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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug
@romanzug.bsky.social
460 followers 990 following 24 posts
Postdoc in theoretical biology @mainzuniversity.bsky.social. Evolution & development, gene regulation, health & disease, symbiosis. And a fondness for the humanities https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Sz-2qz4AAAAJ&hl=en
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · Jun 3
New paper out at Biological Reviews!! 🥳🥳

"Infection dynamics of endosymbionts that manipulate arthropod reproduction"
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.70024

A joint effort with Franziska Brenninger (now a postdoc ‪@unibe.ch‬) and @kokkonut.bsky.social‬. (1/5)
Infection dynamics of endosymbionts that manipulate arthropod reproduction
A large proportion of arthropod species are infected with endosymbionts, some of which selfishly alter host reproduction. The currently known forms of parasitic reproductive manipulations are male-ki...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 5h
(4) @olivieroleonardi.bsky.social, @ellylewerissa.bsky.social et al. (incl. @naelnadifkasri-lab.bsky.social) replaced a human-specific derived enhancer allele with the ancestral one (in IPSCs) and found ancestralized lines express higher levels of CHD2, implicated in autism.
(6/6)

bit.ly/3WaXpWy
CHD2 Dosage Ties Autolysosomal Pathway to Cortical Maturation in Disease and Evolution
The relatively slow pace of cortical development in humans has long been a topic of investigation. Studies seeking to understand the underlying mechanisms have mostly focused on neurogenetic compariso...
bit.ly
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 5h
(3) Alexander Starr & Hunter Fraser (@stanford.edu) found a "dramatic down-regulation of autism-associated genes, which was likely driven by polygenic positive selection specific to the human lineage".
(5/6)

academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...
A General Principle of Neuronal Evolution Reveals a Human-Accelerated Neuron Type Potentially Underlying the High Prevalence of Autism in Humans
Abstract. The remarkable ability of a single genome sequence to encode a diverse collection of distinct cell types, including the thousands of cell types f
academic.oup.com
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 5h
(2) @xiekuicui.bsky.social, Han Yang (both Yin Shen lab) and colleagues (incl. @brainevodevo.bsky.social) showed that a human-specific variant in the HAR202 enhancer downregulates the transcription factor NPAS3, implicated in schizophrenia.
(4/6)

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Comparative characterization of human accelerated regions in neurons - Nature
The cis-regulatory functions of human accelerated regions of genomic loci and their potential contribution to human brain evolution are revealed.
www.nature.com
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 5h
(1) Katarzyna Ciuba (@aleksandrapekowska.bsky.social lab) and colleagues found that ID-related genes such as CTCF and KMT2E are downregulated in the evolution of the human brain.
(3/6)

www.cell.com/cell-stem-ce...
Molecular signature of primate astrocytes reveals pathways and regulatory changes contributing to human brain evolution
Pękowska and colleagues model primate astrocyte evolution in the dish and find that human cells are bigger and more complex than their chimpanzee and macaque counterparts. Human astrocytes activate lo...
www.cell.com
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 5h
Moreover, we argued that TR genes important for human evolution also show #haploinsufficiency and are involved in neurodevelopmental disorders #NDDs, incl. intellectual disability (ID), #autism, and #schizophrenia.

Recently, more evidence has been emerging that supports this hypothesis:
(2/6)
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 5h
3 years ago, Tobias Uller (@biologylu.bsky.social) and I proposed that important human brain-/face-related traits evolved through #downregulation of transcriptional regulation (TR) genes for brain/face development, e.g. ARID1B, ARID2, BAZ1B, CUX1, FOXP2, NFIX, SATB2 & TCF20.
(1/6)

