Theoretical Biology & Bioinformatics @ UU
@binfutrecht.bsky.social
Our group consists of two research groups : Theoretical Biology (headed by Rob de Boer) and Bioinformatics (headed by Berend Snel) at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social
Thanks for having me! I really enjoyed the discussion as well.
Dr. Kat Napaaqtuk❄️@napaaqtuk.bsky.social · 3w agoOk, highly recommend this online journal club. The discussion was really thoughtful and the wide variety of perspectives was enlightening. Thank you @lavishaparab.bsky.social for organizing!
@jeroenmeijer.bsky.social is presenting today on this paper. They studied the eco-evo dynamics in 10 paired open and closed communities with a focus on viral communities. bsky.app/profile/paul...
Paul Rainey@paulbrainey.bsky.social · 2mo agoPleased to see this beautiful paper out. Kudos to @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social who took @stevenquistad.bsky.social data and dug deep, revealing a new phage that erupts to astonishing abundance. As theory predicts, the life of SGEs is fuelled by encounters with new hosts www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Back in Madrid after 3 months at @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social! I recently wrapped up a research stay at @binfutrecht.bsky.social working on cereal metagenomics for my PhD thesis 🧬 Big thanks to @mfseidl.bsky.social and the TBB team, and to @femsmicro.org for the Research and Training Grant!
For some reason people had less difficulty finding my poster than usual
Today we're enjoying a wonderful symposium hosted by Petros Skiadas & @mfseidl.bsky.social, as a prelude for Petros's PhD defence. Lots to learn about oomycetes and plant pathogenesis, immunity and effector biology! @ubc-uu.bsky.social @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social
There are many types of urinary tract microbiomes, and UTIs can happen with most of them. Even more interesting is that healthy individuals have almost the same microbial communities! Check out David's new preprint to see the details 👇
David Giron Villalobos@dagivi.bsky.social · last mo.1/4. Excited to share the first preprint from my PhD at @binfutrecht.bsky.social and @uti-revisited.bsky.social 🐥. In this work, we explored the urinary tract microbiome composition (urobiome) by combining data from multiple metagenomic sequencing studies 💛🦠. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
1/4. Excited to share the first preprint from my PhD at @binfutrecht.bsky.social and @uti-revisited.bsky.social 🐥. In this work, we explored the urinary tract microbiome composition (urobiome) by combining data from multiple metagenomic sequencing studies 💛🦠. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Cross-study metagenomics analysis reveals distinct microbial signatures of urinary tract infections
Background Urinary tract infections (UTIs) represent a major public health concern, increasingly complicated by rising antibiotic resistance, diminishing treatment efficacy, and increasing prevalence ...
biorxiv.org
Thrilled that our paper "Eco-evolutionary dynamics of massive, parallel bacteriophage outbreaks in compost communities" is out! 🎉🦠🧬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... w/ @paulbrainey.bsky.social, Petros Skiadas, Paulien Hogeweg, @bedutilh.bsky.social
Eco-evolutionary dynamics of massive, parallel bacteriophage outbreaks in compost communities
A single bacteriophage can dominate microbial communities yet only evolves when migration changes its ecological context.
science.org
Pleased to see this beautiful paper out. Kudos to @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social who took @stevenquistad.bsky.social data and dug deep, revealing a new phage that erupts to astonishing abundance. As theory predicts, the life of SGEs is fuelled by encounters with new hosts www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Eco-evolutionary dynamics of massive, parallel bacteriophage outbreaks in compost communities
A single bacteriophage can dominate microbial communities yet only evolves when migration changes its ecological context.
science.org
New in Science Advances: A bacteriophage stayed genetically stable for months, then evolved rapidly in a new microbial community. www.evolbio.mpg.de/3884217/viru... @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @paulbrainey.bsky.social @uni-jena.de @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social
Application deadline coming up: June 7th 🔔 Interested in... 🧐 Fundamental biology? 🧩 Elucidating how evolution works? 🧬 Obtaining new insights from genome sequences? 🫥 Archaea, the least studied domain of life? Join us with an exciting PhD on archaeal genome evolution!
Daniel Tamarit@danieltamarit.bsky.social · 3mo agoI'm looking for an enthusiastic student to join my team as a PhD candidate on archaeal genome evolution 🦠💻 Work in beautiful Utrecht, at @binfutrecht.bsky.social, an international group full of caring, amazing scientists, and with frequent cake breaks! www.uu.nl/en/organisat... Please share! 🙏
Some snaps from trails around the SFU and UBC campuses from the last 2 months. Vancouver is beautiful 😭
I'm looking for an enthusiastic student to join my team as a PhD candidate on archaeal genome evolution 🦠💻 Work in beautiful Utrecht, at @binfutrecht.bsky.social, an international group full of caring, amazing scientists, and with frequent cake breaks! www.uu.nl/en/organisat... Please share! 🙏
uu.nl
Proud of @ehauptfeld.bsky.social for receiving the Young Investigator Award by @biosb.bsky.social, in recognition to her PhD achievements in research and education! Very well deserved, and congratulations! @ubc-uu.bsky.social @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social
Our preprint on the 'Origins of Eukaryotic Metabolism' is out! Take a look at some of the new findings on the origin of eukaryotic membranes, metabolic integrations between archaeal and bacterial ancestors, and other fascinating prokaryotic interactions during eukaryogenesis. doi.org/10.64898/202...
doi.org
Our research work on using #singlecell co-mapping to study early embryonic development is now published: doi.org/10.7554/eLif....
