How might climate-driven shifts to species’ geographical ranges impact pathogen transmission and infection outcomes? A new publication in Biotropica, led by postdoc Dr. Emma Steigerwald, addresses this question with frogs that expanded upslope to become the highest-living amphibians in the world.

Have you heard of the incredible rainbow of color variation in strawberry poison frogs (O. pumilio) in Bocas del Toro, Panama? A new study addressing this perplexing system, led by recent Nielsen lab alum Dr. Diana Aguilar-Gómez, was just published in Current Biology.

Side-blotched lizards play a rock-paper-scissors game between mating types. Nielsen lab alum Dr. Ammon Corl finds the genetic underpinnings of this system and reveals new twists in the story of this classical system in behavioral ecology. NYT story here.

Nielsen Lab Retreat 2025.

Lab postdoc Dr. Emma Steigerwald begins a new fellowship on historic and ancient sedimentary DNA of amphibians and their chytrid pathogen, funded by the NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program and University of California Chancellor’s Fellowship Program.

The Nielsen Lab attended our annual lab retreat at the Bodega Marine Laboratory in Bodega Bay, CA. Some science presentations, hikes, seafood, and serious boardgaming made for a very fun weekend. The weather may have been bad, but the company was good!

It was a summer of travel for many Nielsen Lab members. Andrew, Maya, Fiona, Sasha, and Chao spent a month as guest researchers at the Centre for GeoGenetics at the University of Copenhagen, where Rasmus is an affiliate. Andrew and Rasmus also attended a conference on human evolutionary history in Hanover, while Fiona and Maya attended a conference on sedimentary ancient DNA in Potsdam. Some short trips through Sweden and Norway rounded out our tour of Northern Europe. Thank you to the researchers and staff at the Centre for GeoGenetics for hosting us. We hope to be back soon!