bit.ly/42HvlOg
Evolution and dysfunction of human cognitive and social traits: A transcriptional regulation perspective | Evolutionary Human Sciences | Cambridge Core
Evolution and dysfunction of human cognitive and social traits: A transcriptional regulation perspective - Volume 4
bit.ly
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Reposted by Roman Zug
mbeisen.bsky.social
Michael Eisen @mbeisen.bsky.social · 20h
Finally, someone has solved a real problem with AI! No more having to take a paper in the format for a journal that rejected you, and reformat it for a new journal. Well done!! formatmypaper.com
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Reposted by Roman Zug
molgen.mpg.de
Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics @molgen.mpg.de · 7d
🚨 Please share! We are seeking motivated PhD students who wish to work at the intersection of molecular life sciences and computational sciences.
#IMPRS #IMPRSBAC @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social @maxplanck.de
Check out our projects and apply by Jan 7th, 2026!
www.molgen.mpg.de/IMPRSPhDproj...
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 7d
What do you mean - "might inform an exposure risk"?
1
Reposted by Roman Zug
benoitbruneau.bsky.social
Benoit Bruneau @benoitbruneau.bsky.social · 9d
OMFG. Rush is back on tour! www.washingtonpost.com/entertainmen...
Legendary Canadian rock band Rush will return to the road
Surviving members of Rush, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, are reuniting for a 2026 concert tour with drummer Anika Nilles sitting in for the late Neil Peart.
www.washingtonpost.com
3 1 16
Reposted by Roman Zug
drruth.bsky.social
Ruth Ann Crystal @drruth.bsky.social · 11d
The HPV vaccine is doing what had been promised.
17 years after it became available, HPV infections decreased significantly in vaccinated people and unvaccinated people because of herd immunity. buff.ly/WvjQ1BS

h/t @boghuma.bsky.social

#medsky #pedsky 🛟🧪
Light blue background. Young woman with dark hair makes a sign of strength with her arm and she has a vaccine bandaid on her upper arm. It says "The HPV Vaccine Works!"
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Reposted by Roman Zug
kokkonut.bsky.social
Hanna Kokko @kokkonut.bsky.social · 12d
@romanzug.bsky.social and @socialinsectlab.bsky.social thinking about colony dynamics! Resource variation can mask tradeoffs, but here we show that even if that *doesn't* vary, lucky starts in colony life can lead to better trajectories and if so, a tradeoff is often undetectable despite being real.
jevbio.bsky.social
Journal of Evolutionary Biology @jevbio.bsky.social · 13d
Why is it so hard to detect fecundity-longevity #trade-offs in social insects? And what does this have to do with the Gospel of #Matthew??
Find out in our new paper with @kokkonut.bsky.social and Susanne Foitzik @mainzuniversity.bsky.social!

doi.org/10.1093/jeb/...
Luck can explain the positive link between fecundity and longevity: the Matthew effect in social insects and beyond
Abstract. The universality of the trade-off between fecundity and longevity in life-history theory is sometimes contested. Social insects present the argua
doi.org
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Reposted by Roman Zug
rahmstorf.bsky.social
Prof. Stefan Rahmstorf @rahmstorf.bsky.social · 11d
Was die einen als “grüne Experimente” diffamieren können die Menschen in vielen anderen Städten längst als Lebensqualität genießen: Kopenhagen, Amsterdam, Wien, Barcelona, Paris, Utrecht, Helsinki…
Weniger Emissionen, weniger Stau für alle, die dann noch Auto fahren wollen & weniger Verkehrstote…
ingwarpero.bsky.social
Ingwar Perowanowitsch @ingwarpero.bsky.social · Jul 31
Helsinki hat diese Woche das erreicht, wovon viele 🇩🇪 Städte nur träumen. In den letzten 12 Monaten gab es keinen einzigen tödlichen Verkehrsunfall und nur 277 Verletzte. Zum Vergleich: In der ähnlich großen Stadt Leipzig gab es 2024 über 4200 Verletzte und 38 Tote. Die 🇫🇮 Hauptstadt weitet...(1/2)
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Reposted by Roman Zug
jhillje.bsky.social
Johannes Hillje @jhillje.bsky.social · 13d
Wolfram Weimer: "Weite Teile der Bevölkerung haben den Eindruck, dass die öffentlich-rechtlichen Sender politisch einseitig berichten"

