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August 2024: Student fellowship

Major congratulations to PhD student Ioanna Kotari (Borges group), who earned a prestigious 2-year DOC fellowship from the ÖAW (Austrian Academy of Sciences) with her project "PoMo-cod: Integrating Demography and Selection in Codon evolution." 

During this fellowship she will aim to advance evolutionary biology through the development of "PoMo-cod" (Polymorphism-aware phylogenetic Model for CODon evolution). Traditional models often overlook genetic variation within species and other key factors such as demographic changes and selection on synonymous sites. PoMo-cod addresses these gaps by incorporating polymorphisms, population size variations, and GC-bias gene conversion, providing a more comprehensive understanding of evolutionary processes.

Key goals of PoMo-cod include:

• Explicitly modelling positive diversifying selection, which drives adaptation through recurrent amino acid changes.
• Integrating varying demography, GC-bias gene conversion and selection pressures, including those on synonymous sites, for more accurate evolutionary inferences.
• Detecting patterns of diversifying selection in fruit fly and great ape datasets, leveraging their diverse genomic attributes.

By utilising Bayesian and Maximum likelihood frameworks, along with exploring AI and Machine Learning to alleviate some computational burden, PoMo-cod aims to improve computational efficiency and accessibility, enabling more precise analysis of multi-individual and multi-species data. This will benefit the broader scientific community and advance the field of evolutionary research.

July 2024: Farewell Rui!

We were sad to say goodbye to Rui Borges, who has been at the Institute of Population Genetics at Vetmeduni since 2017, first as a postdoc and then as a group leader. But we are also excited for him about his new position as Lecturer in Statistics in the School of Mathematics and Statistics at University of St Andrews in Scotland. Congratulations and good luck with the move! His students will continue being affiliated with PopGen Vienna.

    

July 2024: PhD student on radio

Sarah Saadain, a first-year PhD student in the Kofler group, was interviewed in German for a radio show and podcast about insects by the ORF, a local radio and television broadcaster. She is not only studying Drosophila evolution, but also a passionate entomologist!

Spotify links: 
1. Wiener Nachtpfauenauge
2. Kleiner und Großer Leuchtkäfer
3. Große Eintagsfliege
4. Mittlerer Weinschwärmer

ORF links: this is the first episode and on the bottom you can see the other three:
https://sound.orf.at/podcast/oe1/insekten/das-wiener-nachtpfauenauge

July 2024: PhD defenses

Congratulations to two talented fresh PhD graduates! Clara Groot Crego from the Paun lab successfully defended her thesis entitled "Molecular sources of variation and their role in the adaptive radiation of Tillandsia." Hannah Götsch from the Bürger lab successfully defended her thesis entitled "A multilocus model for the adaptation of complex ecological traits, and beyond." Great job both!

L: Dr. Groot Crego, R: Dr. Götsch

    

June 2024: Farewell Julia!

Our beloved PhD program coordinator, Julia Hosp, has moved on after 14 years with us. She will be missed very much! Here are some photos from her farewell party. Special thanks to Petra and Bali for preparing and grilling the feast!

April 2024: PhD defense

We're celebrating the successful defense of Elif Bozlak (Wallner group). Her thesis talk was entitled "Sequence diversity in mammalian Y chromosomes". Congratulations!

February 2024: PhD defense

Burçin Yıldırım (Vogl group) successfully defended her PhD thesis "Adaptive and nonadaptive sequence evolution in short introns of fruit flies of the genus Drosophila". Congratulations!

December 2023: Experimental Evolution course

Also this year our students organised the international practical course "Experimental evolution: Exploring evolutionary forces in controlled environments” from Nov 27 to Dec 1, 2023 at the Vetmeduni. Our students planned the entire course, invited speakers for the morning sessions, screened applications from around the world and taught and tutored all practical sessions for the participants to train on real data.

Link to course website

November 2023: PopGen Xmas

We recently enjoyed a Xmas dinner to celebrate a successful year soon coming to an end. Ice skating had been planned as our team activity but was was postponed for later this December due to bad weather.

October 2023: retreat

31 PhD students and faculty joined this year's retreat at the beautiful surroundings of Altaussee. We had great weather at the foot of the Loser mountain and listened to exciting talks with plenty of discussion opportunities, had a free afternoon for hikes and relaxing and enjoyed traditional food, good company and a night walk.  

September 2023: "Stormy" get-together

Our new cohort of students was welcomed to the PopGen Vienna crowd by Christian Schlötterer, enjoying mild September weather with "Sturm" - partially fermented, new wine. Harvest season is a meaningful time for several projects run at the program as pomace at the vinyards is Drosophila Eldorado and perfect for collecting flies.

July 2023: Poster award

Elif Bozlak (Wallner group) received a poster award at the 39th ISAG (International Society for Animal Genetics) conference 2023 in Cape Town, South Africa. Her poster's title: „The first Rangifer tarandus Y chromosomal phylogeny“

July 2023: PhD defense

Filip Wierzbicki (Kolfer group) successfully defended his PhD thesis "Transposable elements and piRNA clusters in Drosophila". Congratulations!

