21. June 2024 - Summer barbecue
The group gathered for this years summer barbecue at Torsten's home. Excellent food and very good mood around the tables. Enjoy a great summer!!!
06. June 2024 - Good Buy Mael
Today, Mael Ariel Grosse has his last working day in the CEG group. For the last two years he worked on the project 'Cirratulid polychaetes in Norwegian waters'. We wish you all the best for your future projects. !!! Ha det bra og Lykke til !!!
02. June 2024 - Field work on Sylt at half-time – one more to join
As her first task, Ana joined today the field trip of Giulia, Sara, James and Torsten on the Sylt. The goal is to collect specimens for the InvertOmics project and at the same time teach Ana about her new tasks in the MeioSkag project. Two goals for two projects by one trip.
02. June 2024 - 15th International Conference on Copepoda
Marvin and Preben join the 15th International Conference on Copepoda held in Hiroshima, Japan. Marvin contributes a talk 'Unlocking the first large genome of the key zooplankton genus Calanus: challenges and insights' and Preben presents a poster entitled 'First insights into the evolutionary processes of local adaptation and genetic drift in Calanus finmarchicus and C. glacialis'.
01. June 2024 - Ana Teresa Capucho starts as technical assistant
Ana Teresa Capucho starts her new job as Technical assistant in Artsdatabanken project on marine biodiversity led by Torsten Struck. Welcome back Ana !!!
01. June 2024 - The new ArtsDatabanken project 'MeioSkag' starts
The goal of “MeioSkag” is to map the diversity of meiofaunal species of Platyhelminthes, Annelida, Gastrotricha and Gnathostomulida in the Skagerrak using modern microscopy and molecular technologies.
30. May 2024 - Nikol Kmentova gives a Tangled Bank seminar
Nikol Kmentova gives a guest lecture entitled 'Evolutionary ecology of parasite diversity in African Great Lakes and beyond' for the NHM Tangled Bank seminar.
29. May 2024 - Nikol Kmentova visits NHM
Nikol Kmentova from Hasselt University, Belgium, visits Lutz 29. - 31. May to discuss ongoing projects and future cooperation.
25. May 2024 - Two Erasmus students from Italy start in our group
Today, Sara Dessi and Giulia Casula started a 3-month internship in our group working on meiofauna species as part of the InvertOmics and the new ArtsDatabanken project. Already on Saturday will they join James and Torsten for fieldwork on the island of Sylt, Germany.
06. May 2024 - Red List assessment and its potential for parasite conservation
Lutz joins the two-days workshop Red List assessment and its potential for parasite conservation held at University of Hasselt, Belgium. The workshop aims to set the stage of the pioneering field of parasite conservation, by linking eco-parasitological research and conservation work in the framework of IUCN Species Survival Commissions.
02. May 2024 - 3rd Protistology Nordics meeting
Annis participated in the 3rd Protistology Nordics meeting held in Uppsala 2.-3. May and. presented "A prologue of a tripartite symbiosis: describing the diversity of gregarine-microsporidian symbiosis within polychaetes". During the meeting, it was also announced that she's been elected as an early career representative for the newly established Protistology in Nordics (PiN) society and will be involved in organizing the next meeting in 2025.
29. April 2024 - CEG researcher Marvin Choquet interviewed by forskning.no
Marvin was interviewed about his influential work as a PhD fellow at Nord University, Bodø, on Calanus species diversity. Read the story (in Norwegian) at https://www.forskning.no/fisk-havforskning-klima/de-er-mat-for-fisken-i-havet-raudate-kan-ha-vaert-feilidentifisert-i-flere-tiar/2350605
19. April 2024 - manuscript on bowhead whales available at bioRxiv
The manuscript entitled 'Four centuries of commercial whaling eroded 11,000 years of population stability in bowhead whales' by Westbury et al. with CEG researchers Øystein Wiig and Lutz Bachmann as co-authors ia available at bioRxiv. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.04.10.588858v1
12. April 2024 - CEG researcher present at EBP-Nor conference
CEG researchers Pia Merete Eriksen, James Fleming, Alberto Valero-Gracia, Marvin Choquet and Torsten Struck present at The Norwegian Biodiversity and Genomics Conference 2024 (https://www.ebpnor.org/konferanse/2024/2.norwegian-biodiviersity-and-genomics-conference.pdf).
