Zoé Pochon
@zoepochon.bsky.social
PhD student in scientific archeology at #CPGSthlm. Ancient pathogens discovery, authentication and genetics. Coauthor of #aMeta pipeline. Studied in 🇨🇭🇺🇲🇸🇪
Fascinating research on plague plasmids 🤓!
@fseersholm.bsky.social · 3d agoDo you like riddles(and molecular biology)? Maybe you can help me solve this one. We’ve found a short piece of DNA (a plasmid) present in almost all plague samples from the Second Plague Pandemic (1338-1840), but absent in all earlier or later plague cases. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Only 2 days left! I'm hiring a computational postdoc to join my group — exciting science, great team, don't wait! Apply now 👇 euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/464445 #PostdocPosition #Bioinformatics #AcademicJobs
PostDoc of Metabolic Research Group
National Institute of Research and Innovation (NIRI) - the leading drug discovery centre in the Baltic countries is offering One permanent position of PostDoc of Metabolic Research Group.
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
Excited to share our preprint on the spread of megaliths in Neolithic Europe. Trade networks formed in the wake of migrations, and megaliths then spread within those networks. On their own, migration and cultural diffusion tell an incomplete story. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Migrations facilitated the cultural diffusion of megaliths in Neolithic Europe
Around 6700 BP (years before present), Neolithic Europe saw the emergence of megalithic monuments in northern France, followed by a rapid spread to the rest of the continent1. However, whether this wa...
biorxiv.org
A #methods paper for #MetagenomicsMonday! 🦠🧬💻 This new primer and #protocol provides practical guidance for assembling and validating #ancient #microbial #genomes. It introduces dedicated #aDNA support in #nf-core/mag. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... #SPAAM #Metagenomics #Bioinformatics
De novo assembly and authentication of ancient DNA metagenomes with nf-core/mag
Author summary Advancements in genomic sequencing analyses are increasingly allowing researchers to reconstruct the genomes of microbial ‘dark matter’—those microbial species that are difficult to…
journals.plos.org
I am opening a PhD position at the University of Vienna to work with me on ancient pathogen aDNA 🦠🧬 Please help spread the word to any relevant candidates or contact me if you are interested! Join us here in Vienna!
Our paper on the second plague pandemic is now finally published: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... We present 11 new Y. pestis genomes from around Europe and introduce a new approach to refine the dating of ancient genomes that helped us to contextualize 75 plague genomes of the Second Pandemic.
I'm hiring a postdoc as part of my ERC project - the deadline is tomorrow noon GMT, apologies for the little notice If you have interest but can't make the deadline, please DM/email me immediately and i can try extend the deadline a few days
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Our paper on ancient sheeppox virus genomes, including many found from parchment samples, is now published af Science Advances. Congrats to all our co-authors and particularly first author Louis. #aDNA share.google/JqVOTB2lvxcO...
Three thousand five hundred years of sheeppox virus evolution inferred from archaeological and codicological genomes
Sheeppox virus (SPPV) is a major livestock pathogen causing economic hardship through reduced production and death of vulnerable sheep, with written descriptions of sheeppox-like disease recorded sinc...
share.google
🚨 Paper alert: if you are working on #metagenomics, particularly from #ancientDNA, and want to get into de novo #assembly, check out our latest work: 📄 De novo assembly and authentication of ancient DNA metagenomes with nf-core/mag (journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...) (1/4)
De novo assembly and authentication of ancient DNA metagenomes with nf-core/mag
Author summary Advancements in genomic sequencing analyses are increasingly allowing researchers to reconstruct the genomes of microbial ‘dark matter’—those microbial species that are difficult to iso...
journals.plos.org
🧵 New preprint: Have you ever tried to perform molecular clock dating of ancient mitogenomes using BEAST? Have you struggled using manual tools to create your input files, run your analyses and extract your results? We hope our pipeline provides a solution to this: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
MitoDate: a Nextflow pipeline for molecular clock dating and phylogenetic inference using ancient mitogenomes
Summary Ancient DNA studies are increasingly targeting samples that are beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating (>50 thousand years old) and are often difficult or impossible to date using other geochr...
biorxiv.org
Our #CPGSthlm delegation had great presentations and posters at #SMBE2026! 👏👏👏 ♥️🧬🦣🫎🦠🦋🐝🐀💀🦬🧪
Centre for Palaeogenetics@cpgsthlm.bsky.social · 3mo agoAfter #ICP2026, #CPGsthlm has officially landed in Copenhagen for #SMBE2026! 🇩🇰🧬 We are bringing a delegation from Stockholm to share our latest research. Here is a breakdown of every CPG presentation happening this week 🧵👇 Don't miss out!
