Im very happy to share the exciting news that Bloo, PhD student in my lab, has been awarded an NSF GRFP grant today to work on the epigenetic mechanisms of transgenerational effects in flies! 🥳🪇🎖️

Phil Douchinsky from the Emily Puckett lab successfully defended his MS thesis, Comparative landscape genetics and dynamics in demography within sympatric ursids in Southeast Alaska. 🧬🐻🪇🥳

Every giant sloth cast/fossil I've seen in a museum is always in the same pose.

The 28th IBA conference is planned for September 15-20th in Edmonton, Alberta.

Swipe through the photos for some key dates and information.

Head to our website for all things conference-related: conference.bearbiology.com

We hope to see you there!

Our 3 conference field trips have been announced! Spots are limited. Sign up now at conference.bearbiology.org

So pretty! Three American black bears resting on a log.

Ursus - the journal of the International Association for Bear Research & Management IBA/ bearbiology has a new cover for 2024. We polled IBA members to select the new image & this one was the overwhelming favourite. It is a very cool photo from Tongass National Park in Alaska.

A new concern for polar bears. As the bears spend more time on land due to climate change & are often consuming more birds, the threat is clear. There are also interactions between climate change, pollution, polar bear immune system & disease spread.
alaskabeacon.com/2023/12/30/avi…

Big congrats to Matthew on this preprint!
He identified genes important for liver and kidney functioning that appear constrained as species evolve a carnivorous diet.
We appreciate any feedback on the manuscript.

Exciting news! Our latest research on the genomics of mammal diet adaptation is live on bioRxiv! 🎉
Emily Puckett, W M, and I identified genes and functions that were evolutionarily constrained as increasingly carnivorous diets evolved 🥩🧬
Check it out: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

I'm enjoying 🟦☁️
I thought I was ready to delete this account, but still see there is interesting content and connection here, although I'm not seeing it regularly after removing the app from my phone. But perhaps soon

As we enter the end of fall, black bears are busy putting on weight before entering their dens. At ShenandoahNPS, these bears are drawn to the park's oak and hickory trees, which generate a lot of tasty nuts — one of the bears' favorite foods!

Photo by Denise Machado / NPS

Thank you Emily Puckett for the great virtual visit to University of Memphis UofMemphisBiology. REALLY enjoyed meeting enthusiastic students and postdocs. Great discussion. What a stellar department! Thank you.

I'm so excited!! The craziest experiment you've read about in a long while and crown jewel of my PhD is now published with Springer Nature in NatureEcoEvo!
Can dispersal help birds adapt to climate change? Read our paper here: rdcu.be/dl9ZH or in the thread below[1/8]

Come (virtually) join UChicago’s E&E DEI PhD students in a casual discussion about applying to graduate school! Open to everyone interested in pursuing graduate school in Ecology and Evolution. Please share with those who might be interested! 🍃🧪🧬

TE-derived cCREs tend to be more cell type-specific than non-TE cCREs and they are evolutionarily younger. 90% are not present or not conserved in mouse, and the reciprocal is true. Thus, TEs are an important source of cis-regulatory innovation in mammalian genomes.

💥Excited to unleash ENCOTE: Encyclopedia of Transposable Elements with cis-regulatory activity in the human genome!
Collab w Ting Wang for #ENCODE led by🔥trio Alan Du, Jason Chobirko & Xiaoyu Zhuo
TEs = 25% of all cCREs = 200,000+ elements!!
Deep dive! 1/n biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

I am not near the end and this is what I want most too, connection with people IRL and not on the internet.
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/…

This is like the 4th (?) season in a row for ribbons and I am here for it.

I actually think this has a lot of truth to it. If you want to impact the world, you should absolutely be in industry or government. Academia is for somehow getting paid to do a bunch of stuff that doesn't matter