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welkergroup.bsky.social
Welker Group
@welkergroup.bsky.social
850 followers 39 following 31 posts
We study human evolution across the last one million years, through ancient proteins and associated biomolecules in skeletal remains. PI Frido Welker.
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zandraselina.bsky.social
Zandra Fagernäs @zandraselina.bsky.social · 12d
And that's a wrap on Bone Diagenesis 2025! What a lovely conference, full of kind and brilliant scientists. Also the first time my talk has been so 🔥🔥🔥 it set off the fire alarm (I'm choosing to assume that was the reason) 😅
Me giving a talk, barely visible behind a giant podium. About five minutes later, the fire alarm went off, and we all had to go outside for a while. But hey, at least the audience were awake after that! Photo by Dorothea Mylopotamitaki.
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fridowelker.bsky.social
Frido Welker @fridowelker.bsky.social · 14d
Paris and @welkergroup.bsky.social are ready for #ESHE2025!
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Aug 25
And @leireti.bsky.social will both be presenting a poster on Wednesday, as well as talking about "The sex(y)-ing part of enamel: estimating sex ratios in hunted ungulates from the Late Pleistocene" in the @paastacommunity.bsky.social pre-ISBA conference 🦌
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welkergroup.bsky.social
Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Aug 25
On Friday @vvillaislas.bsky.social will be presenting a poster on "Extended enamel database for hominin palaeoproteomic data analysis" 💻
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welkergroup.bsky.social
Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Aug 25
On Friday @zandraselina.bsky.social will talk about "Optimization of dental enamel demineralization for palaeoproteomics" at 11:35 in the Methods IV session 🦷
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Aug 25
On Thursday at 09:30 Ragnheiður Diljá Ásmundsdóttir will be talking about "Composition variations in archaeological human bone proteomes" in the Methods II session 🦴
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Aug 25
We have arrived in Turin for @isba11.bsky.social and are very excited for the week! Don't miss the following talks and posters from the Welker Group:
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paastacommunity.bsky.social
PAASTA Community @paastacommunity.bsky.social · Aug 6
Delighted to be bringing you the following PAASTA community-led paper outlining our recommendations for best practices and open science in palaeoproteomics! Congratulations to the authors and for anyone keen to read the paper, it can be found #OpenAccess here: doi.org/10.24072/pcj...
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zandraselina.bsky.social
Zandra Fagernäs @zandraselina.bsky.social · Jul 27
I very much enjoyed #SMBE2025 in Beijing - huge thanks to the organizers, and I look forward to seeing everyone in Copenhagen next year!
Photo of me giving a talk in a very fancy room! Photo taken by Viridiana Villa Islas.
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vvillaislas.bsky.social
VVillaIslas @vvillaislas.bsky.social · Jul 24
My poster presentation, thanks to the photographers team #SMBE2025
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welkergroup.bsky.social
Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Jul 17
For the last six months, we've had Lucas Siero from Utrecht University visiting us for an internship, working on some #palaeoproteomics method development. It was a joy to have you join our group Lucas, and good luck with the rest of your studies!
Parts of the Welker Group taking a boat ride around the canals of Copenhagen, all looking very happy!
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Jul 9
Come visit beautiful Copenhagen and enjoy this years AGPM meeting! Exciting mixture of interdisciplinary approaches to archaeozoology⬇️
fridowelker.bsky.social
Frido Welker @fridowelker.bsky.social · Jul 8
Registration is open for the 11th #ICAZ-AGPM meeting taking place this October in Copenhagen! We're looking forward to four days of #archaeozoology #aDNA #morphometrics & #palaeoproteomics.
sites.google.com/palaeome.org...
