How does human genetics research live in the information ecosystem? Is it misused? Misrepresented? In my paper with @sramach.bsky.social, we tackle this question with 25 years of Wikipedia data, AI chatbot responses, and pages from Grokipedia www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

From Wikipedia to AI: Measuring 25 years of synthesis of human genetics research in the public-facing information ecosystem

Genetics research frequently intersects with ethnicity, nationality, and race, making it uniquely vulnerable to misrepresentation. Yet, 25 years after the initial sequencing of the human genome, there...

biorxiv.org

I'm really excited about SeqSets reaching fruition. Sequencing pathogen genomes is impactful: this data enables us to design vaccines, to predict future evolution, and more. But at the moment, getting scientific credit mostly requires writing a paper, not just sequencing a genome. [1/n]

Pathoplexus@pathoplexus.org · 2w ago

2/ 📄 SeqSets/DOIs now show citations! We've integrated with @crossref.bsky.social so you can see which scientific publications have used a SeqSet - on the SeqSet page *and* on individual sequence pages. Using seqs in a paper? Don't forget to cite the DOI! 👉 pathoplexus.org/about/citation

Independent replication from my own hand (right) and foot (left) in a little family science project

Rauf Salamzade@raufs.bsky.social · 3d ago

We investigated and identified several skin-derived bacteria that antagonize common pathogenic species: www.nature.com/articles/s41... A cool highlight was that bacteria from feet, where fungi are particularly diverse, tended to be more broadly antifungal than those from other body sites! #microevo

We investigated and identified several skin-derived bacteria that antagonize common pathogenic species: www.nature.com/articles/s41... A cool highlight was that bacteria from feet, where fungi are particularly diverse, tended to be more broadly antifungal than those from other body sites! #microevo

Large-scale investigation for antimicrobial activity reveals newly-identified defensive species across the healthy skin microbiome - Nature Communications

Authors present the EPithelial Isolate Collection (EPIC), a large skin microbiome culture collection, uncovering new species, widespread antifungal activity, and hidden biosynthetic diversity, reveali...

nature.com

New Preprint 🚨: Led by Ph.D student, Ashlynn Bruder, we explore how feast/famine cycles in our LTRS system influence temporal selection on new mutations. Reconstruction of mutations reveals environment-dependent epistasis + increased fitness during both feast and famine conditions. Summary Fig ⬇️

bioRxiv Evolutionary Biology@biorxiv-evobio.bsky.social · yesterday

Environment-dependent epistasis shapes adaptation to fluctuating resources. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.31.742109v1

New King lab paper @currentbiology.bsky.social led by the brilliant @luismsilva.bsky.social on parasite shedders and spreaders: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Transmission heterogeneity emerges from uncoupled parasite shedding and spreading

Silva et al. show that disease transmission emerges from multiple ecological bottlenecks rather than a single host trait. Separating parasite shedding from downstream infection success reveals why hos...

cell.com

Today everyone — EVERYONE — should take a moment and read Ray Bradbury's four-page short story from 1950.

Rebecca R Helm@rebeccarhelm.bsky.social · 21h ago

Today is the day the story There Will Come Soft Rain is set. An amazing and heartbreaking work of fiction for our modern age. Read it here:

How can we study life’s deep evolutionary past? By bringing it into the lab! This @asm.org feature highlights our on-going efforts. Read how synthetic biology allows us to reconstruct ancient microbial systems, test hypotheses about early metabolism and explore how life and Earth co-evolved. 🌍

ASM@asm.org · 5d ago

Synthetic biology is advancing how scientists study early microbial life. Their findings could revolutionize how we think about Earth’s earliest residents—and those that exist today. asm.org/articles/202...

#MEEHubs2026 Montreal may have collectively lost the quiz but we are winning the poster session ;)

MEEhubs@meehubs.bsky.social · yesterday

MEEHubs or MEEPubs? Our cross-hub pub quiz pitted hubs against each other in a thrilling battle. Congrats to "alan", "Tom" and "swayam" for winning free registration to a local hub at the next MEEHubs! #MEEHubs26 #MEEHubs2026

New collab paper! Lily Charpentier (a Ph.D. grad student in the Stanton lab at Dartmouth) used an in vitro polymicrobial model that we developed a few years ago to explore how polymicrobial bacterial EVs can modulate CF host responses. #microsky isevjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Polymicrobial Extracellular Vesicles Reduce the Innate Immune Response of Human Cystic Fibrosis Bronchial Epithelial Cells

Chronic antibiotic-resistant cystic fibrosis (CF) lung infections are the leading cause of death in adults with CF. Despite advances in highly effective modulator therapies, microbial communities per...

isevjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

Our latest contribution on #regulatoryevolution in which we show that the shape of fitness functions and the distribution of mutational effect sizes jointly limit adaptation by regulatory mutations. Led by @simonaube.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The shape of fitness functions and the distribution of mutational effect sizes jointly limit adaptation by regulatory mutations - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Saturation mutagenesis of the FCY1 promoter in budding yeast shows that adaptation to 5-fluorocytosine is not accessible through single cis-regulatory mutations, despite large mutational effects on pr...

nature.com

I think Montreal hub got the best lunch! #MEEHubs2026

MEEhubs@meehubs.bsky.social · 2d ago

What's the vibe where you are? Are you having a beer or a coffee? #MEEHubs2026

I miss physical show tickets!

