Our Special Issue on Avian Epigenetics is out now! Seven papers about a variety of topics, from DNA methylation to miRNA and epigenetic clocks. Read all about it in the Journal of Avian Biology!

Journal of Avian Biology@avianbiology.bsky.social · last mo.

Edited by: #BerniceSepers #CarolineIsaksson @keesvanoers.bsky.social @rebeccachen.bsky.social Read their Editorial here: https://nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jav.03658

We conquered the heat at our lab retreat yesterday! 😎 Talked feedback, funding for PhDs/postdocs, growing the group, and plans for pursuing #MyGreenLab certification 🌱 Great energy all around! 🧪 #LabLife

A massive milestone deserves a massive shoutout! 🎓 @rebeccachen.bsky.social has successfully defended her PhD with a Summa cum laude! 🎉 We're thrilled to congratulate her and even more thrilled that she'll be staying with the group a little longer!🙏 #PhD #Congratulations #Academia

Looking for a MSc thesis or a recent graduate project? The Hoffman Lab is looking for a motivated student to work on mutation load dynamics and inbreeding depression in female black grouse! We'll investigate how deleterious mutations affect key fitness traits. Check out our website for more info! 🧬

What is responsible and rigorous science? @anelivb.bsky.social and @rebeccachen.bsky.social spent the last two days discussing this question at the #iScienceTBD workshop at @idiv-research.bsky.social. From EDI and science communication to HARKing, p-hacking, DAGs – lots of food for thought! 🌱🧠

📢 Call for registrations - Science:TBD 📍 Leipzig | 3–4 March 2026 Join us for an inspiring lineup of keynotes: ⭐Sheena F. Bartscherer ⭐Alice Hughes @achughes.bsky.social ⭐Wolfgang Forstmeier ⭐Ulrich Dirnagl ⭐Dietram A. Scheufele @dietram.bsky.social Register now: www.idiv.de/science-tbd

The third chapter of my PhD is now published in Current Biology! 🥳 We predicted deleterious mutations to understand their effects on survival, and found that viability selection predominantly targets evolutionarily conserved mutations in exons. Read all about it here! doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

DNA as street decoration? Of course! Our very own @k-hench.bsky.social made some beautiful pictures of the @eseb2025.bsky.social street decorations at the “Festes de Gràcia”. Check out some of his pictures and read more about why we were there: thehoffmanlab.com/2025/09/05/e...

ESEB 2025

Four of our lab members presented their work at the Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB 2025) in Barcelona in August. Beril presented a pilot study linked to her multi-p…

thehoffmanlab.com

The genome and epigenome are not independent, so why analyse them separately? 🤔 Come and discuss our hypotheses on the interplay between deleterious mutations and epigenetic mechanisms today with @rebeccachen.bsky.social at #ESEB2025 poster number 85! 🧪🧬

Getting excited for @eseb2025.bsky.social next week! Come listen to my talk on mutation load published earlier this week in NEE (Tues 2 pm, meeting room 131), and/or chat with me about the interplay between deleterious mutations and epigenetics at poster session 3 (Thurs 5-7 pm, P03.085) 🔬🧬🐥

the Hoffman Lab@thehoffmanlab.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Working on mutation load, inbreeding or bottlenecks and attending ESEB2025 Congress of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology next week? Check out our lab's talks and posters 😁 Looking forward to chat with you!

The core chapter of my PhD has now been published in Nature E&E! 🧬🥳 In this paper, we investigate whether predicted deleterious mutations reduce fitness and if so, how? Do heterozygous mutations also contribute? And are non-coding mutations more deleterious? Read all about it here: rdcu.be/eAcM5

Predicted deleterious mutations reveal the genetic architecture of male reproductive success in a lekking bird

Nature Ecology & Evolution - Analysis of whole genomes and life-history data of male black grouse shows that deleterious mutations, especially those in promotors, reduce lifetime reproductive...

rdcu.be

Do you work on mutation load? 🔬🧬 Check out our new manuscript where we show that early-life viability selection primarily targets exonic mutations, in contrast to sexual selection which acts on mutations in promoters! 🧑‍🔬 Pre-print is available now: dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn... 🧪 #evolution #popgen

There is still lots of time to sign up for our 2025 edition of the #EvoBioCC 🥳💚✨ It is a FREE, online course in Evolutionary Biology, made by students and for students! Please share widely and don't forget to register! 💚💚💚 docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

EvoBio Crash Course 2025 | Registration Form

The fourth edition of the EvoBio Crash Course has opened registration and we are very happy to have you! We are focusing on delivering a rich course on the basics of evolutionary biology so that stude...

docs.google.com

Publication alert! ✨ Our recent paper in Ecology & Evolution addresses how to make conferences more inclusive. We collected observational and experimental data during Q&A sessions at the Behaviour 2023 congress hosted by Bielefeld University, and circulated a survey among conference attendees [1/4]

@anelivb.bsky.social & @rebeccachen.bsky.social emphasise the pre-publication error correction potential of open data in our latest #SORTEEjournal club post: https://sortee.org/blog/2025/01/23/2025_on_open_science_error_correction_and_the_imperfect_scientist/

Our preprint is out! We predicted deleterious mutations and reveal the genomic mechanisms underlying fitness variation in black grouse, a classic lekking bird. Check it out doi.org/10.21203/rs.... #genomics #popgen #genetics