🚀 Thrilled to share our first metaSPLiT preprint from @annabiosys.bsky.social's lab in collaboration with @gibbological.bsky.social! Explore hidden bacterial phenotypic heterogeneity in the human gut microbiome and discover the concept of "physiological guilds": www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Phenotypic heterogeneity in the human gut microbiome revealed by subspecies-resolution single-cell transcriptomics

Most of our knowledge about bacterial functional roles in microbiomes comes from bulk measurements. Yet microbial communities are complex ecosystems in which functionally distinct bacterial subpopulat...

biorxiv.org

Took my frustration with current OMB/OSTP proposals and turned it into an op-ed for my hometown newspaper! Here's my better-late-than-never contribution to the #McClintockLetters: herald-zeitung.com/opinion/morr...

MORRISON: Federal funding brought me from Canyon H.S. to cancer research – cuts threaten the next generation

Cuts to federal funding for American science are disrupting research, halting clinical trials, and imperiling the next generation of scientists. As a scientist and a proud graduate of Texas schools,

herald-zeitung.com

In 2014, Jason Rosch and I met at a GRC in Tuscany and sketched an idea on a cocktail napkin: what if we evolved S.pneumo in mice, treated them with antibiotics, varied their immune systems and watched what won? 11 years and a huge team effort later, it's out in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social 🧵

Excited to share that I've been awarded a 5-year NIH MIRA (R35) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences! The lab is growing! We're recruiting postdocs and research techs interested in microbial ecology, quantitative microscopy, microfluidics, and molecular biology. Please share!

Evolutionary rescue in a phage community! New paper from former PhD student, Sam Greenrod, with brilliant colleague @craigmaclean.bsky.social : academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Rapid adaptation accelerates competitive suppression in a parasite community

Abstract. Environmental stress leads to changes in community composition by altering competitive hierarchies and pushing taxa towards extinction. Parasites

academic.oup.com

Can we use ecological principles to increase coexistence in synthetic bacterial communities? Our new paper is now out in @isme-microbes.bsky.social: "Environmental complexity shapes maintenance of bacterial diversity through context-dependent interactions among niche axes" doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Environmental complexity shapes maintenance of bacterial diversity through context-dependent interactions among niche axes

Abstract. Microbial communities are often more species-rich than predicted from classical ecological models. The high levels of coexistence observed in nat

academic.oup.com

I’m honored to be selected as one of Scientific American’s inaugural Young American Scientists, a recognition of 28 early-career researchers whose work is shaping the future of science. My interview is here: www.scientificamerican.com/article/trev...  #SciAmYoungScientists @sciam.bsky.social

Trevor GrandPre

Building models to understand how self-organizing structures in cells lead to disease

scientificamerican.com

Spent the last two years developing a new Intro to Physics course for undergrad biology majors. It features tons of examples from biology (especially Ecology & Evolution!) and requires only middle school-level math. Lecture note here shorturl.at/0PiVp Any comments or feedback are highly welcome!

Now published: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

What sets the mutation rate of a cell type in an animal species?

Mutation rates per generation are strikingly similar across germlines of animals and across at least one somatic cell type, suggesting a key role for natural selection in shaping mutation rates. This ...

journals.plos.org

Molly Przeworski@mollyprz.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Happy to highlight an essay I wrote together with @marcdemanuel.bsky.social, @natanaels.bsky.social and Anastasia Stolyarova, trying to think through what sets the mutation rate of a cell type in an animal species: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/n

#PEQG26 folks! I will be presenting my postdoc project with @jkpritch.bsky.social and @jeffspence.github.io about inferring population structure dynamics over time with tensor decomposition on ARG. The talk will be at the James Crow Talk session on Wednesday. Look forward to seeing everyone there!

in case you missed it: profmcinerney.substack.com/p/the-pangen... "The Pangenome Is Not A Parts List"

The Pangenome Is Not a Parts List

The pangenome is the total genetic repertoire of a group of organisms. It is a property of populations, maintained by evolutionary processes.

profmcinerney.substack.com

We're launching a major collaborative Center aimed at accelerating phage therapy @gladstoneinst.bsky.social. High-throughput experiments with engineered phages (my lab) and strains (Silas Lab), organoids (Ott Lab), and AI (Pollard Lab). gladstone.org/news/gladsto...

Gladstone Launches Center for PhAIge Therapy to Harness AI in the Fight Against Drug-Resistant Infections

The center, funded by an NIH grant, will become one of three national centers dedicated to accelerating the development of phage therapy.

gladstone.org

Check out our newest pre-print about E. coli and phage evolution when the gut is on 🔥! It will only take 20 minutes to read the main text.

