Programme BLAM 2025
10–11 April 2025
Thursday 10 April
09.00 Workshops
At the Department of Biology
12.15 Lunch and registering
At Palaestra.
13.15 Opening
13.30 Plenar 1
Rachel Jabaily from Colorado College, USA (external website) – Integrating Phylogenetics, Biogeography, and Teaching in the Study of Flowering Plants
14.30 Introduction and poster session 1 with coffee
- Chemical signaling between interacting soil fungi – Valentina Wolf
- Chemosensation in the Spruce bark beetle larvae – Anna Magnusson
- Evaluation of mitochondrial oxygen consumption in response to nutritional and immunological challenges in Japanese quail – Livia Saccani Hervas
- Revisiting nunatak: past and present distributions of an endangered Scandinavian orchid Nigritella nigra ssp. nigra – Jöran Klink
- How does the environment affect additive genetic (co)variances, heritabilities and evolvabilities in a laboratory setting? – Flavio Di Giorgio
- Sea to Freshwater: The Transition Mystery of the Anaerobic Protists Breviata – Rustem Musaev
- Fungal contribution to browning of freshwaters - what role do they play? – Alice Gredeby
- Quinone Landscape in Facultative Anaerobic and Anaerobic Eukaryotes – Nikolaj Brask
- Soil microbial carbon pump – Xiaojing Yang
16.00 Oral presentation session 1
Full talks, 12 minutes talks + 3 minutes discussion
- Preference performance mismatch of the eurasian spruce bark beetle, Ips typographus – Jana Gabriele Burchards
- Introducing alternative quinones into plants to improve flooding resistance – Vivian Schmitt
- Context-dependent mate preferences influence the stability of premating isolation in early population divergence – Sofie Nilén
Special presentation
Travel and sustainability at the department of Biology – Emma Kritzberg and Erik Selander
18.00 – 21.00 Dinner and pub quiz
AF-Borgen.
Friday 11 April
09.15 Opening
09.30 Plenar 2
Michael Rera from Institut Jacques Monod, France – Understanding the End-Of-Life Through a Transdisciplinary Lens
10.30–11.00 Coffee break
11.00 Oral presentation session 2
Full talks, 12 minutes talks + 3 minutes discussion
- Colonization, virulence or persistence: many sides of Mycobacterium avium – Katie Laschanzky
- Information Theory and Machine Learning for Predictive Modeling in Ancient DNA – Nima Mohseni
- Effects of Male Limited X-chromosome evolution on sex-specific fitness – Damandeep Kaur
Flash talks, 3 minutes talk + 1 minute discussion
- Climbing performance in Great Snipes – Jesper Brodersen
- Using tropical heat to investigate adaptive responses of microbial thermal traits and carbon cycling in an in-situ translocation experiment – Honorine Dumontel
- Optic flow neurons in the bumblebee brain – Janka Kluge
12.00 Lunch break
13.00 Oral presentation session 3
Full talks, 12 minutes + 3 minutes discussion
- Unraveling the telomere maintenance mechanism in telomerase-deficient Naumovozyma castellii strains – Teresa Garibo Domingo
- Patterns of inbreeding and purging selection in Swedish sandlizards – Lucia Caroli
- Utilizing bioreactors to grow bryophytes for allelopathic research – Eliza Hayse
Flash Talk, 3 minutes + 1 minute discussion
- What are sex chromosomes? – Lila Maladesky
- Direct and plant-mediated responses in microbial resource limitations under simulated climate change in alpine steppe soils – Jianyu Xiao
- Using hyphal morphology and image analysis to identify fungal plant pathogens in soil – Julia Forsbacka
14.00 Introduction and poster session 2 + coffee
- Carbon removal mechanisms and microbial dynamics in constructed wetlands of differing depths – Kevin Jones
- The effect of drought on soil microbial community – Shilong Lei
- How does PAH polluted asphalt affect earthworms? – Jessica Jennerheim
- Transgenerational effects of malaria on offspring condition in great reed warblers – Agnes Erland Hansson
- The effect of freeze-thaw on soil microorganisms at different latitudes – Huimin Liu
- Genetic variability on bacteria virulence factor depends on host population – Jaume Salgado Bolarin
- Synergistic effects of pesticide mixtures in the hoverfly Eristalis tena – Silvia Rönnau
- A 20,000 km journey: How a small songbird adjusts its migratory behaviour along the way – Pablo Macías Torres
- Life and death at the microscale – Ada Behncké Serra
15.15 Oral presentation session 4
Full talks, 12 minutes + 3 minutes discussion
- The dynamic sex chromosome evolution of larks – Simon Jacobsen Ellerstrand
- Ley production and its potential as a food resource for pollinating insects in semi-natural grasslands – Julia Weber
Flash Talks, 3 minutes + 1 minute discussion
- Linking microbial demand for limiting resources with microbial use of soil organic matter – Agnieszka Rzepczynska
- JellyScope: Next generation AI-driven continuous plankton monitoring – Isa Hendriks
16.00 Closing ceremony
18.00 Mingle and dinner
In the Ecology building.
