[ { "date": "2026-04-16", "title": "New preprint: Dismantling chromosomal stasis across the eukaryotic tree of life", "body": "Megan Copeland, Meghann McConnell, Andres Barboza, and a team of CURE undergraduates and lab members posted a new bioRxiv preprint measuring dysploidy rates across 63,682 karyotypes in 55 eukaryotic clades. We find rates vary 844-fold, and even birds (the textbook example of chromosomal stasis) exceed the global median once microchromosome dynamics are resolved. Read it on bioRxiv.", "category": "publication", "icon": "bi-file-earmark-text", "link": "https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.14.718287v1" }, { "date": "2026-04-14", "title": "Sean Chien lead-authors chromosome-level long-armed scarab genome", "body": "Sean Chien's reference genome of the endemic, endangered long-armed scarab Cheirotonus formosanus is now published in Ecology and Evolution. The paper reports a putative Y-linked scaffold and reconstructs the demographic history of this Taiwanese conservation target. DOI: 10.1002/ece3.73483", "category": "publication", "icon": "bi-bug", "link": "https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.73483" }, { "date": "2026-04-09", "title": "Sean Chien's first PhD paper out in Journal of Evolutionary Biology", "body": "Sean Chien & Heath Blackmon, \"Chromosomal Rearrangements: Tempo and Mode of Karyotype Evolution in Scarabaeoidea\" is now published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology. The paper reconstructs fission/fusion dynamics and sex-chromosome–autosome fusions across the scarab superfamily. DOI: 10.1093/jeb/voag025", "category": "publication", "icon": "bi-journal-text", "link": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jeb/voag025" }, { "date": "2026-04-07", "title": "Megan Copeland coauthors review on salmonid thyroid evolution", "body": "Megan Copeland is a coauthor on a new review with J. Geoffrey Eales (Manitoba) and Duncan MacKenzie (TAMU) in General and Comparative Endocrinology: \"Peripheral and central regulation of thyroid status in teleost fish with particular reference to tetraploid juvenile salmonids and Parr-Smolt transformation.\" The work synthesizes how genome duplication in salmonids shapes deiodinase paralogs and thyroid regulation. DOI: 10.1016/j.ygcen.2026.114929", "category": "publication", "icon": "bi-water", "link": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ygcen.2026.114929" }, { "date": "2026-03-21", "title": "10 Papers in One Week: A Progress Report", "body": "I told the lab we were going to submit 10 papers this week. We submitted four, which, for anyone keeping score, is still an absurd amount of work for one week. Beyond the submissions, the progress people made on other manuscripts and analyses was just as impressive. Wildly proud of this group.", "category": "lab", "icon": "bi-journal-check" }, { "date": "2026-03-14", "title": "Lab paper sprint: 10 manuscripts targeted for submission", "body": "The week of March 16th we are running a lab-wide paper sprint with a goal of submitting or resubmitting 10 manuscripts. Several graduate students and undergraduates have papers that are essentially done. This is a coordinated push to get them out the door. We will post updates here as each paper is submitted or resubmitted.", "category": "lab", "icon": "bi-journal-check" }, { "date": "2026-02-19", "title": "Dr. Megan Copeland successfully defends dissertation", "body": "Megan Copeland defended her PhD dissertation on February 19th, capping years of research on genome assembly, annotation, and the evolution of genome structure. Congratulations, Dr. Copeland! TAMU Biology profile.", "category": "lab", "icon": "bi-mortarboard" }, { "date": "2025-11-30", "title": "Megan Copeland wins Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Award for Mentoring", "body": "Megan Copeland was selected as the 2025–2026 recipient of the Ethel Ashworth-Tsutsui Memorial Award for Mentoring from the Texas A&M College of Arts & Sciences.", "category": "award", "icon": "bi-trophy" }, { "date": "2025-08-07", "title": "Megan Copeland awarded U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship", "body": "Megan Copeland was selected as a 2025 recipient of the U.S. Senator Phil Gramm Doctoral Fellowship Award for her contributions to teaching and research. Read the College of Arts & Sciences feature.", "category": "award", "icon": "bi-trophy" }, { "date": "2025-04-11", "title": "'Wright Was Right' wins SSE Presidents' Award for Outstanding Dissertation Paper", "body": "Our paper on epistasis across more than 1,600 datasets from plants and animals won the 2025 Society for the Study of Evolution Presidents' Award for Outstanding Dissertation Paper. Burch et al. (2024) Evolution 78(4):624–634. DOI: 10.1093/evolut/qpae003 · Award page.", "category": "award", "icon": "bi-trophy", "link": "https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpae003" }, { "date": "2025-03-08", "title": "Alfieri wins AGA Outstanding Student-Authored Paper Award", "body": "James Alfieri's cover article in Journal of Heredity on domestication and hybrid compatibility in landfowl was unanimously selected as the Outstanding 2024 Student-Authored Paper by the American Genetic Association. DOI: 10.1093/jhered/esad059 · TAMU Biology coverage.", "category": "award", "icon": "bi-trophy", "link": "https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esad059" }, { "date": "2024-11-15", "title": "Dr. Jorja Burch successfully defends dissertation", "body": "Jorja Burch defended her PhD dissertation on November 15th. Her work provided empirical tests of long-standing evolutionary theory, including the 'Wright Was Right' paper (Burch et al. 2024, Evolution). She is now at Wiley Publishing.", "category": "lab", "icon": "bi-mortarboard" } ]