11. April 2024 - Manuscript published in Global Ecology & Conservation
The paper entitled 'Baleen whale microsatellite panel for individual identification and parentage assignment in Mysticeti' by Suárez-Menéndez et al. with CEG researchers Lutz Bachmann and Øystein Wiig as co-authors has been published publication in Global Ecology & Conservation. Congratulations to all co-authors !!!
08. April 2024 - EBP-Nor workshops will start
The Norwegian Biodiversity and Genomics Conference 2024 (https://www.ebpnor.org/english/events/norwegian-biodiversity-and-genomics-conference-202.html) will be held 08.-12. April 2024 in Oslo. The conference will start with a three-days hands-on workshop on genome assembly, validation and curation, genome annotation, and comparative genomics, and CEG PhD fellows Marianne Nilsen Haugen and Enrico Perlini will participate.
21. March 2024 - Håkon Knudsen defends his Masters thesis
Håkon Knudsen will defend his Masters thesis entitled "Staphylinid Beetle Diversity Patterns in Afrotropical Mountains, with Particular Reference to the Genus Megarthrus (Coleoptera: Staphylinidiae)”. Håkon has been supervised by Vladimir Gusarov and Torsten H. Struck.
!!! Good luck Håkon !!!
08. March 2024 - Lutz Bachmann travels to Hasselt, Belgium
Lutz will visit his project Partners Nikol Kmentova and Maarten Vanhove at Hasselt University, Belgium, to finish a new fwo grant application on transposon evolution in parasitic flatworms.
01. March 2024 - PhD fellow Enrico Maria Perlini joins the CEG group
Today, Enrico Maria Perlini started to work on his PhD thesis.
Welcome to the CEG group Enrico!!!
29. January 2024 - new PhD fellow signed contract
Enrico Maria Perlini signed his PhD contract and will join the group 1. March 2024. Welcome Enrico!!!
09. January 2024 - journal club resumes
Tomorrow we will have the first 2024 meeting of the CEG journal club, and Marianne will be the first presenter (https://www.nhm.uio.no/english/research/groups/ceg/#toc5). This year, the journal club will shift to a biweekly schedule.
01. January 2024 - name of the research group changed
We changed the name of the research group to "Comparative and Evolutionary Genomics" (CEG) to better reflect the current research profile. The previous name "Frontiers in Evolutionary Zoology" (FEZ) will no longer be used but still be found in older posts.
24. December 2023 - Final door of the FEZ advent calendar opened
The final door of the FEZ advent calendar 2023 opened to day. You can review the entire advent calendar in our blog. !! We wish you all a Happy Holidays !!
13. December 2023 - The FEZ group Christmas party
Today, the FEZ group will have an internal Christmas Party.
04. December 2023 - The NHM MSc, PhD and Postdoc Days 2023
The MSc, PhD and Postdoc Days 2023 of the Natural History Museum Oslo are on with a substantial contribution of the FEZ group.
01. December 2023 - The FEZ advent calendar has started
FEZ runs for the third time an advent calendar with every day opening a new window into our research interests and activities.
27. November 2023 - Mael Grosse participates in Systematikdagarne, Lund, Sweden
Mael Grosse participates in the Systematikdagarna conference in Lund, Sweden, and presents his results on 'Studying the Diversity of Norwegian Cirratulidae (Annelida) using Museum Collections'.
22. November 2023 - Molecular Evolution class started
The Master course Molecular Evolution (BIOS5114) with Lutz Bachmann and Marianne Nilsen Haugen teaching has started.
