Author Archives: Katja Nowick

We currently have an opening for a postdoc, with some flexibility about the actual research topic. The postdoc is expected to propose and develop a research project that fits to the general interests of the group. Requirements for the position are … Continue reading →

Have a look at our commentary in Evolutionary Bioinformatics. We provide some background on our tool for testing selection of ncRNA genes, the SSS test. This tool should be useful for any new genome project or biomedical study to gain further … Continue reading →

Our paper in GBE describes human population differences in genes coding for gene regulatory factors. Surprisingly many of them seem to evolve under positive selection, among them long clusters of KRAB-ZNF genes. Some of the population differences might explain differences … Continue reading →

My colleagues and I are announcing a postdoc position to work on the evolution of desert rodents. We are looking for somebody with experience in the analysis of genomics and transcriptomics data. More information is below and here:  http://www.cibio.pt/?p=889. *** Postdoc … Continue reading →

For almost two years our group was split between the University Leipzig and the Freie Universitaet Berlin. Now PhD students in Leipzig have finished and moved on to their next research groups: Bia defended in September 2018 and is now … Continue reading →

Ama handed in her Master thesis on the functional evolution of the transcription factor ZEB2. She analyzed RNA-Seq and ChIP-Seq data obtained from three different primate species to detect human specific ZEB2 target genes and functions. Congratulations, Ama!

Bia developed a test for selection of non-coding RNAs. Her test uses the RNA secondary structure as proxy for its function. In contrast to previous work, she cannot only asses negative selection but also pinpoint structures with lineage specific changes … Continue reading →

Rohit published his results on the comparison of two lizard genomes: Lacerta viridis and Lacerta bilineata. He sequenced both genomes with Illumina and PacBio, performed de-novo assemblies. The high quality assemblies allowed him to assess genome divergence, structural variations, and … Continue reading →

Deisy turned our method for calculating weighted topological overlap (wTO) networks into an R package and published it in BMC Bioinformatics. The method was developed by Eivind Almaas for describing a transcription factor network in the prefrontal cortex of humans … Continue reading →

Our group contributed to a research project of Volker Busskamp’s lab on the role of miR-124 during human neurogenesis. Deisy uncovered a transcription factor network that is involved in the differentiation of neurons from induced pluripotent stem cells and determined … Continue reading →