Aurora Ruiz-Herrera

📣 Call for Abstracts!
Working on sex chromosomes? Join us at SMBE 2026 in Copenhagen (28 June–2 July). All taxa, systems, and approaches welcome!
⏰ Deadline: 3 Feb 2026
👉 smbe2026.org/abstracts/

💥Extremely proud of this team!
🎉 Congratulations to Laia Marin-Gual from @uab.cat on being awarded the Pere Alberch Prize by the @sesbe-org.bsky.social for the best doctoral thesis in evolutionary biology this year, and to Lucía Álvarez-Gonzalez for being runner‑up.
Outstanding work!
#sesebe2026

Common variation in meiosis genes shapes human recombination and aneuploidy - Nature Analysis of data from pre-implantation genetic testing sheds light on the genetic basis of meiotic-origin aneuploidy, the leading cause of human pregnancy loss, identifying common genetic variants ass...

Pregnancy loss is common in humans, and chromosomal abnormalities are the leading cause. Using genetic data from ~140,000 IVF embryos, we show that maternal variation in meiosis genes influences recombination and aneuploidy risk.

First authors: @saracarioscia.bsky.social & @aabiddanda.github.io

💥Huge shoutout to the @amarques.bsky.social team for an outstanding effort!

So excited to have joined forces to decode how karyotype evolution connects with recombination 🧬

🔗 Preprint here: 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

💥2025 has been an extraordinary year for the team, full of challenges, but even more rewarding!
None of this would have been possible without the incredible team of women who make everything happen. Young, driven, but above all, genuinely kind people 💜
Here’s to an even more exciting 2026! 🚀

Chromosome‐Level Genomics and Historical Museum Collections Reveal New Insights Into the Population Structure and Chromosome Evolution of Waterbuck Advances in sequencing and chromosome-scale assembly have brought non-model animals into focus, deepening our understanding of genome and chromosome evolution. Here, we present the waterbuck (Kobus e...

🎯Excited to share our new collaborative paper in Mol Ecol - Beautifully lead by @marta-fb.bsky.social & @coreykirkland.bsky.social - Exploring the fascinating evolutionary story of the waterbuck, shaped by climate and unique chromosome changes

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

🔬 Uncovering the mechanisms of sex chromosome dosage compensation in skinks! 🦎 🧬

Our latest collaborative study on how a lizard species with an extraordinary ability to change sexual phenotype maintains genomic balance.

👇
rdcu.be/eVjqW

Excited to be part of the amazing team behind our upcoming symposium on Sex Evolution at #SMBE2026!

🔹 Daniel Jeffries
🔹 Paul Jay
🔹 @sphaeromeria.bsky.social
🔹 @astridboehne.bsky.social
🔹 @cbenvenuto.bsky.social

Join us in Copenhagen for cutting-edge discussions on #sex #evolution

Honored to be part of this exciting symposium at #SMBE2026! Huge thanks to Marie Raynaud, @duret-lbbe.bsky.social, and @susanjohnston.bsky.social for the invitation. Looking forward to sharing insights on recombination and evolution with such an amazing community. See you in Copenhagen!!!

Looking for a cool image to represent the complexity of within-species genomic diversity? Look no further! Beautiful artwork by Binia De Cahsan!

🦣🧬🦣🤯💥We are pleased to share our new paper about ancient RNA expression profiles from the Woolly Mammoth, now published in Cell @cellpress.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

If you want to know more, read the 🧵 below:

The Genomic Kaleidoscope: On the Hidden Dimensions of Within-Species Genomic Diversity academic.oup.com/gbe/article/... 🧬🖥️🧪

👏 It really shows how powerful meetings can be for sparking ideas and collaborations —and when those turn into joint efforts like this, even greater! Thank you all for this fun adventure!

@mbrasovives.bsky.social @diegoharta.bsky.social @jrotwitguez.bsky.social @theafrogers.bsky.social et al

GBE | The Genomic Kaleidoscope: On the Hidden Dimensions of Within-Species Genomic Diversity

Brasó-Vives et al. publish a new Perspective in GBE, highlighting underexplored dimensions of genomic variation that contribute to phenotypic diversity beyond the DNA sequence, contributing to our understanding of genome evolution.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf204

#genome #evolution

🚨 New Paper Alert!