Single-cell co-mapping reveals relationship between chromatin state and gene expression in early zebrafish development
A robust and quantitative map links chromatin modification and gene expression of cells during zebrafish embryogenesis.
doi.org
New preprint! Text by Bram van Eijnatten: Happy to share a collaboration between @binfutrecht.bsky.social and the Plant Stress Resilience Group from @utrechtuniversity.bsky.social and the Quint lab. We present the Arabidopsis thaliana 'EcoCore panel': www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
The VEO Group has a position open for a PhD student to investigate Fungi-bacteria interactions in complex communities! Check out this position and many more at the JSMC website 👇👇 www.jsmc-phd.de/admission/va...
Vacant Positions - JSMC Jena School for Microbial Communication
jsmc-phd.de
Phd Position alert 🚨 Join our project ASTRAfun (Adaptation and Starship Traffic in Root-Associated fungi), in which we will use computational models to unveil the hidden dynamics of fungal evolution. It’s not going to be just regular fun. It’s going to ASTRAfun. 🤓 www.uu.nl/en/organisat...
PhD Position in Computational Modelling of Fungal Evolution
How do giant mobile elements called ‘Starships’ reshape fungal plant pathogens? Help us computationally model their spread and impact in nature and agriculture!
uu.nl
In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! 🚨 Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!) Sharing is appreciated 🙏 🧵👇 doi.org/10.1093/fems...
Space is the place (for microbes 🦠)! Delighted to have contributed to this review on spatial structure in microbial communities by @marcelbaecker.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others.
Marcel Bäcker@marcelbaecker.bsky.social · 6mo agoMost microbes don't live in shaking flasks; spatial structure shapes how microbes interact and evolve at every scale, as we discuss in our recent review @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
Recently, a Hypothesis was posed in @jcellsci.bsky.social in which the root of eukaryotes was placed between kinetoplastids and all other eukaryotes. From this, it was implied that LECA did not have a kinetochore. We argue this is highly unlikely. A 🧵(1/12) Read our reply here: tinyurl.com/n87myhpr
The LECA had a conventional kinetochore and the kinetoplastid kinetochore is a derived feature – a critical evaluation of Akiyoshi, 2025
Summary:Akiyoshi, 2025 presented a hypothesis with implications for the early evolution of eukaryotes and eukaryotic cell division machinery. In this Correspondence, the authors conclude that this hyp...
tinyurl.com
Please check out our review on the impact of spatial structure in microbial ecosystems! In it, we discuss how spatial patterns impact microbial ecology and evolution, eventually impacting everything we see around us! See @marcelbaecker.bsky.social's amazing summary below :) 🦠 𝚂𝙿𝙰𝙲𝙴 𝙼𝙰𝚃𝚃𝙴𝚁𝚂 ! 🦠
Marcel Bäcker@marcelbaecker.bsky.social · 6mo agoMost microbes don't live in shaking flasks; spatial structure shapes how microbes interact and evolve at every scale, as we discuss in our recent review @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
Everyone knows that space and spatial structure is super important in shaping the Microverse 🌎🌍🌏 Check out this amazing review where @marcelbaecker.bsky.social and @bramvandijk.bsky.social et al bring together a huge body of knowledge @microverse.bsky.social @binfutrecht.bsky.social
Marcel Bäcker@marcelbaecker.bsky.social · 6mo agoMost microbes don't live in shaking flasks; spatial structure shapes how microbes interact and evolve at every scale, as we discuss in our recent review @jeroenmeijer.bsky.social @simonvanvliet.bsky.social @bedutilh.bsky.social @bramvandijk.bsky.social and others academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... 🧵👇
We have an open position for a bioinformatics/theoretical microbial ecology PhD student to study viral strategies in the global Microverse! Join us at the @microverse.bsky.social at @uni-jena.de, please apply through this link: jobs.uni-jena.de/jobposting/9...
PhD student bioinformatics: Viral strategies in the global Microverse
jobs.uni-jena.de
Wrapping up a productive week: very glad to have contributed to this review on how spatial structure shapes microbial ecology and evolution, led by @marcelbaecker.bsky.social, @bedutilh.bsky.social, @bramvandijk.bsky.social and many others. doi.org/10.1093/fems...
Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities
Spatial structure naturally emerges in microbial communities, shaping growth, interactions, and evolution, and revealing how microscale processes scale up
doi.org
@bramvandijk.bsky.social (and many other)'s new paper covered insights in microbial ecology, evolution and theoretical biology.
Simon van Vliet@simonvanvliet.bsky.social · 6mo agoWrapping up a productive week: very glad to have contributed to this review on how spatial structure shapes microbial ecology and evolution, led by @marcelbaecker.bsky.social, @bedutilh.bsky.social, @bramvandijk.bsky.social and many others. doi.org/10.1093/fems...
