Astra Demertzi

Diversity, ecology, cell biology and evolution of the Asgard archaea - Nature Reviews Microbiology The Asgard archaea have become a cornerstone of archaeal research, particularly for studies aiming to unravel the origin and early evolution of eukaryotes. This Review outlines the current state of th...

Just over ten years after the discovery of the first Asgard archaeal genomes, we revisit the rapid expansion of this remarkable archaeal lineage. From diverse genomes and metabolisms to eukaryotic signature proteins and the first cultured representatives.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling - Nature Microbiology A structural catalogue of the Asgard archaeal pangenome reveals hundreds of eukaryotic-like proteins that suggest a higher degree of cellular complexity in the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes.

🧵 1/10 New paper out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com from my postdoc at @mib-wur.bsky.social! 🎉

How eukaryote-like was the archaeal ancestor of eukaryotes? Sequence searches alone can't tell us — so we used protein structure prediction to look deeper. 🧬
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Haven’t read the Wayfarer series yet, but I absolutely loved this one.

I am also interested in that. It'd be nice to know :)

New vacancy in my team!

PhD student position on microbial genome evolution, focusing on the evolutionary principles underlying bacterial genome architecture.

Please repost and share with talented MSc students in #evobio, bioinformatics or related :)

www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

#MEvoSky #MicroSky

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome.
Professor microbe knows the drill.

#Evomics

Only a few more days to apply for this exciting postdoc position (deadline: 6th of April)!

Poster showing two tourists shocked with the news about the Tempi traincrash

Welcome to Greece: Where Time Stops and So Do the Trains 🚂💥

🚆 In February 2023, 57 people died in a train collision. Two years later, you can still buy a ticket on that same line — with the same dangers.
🎯 Help us make it visible.

#TrainCrashGreece #Tempi #VisitGreeceSafely

I think it’s PTSD at this point

#MEvoSky #ArchaeaSky #Eukaryogenesis #Evomics

Loki’s ever the trickster, but thankfully Thor knows how to put him in his place

#ArchaeaSky #Asgard #comics #comedy

A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes reveals their excavate ancestry - Nature The root of the eukaryote Tree of Life is estimated from a new, larger dataset of mitochondrial proteins including all known eukaryotic supergroups, showing it lies between two multi-supergroup assemb...

🚨 New paper alert! 🚨

A robustly rooted tree of eukaryotes sheds light on their deep evolutionary ancestry—suggesting that the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA) may have had an excavate-like cell architecture. 🧵🔬 (1/) www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It's my #birthday tonight.
I'm turning 30 😀😱

I'm hosting a dinner with some friends, and I have hanged one A1 print in the living room 🍄

If you would like to support me and to really see this project grow up, #repost today one of my posts as a birthday gift 🎁🎁

Would you put this on your wall?