Biology and Evolution of Symbiosis (BESymb)-
New work out! Co-evolution and synchronised evolutionary rates in aphid dual endosymbiont systems
Aphids typically rely on the obligate symbiont Buchnera, but several lineages have acquired additional co-obligate symbionts, most commonly Serratia symbiotica. Through phylogenetic analyses, we found that
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Microbiology day 2026, Bordeaux
This last week, I had the pleasure to attend the annual “Microbiology day“, a meeting from the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region in France, as a keynote speaker, spreading
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Talk and sampling trip at Slovenia
After a long hiatus, we are back in Slovenia! This past week Pegah and I went to the University of Ljubljana to join long-term collaborator Peter
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Visit to the ETH Zurich!
This week I was lucky to have been invited to talk at the Institute of Integrative Biology (IBZ) Seminar Series by the Vorburger’s group (Evolutionary Ecology).
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Mobility fellowship for Pegah!
Pegah was just awarded a Mobility Fellowship from the University of Vienna! This fellowship will enable Pegah to visit the “leech lab” at Kyoto University (Japan)
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New work out! Chromosome-level reference genome of the European southern medicinal leech Hirudo verbana
Thanks to the European Reference Genome Atlas initiative (ERGA) and their Biodiversity Genomics Europe project (BGE), a reference genome for the historical European southern medicinal leech
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Visit to the International Laboratory for Human Genome Research (LIIGH) – UNAM
This January I had the pleasure of visiting the LIIGH – UNAM, at my home city of QuerΓ©taro (MΓ©xico), where I was able to talk about
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Welcome Pegah!
Last week, Pegah Kalatehjari joined the team! Pegah joins us from Iran, with a background in aquaculture, leech biology and reproduction. She will work on the
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Back from ESEB 2025!
ESEB 2025 just wrapped up last week. It was a great week of talks, posters, and informal chats about all things evolution. Particularly, it was great
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Visit to Shenyang Agricultural University
Taking advantage of the trip to China for SMBE 2025, Alejandro visited the group of Jun-Bo Luan (https://www.junboluanlab.com/) at the Shenyang Agricultural University (ζ²ι³εδΈε€§ε¦). It was