Zuzana Hofmanova

When someone believes in you How the ARTEMIS mentoring programme connects African students and doctoral researchers with scientists of the Max Planck Society — and why mentoring means more than just offering professional advice

Being part of the ARTEMIS program last year was an amazing experience. If you are a scientist in a MPI, check out the new call! www.mpg.de/26122924/art... I am also very happy to see that the Bridging Minds Program will continue :) @maxplanck.de

Congratulations! Well-deserved!

(A) Genomic inbreeding coefficient (FROH) of imputed and modern dogs plotted as a function of time, calculated based on ROH. Imputed samples are colored based on their geographic grouping, while modern samples are colored in gray. A loess regression was applied with each colored shaded area depicting the SE. (B) Total number of ROH segments plotted against total ROH length for the imputed dogs. Colors correspond to age of imputed samples in years before present (ybp)., while modern samples belonging to each dog group are colored in gray. (C) Map of imputed dog samples colored by their inbreeding coefficient (FROH). Samples with FROH values above 0.1 are indicated.

Delighted to see our paper characterising the inbreeding history of dogs and wolves over the past 10,000 years published this week in @pnas.org. Work led by the excellent @katiabou.bsky.social, and co-supervised by me, Laurent Frantz and Fernando Racimo www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Evidence of sheeppox in 17th-19th century France: a multi-disciplinary investigation of a sheep mass mortality assemblage Epizootic outbreaks posed major threats to food security, economic stability, and animal welfare in past communities. While these events and their impacts are well documented in historical records, ve...

Despite my insomnia, I'm very happy to share our preprint: a multi-disciplinary assessment of a sheep mass mortality event from ~18th century France. We report the first ancient sheeppox virus (think smallpox) and the Taenia hydatigena (nasty roundworm) genomes.
#aDNA

And on Tuesday Nov. 11 5pm EST at Harvard and online: Ancient DNA illuminates the Origins and Early Migrations of the Slavs sohp.fas.harvard.edu/event/ancien... Joscha Gretzinger @zhofmanova.bsky.social @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social

How the Slavic migration reshaped Central and Eastern Europe Genetic analyses of medieval human remains reveal large-scale migrations, regional diversity, and new insights into early medieval communities

How the #Slavic #migration reshaped Central & Eastern #Europe. Ancient #DNA provides new insights into early medieval communities. Study @nature.com by an intl. team led by Joscha Gretzinger, @zhofmanova.bsky.social & Johannes Krause. #HistoGenes More: tinyurl.com/msuys4mu & doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Ancient skeletons’ genes reveal origin of the Slavic people DNA connects modern Slavs to a wave of migration following the fall of the Roman Empire

A study led by @zhofmanova.bsky.social @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social used ancient DNA to investigate the spread of Slavic language and culture 1,500 years ago. “This wasn’t a migration of elites, or a few male warriors,” 1 co-author says. “This was the migration of an entire population.” @science.org

Urbanization and genetic homogenization in the medieval Low Countries revealed through a ten-century paleogenomic study of the city of Sint-Truiden - Genome Biology Background Processes shaping the formation of the present-day population structure in highly urbanized Northern Europe are still poorly understood. Gaps remain in our understanding of when and how cur...

🚨 Excited to share our new paper! 🧬 #aDNA from Sint-Truiden (BE) reveals 1,000 years of change from diverse medieval roots including Scottish and Irish ancestry to modern Limburg-like genetics. 🧫 Yersinia pestis found in 5 of 58 XIV-century burials. #AcademicSky

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Would your institution like to host ISBA12? We are inviting expressions of interest from ISBA members to host the next ISBA12 symposium in 2027. Please contact the ISBA board (board@isbarch.org) for application requirements. Applications are due by the 25th May 2025.

Come join us for this funded PhD opportunity! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Ancient DNA from the Green Sahara reveals ancestral North African lineage - Nature Pastoralism spread through cultural diffusion into the Green Sahara, where an isolated, distinct North African ancestry persisted.

Our study analyzing the DNA of ~7ky-old Pastoralists from the "Green Sahara" is out! Who were these people, and how did herding spread into the region when the present-day desert was dotted with water bodies? 🧬🦴🏜️ (1/7)

#PopGen #GreenSahara #aDNA

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

*** IMPORTANT INFORMATION ***

To all members of the EAA and friends, please be aware of important information regarding our next annual meeting #EAA2025.

