Audrey K Ward

@audreykward.bsky.social

Proponent of joy. PhD in Genetics. Postdoc in the LaBella Lab. Probably finding excuses to alliterate. Interested in fungi 🍄‍🟫, environmental adaptation 🧬☀️🌊, and advancing STEM education 🥼🧑‍🏫. Typos and opinions my own. • she/her

My first paper w/ Matt, about how mRNA and protein levels of the same genes should be expected to coevolve. It was carried over from my PhD at Michigan w/ George Zhang, but started too late to be in my thesis. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

On the Decoupling of Evolutionary Changes in mRNA and Protein Levels

Abstract. Variation in gene expression across lineages is thought to explain much of the observed phenotypic variation and adaptation. The protein is close

academic.oup.com

Maybe not the best phylogeny to use to explain homology. So this pair o' logs are orthologs, but if they arose via duplication and you can recover synteny for one, you could call it a syntelog and the other single log a paralog."

Bild

Still mourning #fungal26? Want to celebrate the release of the April 2026 edition of G3? Why not give this a gander? We found impact of low level contamination on population analyses in both Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Aspergillus fumigatus! #mycosky #academicsky

Audrey K Ward@audreykward.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Thrilled that work from collaborative efforts by the @dbensasson.bsky.social & @mcmomany.bsky.social labs has been accepted by G3 and is available to read now! Population geneticists beware - low-level contamination has greater impact on analyses than you might expect. doi.org/10.1093/g3jo...

back from conference! good news: inspired 💡, better idea of how to approach some protocols, experiments to add to research plan for a more complete vision 🥼 bad news: inspired 🌟🕶️, have to rework research plan to incorporate experiments 🧬🧪, steak too juicy 🥩, lobster too buttery 🦞🧈 #academicsky

What a way to end #fungal26 We laughed and we cried and we learned so much A great reminder to look back and reflect on the past It can light the way to the future Thank you Nancy Keller for being a light 🕯️ in the field

Bild

María Angélica Bravo Núñez uses natural isolates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 🌳🧫 to understand how aneuploidy and structural variation 🧬🧱 changes over time. Take home message (with some of my own soapboxing): don’t just rely on lab strains - look for natural variation in the wild! 🏕️🍇 #fungal26

Bild