Alejandro Burga
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arburga.bsky.social
Alejandro Burga
@arburga.bsky.social
A.d.i.d.a.s. All day I dream about science. Group Leader at IMBA. Genomics & evolution. Peruano.
Reposted by Alejandro Burga
How to keep in step when your (protein) partner speeds up…

Here we investigated the adaptive remodeling of a protein-protein interaction surface essential for telomere protection.

Congrats to whole team!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Rapid compensatory evolution within a multiprotein complex preserves telomere integrity
Intragenomic conflict with selfish genetic elements spurs adaptive changes in subunits of essential multiprotein complexes. Whether and how these adaptive changes disrupt interactions within such comp...
www.science.org
November 28, 2025 at 5:22 PM
Reposted by Alejandro Burga
Last call! 📢 Don’t miss Brenda Schulman at the upcoming Hans Tuppy Lecture tommorrow, sharing fresh insights into the dynamic regulation of the ubiquitin–proteasome system! @univie.ac.at @mpibiochem.bsky.social www.oeaw.ac.at/detail/veran...
Visualisierung von Ubiquitin-vermittelter Regulation
Eine enorm vielseitige Möglichkeit Proteine und Membranfunktionen zu regulieren, basiert auf der Vermittlung des kleinen Proteins Ubiquitin. Die Biochemikerin Brenda Schulman stellt die Zusammenhänge ...
www.oeaw.ac.at
December 1, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Alejandro Burga
C. elegans researchers were early adopters of open science: "The development of common resources and the belief that research findings and mutant strains should be freely shared has propelled worm research to the forefront"
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
From nematode to Nobel: How community-shared resources fueled the rise of Caenorhabditis elegans as a research organism | PNAS
Experimental organisms such as the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans are fundamental to biological discovery. The success of C. elegans research has ...
www.pnas.org
November 28, 2025 at 8:00 AM
Reposted by Alejandro Burga
Thrilled to share our new paper!
With @tomtom-auer.bsky.social team, we asked how #evolution reshapes what animals #eat to match their ecological niches. Using pan-neuronal Ca2+ imaging, we show that the changes are in how the brain processes #taste.
Link @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Evolution of taste processing shifts dietary preference - Nature
Calcium imaging of taste neurons and the ventral brain provides insight into evolutionary divergence of food choice in Drosophila species, supporting a role of sensorimotor processing in addition to p...
www.nature.com
November 26, 2025 at 4:33 PM
Reposted by Alejandro Burga
Happy to share that my PhD project is finally published!🪱✨
Selfish genes are found across the tree of life. They can disrupt inheritance patterns and at the same time act as units for molecular innovation. Here we tried to answer one big question: how do selfish genes emerge in the first place?
November 24, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Alejandro Burga
The Vienna BioCenter Summer School 2026 call is now open for talented undergrads, it's a great opportunity for students who are interested in graduate study in the life sciences. Georg Busslinger from CeMM is recruiting! Please share
https://training.vbc.ac.at/summer-school/
November 24, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Reposted by Alejandro Burga
🚨 New paper alert!

Scientists in the Burga lab show for the first time how toxin-antidote elements—selfish genetic elements that perpetuate by poisoning those embryos that don’t inherit them—evolved from normal cellular proteins. More: https://imba.science/3M3fRyq
November 24, 2025 at 11:10 AM
🪱 Selfish genes are everywhere and drive some of biology’s biggest innovations (CRISPR, antibody recombination, epigenetics). Yet almost no one asks the obvious question: how does a selfish gene begin? Our new manuscript uncovers how selfishness can emerge directly from the host genome.
November 24, 2025 at 1:03 PM