology #paleobio #systematics #archeology