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‘Mosquito immunity, evolution, and malaria control’ By Jacob Koella (Imperial College London) Abstract: Genetic manipulation of mosquitoes for malaria control continues to attract much attention (and funding). One idea is to transform mosquitoes with genes enhancing their immune response against malaria (and that can spread though natural populations). Such a strategy can be successful only […]

‘The reality of DNA-based approaches in taxonomy’ By Alfried Vogler (Imperial College London & Natural History Museum) Abstract: The advent of DNA taxonomy and DNA barcoding has stirred up emotions widely among biologists, mainly because of sensitivities in the taxonomic research community and the inadequate evolutionary theory of early procedures. Is there a common ground for these

‘From Wrangel to Flores: size evolution on islands’ By Shai Meiri (Natural Sciences, Imperial College London) Abstract: Islands are often portrayed as weird and wonderful places where, free from pressures of factors such as competition and predation, animals can quickly evolve some truly fantastic forms. A key trait that is often said to evolve quickly and

‘Darwin’s Compass: Why evolution is very far from random’ By Simon Conway Morris (Cambridge Earth Sciences) Abstract: Received wisdom is that evolution is effectively open-ended and inherently unpredictable. Jared Diamond points to the uniqueness of woodpeckers and extrapolates to the human, while on a yet wider stage Steven J. Gould famously claimed that to re-run

Joint LERN/CEE Seminar ‘Comparative genomics: structure and evolution of HOX clusters’ By Sonja Prohaska (Arizona State University & University of Leipzig) Abstract: The Hox gene clusters underly phenomena of maintenance and rearrangement of their genomic structure suggesting yet unexplored selective constraints and changes thereof during the course of evolution. Non-coding sequence evolution within Hox clusters shapes gene expression