Cauã Westmann
@cauawest.bsky.social
Deeply curious about Life, the Universe and Everything Evolution · SynBio · Gene Regulation · Microbes Group Leader @EPFL.bsky.social ELISIR Scholar - Systems and Synthetic Evolutionary Biology Lab 🇧🇷🌈 he/him
Our latest paper on how transcription factor binding sites for global regulators can evolve in bacteria is now published in eLife! Mutation by mutation, we are uncovering the regulatory landscapes of bacteria. elifesciences.org/digests/1037...
Step by mutational step
New bacterial regulatory interactions can evolve more readily than previously appreciated, providing new insights into the evolution of gene regulation.
elifesciences.org
My first work from my postdoctoral research in Andreas Wagner’s lab at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, is now available as a preprint. Link: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Negative Autoregulation Promotes the Evolution of Strong Environmental Switching
Living systems rely on gene regulatory circuits to respond to environmental change. Such circuits often act as molecular switches: OFF in the absence of a cue, and ON in its presence. We do not know h...
biorxiv.org
Happy to share that our preprint is now out! We discuss how Synthetic Biology can be used as a powerful tool to answer questions in evolutionary biology. We hope it will be a useful resource for the community! With @3xueying.bsky.social and @hhydrochaerus.bsky.social ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Synthetic biology as an empirical tool for evolutionary theory
ecoevorxiv.org
We have an open PhD position (application deadline 9 January 2026) in "Theory of fitness landscapes" at @unibe.ch 🤓⛰️📊👩💻🎓: banklab.github.io/positions/ Please share widely! #QueerInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #BlackInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #CarersInSTEM #AcademicSky #HigherED
A fun little side project I've been working on with @stepadenisov.bsky.social , Mato Lagator, and Andreas Wagner: "Strong promoters are mutationally robust". Briefly... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Strong promoters are mutationally robust
Mutational robustness is the persistence of a phenotype upon mutation. It facilitates molecular evolution and has been characterized in a variety of biological systems, but studies of prokaryotic prom...
biorxiv.org
One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Massively parallel interrogation of the fitness of natural variants in ancient signaling pathways reveals pervasive local adaptation
The nature of standing genetic variation remains a central debate in population genetics, with differing perspectives on whether common variants are almost always neutral as suggested by neutral and n...
biorxiv.org
I’m excited to announce the launch of my lab at EPFL in Jan 2026 🎉. We’ll combine evolution & synthetic biology to study and (re)engineer bacterial communication. I’m recruiting PhD students to start in the first semester of 2026. Apply via EPFL PhD programs by Nov 1 drive.google.com/file/d/1cm-t...
Why do yeast #de_novo genes have so many transmembrane domains? It's because the genomic regions from which they evolved are super enriched in stretches of A's and T's ! Our work with @timothyfuqua.bsky.social is now published in @jevbio.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
Intergenic polyA/T tracts explain the propensity of yeast de novo genes to encode transmembrane domains
Abstract. New genes can emerge de novo from non-genic genomic regions. In budding yeast, computational predictions have shown that intergenic regions harbo
doi.org
Hey y'all, grant-pending, I may be unemployed starting from October. If you have any leads on biotech / postdoc positions in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, I'd greatly appreciate a message. I'm great with Data Analysis, Molecular Biology, and Teaching. (Plz RT!) More at timothyfuqua.com
Home | Timothy Fuqua
timothyfuqua.com
Começando com a divulgação do EVOSUR 2025 - uma Escola Sul-Americana de Biologia Evolutiva que estamos organizando no Uruguai, em novembro! As inscrições estão abertas até 15 de agosto. Se puderem divulgar entre redes e grupos da América do Sul, agradecemos muito! sites.google.com/view/evosul2...
EvoSur
sites.google.com
Better late than never - Hello world and hello Bluesky! :)
