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Amjad Khalaf 🇵🇸

@amjadkhalaf.bsky.social
94 followers 140 following 9 posts

PhD student with Mara Lawniczak and Mark Blaxter | Tree of Life | Wellcome Sanger Institute | University of Cambridge | Palestinian & Italian

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Amjad Khalaf 🇵🇸 @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
i'm SO lucky to be friends with @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social!!!! ❤️ What a beautiful card and celebration! Thank you to my supervisors and all my friends at the Tree of Life for an amazing four years!
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Lewis Stevens @phylewgenetics.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
New preprint! We unexpectedly discovered that some Caenorhabditis species delete parts of their somatic genome early in development, which fragments their chromosomes and eliminates key germline genes. Multiple lines of evidence suggest this bizarre process was present in the ancestors of C. elegans
Figure with three panels. Left: phylogenetic tree of Caenorhabditis species, highlighting those with programmed DNA elimination. Middle: plot showing chromosomal locations of eliminated DNA. Right: Images showing DNA fragments being eliminated during early development.
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Aureliano Bombarely @bombarelya.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Amjad Khalaf follows the symbiosis genomics session at #biodiversity25 presenting about #microsporidia tetraploid genomes. Most of them are recent autotetraploids. An interesting model of reproduction is proposed with two different paths: sexual and asexual reproduction.
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Carmen Denman Hume @carmcdhume.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Oh hello! He's only gone and re-written the Microsporidian reproductive tree and published it in @plosbiology.org! Heroic effort, Amjad. Congrats to all the authors! You can read about Amjad and his doctoral research in the blog I wrote all about him: sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/29/s...
sangerinstitute.blog
Studying intracellular parasite DNA is like panning for gold - Wellcome Sanger Institute Blog
PhD Student Amjad Khalaf shares how his research on microsporidia is creating new high-quality genomes to help better understand how they cause, and sometimes prevent, disease.
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PLOS Biology @plosbiology.org · 22/10/2025
#Microsporidia are #parasites of growing importance. @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social @mblaxter.bsky.social @marakat.bsky.social &co present 40 new genomes from #DarwinTreeofLife sequencing of their arthropod hosts, revealing insights into #tetraploidy & #reproduction @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/48HsAQJ
Top: Prevalence of Microsporidia in DToL insect genomes. Microsporidian genomes recovered from insect hosts, split by taxonomic order. F: female, M: male, U: unspecified sex. Bottom: Simplified proposed generalized lifecycle for Microsporidia. This proposed model posits that each nucleus is a diploid, and that microsporidian reproduction mirrors reproduction in Fungi with stages similar to karyogamy, plasmogamy, and a stable “heterokaryon” (known as a diplokaryon in Microsporidia). Importantly, both the diplokaryotic and monokaryotic phases are parasitic, and species may spend most of their lifecycle in one or the other phase, giving rise to “diploid” and “tetraploid” lineages.
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Amjad Khalaf 🇵🇸 @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
Really, really happy that our work on microsporidian genomes is now out in @plosbiology.org! A huge thank you to my coauthors, my supervisors @mblaxter.bsky.social & @marakat.bsky.social, the editors @roliroberts.bsky.social & Joseph Heitman, and the reviewers ❤️ plos.io/48HsAQJ
plos.io
Forty new genomes shed light on sexual reproduction and the origin of tetraploidy in Microsporidia
Microsporidia are single-celled, intracellular parasites of growing public health, agricultural, and economic importance. This study presents 40 new microsporidian genomes derived collaterally from Da...
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Marcela Uliano-Silva @marcelauliano.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Preprint Alert! 🦥 We produced complete genomes for 2 Xenarthra and placed them in a mammalian comparative framework. We found that Xenarthra harbour the largest number of retrocopies in mammals! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Retrocopy formation and domestication shape genome evolution in sloths and other xenarthrans
Xenarthrans, comprising sloths, anteaters, and armadillos, represent one of the most morphologically and physiologically specialised mammalian clades, yet the genomic basis of their adaptations remain...
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Wellcome Sanger Institute @sangerinstitute.bsky.social · 29/07/2025
Meet Amjad Khalaf – who has spent his PhD panning for parasite DNA, allowing him to create a goldmine of information for the research community🔎 Amjad shares what first brought him to the Sanger Institute, his research and what he is dreaming about next: sangerinstitute.blog/2025/07/29/s...
Image shows Amjad Khalaf sitting on a bench outside, working on his laptop.
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Amjad Khalaf 🇵🇸 @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
it's really an honour to be interviewed by the wonderful @carmcdhume.bsky.social -- a huge thank you! ❤️🫂
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Amjad Khalaf 🇵🇸 @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
it was so so lovely to do this together! 🇭🇷❤️🇵🇸
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Amjad Khalaf 🇵🇸 @amjadkhalaf.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
New preprint! We generate 40 new high-quality microsporidian genomes from infected arthropod hosts that were sequenced to create reference genomes by the Darwin Tree of Life project. 8 of our genomes are chromosome-level, and we’re able to generate Hi-C data for 7! 🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Forty New Genomes Shed Light on Sexual Reproduction and the Origin of Tetraploidy in Microsporidia
Microsporidia are single-celled, obligately intracellular parasites with growing public health, agricultural, and economic importance. Despite this, Microsporidia remain relatively enigmatic, with man...
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Tom Mathers @tom-mathers.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Struggling to find the tiny microchromosomes in draft bird genome assemblies? Our new #preprint introducing MicroFinder can help: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 below (1/n) @sangerinstitute.bsky.social
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