Alexei Maklakov
@alexeimaklakov.bsky.social
Biology of Ageing and Life History Evolution, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Wondering if insects feel pain? Here's our critique of work that looked at this in bees. We were unconvinced of the evidence, and built a model to think through these issues.
Their response is published alongside and we'll have a response to that out soon.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Their response is published alongside and we'll have a response to that out soon.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Motivational trade-offs as evidence for sentience in bees: a critique
www.sciencedirect.com
November 25, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Wondering if insects feel pain? Here's our critique of work that looked at this in bees. We were unconvinced of the evidence, and built a model to think through these issues.
Their response is published alongside and we'll have a response to that out soon.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Their response is published alongside and we'll have a response to that out soon.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance: Twists and turns in the story of learned avoidance
Evidence that learned avoidance of a pathogenic bacterium can be transmitted to future generations in C. elegans is growing.
buff.ly/gMbJWcX
Evidence that learned avoidance of a pathogenic bacterium can be transmitted to future generations in C. elegans is growing.
buff.ly/gMbJWcX
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance: Twists and turns in the story of learned avoidance
Evidence that learned avoidance of a pathogenic bacterium can be transmitted to future generations in C. elegans is growing.
buff.ly
November 24, 2025 at 11:28 PM
Transgenerational Epigenetic Inheritance: Twists and turns in the story of learned avoidance
Evidence that learned avoidance of a pathogenic bacterium can be transmitted to future generations in C. elegans is growing.
buff.ly/gMbJWcX
Evidence that learned avoidance of a pathogenic bacterium can be transmitted to future generations in C. elegans is growing.
buff.ly/gMbJWcX
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
We have a new postdoc position available in the Promislow lab at the HNRCA at #Tufts in #Boston, to work on the #systemsbiology of #aging in #Drosophila. Come join us! For info on the position and to apply, see promislowlab.org/wp-content/u...
promislowlab.org
November 25, 2025 at 2:12 AM
We have a new postdoc position available in the Promislow lab at the HNRCA at #Tufts in #Boston, to work on the #systemsbiology of #aging in #Drosophila. Come join us! For info on the position and to apply, see promislowlab.org/wp-content/u...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Read this inspiring perspectives coauthored by the Worm Resource directors and worm Nobel Laureates! 4 Nobel Prizes and how they were enabled by major NIH-supported research resources (the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, WormBase, and WormAtlas) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 25, 2025 at 6:18 AM
Read this inspiring perspectives coauthored by the Worm Resource directors and worm Nobel Laureates! 4 Nobel Prizes and how they were enabled by major NIH-supported research resources (the Caenorhabditis Genetics Center, WormBase, and WormAtlas) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Semaglutide (Ozempic) failed to have clinical impact for slowing progression in people with mild Alzheimer’s disease in 2 large, placebo-controlled trials
novonordisk.com/content/nnco...
novonordisk.com/content/nnco...
News Details
novonordisk.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Semaglutide (Ozempic) failed to have clinical impact for slowing progression in people with mild Alzheimer’s disease in 2 large, placebo-controlled trials
novonordisk.com/content/nnco...
novonordisk.com/content/nnco...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
“I had hemophilia for nearly five decades. I went to Philadelphia and had a 45-minute infusion, and my hemophilia was gone.”
Genes-> Medicine
nature.com/articles/s41...
Genes-> Medicine
nature.com/articles/s41...
November 21, 2025 at 9:45 PM
“I had hemophilia for nearly five decades. I went to Philadelphia and had a 45-minute infusion, and my hemophilia was gone.”
Genes-> Medicine
nature.com/articles/s41...
Genes-> Medicine
nature.com/articles/s41...
1/6 In a new preprint we ask a question:
Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates?
We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates?
We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Sex-specific mutation accumulation: A parsimonious explanation for sex differences in lifespan and ageing
ecoevorxiv.org
November 19, 2025 at 12:08 PM
1/6 In a new preprint we ask a question:
Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates?
We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Why do males and females so often age and die at different rates?
We argue that sex-specific mutation accumulation may be the most parsimonious evolutionary explanation for sex-biased ageing:
ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
*PhD opportunity @uniexecec.bsky.social* How does antimicrobial resistance spread through ecosystems?
Combine fieldwork (rodent trapping 🐭, habitat surveys 🌳, pheasant sampling 🦤), molecular techniques, GIS, and spatial modelling to understand AMR evolution and spread. 🔬🦠🧪
Please repost!
Combine fieldwork (rodent trapping 🐭, habitat surveys 🌳, pheasant sampling 🦤), molecular techniques, GIS, and spatial modelling to understand AMR evolution and spread. 🔬🦠🧪
Please repost!
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Gamebirds: A One Health Approach to Understanding and Mitigating the Risk of AMR Evolution and Spread through Ecosystems at University of Exeter on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Gamebirds: A One Health Approach to Understanding and Mitigating the Risk of AMR Evolution and Spread through Ecosystems at University of Exeter, list...
shorturl.at
November 12, 2025 at 6:07 PM
*PhD opportunity @uniexecec.bsky.social* How does antimicrobial resistance spread through ecosystems?
