We have a new paper -two years in the making - where we showed evidence for introgression from an African archaic hominin to the ancestors of modern humans. This is a relatively big and, I have to admit, a serendipitous finding, corroborating the emerging notion that an "interbreeding bonanza" has shaped our ancestors. I do … Continue reading New paper: Of archaic admixture in Africa, cherries, and serendipity
Marie is in the news
Our very won Marie was featured in UBNow - Hope that this would be the first of many great stories.
A note on evolution and disease
I wanted to write this post to discuss an interesting discussion going on with regards to evolutionary basis of human complex diseases. It stems from our paper that looked into the evolution of skin barrier related gene, called fillagrin (FLG). FLG stood out for four conceivable reasons. See this review for more. (i) It is huge. … Continue reading A note on evolution and disease
New paper: Of light, duplications and UV protection
We have helped Cemali Bekpen and the Max Planck Evolutionary Biology Group of Dr. Tautz in resolving a very complicated and variable gene duplication. Even though, some of the trends remain fuzzy, it is now clear that gene duplications of SPATA31 diversified in humans and remain variable. What is more, some of their function has to do … Continue reading New paper: Of light, duplications and UV protection
New Paper: Lipids and transcripts within the context of cellular senescence
We now published a paper with Atilla Lab describing the systems level analyses of lipidome and transcriptome as the cells age (i.e., as they stop dividing). Our results highlight the multiple roles of different lipid families are playing in this cellular process. The paper got published in Molecular Biosystems - Here is the link (behind a pay-wall unfortunately). … Continue reading New Paper: Lipids and transcripts within the context of cellular senescence
New paper: Evolutionary history of a common psoriasis associated deletion
Following up our earlier insights into "ancient" human deletion polymorphisms that are shared with Neanderthals or Denisovans, we published a paper in BMC Evolutionary Biology, describing a small, but neat example of likely balancing selection acting on a large, common and psoriasis-associated deletion in humans. The haplotype that harbors this deletion show unusually high variation and an … Continue reading New paper: Evolutionary history of a common psoriasis associated deletion
New Paper – The evolutionary roots of disease susceptibility and complex copy number variation
We just published a paper in Genome Biology and Evolution - "Atopic Dermatitis Susceptibility Variants In Filaggrin Hitchhike Hornerin Selective Sweep". It describes the unusual history of the genetic variation affecting the skin structural protein fillagrin. It turns out that a loss of selective pressure, adaptive restrains on a neighboring gene and a high mutation rate … Continue reading New Paper – The evolutionary roots of disease susceptibility and complex copy number variation
New Paper – Recent evolution of the salivary mucin MUC7
Our paper (led by Erica - Yay), a close collaboration with the ever-wise Stefan Ruhl, on the complex evolution of the smaller one of the two salivary mucins, MUC7, is now published - It is open access and here is the link. Our great press office, particularly Charlotte Hsu made a nice summary of the … Continue reading New Paper – Recent evolution of the salivary mucin MUC7
Congrats to Alexa and Hannah for winning Fellowships
Congrats to our undergraduate researchers Alexa Bracci and Hannah Calkins for winning the McCroskey and Alumni Fellowships, respectively. These are both competitive departmental fellowships. In addition, Alexa was accepted to an REU program at University of Cincinnati and Hannah got an external fellowship, as well. Congrats to both of them.
New paper on BMC Genomics
Jelena Tica from Jan Korbel's group led a rigorous method development effort. You can find the full, open access article here
