i'm SO lucky to be friends with @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social!!!! ❤️ What a beautiful card and celebration! Thank you to my supervisors and all my friends at the Tree of Life for an amazing four years!

Petra Korlević@petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · 4mo ago

congrats to the DOCTOR @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social for his amazing viva yesterday! (and yes, the cursed mr mime was for his card lol)

New preprint! We unexpectedly discovered that some Caenorhabditis species delete parts of their somatic genome early in development, which fragments their chromosomes and eliminates key germline genes. Multiple lines of evidence suggest this bizarre process was present in the ancestors of C. elegans

bioRxivpreprint@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Programmed DNA elimination was present in the last common ancestor of Caenorhabditis nematodes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.23.681605v1

Amjad Khalaf follows the symbiosis genomics session at #biodiversity25 presenting about #microsporidia tetraploid genomes. Most of them are recent autotetraploids. An interesting model of reproduction is proposed with two different paths: sexual and asexual reproduction.

Oh hello! He's only gone and re-written the Microsporidian reproductive tree and published it in @plosbiology.org! Heroic effort, Amjad. Congrats to all the authors! You can read about Amjad and his doctoral research in the blog I wrote all about him: sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/29/s...

Studying intracellular parasite DNA is like panning for gold - Wellcome Sanger Institute Blog

PhD Student Amjad Khalaf shares how his research on microsporidia is creating new high-quality genomes to help better understand how they cause, and sometimes prevent, disease.

sangerinstitute.blog

Amjad Khalaf 🇵🇸@amjadkhalaf.bsky.social · 10mo ago

Really, really happy that our work on microsporidian genomes is now out in @plosbiology.org! A huge thank you to my coauthors, my supervisors @mblaxter.bsky.social & @marakat.bsky.social, the editors @roliroberts.bsky.social & Joseph Heitman, and the reviewers ❤️ plos.io/48HsAQJ

#Microsporidia are #parasites of growing importance. @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social @mblaxter.bsky.social @marakat.bsky.social &co present 40 new genomes from #DarwinTreeofLife sequencing of their arthropod hosts, revealing insights into #tetraploidy & #reproduction @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48HsAQJ

Really, really happy that our work on microsporidian genomes is now out in @plosbiology.org! A huge thank you to my coauthors, my supervisors @mblaxter.bsky.social & @marakat.bsky.social, the editors @roliroberts.bsky.social & Joseph Heitman, and the reviewers ❤️ plos.io/48HsAQJ

Forty new genomes shed light on sexual reproduction and the origin of tetraploidy in Microsporidia

Microsporidia are single-celled, intracellular parasites of growing public health, agricultural, and economic importance. This study presents 40 new microsporidian genomes derived collaterally from Da...

plos.io

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 10mo ago

#Microsporidia are #parasites of growing importance. ‪@amjadkhalaf.bsky.social‬ ‪@mblaxter.bsky.social @marakat.bsky.social &co present 40 new genomes from #DarwinTreeofLife sequencing of their arthropod hosts, revealing insights into #tetraploidy & #reproduction @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48HsAQJ

Preprint Alert! 🦥 We produced complete genomes for 2 Xenarthra and placed them in a mammalian comparative framework. We found that Xenarthra harbour the largest number of retrocopies in mammals! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Retrocopy formation and domestication shape genome evolution in sloths and other xenarthrans

Xenarthrans, comprising sloths, anteaters, and armadillos, represent one of the most morphologically and physiologically specialised mammalian clades, yet the genomic basis of their adaptations remain...

biorxiv.org

Meet Amjad Khalaf – who has spent his PhD panning for parasite DNA, allowing him to create a goldmine of information for the research community🔎 Amjad shares what first brought him to the Sanger Institute, his research and what he is dreaming about next: sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/29/s...

it's really an honour to be interviewed by the wonderful @carmcdhume.bsky.social -- a huge thank you! ❤️🫂

Carmen Denman Hume@carmcdhume.bsky.social · last yr.

Meet @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social. Amjad is a great science communicator. I've listened to him present his research. I've interviewed him twice. I've read his papers. Head to the blog, so you too can get swept up by his enthusiasm and #microsporidian studies ⤵️ sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/29/s...

it was so so lovely to do this together! 🇭🇷❤️🇵🇸

Petra Korlević@petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · last yr.

had such a fantastic International Community Day last week, and so many wonderful people stopped by our little Palestinian/Croatian shared table with @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social 🇵🇸🇭🇷 and hey, after all I'm Istrian, so my national animal is the GOAT 🐐

New preprint! We generate 40 new high-quality microsporidian genomes from infected arthropod hosts that were sequenced to create reference genomes by the Darwin Tree of Life project. 8 of our genomes are chromosome-level, and we’re able to generate Hi-C data for 7! 🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Forty New Genomes Shed Light on Sexual Reproduction and the Origin of Tetraploidy in Microsporidia

Microsporidia are single-celled, obligately intracellular parasites with growing public health, agricultural, and economic importance. Despite this, Microsporidia remain relatively enigmatic, with man...

biorxiv.org

Struggling to find the tiny microchromosomes in draft bird genome assemblies? Our new #preprint introducing MicroFinder can help: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 below (1/n) @sangerinstitute.bsky.social