Contact information
Agnieszka Rzepczynska
Doctoral Student
Telephone: +46 79 354 63 76
Email: Agnieszka [dot] Rzepczynska [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se
Stanley Heinze
Senior Lecturer
Telephone: +46 72 323 24 11
Email: Stanley [dot] Heinze [at] biol [dot] lu [dot] se
Workshops
All workshops are held on 10 April between 9.00 and 12.00 at the Department of Biology.
Scientific presentation
Led by Guillaume Lavanchy
Scientific talks are one our main ways to communicate our research. Giving a good talk can significantly improve how much our audience engages with, understands, and remembers our results. The aim of this workshop is to give some insights into what works and what doesn't, and why. We will cover a variety of points, including how to define, refine and structure your message, how to raise your audience's interest and help them understand, basics of slide design, how to manage stress, how to deliver your message, and some tips to answer questions.
How to review a paper
Led by Colin Olito, Emily O’Connor & Michael Tobler
The workshop begins with a series of short talks giving an overview of peer review publishing practices from different perspectives spanning the full range of roles in academic publishing (Reviewer, Associated Editor, Managing Editor/Publisher). The rest of the workshop involves a group activity and discussion exercise to evaluate real reviewer comments and gain a broader perspective on what makes for a good or bad review, followed by an open question/discussion session of current topics related to peer review and academic publishing.
Stress management
Led by Johan Dahl & Matilda Eklund from the Occupational Health Service
Academic work is often interesting, challenging and rewarding. However, your time as a PhD-student can also involve uncertainty, worry and feeling stressed for long periods of time. Stress is a natural reaction to challenges. However, feeling continuously stressed, without having helpful strategies to deal with the situation or too few opportunities for recuperation can decrease your quality of life and your overall health. The workshop will be led by a psychologist and a physiotherapist from your Occupational Health Service. The aim with the workshop is to give you some alternatives on how to manage your situation as well as an opportunity to discuss and try out various ways of helpful recuperation. This will include some relaxation exercises to help to reduce stress.
Roots of innovation – bridging research, outreach, and public engagement
Led by Lisa Evyr & Julia Borg from LU Innovation & the Botanical Garden
Outreach is a vital part of being a researcher. In this collaborative workshop, we will explore how PhD students can begin to bridge the gap between academic research, public engagement, and science communication. We will use the real experience of a living laboratory – the Botanical Garden – as well as the expertise of LU Innovation to expand on how your research is important, and how you can gain skills in communicating, disseminating, and connecting with the world outside of academia.
The impact of AI for teaching and supervision in Biology (from chatbots to ethics of AI)
Led by Sonja Aits from the Department of Experimental Medical Science
This workshop explores the growing role of AI in biology education and research supervision, from chatbots supporting student learning to ethical issues like data privacy and bias. Senior researchers will gain practical insights on using these tools effectively while navigating their challenges in academic settings.