Petar Pajic, currently an NSF Postdoctoral Fellow at Yale University (Department of Chemistry), has published a new review article in the journal Genome Biology and Evolution. Co-authored with Omer Gokcumen (Department of Biological Sciences, University […]
Abstract Understanding genomic function has historically relied on sequence conservation across evolutionary time. However, advances in genomics have revealed that functional innovations often arise from rapidly evolving, nonconserved elements that are frequently overlooked by conservation-based
Abstract Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus-like particles (VLPs) are ∼100-nm-sized bioinspired mimetics of the authentic virus. We undertook molecular engineering to optimize the VLP platform for messenger RNA (mRNA) delivery. Cloning the
Tuning the tropism and infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 virus-like particles for mRNA delivery Read More »
Abstract Chemosensation (olfaction, taste) is essential for detecting and assessing foods, such that dietary shifts elicit evolutionary changes in vertebrate chemosensory genes. The transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture dramatically altered how humans acquire
Human subsistence and signatures of selection on chemosensory genes. Read More »
Petar led this project that we designed with Stefan Ruhl Laboratory on how mucin proteins have evolved. The roles of mucins in different biological processes are becoming more appreciated recently in both evolutionary and biomedical
New paper: Mucus, slime, and a new way for biological functions to evolve Read More »
Stefan (Ruhl) and Omer Gokcumen recently published a comprehensive survey of the amylase gene copy number and salivary enzyme activity among mammalian species eLife. Petar (Pajic) was the driving force for the sample collection and analysis.
New paper: Independent amylase gene duplications Read More »
Abstract The amylase gene (AMY), which codes for a starch-digesting enzyme in animals, underwent several gene copy number gains in humans (Perry et al., 2007), dogs (Axelsson et al., 2013), and mice (Schibler et al.,
