Johannes Schultheis is now a Master!

We congratulate Johannes Schultheis for successfully defending his Master’s thesis

On March 20, 2025, Johannes Schultheis defended his thesis and became a Master’s thesis and received a M.Sc. title in biosciences from the Universitat Münster.

His thesis title is “A Newt Hope: Combining RNA-Seq and Machine-Learning to Unravel the Evolution of Tetrodotoxin (TTX) defense in textitTaricha granulosa).” His first examiner was Prof. Dr. Joachim Kurtz (Universitat Münster) and his second examiner was Prof. Dr. Taran Grant (Universidade de São Paulo-USP). He was supervised by Dr. Denis Jacob Machado (UNC CHarlotte).

We summarize hos work below.

Unlocking the Genetic Secrets of Tetrodotoxin in Newts

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a powerful neurotoxin used by various animals as a chemical defense, but how it’s produced—especially in terrestrial animals—remains a mystery. Among land vertebrates, amphibians like the rough-skinned newt (Taricha granulosa) are unique in carrying TTX, with some populations showing extremely high levels due to an evolutionary arms race with their predator, the garter snake. To investigate how these newts acquire TTX, researchers compared gene expression between high- and low-toxin populations. Using cutting-edge bioinformatics, they identified eight genes potentially linked to TTX resistance, transport, storage, or production. These findings pave the way for future studies to unravel how newts harness this potent toxin.

Previous post
Unveiling Hidden Patterns in Tapeworm Evolution with Machine Learning Next post
PREPP Panel on Faculty Interview Preparation