Combine fieldwork (rodent trapping 🐭, habitat surveys 🌳, pheasant sampling 🦤), molecular techniques, GIS, and spatial modelling to understand AMR evolution and spread. 🔬🦠🧪
Please repost!
Combine fieldwork (rodent trapping 🐭, habitat surveys 🌳, pheasant sampling 🦤), molecular techniques, GIS, and spatial modelling to understand AMR evolution and spread. 🔬🦠🧪
Please repost!
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 10:57 AM
1/13 New paper out! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
Historical records across thousands of women showed that mothers with more children had shorter lifespans during a famine, fitting an evolutionary explanation for why we age
@hannahdugdale.bsky.social
@lummaalab.bsky.social
@erikpostma.bsky.social
Fast females, slow males: accelerated ageing and reproductive senescence in Drosophila melanogaster females across diverse social environments url: academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...
Fast females, slow males: accelerated ageing and reproductive senescence in Drosophila melanogaster females across diverse social environments
Abstract. Females and males typically differ in lifespan, patterns of ageing, and reproduction. General explanations for variation in the magnitude of this
academic.oup.com
November 9, 2025 at 8:25 PM
Fast females, slow males: accelerated ageing and reproductive senescence in Drosophila melanogaster females across diverse social environments url: academic.oup.com/evlett/artic...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
A detIled account of all the characters involved. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure
Franklin was no victim in how the DNA double helix was solved. An overlooked letter and an unpublished news article, both written in 1953, reveal that she was an equal player.
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:27 PM
A detIled account of all the characters involved. www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
The idea is to decouple the journals from the review step. They’ll still exist, but they’ll need to add other value. They’ll highlight, curate, add new perspectives. If they do a good job they can still be prestigious (like Scientific American or Wired) (1.2) 👇
November 8, 2025 at 6:02 AM
The idea is to decouple the journals from the review step. They’ll still exist, but they’ll need to add other value. They’ll highlight, curate, add new perspectives. If they do a good job they can still be prestigious (like Scientific American or Wired) (1.2) 👇
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Let's go! Super excited to partner with @richardsever.bsky.social and the fantastic @openrxiv.bsky.social team - Preprints have been the best thing that happened to science publishing during my lifetime, and we're happy @qedscience.bsky.social can make preprints do more 👊
November 6, 2025 at 2:52 PM
Let's go! Super excited to partner with @richardsever.bsky.social and the fantastic @openrxiv.bsky.social team - Preprints have been the best thing that happened to science publishing during my lifetime, and we're happy @qedscience.bsky.social can make preprints do more 👊
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
IT'S HAPPENING! 💥 I'm psyched to launch the collaboration between @qedscience.bsky.social & @openrxiv.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Preprint + q.e.d = your science is out there, and anyone can appreciate it. Let's care about making discoveries, and not on “getting published” (1/3) 👇
November 6, 2025 at 2:49 PM
IT'S HAPPENING! 💥 I'm psyched to launch the collaboration between @qedscience.bsky.social & @openrxiv.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Preprint + q.e.d = your science is out there, and anyone can appreciate it. Let's care about making discoveries, and not on “getting published” (1/3) 👇
1/ Evolutionary trade-offs between intergenerational and transgenerational fitness effects
Transgenerational / intergeneration fitness effects can be adaptive, but they can also trade-off with each other:
New work led by Isaac Harris, preprint:
tinyurl.com/yp2b6tjm
Transgenerational / intergeneration fitness effects can be adaptive, but they can also trade-off with each other:
New work led by Isaac Harris, preprint:
tinyurl.com/yp2b6tjm
November 5, 2025 at 12:18 PM
1/ Evolutionary trade-offs between intergenerational and transgenerational fitness effects
Transgenerational / intergeneration fitness effects can be adaptive, but they can also trade-off with each other:
New work led by Isaac Harris, preprint:
tinyurl.com/yp2b6tjm
Transgenerational / intergeneration fitness effects can be adaptive, but they can also trade-off with each other:
New work led by Isaac Harris, preprint:
tinyurl.com/yp2b6tjm
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Transposon Regulation in the Caenorhabditis elegans Germline and Soma
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Transposon Regulation in the Caenorhabditis elegans Germline and Soma
Transposons are parasitic nucleic acids present in most genomes. The ability of transposons to mobilize makes them a source of genetic diversity and a threat to genome integrity. Interestingly, mutati...
www.biorxiv.org
November 4, 2025 at 6:17 PM
Transposon Regulation in the Caenorhabditis elegans Germline and Soma
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Very excited for the arrival of Oren Harman’s latest book.
Few combine deep knowledge of the history of biology with such compelling writing.
Few combine deep knowledge of the history of biology with such compelling writing.
November 3, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Very excited for the arrival of Oren Harman’s latest book.
Few combine deep knowledge of the history of biology with such compelling writing.
Few combine deep knowledge of the history of biology with such compelling writing.
