We are pleased to welcome our new Writing-Up Fellow Saudat Alishayeva to the KLI. Saudat is currently pursuing her PhD in the lab of Luisa F. Pallares at the Friedrich Miescher Laboratory of the Max Planck Society in Tuebingen, Germany, where she is investigating the effects of environmental stresses on the evolution of complex traits in Drosophila melanogaster.

Saudat grew up in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, and later moved to Istanbul, where she completed her undergraduate studies in molecular biology and bioinformatics. She completed her Master’s through the MEME program (Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Evolution), conducting research at LMU Munich, the University of Montpellier, and Harvard University. She has worked on several projects, including coral regeneration using single-cell transcriptomics, applying machine learning to detect positive selection on developmental enhancers in ascidians, and exploring connections between behavioral variability and chromatin in fruit flies. Saudat’s PhD work integrates genomic and phenotypic data to deepen our understanding of robustness and evolvability.

During her Fellowship at the KLI, from 1 September 2025 to 26 February 2026, Saudat will be working on her project titled: “Correlational Selection in Drosophila: Balancing Robustness and Plasticity Under Stress.”

Here’s wishing Saudat a wonderful time at the KLI and in Austria!