June 2023: PhD defense

Ben Wölfl (Hermisson group) successfully defended his PhD thesis "A theory of oligogenic adaptation of a quantitative trait". Congratulations!

May 2023: Final Symposium

More than 50 former and current members of the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics met to celebrate the conclusion of 12 successful years of the FWF-funded DK. Two full days of exciting talks by alumni, current students and SAB members were part of the Final Symposium from May 15-17 at Hirschwang/Reichenau a.d. Rax.

May 2023: PhD defense

Congratulations to Wei-Yun Lai (Schlötterer group) on successfully defending her PhD thesis entitled "The role of polygenic adaptation and genetic redundancy in gene expression evolution".

December 2022: Outreach

Barbara Wallner is featured in a series of Ö1 radio broadcasts from 12-16 December (Vom Leben der Natur, 8:55): "Wie das Pferd zum Menschen kam".

December 2022: Experimental Evolution course

Students of the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics organised the practical course "Experimental evolution: Bringing theory and practice together” from December 5 to 9, 2022 at the Vetmeduni. Our students coodinated the entire course, invited speakers, screened applications from around the world and planned, taught and tutored all practical sessions for the participants to train on real data.

Link to course website

December 2022: Christmas event

We had a cosy, fun time painting mugs and plates for colleagues, and enjoyed pizza for our Xmas party. We celebrate a successful year, slowly emerging from the pandemic restrictions and ending with important positive grant decisions for PopGen members.

December 2022: DK phasing-out granted

More fantastic grant news: The FWF approved a 1.5-year phasing-out time of the DK Population Genetics led by Christian Schlötterer.

December 2022: SFB Grant

Congratulations to our associated faculty member Neda Barghi and colleagues! The Austrian Science Fund FWF approved the Special Research Programme (SFB) "Polygenic adaptation: from single selected loci to the infinitesimal model", lead by Neda Barghi. During a 4-year period, funds of 3,9 million Euro will enable the SFB members to conduct excellent research in the field of population genetics. The SFB is a joint collaboration of Neda Barghi (speaker), Robert Kofler and Christian Schlötterer (Vetmeduni), vice speaker Joachim Hermisson and Himani Sachdeva (Univ. of Vienna), Magnus Nordborg and Kelly Swarts (GMI), and Nick Barton (ISTA).

November 2022: PhD defense

Congratulations to Rahul Pisupati (Nordborg group) on his successful PhD thesis defense "Genetics of epigenetics in Arabidopsis thaliana".

November 2022: ERC Starting Grant

Congratulations to our associated faculty member Kelly Swarts! Kelly received a prestigious ERC Starting Grant for developing tree ring genomics to understand the genetic basis of and predict forest response to climate change. Read more here: https://www.oeaw.ac.at/gmi/detail/news/erc-starting-grant-for-kelly-swarts

October 2022: PhD retreat

This year's retreat led 22 PhD students and faculty to the beautiful surroundings of Altaussee. The autumn weather was mild and sunny at the foot of the stunning Loser mountain. We enjoyed talks with plenty of discussion opportunities, an afternoon exploring the mountain trails and the nearby lake, and two evenings with traditional food, good company and a night walk.

August 2022: visiting scientists

Prof. Stefan Kramer (see https://www.datamining.informatik.uni-mainz.de/stefan-kramer/) and PhD student Julia Siekiera, M.Sc. (see https://www.datamining.informatik.uni-mainz.de/julia-siekiera/) from the Institute of Computer Science of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz will visit PopGen Vienna from August 3rd to August 5th to collaborate with the group of Christian Schlötterer.

Julia Siekiera will give a talk on the joint work about deep learning in population genetics.

June 2022: PopGen faculty and students in Santa Barbara

Speaker Christian Schlötterer, PhD students Dagny Runarsdottir and Benjamin Wölfl and former faculty member Angela Hancock are currently hosted by the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics (KITP). KITP as part of the University of California, Santa Barbara, is one of the most renowned institutes for theoretical physics and related fields. Christian Schlötterer was invited to co-coordinate the KITP workshop “Towards an Integrative View of Adaptation: Bridging Population and Quantitative Genetics” (June 13 - July 15, 2022).

May 2022: SAB meeting

This year's SAB meeting finally was held in person again. After our board members had listened to our student's project presentations and gave precious feedback, we were treated to a Mini-Symposium featuring latest research of John Parsch, Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo, Nick Barton and Andy Clark.

April 2022: PhD defense

Congratulations to Mimmi Eriksson (Paun group) on successfully defending her PhD thesis "Rinse and repeat: genome dynamics following repeated allopolyploidzation in marsh orchids (Dactylorhiza)".

