Elif Yildiz
@elif-m-yildiz.bsky.social
PhD candidate at Max Planck School of Cognition. Centre for Language Evolution graduate in Edinburgh. Interested in evolutionary genetics, aDNA and the neurobiological bases for linguistic cognition.
And!! Better diagrams 🤩
Super proud of this fabulous team for challenging old comparative frameworks and rethinking what makes language language.
Read more in the thread below 👇 or here 📖😊: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
Read more in the thread below 👇 or here 📖😊: www.cell.com/trends/cogni...
November 26, 2025 at 7:42 AM
And!! Better diagrams 🤩
Very comprehensive resource! And very important work as population decline continues…
Such a fantastic resource by @kuhlwilm.bsky.social's lab. We’re using this catalog in half our projects
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A curated dataset of great ape genome diversity - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - A curated dataset of great ape genome diversity
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Very comprehensive resource! And very important work as population decline continues…
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
📣 Paper alert!
I am delighted that our paper exploring the impact of Neanderthal-derived variants on the activity of a disease-associated craniofacial enhancer has been published in Development today!
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
I am delighted that our paper exploring the impact of Neanderthal-derived variants on the activity of a disease-associated craniofacial enhancer has been published in Development today!
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
November 10, 2025 at 11:11 AM
📣 Paper alert!
I am delighted that our paper exploring the impact of Neanderthal-derived variants on the activity of a disease-associated craniofacial enhancer has been published in Development today!
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
I am delighted that our paper exploring the impact of Neanderthal-derived variants on the activity of a disease-associated craniofacial enhancer has been published in Development today!
journals.biologists.com/dev/article/...
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
Our new manuscript, led by Emily Corrigan, examines inhibitory neuron diversity across approximately 160 million years of evolutionary divergence, as part of BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) developing brain atlas package: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Conservation and alteration of mammalian striatal interneurons - Nature
An analysis of cell-type diversity in brain samples from a variety of mammalian species, both during development and in adult animals, reveals that the TAC3 initial class of striatal interneurons is c...
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Our new manuscript, led by Emily Corrigan, examines inhibitory neuron diversity across approximately 160 million years of evolutionary divergence, as part of BRAIN Initiative Cell Atlas Network (BICAN) developing brain atlas package: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
What is the cell type closest to neurons in the differentiation tree? The answer will surprise you! (unless you know about development, or were at #MiFoBio2025 listening to Pierre Nassoy's talk)
November 4, 2025 at 11:23 AM
What is the cell type closest to neurons in the differentiation tree? The answer will surprise you! (unless you know about development, or were at #MiFoBio2025 listening to Pierre Nassoy's talk)
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
Come join us for a 4-year PhD on effects of rare gene disruptions involved in speech disorder, investigated in human neuronal models (via gene-editing, tissue culture, brain organoids, high-res microscopy, transcriptomics, epigenomics).
More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...
#AcademicJobs #PhDJobs
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More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...
#AcademicJobs #PhDJobs
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October 22, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Come join us for a 4-year PhD on effects of rare gene disruptions involved in speech disorder, investigated in human neuronal models (via gene-editing, tissue culture, brain organoids, high-res microscopy, transcriptomics, epigenomics).
More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...
#AcademicJobs #PhDJobs
🧬🧪
More info: www.mpi.nl/imprs-phd-fe...
#AcademicJobs #PhDJobs
🧬🧪
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
🧠 The Lipid #Brain Atlas is out now! If you think #lipids are boring and membranes are all the same, prepare to be surprised. Led by @lucafusarbassini.bsky.social with Giovanni D'Angelo's lab, we mapped membrane lipids in the mouse brain at high resolution.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
October 16, 2025 at 6:23 AM
🧠 The Lipid #Brain Atlas is out now! If you think #lipids are boring and membranes are all the same, prepare to be surprised. Led by @lucafusarbassini.bsky.social with Giovanni D'Angelo's lab, we mapped membrane lipids in the mouse brain at high resolution.
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
A big reason it's challenging to work out relationships of early hominins: We know today that the populations of living great apes like gorillas and bonobos have deep ancestry from diverged “ghost” lineages. Our ancestors were surely the same.
www.johnhawks.net/p/genetic-hi...
www.johnhawks.net/p/genetic-hi...