Thanks to my terrific students and colleagues who nominated me for the #SMBE2026 lifetime achievement award. You make science fun!
Don't miss the lab's posters at #SMBE2026 today: Marianne Dehasque @maridehasque.bsky.social will present a pangenome graph pipeline for ancient DNA 🧬 (Arkaden 7, 297) Germán Hernández Alonso @germanha.bsky.social will present about the history of Central Asian sheep 🐑 (Arkaden 8, 267)
Wise words about the ethics of being a scientist these days from @meauxjuliette.bsky.social #SMBE2026: “Don’t serve the system, serve the community.” Also, it is ok (and healthy!) to feel like an imposter; rather, finding others smarter is a blessing!
The Schlebusch Group had a great time at #ICP2026 in Stockholm! Several group members attended, and Maja Vukovikj presented her poster, Ancient Pathogen Genomics in Africa. Great work, Maja! 👏 #AncientDNA #Palaeogenomics
@zoepochon.bsky.social will present her talk "Parvovirus B19 from early modern warships suggests genotype 2 continuity in Europe, bridging a millennium-long gap" tomorrow at 15:50 in the session "L06 From Ancient Pathogen Genomics to Palaeoepidemiology".
@ugiatucl.bsky.social microbial genomics are at #SMBE2026! S14 - Marina Escalera-Zamudio - mapping fitness landscape of SARS-CoV-2 🧬 S13 - me/Pooja Swali - tracing 2 centuries of evolution in BFDV 🦜 Open 10a - Cedric Tan - Ranavirus evolution across hosts 🐸
We're still absorbing tons of inspiring notes from #ICP2026, and already planning the next one. #ICP2028 is coming to Dublin 🍀 and we can't wait to welcome the ancient DNA 🧬 community in Ireland. We'll do our best to build on the outstanding work of the Stockholm committee. More info coming soon!
ICP2026 Stockholm@palaeogenomics.bsky.social · 4mo ago#ICP2026 Stockholm is over, but ICP will return... in 2028! #ICP2028 will be hosted by Trinity College Dublin 🎉☘️🇮🇪
My main PhD paper is out on bioRxiv! 🎉 The microbiomes of wild animals, besides the gut, remain unexplored. To help remedy this, we used museum-preserved dental calculus to characterise the oral microbiome of 34 diverse mammal species. 💀🦠🦷 Read here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
#CPGStlhm 's PhD candidate @officialernst.bsky.social is currently defending his thesis on using metagenomics sedimentary DNA to reconstruct past ecosystems 🧬🏞️ in Sweden with Laura Epp as opponent. Good luck, Ernst!
Ancient DNA reveals a wandering #bear. 🐻🧬 A 9,600-year-old genome from Swedish lake #sediments shows a southern brown bear migrating north during #post-glacial recolonization. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #MetagenomicsMonday #SPAAM #aDNA #sedaDNA #biodiversity
Ancient environmental genome reveals a migratory brown bear individual in Early Holocene Scandinavia | PNAS
After the last ice age, species migrated into a newly deglaciated Scandinavia. Brown bear recolonization is thought to have occurred from two direc...
pnas.org
Very promising pipeline for eucaryotic discovery in sedaDNA! 🐻 🫐 🌿 🧬
Ernst Johnson@officialernst.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe biggest challenge during my PhD within sedimentary ancient DNA was to figure out how to bioinformatically process several hundreds of sequenced samples. This workflow is optimised for identification of eukaryotes from metagenomic shotgun data. Let me introduce the preprint of metaJAM! 1/6
Only ONE WEEK left to register for #ICP2026sthlm 👀 Deadline: 8th May Join us for an amazing week full of talks and networking on all things ancient DNA! Check the FULL conference program 👉 icp2026.palaeogenomics.org/wp-content/u... Register here 👉 icp2026.palaeogenomics.org/registration/
Can we reconstruct ancient pathogen genomes from animal remains? Can paleopathology help prioritize promising specimens? Our new paper demonstrates this by screening more than 300 specimens from across Eurasia over the past 6,000 years. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Probing the zooarchaeological record across time and space for ancient pathogen DNA - Nature Communications
Authors investigate ancient DNA from animal remains and identify multiple signatures of ancient zoonotic pathogens. They find ancient pathogen genomics from archaeological animal remains may inform zo...
nature.com
I’m happy to share the latest paper by our group in Mainz titled: “Demography and life histories across the Roman frontier in Germany 400–700 CE” that was just published in Nature. I’m proud to have been part of this amazing group effort! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Demography and life histories across the Roman frontier in Germany 400–700 ce - Nature
Analysis of 258 ancient genomes from southern Germany reveals a major demographic shift during the late fifth century, yet family structures persisted from Late Roman times, demonstrating cultural con...
nature.com