Bevölkerung:
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Reposted by Roman Zug
profaliceroberts.bsky.social
Alice Roberts @profaliceroberts.bsky.social · 14d
I’m sad to hear the news that the wonderful Jane Goodall is no longer in the world. Her work with chimpanzees at Gombe in Tanzania taught us to look at other apes - and ourselves - differently. I was privileged to meet her later in life and tell her what an inspiration she was to me.
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Reposted by Roman Zug
noonanlab.bsky.social
Noonan Lab @noonanlab.bsky.social · 22d
Out in Cell Genomics: A comprehensive analysis of the cell-type-specific effects of CHD8 loss of function on gene expression in the embryonic and juvenile mouse cortex. Thread 🧵:
www.cell.com/cell-genomic...
Cell-type-specific dysregulation of gene expression due to Chd8 haploinsufficiency during mouse cortical development
Yim et al. use single-cell transcriptomics to elucidate the molecular outcomes of Chd8 haploinsufficiency in the mouse cortex. Their results provide insight into dynamic, cell-type-biased transcriptio...
www.cell.com
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 15d
Great work, congrats! It also lends further support to the hypothesis that (neuro)developmental disorders caused by haploinsufficiency of transcriptional regulators and chromatin remodelers (such as CHD8) result from defects in cell fate determination:
journals.biologists.com/bio/article/...
Developmental disorders caused by haploinsufficiency of transcriptional regulators: a perspective based on cell fate determination
Summary: This Review proposes the hypothesis that developmental disorders caused by haploinsufficiency of transcriptional regulators result from disrupted bistability (i.e. disrupted positive feedback...
journals.biologists.com
Reposted by Roman Zug
jfbonnefon.bsky.social
Jean-François Bonnefon @jfbonnefon.bsky.social · 25d
It's hiring season at @iast.fr!

- 2y research postdoc contract
- Full autonomy, you are your own PI
- Awesome multidisciplinary environment
- All social and behavioral sciences welcome
- Seed funding for projects and workshops
- Gorgeous city in the south of France

www.iast.fr/research-fel...
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romanzug.bsky.social
Roman Zug @romanzug.bsky.social · 19d
And there's this one!

academic.oup.com/narmolmed/ar...
A modular CRISPRa system for molecular therapy of FOXG1 syndrome
Abstract. To date, there is an unmet need for novel approaches that address haploinsufficiency disorders in a targeted and robust manner. Here, we develope
academic.oup.com
2
Reposted by Roman Zug
rheinze.bsky.social
Robert Heinze @rheinze.bsky.social · 19d
Historians, entirely unsurprised by genetic ancestry research since 1949
adamserwer.bsky.social
Adam Serwer @adamserwer.bsky.social · 20d
The white supremacist conceit that everyone in antiquity was living under some kind of global jim crow segregation is just complete bullshit news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
Pure bloodlines? Ancestral homelands? DNA science says no. — Harvard Gazette
Geneticist explains recent analyses made possible by tech advances show human history to be one of mixing, movement, displacement.
news.harvard.edu
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Reposted by Roman Zug
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 21d
Some major personal news:
 
Things have really changed. Now I need your help.
 
On why I left academia, why I left America, and why I need your support as I am starting over as a full-time independent writer:
 
Onward. Forward. Steady:
Onward. Forward. Steady.
Things have really changed. Now I need your help.
steady.page
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Reposted by Roman Zug
thomaszimmer.bsky.social
Thomas Zimmer @thomaszimmer.bsky.social · 21d
Things have really changed. Now I need your help.
 
I wrote about why I left academia, why I left America, why I left Substack - and why I need your support as I am starting over as a full-time independent writer:
 
Some major personal news:

steady.page/en/democracy...
Onward. Forward. Steady.
Things have really changed. Now I need your help.
steady.page
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Reposted by Roman Zug
luismsilva.bsky.social
Luís M. Silva @luismsilva.bsky.social · 23d
Interested in #virulence? Not sure what it is - or how to explain it? Just curious? 🧐🦠🧬🦋

@kayla-king.bsky.social and I just wrote a Primer for @currentbiology.bsky.social on the ecology and evolution of virulence!

Check it below and share :)

#MicroSky #EvoSky #pathogens
Ecology and evolution of virulence
Silva and King discuss the concept of virulence and the ecological and evolutionary factors that shape it.
www.cell.com
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Reposted by Roman Zug
annerabe.bsky.social
Anne Rabe @annerabe.bsky.social · 25d
Wenn die Berliner Zeitung nicht schon viele Tiefpunkte unterschritten hätte, dann hätte sie es spätestens heute mit der Veröffentlichung eines Artikels aus der Weltbühne von deren Herausgeber @karimkhani.bsky.social über @ilkokowalczuk.bsky.social geschafft. Er ist von solcher Verächtlichkeit, 1/x
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Reposted by Roman Zug
julianhamann.bsky.social
Julian Hamann @julianhamann.bsky.social · Sep 15
Zur Stärkung der - na klar - Resilienz von Postdocs bietet die Postdoc Academy der Berlin University Alliance jetzt "Pferdegestütztes Coaching" an. Auf dem Workshop kann man seine Resilienz "durch direkte, nonverbale Rückmeldung von Pferden" stärken.
Kalendereintrag
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