An email has also been sent to members, but you can find details attached.

🎓 PhD Position Available in the Population and Evolutionary Genetics group at Trinity College Dublin ☘️ . More details👇

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Ancient DNA) at University of York An opportunity for an academic position as a Postdoctoral Research Associate (Ancient DNA) is available, as advertised on jobs.ac.uk. Apply now and explore other academic job openings.

Postdoctoral Research Associate (Ancient DNA)- University of York - Department of #Archaeology #skystorians 🗃️www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DML043/p...

photo of MPI-EVA's pond in the courtyard

Happy to see that Max Planck institute for Evolutionary Anthropology is on @bsky.app as well! @mpi-eva-leipzig.bsky.social welcome! Also great that the weather slowly starts to allow lunch outside by the pond at the institute ;)

We have a 4-year PhD-student opening in our lab, deadline on Wednesday noon.

For anyone interested in computational genomics of ancient human, pathogen, or canid genomes. www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

If you are curious, send in an application!

Our scientific committee is busy evaluating your abstracts.

In the mean time, registration for ISBA11 is now open! For the special early bird discount, make sure to register by April 30, 2025!

www.isba11.com/registration

@isbarchaeology.bsky.social @archaeobiomics.bsky.social

🎶 📣 - Our #HAAMsummerschool is happening again!
📅 - Application open: 17th of March 🧑‍💻
Keep your eyes and ears open for coming updates!
🔗 - haam-community.github.io/projects/haa...
#aDNA #PopGen #summerschool

At #Woodstockbio2025 #selforganization is key. If you plan to do something special at the #YMCAcampsite, go for a talk & work the #advertisement of the #event into your ~5 minutes of fame in #Prague - after the #walkupsong

#TheConferenceToEndAllConferences (what a hashtag🤷🏻‍♂️)

woodstock.img.cas.cz

Science delivers! Time & time again scientists make unexpected & important discoveries when following their curiousity! That's why we're organizing Woodstock Night Science, a reimagined conference to inspire us to new ideas.
June 10-13 woodstock.img.cas.cz
Join us! #TheConferenceToEndAllConferences

What defines ethnicity: culture or genetics?🧬

ERC Grantees found that two Avar cemeteries had nearly identical artifacts but distinct DNA—proving culture and genetics don’t always align!📜

👉 buff.ly/3Dbkbrr

#FrontierResearch @maxplanck.de Eötvös Loránd University Austrian Academy of Sciences IAS

Why we do what we do in ERC Syg HistoGenes where I am coordinating archaeogenetic analyses. Even when it is long over, I will always be grateful to have been a part of this project. What a privilege to work with the HistoGenes team, I've learned so much..

buff.ly/3Dbkbrr

3-y postdoc position in (meta)Genomics of Population Declines elxw.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid.... If you have experience with low-coverage genomic data, care about biodiversity loss, want to understand host-microbiomes interactions, this post is for you! #museomics #ancientDNA #mammals

now seems to have been genetically vindicated by this study by Gnecchi-Ruscone et al. in PNAS: www.pnas.org/doi/epub/10.... (2/2)

Joseph de Guignes (1721-1800) is smiling from his grave: His connection between Huns and Xiongnu, first formulated in the _Mémoire historique sur l'origine des Huns et des Turks adressé à M. Tanevot_ (www.digitale-sammlungen.de/en/details/b...) of 1748 (1/2)

Ancient DNA reveals reproductive barrier despite shared Avar-period culture - Nature Ancient genome-wide data of 722 individuals and interdisciplinary analysis of large seventh- to eighth-century ce neighbouring cemeteries near Vienna are used to address the impact of the encounter between Eastern Asian Avars and Europeans.

Nature research paper: Ancient DNA reveals reproductive barrier despite shared Avar-period culture

https://go.nature.com/3WggAig

Attila’s Huns were a motley crew of central European locals and East Asian immigrants A genetic analysis reveals some Huns descended from pillagers in East Asia

The Huns helped end the Roman Empire – but where did they come from? New DNA results offer some answers: www.science.org/content/arti...