20. November 2023 - Paper on comparative krill population genomics published
Marvin Choquet and coworkers got the paper entitled "Comparative Population Transcriptomics Provide New Insight into the Evolutionary History and Adaptive Potential of World Ocean Krill" published in Molecular Biology and Evolution. https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/40/11/msad225/7304255?searchresult=1#425437421
31. October 2023 - Paper on Calanus copepods published
Marvin Choquet got his paper entitled "Unmasking microsatellite deceptiveness and debunking hybridization with SNPs in four marine copepod species of Calanus" published in Molecular Ecology. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mec.17183
18. October 2023 - Scientific visit to University of Berkeley
This week James Fleming and Torsten struck visit the lab of John Huelsenbeck at the University of Berkeley to finish their Peder Sather grant on a new methodology to assess the confidence among competing hypotheses.
13. October 2023 - Master exam Line Willersrud
Line Willersrud passed her Master exam with Anne Helene Solberg Tandberg (external) and Quentin Mauvisseaut (internal) as sensors. The title of her thesis was 'Assessing genetic diversity in Caprellidae'.
!!! Congratulations Line !!!
12. October 2023 - paper now available open access
The article entitled 'The role of systematics for understanding ecosystem functions: Proceedings of the Zoologica Scripta Symposium, Oslo, Norway, 25 August 2022' by Bachmann et al. published in the Zoologica Scripta earlier this year is now available open access.
01. October 2023 - scientific visit
Mael Grosse visits the Blanes Center for Advanced Studies (CEAB) in Spain for further sampling and taxonomic work.
19. September 2023 - new blog post
Marianne Nilsen Haugen published a new blog post on the recent FEZ group retreat.
19. September 2023 - Annual ForBio Meeting
Mael Grosse attends the 2023 Annual ForBio Meeting in Bergen. Details about the conference and the program can be found at:
08. September 2023 - PhD position open
Today the call for a PhD position on "Population genomics of North Atlantic hooded seals (Cystophora cristata)" in the FEZ group has been published. Find details on how to apply at Jobbnorge.
07. September 2023 - Paper published in Scientific Reports
Marvin Choquet co-authored the paper entitled 'Molecular tools prove little auks from Svalbard are extremely selective for Calanus glacialis even when exposed to Atlantification'published in Scientific Reports 13: 13647 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-40131-7
04. September 2023 - FEZ group retreat
The FEZ group is off for a two-days retreat to Kristiansand. Looking forward to exploring the city, attractions and the surrpundiings. First stop will the guided tour at the Natural History Museum and Botanical Garden, University of Agder. Also a great opportunity to catch up with a previous collleague Raul Ramirez.
01. September 2023 - FEZ group retreat
MSCA Postdoctoral Researcher Anna Lotta Hillos joined the FEZ group. She will work on her project PolyPro3, that focuses on resolving a tripartite symbiosis between polychaete worms, their gregarine symbionts and microsporidians infecting the gregarines. Welcome Annis !!!!
11. August 2023 - Systematic Biology paper on annelid mitogenome evolution published
The paper entitled 'Mitochondrial Genome Evolution in Annelida—A Systematic Study on Conservative and Variable Gene Orders and the Factors Influencing its Evolution' by Torsten H. Struck, Anja Golombek, Christoph Hoesel, Dimitar Dimitrov and Asmaa Haris Elgetany has been published in Systematic Biology.
The paper is published open access. Congratulations !!!
https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syad023
08. August 2023 - F1000 paper (first version) out
Version 1 of the paper entitled 'Scoutknife: A naïve, whole genome informed phylogenetic robusticity metric' by James F. Fleming, Pia M. Eriksen & Torsten H. Struck has been released by F1000 Research. Congratulations !!! https://f1000research.com/articles/12-945
02. August 2023 - The journal club is back
Welcome back after the summer break. The journal club resumes with Michael Matschinger presenting a paper on 'The Phoenix Hypothesis of Speciation'.
26. June 2023 - 14th International Polychaete Conference (IPC)
Torsten will present at the 14th International Polychaete Conference (IPC) to be held 3-7 July 2023 in Stellenbosch, South Africa, the paper by Stian Aleksander Helsem, Dimitar Dimitrov, Kenneth M. Halanych & Torsten H. Struck entitled 'Dating the annelid tree of life'. The presentation is based on Stian's Master thesis.
