Only 3 days left to submit an abstract for the Great Lakes Annual Meeting of Evolutionary Genomics! The abstract submission deadline is July 24; registration will remain open until August 10. GLAM will be held on August 15, at the University at Buffalo. The participation is capped at 100 people.

GLAM-Evogen 2026 Registration and Abstract Submission Portal

GLAM-Evogen will be held on August 15, 2026 at University at Buffalo, NY. We aim to bring together faculty and trainees from a range of backgrounds with a particular focus on work at the interface bet...

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Come to my talk today at 2:30 PM in the Expression/Transcriptomics session #Evol2026 I’ll talk about how gene duplication and regulatory architecture drive the evolution of new traits in salivary glands, and hopefully convince you that this is a cool system for studying the evol of gene expression!

We are excited to announce that the 2026 Great Lakes Annual Meeting of Evolutionary Genomics (GLAM-EvoGen) will take place on Saturday, August 15, 2026 at the University at Buffalo. More information is available on our website: gokcumenlab.org/glam2026/ @gokcumenlab.bsky.social

I think this was one of the best talks I’ve heard! Evolution 2026 starting amazingly! @neilshubin.bsky.social #Evolution2026

Super cool talk today by @jrossibarra.bsky.social! #PEQG26 Learning a lot about ARGs 😬

Excited to present my poster today! Stop by at 249W! #PEQG26

Amazing talks and work at #PEQG this week! Stop by my poster today, number 249, to discuss comparative transcriptomics of salivary glands between mouse and humans. I have some cool thoughts to share about the evolution of gene expression! 🐁🧬💧

Our paper on recurrent independent duplications in the primate amylase locus is now out in Cell Reports! Huge thanks to @petarpajic, @spit-lab.bsky.social and @gokcumenlab.bsky.social for their support. More about the work in the thread below from when we first shared the preprint last August.

Convergent evolution through independent rearrangements in the primate amylase locus

Structurally complex loci can repeatedly generate similar traits; Karageorgiou et al. established primate amylase locus as a structural variation hotspot, potentially seeded by transposable elements. ...

cell.com

Indigenous Peruvian Andean populations have among the highest-known copy number for the salivary amylase gene, which encodes an enzyme involved in starch digestion, according to research in Nature Communications. go.nature.com/3R2XNqI 🧬🧪

1/ New paper out in Nature Communications! We studied the salivary amylase gene, AMY1, in Indigenous Andean populations and found evidence that high AMY1 copy number rapidly increased in frequency, likely through recent positive selection. doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Rapid adaptive increase of amylase gene copy number in Indigenous Andeans - Nature Communications

The salivary amylase gene exhibits copy-number variation linked to dietary shifts. Here, the authors describe an adaptive expansion of the amylase gene in Indigenous Andean populations coinciding with...

doi.org

I’m a finalist in the 2026 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at the @ubuffalo.bsky.social , and it’s the 10th anniversary of 3MT at UB! Come cheer me on in the Center for the Arts Screening Room on March 6, 2026, at 3 p.m.!

What have 🦷🦷 #TEETH 🦷🦷, 🥛 #MILK 🥛, and💧💧 #SALIVA 💧💧to do with each other? Ask PetarPajic, Luane Landau, and Omer Gokcumen @gokcumenlab.bsky.social ❗️ academic.oup.com/gbe/article-...

Saliva Protein Genes in Humans were Shaped During Primate Evolution

Abstract. Genes within the secretory calcium-binding phosphoprotein locus diversified along with the formation of a calcified skeleton in vertebrates, the

academic.oup.com