Loving the mosaic sidewalk repair

The manuscript describing SimPhyNI is now published! www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... A few updates since last post, including some method tweaks that improve performance and speed. Also even easier to run. Try it for your microbial GWAS or epistasis needs!

High-precision binary trait association on phylogenetic trees

Traditional methods for identifying associations between genomic features and traits, or between pairs of genomic traits, struggle when applied to bacterial genomes. While several microbial genome-wid...

microbiologyresearch.org

Tami Lieberman@contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Proud to announce SimPhyNI, a new tool for bacterial GWAS with higher precision and scalability than existing tools. Try it out and let us know what you think!!

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 🧵

Empire of Light by René Magritte, 1953 https://botfrens.com/collections/212/contents/137683

Dear microbiome enthusiasts: I'm excited to be moving my lab to New York University this fall (& the NYU Institute for Engineering Health); with joint-appointment @isbscience.org I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980 Please share! 🦠🤓

One week left to register for MEEHubs2026 taking place Aug 3-5!! Please join us in Montreal, Ann Arbor, Irvine, Morelia, Zurich, Manchester, Chernihiv, or online. Register here: meehubs.org

Home

Abstract submission now closed but we now invite all poster presenters to upload their posters to our platform using the above link by July 31, 2026.

meehubs.org

Science is not a zero sum game where we're racing to mine a finite set of facts available in the world. It's a collaborative process of discovery. A single place hollowing out its research infrastructure doesn't let others "win" except by trivial metrics. Instead, it impoverishes us all. 1/2

Urbanization and melanism in squirrels In Montreal, well, it's complicated Check out the new paper in @animalecology.bsky.social led by Francis Dinh - who was an undergrad in Biology (@biomcgill.bsky.social) at McGill U (@mcgillscience.bsky.social) when he did the work @mcgillumedia.bsky.social

These rankings are generally bogus but in this case they happened to get it right ;)

McGill University@mcgill.ca · 2w ago

🏆 Montreal named #1 student city in Canada and top 20 worldwide We're proud to call one of the continent's top-ranked student cities home. From innovation and culture to exceptional student experiences, Montréal helps make McGill a destination for talent from around the world. mcgill.ca/x/5XA

1. Let me also clarify that I am deeply grateful for the public investment in our science, and the hard work done by review committees. On the other hand, it is a brutal workload for review committees to see these grants over and over again. Not an efficient way to improve the science.

Jesse Shapiro@bjesseshapiro.bsky.social · 2w ago

Well, my CIHR Project Grant to continue our work on cholera/phage evolutionary genomics was awarded after... wait for it... FIVE attempts over 2.5 years. Success rate in my committee was 11.5%. This is not sustainable! Feels more like a relief than something to celebrate.

Well, my CIHR Project Grant to continue our work on cholera/phage evolutionary genomics was awarded after... wait for it... FIVE attempts over 2.5 years. Success rate in my committee was 11.5%. This is not sustainable! Feels more like a relief than something to celebrate.

1. We—@eduede.bsky.social, @mjcrockett.bsky.social, Kevin Gross, and I—have a new preprint on the arXiv today, based on ideas that emerged during an @sfiscience.bsky.social workshop in November 2024: The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science.

The unintended consequences of large language models as a labor-augmenting technology in science

As a labor-augmenting technology, large language models (LLMs) have the potential to accelerate scientific activity across the research pipeline. But even if LLMs perform on par with human experts at ...

arxiv.org

Significant update to the AllTheBacteria paper, including discovering new antimicrobial peptides and testing in vitro and vivo. This has grown into a fantastic collaboration!

César de la Fuente@delafuentelab.bsky.social · 2w ago

Biology has plenty of data—the challenge is making it usable. AllTheBacteria transforms 2.44 million public bacterial and archaeal genomes into an open, uniformly processed, searchable, AI-ready resource. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

It works!! Super robust workflow, performed by a 2nd year undergrad. @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social

Elinne Becket, PhD@bielleogy.bsky.social · last mo.

So I'm finally thoroughly parsing through this preprint from @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social & Patrick Lypaczewski where they homebrewed targeted ONT library prep, and it's even more brilliant than at first glance. Plus they've been so generous in answering my questions. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

David Hockney

I wish I did not have to bring up this old tweet from ‘that other place’ every now and again but here we are (again) and here it is…