Evolutionary modelling group (PI: Piet van den Berg)
@vandenberglab.bsky.social
At the evolutionary modelling group at KU Leuven (Belgium) we develop evolutionary models to understand how living organisms adapt, from antibiotic resistance to the evolution of human language. website: www.pietervdberg.com
New paper from our PhD student Giorgio Boccarella! In a nutshell: persistence can affect the evolution of antibiotic resistance in several ways - often unexpected. academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Bacterial persistence modulates the speed, magnitude and onset of antibiotic resistance evolution
Abstract. Bacterial persistence, a phenomenon where a subpopulation of cells can exhibit increased survival to antibiotic stress, allows part of the popula
academic.oup.com
Very excited about this special issue! Our goal is to bring together empirical and theoretical work across a wide range of “unusual” systems of aging. Sounds like a good fit? Consider submitting to our SI 🤩 Unsure? Feel free to contact us. And please spread the word!
Luisa Jaimes@jaimesnino.bsky.social · 3mo agoWorking on ageing in unusual taxa? Consider submitting to our Special Issue on the Journal of Evolutionary Biology: "Ageing outside of the box: insights from unusual and non-model species". With @yagmurerten.bsky.social and @MargauxBieuville, we are looking forward! academic.oup.com/jeb/pages/ca...
Visiting the conferences of @culturalevolsoc.bsky.social and @humbehevosoc.bsky.social in Rabat. Good talks and good walks. @kathetgedacht.bsky.social
Take a look at our new website at www.pietervdberg.com ! For everything on our research topics, publications, and ourselves.
Evolutionary Modelling Group | KU Leuven
We develop evolutionary models to understand how living organisms adapt - from antibiotic resistance to human language evolution.
pietervdberg.com
#MeetOurMembers Today, we would like to introduce our PhD student, Kat Van der Poorten! Back in Belgium after traveling the world! She is an autistic evolutionary biologist intrigued by all things ‘language’. Follow her on Bluesky to learn more about her work: @kathetgedacht.bsky.social
#Meetourmembers Happy New Year! 🎉 Today, we would like to introduce our PhD candidate, Ronja Hulst! She came from Grunn with a smile :) Follow her on Bluesky to learn more about her work: @ronbaas.bsky.social
A huge thank you to our secretary Conny Coeckelberghs and everyone from my team for the fantastic organisation - Viviana Di Pietro, Helena Mendes Ferreira, Anneline Mattens, @kdebeuckelaere.bsky.social and @anvandoren.bsky.social.
The @iussi-nwes.bsky.social that we organised this week in Leuven (18-19 December, www.iussi-nweurope.org/meetings) was a success! @rmash.bsky.social and @patrick-kennedy.bsky.social delivered fantastic keynote talks and there was a great set of contributed talks and posters.
Talk I gave about our recent Evolution Letters paper, in which we quantified the benefits of helping at the origin of eusociality using a combination of experiment & theory, at the @iussi-nwes.bsky.social winter meeting in Leuven this week! Powerpoint here: www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/4w3hw...
Evolution Letters@evolletters.bsky.social · 8mo agoEarly-season helping in Polistes wasps shows increasing returns - more helpers lead to convex gains in sexual productivity, resolving a key paradox in the origins of eusociality. academic.oup.com/evlett/artic... @ricaliari.bsky.social @twenseleers.bsky.social
@julietteluiselli.bsky.social et al. introduce a mathematical model of genome size evolution, showing that the noncoding fraction of the genome is shaped by biases in mutational neutrality, and robustness selection arising from structural mutations 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf315 #evobio #molbio
#meetourmembers! Today, we would like to introduce our PhD Student Alger Jorritsma! He is an 'oprjochte Fries'.
Our team member Kat speaking to a diverse audience (including the rector of KU Leuven!) about the challenges of being an autistic researcher. @kathetgedacht.bsky.social @lavavzw.bsky.social
Forced sterilisation for disabled people? Still happening youtu.be/7ac_LxNHSOU?... @sara-rocha.bsky.social
Forced sterilization in Europe | DW Documentary
YouTube video by DW Documentary
youtu.be
"The evolutionary role of mutational robustness: theoretical insights" by Pieter van den Berg & co "Here, we categorize and critically discuss the main approaches for modeling the evolutionary causes and consequences of mutational robustness." FREE till Jan 18: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mBGtcQbJF...
#meetourmembers! Today, we would like to introduce our newest labmate: Juliette. She joined us from France just last month! Add her on Bluesky to follow her work: @julietteluiselli.bsky.social !!
#paper How do organisms adapt to changing environments? Through plasticity, evolution, or a combination of both? Find out in our new paper by Alger Jorritsma, where we show which strategies evolve under different environmental conditions. @journal-evo.bsky.social academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...
The evolution of plasticity and evolvability in a simple gene regulatory network
How do organisms adapt to changing environments? Do they respond plastically or evolve through genetic alterations? We present a large-scale simulation stu
academic.oup.com
Excited to share our new review: The evolutionary role of mutational robustness: theoretical insights, in Trends in Genetics! Our review distils the main theoretical insights into when robustness evolves and how it shapes evolvability. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The evolutionary role of mutational robustness: theoretical insights
Mutational robustness, the ensemble of mechanisms that allow organisms to maintain a stable phenotype despite genetic mutations, affects adaptive evol…
sciencedirect.com
#Review: The evolutionary role of mutational robustness: theoretical insights in Trends in Genetics by @ronbaas.bsky.social We bring together results across models to clarify when robustness is favoured and how it influences a population’s capacity to evolve. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The evolutionary role of mutational robustness: theoretical insights
Mutational robustness, the ensemble of mechanisms that allow organisms to maintain a stable phenotype despite genetic mutations, affects adaptive evol…
sciencedirect.com
Hi everyone! We are the Evolutionary Modelling Group! We are interested in many topics, from the evolution of microbial mutational robustness to the evolution of language and culture in humans. We rely on a variety of methods, both computational (evolutionary simulations) and mathematical.
Hi I am Piet! Pi of the Evolutionary Modelling Group! Isn’t it just fascinating that we are all here because of evolution? If you feel the same, feel free to reach out to me to join our group!