Marta Lourenço@martalourenco21.bsky.social · 2mo ago

🧵 New preprint out! We asked: what happens to gut bacteria when the intestine is under chronic inflammation (IBD)? Turns out, the host's inflammatory state reshapes how they evolve, and the results are pretty striking. A thread 👇

I’m looking to hire one or two postdocs - possible projects include pop gen theory, methods development, and human evolutionary inference. Please share, and email if you are interested. More info: evoldir.net/brian/evoldi...

Evolution induced state shifts in a long-term microbial community experiment (now out, but previously posted here as a preprint) with Ville Mustonen, Lutz Becks @jcairns.bsky.social & others. Experiment continues @utu.fi and now 5+ years www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Evolution induced state shifts in a long-term microbial community experiment | PNAS

Biological communities are complex, dynamic systems that underpin ecosystem functionality, yet their long-term dynamics and predictability remain p...

pnas.org

Do you love amplicon sequencing? Do you want to sequence MORE amplicons, faster and at lower cost? Check out 💘CUPID-seq💘, a highly multiplexed library design that lets you sequence hundreds of amplicon samples (16S, 18S, and more!) on a single sequencing run! (1/n) 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Check out our lab's latest preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

check out our new work on the design principles underlying cytotoxic T-cell responses. how do trade-offs and cell economics shape immune decision making? led by Obinna Ukogu and in collaboration with Grégoire Altan-Bonnet. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Design principles of the cytotoxic CD8+ T cell response | PNAS

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes eliminate infected or malignant cells, safeguarding surrounding tissues. Although experimental and systems-immunology studi...

pnas.org

Please share widely! We will imminently be posting a technician position in our lab group since @rheasood.bsky.social is off to grad school 🙌! If you know of anyone excited about molecular biology, evolution, and functional genomics please have them reach out (schumer at stanford). Start date ~June

New from our group, led by Nick Collier:

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Inferring hominin history with recurrent gene flow from single unphased genomes and a two-locus statistic https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.11.717825v1

📣Huge preprint 🔔 Today we share something our group has been working toward for a long time, led by @lucasmoriniere.bsky.social We asked can we predict which receptor a phage targets from its genome sequence alone? For most phages, we couldn’t. So Lucas set out to do something I had only dreamed of.

We posted a new theory preprint. I am very interested to hear what the community thinks about it. We looked at the dynamics of evolution on several (simple) models of modular genotype-phenotype-fitness maps and found that populations approach a quasi-steady state we call "module-selection balance".

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Module-selection balance in the evolution of modular organisms https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.01.715873v1

Really excited that this major work from my PhD is finally published in @plosbiology.org ! In it, we were trying to tackle a fundamental question in evolution - how do genetic mutations map onto evolutionary fitness? (1/n) journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Genotype-fitness mapping of adaptive mutants reveals shifting low-dimensional structure across divergent environments

Predicting the effect of a genetic mutation on fitness is a major challenge in evolutionary biology. This study uses fitness effects of a large collection of adaptive yeast mutants in multiple lab env...

journals.plos.org

Happy to share the final version of @oliviamghosh.bsky.social's paper on inferring low dimensional phenotype-fitness maps from high-throughput fitness measurements across environments. Fun collaboration with @oliviamghosh.bsky.social, @grantkinsler.bsky.social, & @petrovadmitri.bsky.social

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 4mo ago

Predicting the effect of a #mutation on #fitness is hard. @oliviamghosh.bsky.social @petrovadmitri.bsky.social &co use fitness effects of adaptive yeast mutants to show that underlying genotype-phenotype-fitness maps are low-dimensional but context-dependent @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4dLy2Ez

Registration is open for the inaugural GRC conference in the Function of Evolving Systems. Aug 9-14, 2026, Waterville Valley. Truly stellar speaker lineup. Student/postdoc fellowships are available! Please come join us! www.grc.org/function-of-... @joybergelson.bsky.social

I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.

Happy to share my solo-authored Perspective "An Interpretation, Survey, and Outlook of Microbial Macroecology"! Making time these last few months to take stock of the patterns us microbial ecologists examine + models we invoke has been invaluable. Feedback welcome! ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Happy that our work on the evolution of Yellowstone cyanobacteria is now published in @elife.bsky.social: doi.org/10.7554/eLif...! Did a lot of work in revision—many thanks to the anonymous reviewers for great suggestions! Also see the eLife digest for a summary: elifesciences.org/digests/9084...

Hybridization breaks species barriers in long-term coevolution of a cyanobacterial population

Analysis of hundreds of single-cell genomes from Yellowstone National Park shows bacterial species are less cohesive than previously thought.

doi.org

Before 2025 closes out, I wanted to make a thread on my proudest recent paper! (Ok, it's from 2024, but I haven't done a bluesky thread on it before). Allen et al. (2024) "Nonlinear social evolution and the emergence of collective action", PNAS Nexus academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...