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
November 3, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Academics in Assyria in the 7th c BC complain that admin is preventing them from doing research and teaching
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
What do the naked mole rat and bowhead whale (lives to ~200 years) have in common to explain their remarkable longevity?
Enhanced DNA repair
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
erictopol.substack.com/p/a-long-awa...
Enhanced DNA repair
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
erictopol.substack.com/p/a-long-awa...
Evidence for improved DNA repair in long-lived bowhead whale - Nature
Analysis of the longest-lived mammal, the bowhead whale, reveals an improved ability to repair DNA breaks, mediated by high levels of cold-inducible RNA-binding protein. &nbs...
www.nature.com
October 29, 2025 at 4:26 PM
What do the naked mole rat and bowhead whale (lives to ~200 years) have in common to explain their remarkable longevity?
Enhanced DNA repair
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
erictopol.substack.com/p/a-long-awa...
Enhanced DNA repair
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
erictopol.substack.com/p/a-long-awa...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Not everybody knows that B.B. King wrote The Thrill Is Gone during the 2nd round of revisions
October 26, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Not everybody knows that B.B. King wrote The Thrill Is Gone during the 2nd round of revisions
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Certain goby fish species remain miniature by overexpressing genes that inhibit growth, a genetic mechanism conserved for over 50 million years and shared across diverse vertebrates. doi.org/g97pqp
They might not be giants: The genetics behind why some fish remain tiny
Imagine you are a kind of fish called a goby, part of a huge family of more than 2,000 species. Maybe you're of average size for a goby, about three to four inches long.
phys.org
October 22, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Certain goby fish species remain miniature by overexpressing genes that inhibit growth, a genetic mechanism conserved for over 50 million years and shared across diverse vertebrates. doi.org/g97pqp
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
📢🚨Please share! We’re hiring! 📢🚨Have a strong interests in wildlife ecology and gut microbiome bioinformatics? 3 year Senior Research Associate for NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant. Apply here: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18.... Informal enquiries welcome! drgldavidson.github.io/ACMEresearch
September 30, 2025 at 10:20 AM
📢🚨Please share! We’re hiring! 📢🚨Have a strong interests in wildlife ecology and gut microbiome bioinformatics? 3 year Senior Research Associate for NERC Pushing the Frontiers grant. Apply here: vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/18.... Informal enquiries welcome! drgldavidson.github.io/ACMEresearch
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
Does #SexualSelection fuel #Speciation?
Our new #meta-analysis of comparative studies finds support for a positive relationship, but the rather moderate global effect suggests it’s not necessarily a dominant force.
doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Our new #meta-analysis of comparative studies finds support for a positive relationship, but the rather moderate global effect suggests it’s not necessarily a dominant force.
doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Sexual selection and speciation: a meta-analysis of comparative studies
Abstract. Understanding the drivers of biodiversity is a central goal in evolutionary biology. In particular, sexual selection has long been proposed as a
doi.org
October 22, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Does #SexualSelection fuel #Speciation?
Our new #meta-analysis of comparative studies finds support for a positive relationship, but the rather moderate global effect suggests it’s not necessarily a dominant force.
doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Our new #meta-analysis of comparative studies finds support for a positive relationship, but the rather moderate global effect suggests it’s not necessarily a dominant force.
doi.org/10.1093/evle...
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
A gene that causes obesity is paradoxically linked to a reduced risk of having heart disease and high cholesterol
go.nature.com/4qgX9mz
go.nature.com/4qgX9mz
This gene causes obesity — and shields against heart disease
Nature - People with certain forms of the MC4R gene have lower cholesterol levels than do other individuals with a high body-mass index.
go.nature.com
October 18, 2025 at 3:29 PM
A gene that causes obesity is paradoxically linked to a reduced risk of having heart disease and high cholesterol
go.nature.com/4qgX9mz
go.nature.com/4qgX9mz
Reposted by Alexei Maklakov
🚨🔊 Fully funded PhD!! 🚨🔊
Are you interested in wildlife gut microbiomes? Love birds, fieldwork and bioinformatics? Want to join a collaborative and supportive team? Looking for training to become an independent scientist?
Please apply!
Informal enquiries welcome!
www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d...
Are you interested in wildlife gut microbiomes? Love birds, fieldwork and bioinformatics? Want to join a collaborative and supportive team? Looking for training to become an independent scientist?
Please apply!
Informal enquiries welcome!
www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d...
October 10, 2025 at 10:16 AM
🚨🔊 Fully funded PhD!! 🚨🔊
Are you interested in wildlife gut microbiomes? Love birds, fieldwork and bioinformatics? Want to join a collaborative and supportive team? Looking for training to become an independent scientist?
Please apply!
Informal enquiries welcome!
www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d...
Are you interested in wildlife gut microbiomes? Love birds, fieldwork and bioinformatics? Want to join a collaborative and supportive team? Looking for training to become an independent scientist?
Please apply!
Informal enquiries welcome!
www.uea.ac.uk/course/phd-d...