April 2022: Alumni News

Graduate alumna Ana Marija Jakšić, group leader at EPFL in Lausanne, was recently portayed in The Scientist: https://www.the-scientist.com/scientist-to-watch/ana-marija-jak-i-shapes-fruit-fly-brains-69863

Jakšić lab: https://www.jaksiclab.com/

April 2022: PhD defense

Congratulations to Aglaia Szukala (Paun group) on her successful PhD thesis defense "Parallel and adaptive processes during ecotype formation in Heliosperma pusillum".

March 2022: Alumni News

Congratulations to alumna Polina Novikova, currently group leader at MPIZ in Cologne, on securing a prestigious ERC Starting Grant!

Novikova lab: https://www.mpipz.mpg.de/novikova

February 2022: PhD defense

Our congratulations go to Marta Pelizzola (Futschik group) on successfully defending her thesis with the title "Developing and testing statistical methods for experimental evolution".

January 2022: PhD defense

Congratulations to Florian Schwarz (Kofler group) on successfully defending his thesis "Towards Unraveling the Dynamics of Transposable Elements".

November 2021: Outreach/VetIdeas Challenge

Elif Bozlak, Lara Radovic and Barbara Wallner won the 1st prize at this year's VetIdeas Challenge at Vetmeduni Vienna for translating their research to a possible applicable business idea. The team developed the project "Horse paternal ancestree" to bridge the gap between the scientific and public horse community. The project aims to enable the interested public to explore the paternal ancestry of horses which may be particularly interesting for horse owners. For the poster and pitch presentation of the idea, special attention was given to the implementation of economical aspects that were earlier developed at different workshops. Congratulations!

November 2021: PhD defense

Congratulations to Sheng-Kai Hsu (Schlötterer group) on successfully defending his thesis about "The role of sex evolution: Sexual conflict and Sexual selection".

November 2021: New associated faculty

We're happy that Martin Polz, professor at the Department of Microbiology and Ecosystem Science (Univ. of Vienna), joined the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics as associated faculty.

October 2021: PhD retreat

After the pandemic forced us to skip last year's retreat, we decided to seize our 100% vaccination status to spend two days at the huts of Feuerkogel (Upper Austria). We had small group workshops, enjoyed some hiking (despite very uninviting weather) and comforting mountain food at 1600m elevation. It was great to catch up on research and friendships after the long break - finally face to face!

September 2021: PhD defense

Congratulations to Anna Maria Langmüller (Schlötterer group) on successfully defending her thesis "The detection of temperature-dependent fitness effects with Evolve and Resequence experiments".

September 2021: PopGen Hike

We enjoyed a hike among the "Vienna Woods" with wonderful weather. After a long time with no social activities due to the pandemic, it was a special treat to spend time together! Dr. Sam Yeaman (Univ. of Calgary, currently on sabbatical) joined us and it was great to discuss latest research in person instead of zoom.

July 2021: Outreach

PhD students Dagny Runarsdottir and Lara Radovic reach out to young researchers at Children's University to explain how populations evolve.

July 2021: Alumni News

Congratulations to alumna Ana Marija Jaksic for having been selected as a runner-up for the prestigious best student paper award for papers published in MBE during 2020 with the paper Neuronal Function and Dopamine Signaling Evolve at High Temperature in Drosophila.

June 2021: Competition winner

Congratulations to Lara Radovic (Wallner group), winner of the student competition (genetics) at the Equine Science Society Virtual Symposium!

Link to talk abstract

June 2021: PhD defense

Congratulations to Huying Shang (Lexer/Paun group) on successfully defending her thesis "Genomics of the speciation continuum in Eurasian Populus species".

May 2021: Faculty meeting

The faculty met online on 20th of May, 2021.

May 2021: SAB meeting

Also this year's SAB meeting had to be carried out online from May 17th to 20th. We enjoyed four afternoons of student presentations, discussions and informal interactions with our board members.

April 2021: PhD defense

Congratulations to Emmanouil Lyrakis (Schlötterer group) on the highest exam grade for his PhD zoom defense "The physiological and genetic basis of reproductive dormancy in Drosophila fruit flies".

April 2021: New associated faculty

We're happy that Rui Borges, junior group leader at Vetmeduni Vienna, just joined the Vienna Graduate School of Population Genetics as associated faculty.

March 2021: PhD defense

Congratulations to Martin Pontz (Bürger group) on successfully defending his thesis "Effects of epistasis in population genetic two-locus models" online.

March 2021: Faculty News

Congratulations to faculty member Barbara Wallner on completing her habilitation procedure at Vetmeduni Vienna!

February 2021: Alumni News

February 2021: Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship

Congratulations to our alumna Anna Maria Langmüller, she received a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship for 2 years of postdoctoral research at Cornell University and 1 year at Univ. of Vienna!

January 2021: Poster prize

Congratulations to Christina Hedderich on winning the 1st prize for her poster "Population genomics shows last European stand of Artemisia laciniata is diverse despite population size" at the poster competition of the virtual edition of the 54th Population Genetics Group Meeting.