Our latest perspective piece is out, and it’s one you won’t want to miss- 'The Genomic Kaleidoscope'

academic.oup.com/gbe/article/...

Co-lead by @mbrasovives.bsky.social @jrotwitguez.bsky.social & @diegoharta.bsky.social

📌 Check the full post here👇

🎓 We have a new doctor in the house!!!!!!!!

Last Friday, Cristina Marín García successfully defended her thesis with flying colours! Huge congratulations to her on this well-deserved achievement! 🏅

We’re lucky to have such a dedicated and inspiring team! 💫

Descubren cómo una proteína clave del ADN puede afectar la fertilidad masculina Lea este artículo en catalán Un equipo de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ha identificado una nueva función de la proteína RAD21L, esencial para la fertilidad

Descubren cómo una proteína clave del ADN puede afectar la fertilidad masculina www.lavanguardia.com/launi/202510...

💥 Another fruitful collaboration!

Along with @obog.bsky.social & Juan Tena’s teams we provide a multiomics study of zebrafish spermatogenesis
🐟#meiosis

👇
www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Sperm sequencing reveals extensive positive selection in the male germline - Nature A combination of whole-genome NanoSeq with deep whole-exome and targeted NanoSeq is used to accurately characterize mutation rates and genes under positive selection in sperm cells.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Early career group leaders We appoint researchers from across biology and biomedicine to set up their first groups at the Crick.

The @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders

- Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers
- Support for up to 12 years
- Access to our core facilities
- Competitive salary
- Fantastic colleagues
- All areas of biology

Deadline 27 Nov

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Será interesante hacer de nuevo este gráfico dentro de 20, 30, 40 años.

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

ERGA meets VGP in New York City Last week, ERGA was present at the Vertebrate Genomes Project 2025 Conference, held at The Rockefeller University in New York City from September 30 and October 1. ERGA and VGP share a long-standing c...

🏙️ Last week, #ERGA joined the @vertebrategenomes.bsky.social #VGP Conference in NYC, a great chance to connect with @ebpgenome.bsky.social projects and share progress on #FAIR genome assemblies & reporting under @biogeneurope.bsky.social
www.erga-biodiversity.eu/post/erga-me... #genomes #conference

📢 A la #bctUAB muntem un #GrupFocal amb l'alumnat de #doctorat i #màster per millorar en el suport que donem.
📅 Dimecres 15/10, d'11h a 12h

Ens ajudeu a fer córrer la veu?
@aruizherrera.bsky.social @ibb-uab.bsky.social
@giq-bcn.bsky.social @crmatematica.bsky.social @aurahdezsabate.bsky.social

RIP John Gurdon

We are very pleased to announce our joint meeting with the German @gfeev.bsky.social and the Dutch Developmental Biology Societies, which will take place in Potsdam from the 10-13th of March 2026. Registration is now open! www.uni-potsdam.de/en/gfe-meeti...

☝️

A human-specific regulatory mechanism revealed in a pre-implantation model Nature - Genetic manipulation of blastoids reveals the role of recently emerged transposable elements and genes in human development.

Today in @nature.com, we present our work leveraging functional genomics and human blastoids to uncover a human-specific mechanism in preimplantation development driven by the endogenous retrovirus HERVK.
Special thanks to the reviewers whose comments improved our manuscript a lot! rdcu.be/eI3tD

✨ It was great to attend the @vertebrategenomes.bsky.social Conference at @rockefeller.edu in New York City - Aiming to generate high-quality, near error-free reference genome assemblies for vertebrates to transform our understanding of biodiversity, evolution, and conservation 🐒🦒🐕🐗🦥🦉🐘

Proud of the amazing work by Laia Marín-Gual, @covavara.bsky.social and our team at @uab.cat @ibb-uab.bsky.social

Another great collaboration with Alberto Pendás & @mamartirenom.bsky.social

Meiotic cohesin RAD21L shapes 3D genome structure and transcription in the male germline Deletion of the meiotic subunit RAD21L alters 3D chromatin structure and transcription in the mammalian male germ line.

🚨 New from our lab in #ScienceAdvances!

RAD21L cohesin acts as both a 3D genome architect and a transcriptional gatekeeper in the male germline. Its loss disrupts both structure and function—highlighting the tight link between genome folding and gene regulation

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...