21. June 2023 - Shared journal club with the SERG group
In this journal club meeting we will discuss the 2023 PNAS paper entitled 'Farmland practices are driving bird population decline across Europe' by Rigal et al. Beccy Cramer from the SERG group will present the paper.
18. June 2023 - List of first phase ERGA members published
FEZ members Torsten Struck and Thomas Marcussen are actively involved in European Reference Genome Atlas (ERGA). Alberto Valero-Gracia and Lutz Bachmann are also members. The inaugural dataset listing all ERGA members from the first Phase is now available online at https://zenodo.org/record/8042449. It can be cited using doi:10.5281/zenodo.8042449
13. June 2023 - Mitogenome paper published in ZooKeys
The paper entitled 'Complete mitochondrial genome of the Galápagos sea lion, Zalophus wollebaeki (Carnivora, Otariidae): paratype specimen confirms separate species status' by Rita M. Austin, Pia M. Eriksen and Lutz Bachmann has been published in ZooKeys. Great to see this collection-based work published.
For Pia who just finished her Bachelor it is her first scientific paper. Congratulations !!!
06. June 2023 - Workshop in Florida
Marvin Choquet has been selected to participate in a workshop offered by the Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience (University of Florida) in St. Augustine, Florida. This is a 2 day-workshop focusing on: Detecting adaptive evolutionary events in genomes of polar species, and funded by the US National Science Foundation. It will be held on July 24 & 25.
Congrats Marvin !!!
22. May 2023 - Fieldwork in Japan
Marianne Nilsen Haugen and James Fleming left for fieldwork in Japan. They will collect further material of the intertidal beetle genus Aegialites for the PhD thesis of Marianne. Good Luck !!!
15. May 2023 - Two Master students started their fieldwork
Sunniva Løviknes and Jan Einar Amundsen started the fieldwork for their Mastertheses. They comprehensively screen the invertebrate biodiversity at selected beaches in the inner Oslofjord. Lykke til og God Fangst !!!
08. May 2023 - Rita left the FEZ group
PostDoc Rita Austin f-returned to the US. She accepted a new job starting at the beginning of June. Very sad news for the group but a great opportunity for Rita. We wish you all the best, and have a fantastic start with the new job.
05. May 2023 - FEZ spring activity
Friday 5. May 2023 the FEZ group will take a spring activity. We will 'climb' the Grefsenkollen and enjoy a social evening and dinner. Special thanks to Ana Capucho and Rita Austin for organizing the event !!!
04. May 2023 - 'Museomics' manuscript accepted for publication
The paper entitled "Galápagos sea lion, Zalophus wollebaeki (Carnivora, Otariidae) paratype specimen confirms separate species status" has been accepted por publication in ZooKeys. Congratulations to Rita, Pia, and Lutz, and in particular to Pia
to her first scientific paper !!!
14. April 2023 - UiO:LifeScience summer project will start soon
Stephanie Milne will start her UiO:Life Science summer project on 1. June 2023. She will work on the project 'Hooded seals (Cystophora cristata) of East Greenland' with Pia Merete Eriksen and Lutz Bachmann as project leaders. Welcome Stephanie !!!
04. April 2023 - Interview with James Fleming
The titan.uio.no web newsletter that posts news in natural sciences and technology published an interview with James Fleming on his research on tardigrades. The nicely illustrated presentation entitled 'Dyret som gjenoppstår fra de døde – helt naturlig' is in Norwegian, and the Interview was conducted by Elina Melteig.
27. March 2023 - Grant application delivered to the Research Foundation Flanders (fwo)
The project entitled "Mobile Genetic Elements as Drivers of Speciation and Adaptive Genome Evolution in Parasitic Flatworms (TE-AGE)" proposes a cooperation between Maarten Vanhove, Nikol Kmentova and Dirk Valkenborg (UHasselt Belgium) and Lutz Bachmann and Einar Strømnes (NHM Oslo)
21. March 2023 - Congratulations to Jørgen Hansen Starholm
He successfully defended his Master thesis entitled "Solving Phylogenetic Relationships Within the Rove Beetle Genus /Aleochara/ (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) by Utilizing a Novel Approach based on High Throughput Sequencing"