Lucy van Dorp

Dr. Hrushikesh Loya presenting Ghostbusters

Great to have Dr Hrushikesh Loya give a fantastic talk on his tool Ghostbusters: A Genome-Wide Genealogical Approach to Uncovering Hidden Admixture Events in Human Evolution 👻

On an Arctic archipelago, frozen soil may preserve a hidden history of viruses Scientists are hunting for ancient RNA in Svalbard’s permafrost, hoping to shed light on the evolution of viral diseases

I am fascinated by how viruses evolve - and not just since #SARSCoV2 has shown us at the global stage how consequential virus evolution can be for us.
In my new story in @science.org I got to explore how researchers are probing deeper into the past with old RNA virus genome.
So a 🧪 thread…

Pooja Swali @poojaswali.bsky.social presenting her very interesting work on ancient pathogens. @ugiatucl.bsky.social

New preprint on the early evolution of BA.2.86

If you like generating genomic data from unusual medical samples, past and contemporary epidemiology and advancing methods in phylo/population genetics please get in touch.

Group website: www.ucl.ac.uk/~ucbpvan/

Closing date Sept 25th 2025.

#aDNA #microbialgenomics #ISBA #popgen #UCL

UCL – University College London UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).

Excited to say we’re hiring 😊. We’re looking for a post-doc in ancient pathogen genomics to join our friendly supportive team in London at @ugiatucl.bsky.social. Start date January 2026.

www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Characterising the microbial and antimicrobial resistance signatures of hospital-acquired pneumonia using nanopore metagenomic sequencing Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP) is a significant burden in nosocomial settings, yet its microbial underpinnings remain poorly understood. Here, we leverage shotgun nanopore sequencing to characteris...

New preprint from UGI PhD student @cednotsed.bsky.social , @proffballoux.bsky.social and @lucyvandorp.bsky.social, exploring the microbial and antimicrobial resistance signatures of hospital-acquired pneumonia using nanopore metagenomic sequencing (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...).

Not long left to submit your abstract! Deadline is 31 July.

Join us in November for the Ancient Genomes meeting and hear from amazing speakers including: @mathiesoniain.bsky.social, @lquintanamurci.bsky.social & @lucyvandorp.bsky.social!

genetics.org.uk/events/ancie...

@cednotsed.bsky.social presenting at #SMEB2025 on his work on predicting the fitness of mutations in SARS-CoV-2. Preprint here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

And UGI PhD student Cedric Tan presenting in symposium 21 @official-smbe.bsky.social #SMBE2025 on his work "Intrahost dynamics, together with genetic and phenotypic effects predict the success of viral mutations".

✨🧬 Sharing our UCL Genetics Institute starter pack of researchers, friends and alumni past and present 🧬 ✨

#UGISKY
(DM us to be added)

go.bsky.app/Gw1NqRa

Ancient genomes: perspectives on human biology and medicine | Genetics Society It is our great pleasure to invite you to participate in the Autumn Meeting of the Genetics Society. This meeting will provide a unique forum to network and socialise with a wide cross-section of the ...

We’ve got some good news! The deadline to submit abstracts for our “Ancient #Genomes: Perspectives on Human Biology and Medicine” meeting has been extended to 31 July 2025. So if you were thinking about submitting, there’s still plenty of time!

genetics.org.uk/events/ancie...

Thrilled to share our latest preprint! 🎉🔥

We analysed >23k mtDNA genomes & found 18 variants shaped by climate—linked to thermogenesis, metabolism & disease.

Led by PhD student Finley Grover-Thomas, and in collab with: @aidaandres.bsky.social @lucyvandorp.bsky.social @proffballoux.bsky.social

Science In Action - WHO Pandemic Agreement reached - BBC Sounds 124 countries have agreed on a global effort to fight future pandemic health threats.

And me discussing our findings in BBC Science in Action here: www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/... (from ~24:00).

You can see first author @poojaswali.bsky.social thread on the work here: bsky.app/profile/pooj...

What fun it was to work on this with @poojaswali.bsky.social, @pontus-skoglund.bsky.social and wider team.
@boothicus.bsky.social, @cednotsed.bsky.social, @archaedelle.bsky.social, @alexgilardet.bsky.social, @leospeidel.bsky.social, @frankietait.bsky.social, @maxgg.bsky.social et al.

Crucially, our study also expands the sparse genomic record for this understudied yet important pathogen, which still causes outbreaks today and may have been an important part of disease experienced in the past.

By recovering DNA from Iron Age and Medieval Britains, we tracked the bacteria’s evolution as it shed and shuffled genes to specialize in a new host—coinciding with major changes in human behaviour, trade, and maybe even fashion.

Ancient Borrelia genomes document the evolutionary history of louse-borne relapsing fever Several bacterial pathogens have transitioned from tick-borne to louse-borne transmission, which often involves genome reduction and increasing virulence. However, the timing of such transitions remai...

Our @ucl.ac.uk @crick.ac.uk work, out this week in @science.org, traces a genetic time series of bacterial infections to reveal when and how Borrelia recurrentis jumped from ticks to humans—via our body lice.

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