Tracing the genetic histories of ghost apes
The footprints of extinct lineages are the closest we have to a fossil record of the African apes.
www.johnhawks.net
September 23, 2025 at 1:01 PM
A big reason it's challenging to work out relationships of early hominins: We know today that the populations of living great apes like gorillas and bonobos have deep ancestry from diverged “ghost” lineages. Our ancestors were surely the same.
www.johnhawks.net/p/genetic-hi...
www.johnhawks.net/p/genetic-hi...
Yesterday marked the start of my PhD journey with @mps-cognition.bsky.social. We are in Berlin for welcome week, presenting our research interests to each other and attending talks by @mps-cognition.bsky.social fellows. Loved learning about connectomics from @mhlab.bsky.social. Excited for the rest!
Ready for their first group photo! We are excited to have cohort 2025 join our program! If you want to be part of us next year, now is the time to apply: cognition.maxplanckschools.org/en/application #passionforscience #maxplanckschools 🧠🧠🧠
September 3, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Yesterday marked the start of my PhD journey with @mps-cognition.bsky.social. We are in Berlin for welcome week, presenting our research interests to each other and attending talks by @mps-cognition.bsky.social fellows. Loved learning about connectomics from @mhlab.bsky.social. Excited for the rest!
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
Denisovans or their close relatives identified in the fossil record using a gene regulatory phenotyping method. Now out:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
August 27, 2025 at 1:05 PM
Denisovans or their close relatives identified in the fossil record using a gene regulatory phenotyping method. Now out:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
It's a wrap for HAAM 2025! Grateful for an intense and inspiring week of exploring #aDNA and #humanpopgen both conceptually and using practical tools. Thank you to all the organisers, instructors and TAs for making this possible!
June 17, 2025 at 7:07 AM
It's a wrap for HAAM 2025! Grateful for an intense and inspiring week of exploring #aDNA and #humanpopgen both conceptually and using practical tools. Thank you to all the organisers, instructors and TAs for making this possible!
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
We are super excited to share our latest pre-print in collaboration with @sonjavernes.bsky.social lab! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... : Evolution of the cellular landscape in mammalian striatum 🧠🧬🧵
Evolution of the cellular landscape in mammalian striatum
The dorsal striatum is important for highly specialized functions including movement, learning, and habit formation. However, it is not known if species-specialized behaviors are associated with cellu...
www.biorxiv.org
April 22, 2025 at 5:32 PM
We are super excited to share our latest pre-print in collaboration with @sonjavernes.bsky.social lab! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... : Evolution of the cellular landscape in mammalian striatum 🧠🧬🧵
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
Very happy to share our new paper on human facial development and evolution out today in JHE 🎉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
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Human midfacial growth pattern differs from that of Neanderthals and chimpanzees
Present-day humans have small and retracted midfaces, while Neanderthals possess large and forwardly projected midfaces. To understand the ontogenetic…
www.sciencedirect.com
March 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
Very happy to share our new paper on human facial development and evolution out today in JHE 🎉 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
🧵👇
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Reposted by Elif Yildiz
Earliest evidence of Homo sapiens living in rainforests uncovered www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Earliest evidence of Homo sapiens living in rainforests uncovered | Natural History Museum
Our species has been living in tropical forests for at least 150,000 years.
www.nhm.ac.uk
February 27, 2025 at 10:38 AM
Earliest evidence of Homo sapiens living in rainforests uncovered www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/new...
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
We're new here—help us spread the word! 🦇 🚀 Please like, follow, and share as we build our presence. We don’t have all the handles yet, so it is difficult tag everyone just yet!! If you are here - let us know 🙌💙
January 29, 2025 at 5:02 PM
We're new here—help us spread the word! 🦇 🚀 Please like, follow, and share as we build our presence. We don’t have all the handles yet, so it is difficult tag everyone just yet!! If you are here - let us know 🙌💙
Reposted by Elif Yildiz
New preprint 📣! Excited to share the result of several years of work, led by @ellylewerissa.bsky.social & @olivieroleonardi.bsky.social, in collaboration with friends @naelnadifkasri-lab.bsky.social & Giuseppe Testa. On CHD2, a chromatin remodeller, its role in evolution & development [🧵]
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January 22, 2025 at 10:38 AM
New preprint 📣! Excited to share the result of several years of work, led by @ellylewerissa.bsky.social & @olivieroleonardi.bsky.social, in collaboration with friends @naelnadifkasri-lab.bsky.social & Giuseppe Testa. On CHD2, a chromatin remodeller, its role in evolution & development [🧵]
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