ICAZ AGPM 2025 - Registration
Conference registration has opened as of 04 July 2025. The registration fee includes: access to all sessions, welcome reception, coffee breaks, lunches, certificate of attendance. Registration can be...
sites.google.com
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adrianaleite.bsky.social
Adriana Leite @adrianaleite.bsky.social · Jun 20
It has truly been a pleasure to train and develop my PhD research on paleoproteomics about Iberia's Late Prehistory with @zandraselina.bsky.social and @welkergroup.bsky.social during my stay at Globe. Grateful for the collaborative spirit and all the inspiring discussions! See you all again soon!
zandraselina.bsky.social
Zandra Fagernäs @zandraselina.bsky.social · Jun 20
It truly has been a joy to advise @adrianaleite.bsky.social the past six months on some very exciting #palaeoproteomics projects. She made it incredibly easy for me though, by being a very hard working, creative and independent PhD student! 😄
welkergroup.bsky.social
Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Jun 20
For the last six months, @adrianaleite.bsky.social has been visiting us from @icarehb.bsky.social. Thank you for this time Adriana, it has been a joy to have you in our group and we hope to see you again soon!
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Jun 20
For the last six months, @adrianaleite.bsky.social has been visiting us from @icarehb.bsky.social. Thank you for this time Adriana, it has been a joy to have you in our group and we hope to see you again soon!
Parts of the group out enjoying some Copenhagen sun and iced tea!
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · May 22
Congratulations to @dorotheamylop.bsky.social!
fridowelker.bsky.social
Frido Welker @fridowelker.bsky.social · May 22
Last week we had a celebration, with @dorotheamylop.bsky.social defending her PhD @unileiden.bsky.social! Big congratulations to Dora🎉
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americanbeetles.bsky.social
Ainsley S @americanbeetles.bsky.social · May 21
Now that’s what I call scientific illustration
welkergroup.bsky.social
Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
New publication! 🎉 Here you can read all about dog drool, bleach, and a probable Central Asian Neanderthal child:
doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...
Graphical abstract of the publication.
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
The dog crossed the rainbow bridge (he was 15 years old), but his proteins live on forever now!
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
Finally, the Contaminator may no longer be with us, but we are very grateful for his research efforts as well! He did get a nice snack as a reward for his contribution.
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
Thank you also to our funders, the study would not have been possible without generous support from @leakeyfoundation.bsky.social, @erc.europa.eu, the MSCA and many others. #msca_promise
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
This study was a great collaboration of a team from both Denmark and Tajikistan - huge thanks to all coauthors, including @zandraselina.bsky.social, @vvillaislas.bsky.social, @jespervolsen.bsky.social, @mikkelwp.bsky.social and @fridowelker.bsky.social 🎉
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
Finally, we set out to answer the major question about the Khudji tooth - who did it belong to? The reconstructed sequences indicate that it is not a Denisovan, and is unlikely a modern human. That means it's most likely a Neanderthal - but direct molecular evidence is still needed in the future.
Phylogenetic tree showing that the Khudji individual falls among Neanderthals.
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
Also here, the bleach decontamination approach was very successful, as the vast majority of human skin proteins were removed, and the endogenous dentine proteins were left unharmed.
Figure showing that proteins and peptides from skin were almost entirely removed after bleach decontamination.
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
We then applied the bleach decontamination to a Pleistocene hominin tooth from Khudji, Tajikistan, which was previously found to be heavily contaminated with human skin proteins, likely from the decades of handling since its discovery in 1997.
A map showing the location of the archaeological site of Khudji, and a photo of the analysed juvenile incisor.
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
We found that while most decontamination methods had variable success, one of them removed virtually all contamination, without causing any damage to the endogenous horse proteins - a brief wash with bleach (sodium hypochlorite).
Two figures showing the abundance of the proteine lactotransferrin (LTF), a common salivary protein, in the samples after the decontamination methods. Only bleach decontamination removed all of it.
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Welker Group @welkergroup.bsky.social · Apr 24
First, we found that decontamination is really necessary, as the reconstructed horse proteome was altered after contamination, even when we did not take the dog contamination into consideration in our analyses. Additionally, low-abundance proteins and protein regions were lost after contamination!
PCA showing clear separation between original and contaminated samples. Note that this was only based on the horse proteome, we did not include the dog proteome in this search!
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