Evolutionary Genomics of Sex

Lab news

Casual lab lunch to celebrate postdoc appreciation week

Had a great time on Friday celebrating #PostdocAppreciationWeek with a lab lunch! ๐Ÿฝ๏ธ๐ŸŽ‰ A nice moment to recognize the hard work and contributions of our postdocs.

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Our lab submitted TWO Marie-Curie postdoc fellowship

Thrilled to support not one, but TWO Marie-Curie postdoc fellowship applications from my lab!

Huge congrats to Fantin & Barbora—you both nailed it!
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Lab farewell lunch for postdoc Meriç

Lab farewell lunch for postdoc Meriç. Wish Meriç all the best for the next adventure Happy

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Frog fieldwork in Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide, Northern Belgium

Several lab folks, Ricard, Ezgi and Barbora, conducted frog fieldwork in Grenspark Kalmthoutse Heide. Here some fun pictures in the fieldHappy


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Welcome new lab members and celebrate Chinese New Year

We value diversity and inclusion in this lab including cultural diversity.

This Saturday we welcome three recently joined lab members (Barbora, Ricard and Fantin) and also celebrate Chinese most important festival: Chinese New Year! 2024 is dragon year according to the Chinese zodiac.
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The Chinese dishes were yummy and
we had a fun tour around Brussels city centre. What a great group bonding and fun day, and the Brussels weather was super cooperative too Happy

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Paris won the best talk at the Belgian C.elegance meeting

Congratulations to Paris, who won the best talk at the Belgian C.elegance meeting
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Welcome new postdoc fellow Fantin Carpentier and new PhD student Ricard Fontsere!

Welcome postdoc Fantin Carpentier and PhD student Ricard Fontsere!

So excited to welcome Fantin and Ricard to join the team and we look forward to working and having fun with you in exploring all things about sex chromosome evolution, sex determination and sex chromosome turnover Happy

We also took the chance to take a lab pic, not completely full still miss a few members.
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Welcome postdoc Barbora Augstenová!

Welcome postdoc Barbora Augstenová!

So excited to welcome Barbora to join the team and we look forward to working and having fun with you in exploring genetics and epigenetic of sex determination and chromosome evolution in frogs and beyond Happy
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Fun lab potluck to celebrate the diversity and inclusion in the lab!

We had a super fun lab potluck gathering in the weekend. Delicious meals of cuisine from Iran, Turkey, Belgium, India, Greece and China Happy

What a fun event and laughing together. Love the team spirit and love to see the diversity in the labHappy
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Welcome two new PhD students joining the lab!

So excited to welcome two new PhD students on board, cannot wait for the exciting journey together!

Zoë De Corte is driven by a curiosity to understand how evolution works at the genomic and transcriptomic level. With a keen interest in programming and bioinformatics, they use these tools to tackle evolutionary research questions. Their PhD research focuses on transposable elements in frog genomes and their impact on sex chromosome evolution.

Ezgi has a profound curiosity-driven passion for evolutionary studies and molecular biology research. For her PhD project, she is currently working to reveal the intricate mechanisms governing the evolution of sex chromosome dynamics and heterochiasmy in amphibians. During her master studies at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, she developed a heavy metal detecting E.coli whole-cell biosensor in collaboration with several research institutions. She is particularly enthusiastic about interdisciplinary approaches and collaborations, recognizing the profound impact that diverse perspectives can have on scientific discovery. In addition to her scientific pursuits, she is a devoted classical music enthusiast. You can find her in a concert hall drawing inspiration from the parallels between the classical symphonies and the biological harmonies in nature.

Welcome on board and let's have the fun journey together!
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Welcome 2 bachelor thesis students join the lab!

From this week, we have two new bachelor thesis students joining the lab!

Benjamin Aime Allaer is working on identifying possible sex-specific splicing variants of candidate sex-determining genes in the common frog.

Ezel Bahar Balci is interested in molecular biology. Currently, she is working on her bachelor thesis on identifying sex chromosome differentiation by development and genotyping sex-linked markers in the common frog.

Welcome and wish for a fun thesis journey together Happy

Lab incoming postdoc Meriç PhD thesis received Honorable Mention Award

Happy to share that our incoming postdoc Meriç Erdolu's PhD thesis received the "Doctoral Dissertation Honorable Mention Award" by Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society, Turkey. Congratulations!

Field sampling in Central America

A few of us have been travelling to Central America, i.e. Dominican Republic, Cuba, for field sampling of various robber frog species, funded by the ERC starting grant.

Not very easy condition but overall we had a quite productive and fun trip over there Happy Can't wait for what cool science and results coming from these samples!

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Wen-Juan received travel grant

Happy to share that Wen-Juan has received an FWO travel grant to attend the CNRS - Jacques Monod Conference "Sex unfolded: sex, asex, sexes, Roscoff (Frankrijk)" in Roscoff, France in September 2023.