Asher Leeks
@asherleeks.bsky.social
We study social evolution in viruses. Assistant Professor @zoology.ubc.ca & @ubcbiodiversity.bsky.social asherleeks.com
Come work with @viromehunter.bsky.social and myself at UBC! We have a postdoctoral position available for someone with an interest in bioinformatics and genomics, using sociovirology to understand disease dynamics in plant viruses. Advert: ppvlab.sites.olt.ubc.ca/files/2026/0...
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ppvlab.sites.olt.ubc.ca
Last day at the Leeks Lab, UBC, bittersweet doesn't cover it. Thank you @rowancallumg.bsky.social , @asherleeks.bsky.social & @liyamiksovsky.bsky.social for an unforgettable summer of social virology, R scripts, and my first ever conference. Officially hooked on research 🔬
#SocialViruses in Vancouver! I’m honored to have been a part of this incredible group of sociovirologists. Thank you @asherleeks.bsky.social and @sociovirology.bsky.social for having me, and everyone else who helped make for such a fascinating reassorting and recombining of ideas! #phagesky #virosky
I am enjoying #SocialViruses2026 in Vancouver, organized by @asherleeks.bsky.social and @sociovirology.bsky.social. Also, we finally got our #GeneticConflict in #Herpesviruses review published in #VirusEvolution, first conceived at the 2024 #SocialViruses meeting in Puerto Rico!
Antagonistic Co-Evolution Throughout the Herpesvirus Life Cycle
Abstract. Herpesviruses are a widespread and diverse family of large double stranded DNA viruses. Narrow host ranges maintained over long evolutionary time
academic.oup.com
We mine driver DVGs from longitudinal infection data! Mia Le presents her Granger-causality analysis at the Social Viruses Meeting organized by @asherleeks.bsky.social and @sociovirology.bsky.social. Exciting meeting & great opportunity to exchange with the sociovirology community #SocialViruses26
For those not able to make it to #socialviruses this year, Sam is live-tweeting all three days of talks, touching on all aspects of social evolution in viruses! #evosky #virosky 🧪 🦠 🔬
Sam Díaz-Muñoz (they / ella)@sociovirology.bsky.social · 2mo agoHi Everyone! I will be broadcasting live from the Social Lives of Viruses 2026 conference @zoology.ubc.ca @ubcbiodiversity.bsky.social in beautiful Vancouver BC, organized by @asherleeks.bsky.social and myself with the support of Canadian Institutes of Health Research and @moorefound.bsky.social.
Congratulations to @spyroslytras.bsky.social on launching his lab at the Pasteur in Paris! Looks like there will be some exciting openings at this lab soon... 🧪 #evosky #virosky
Antigen Evolution & Design Lab@antigenevo.bsky.social · 3mo agoInaugural post! We are a brand new lab @pasteur.fr studying how pathogen antigens evolve and how we can exploit these proteins' evolution to make better vaccines! Read a few words from the currently sole member of the lab @spyroslytras.bsky.social below! 😁 www.pasteur.fr/en/research-...
Inaugural post! We are a brand new lab @pasteur.fr studying how pathogen antigens evolve and how we can exploit these proteins' evolution to make better vaccines! Read a few words from the currently sole member of the lab @spyroslytras.bsky.social below! 😁 www.pasteur.fr/en/research-...
Predicting viral evolution with AI
Spyros Lytras is one of four young scientists selected in 2025 to lead new research groups at the Institut Pasteur. He has headed the “Antigen Evolution & Design laboratory” 5-year Group (G5) since Ju...
pasteur.fr
🧬‼️ATTENTION‼️🐠 Our 2026 application for our virtual #Evolution & #Ecology #GraduateSchool Preview Program is live!🌱 Please refer to our website (link in bio) for more information! We especially encourage individuals from historically excluded groups to apply! 🎉 #phdchat #ecoevo #gradschool #phd
It's as official as it can be: The Yoder Lab has been very lucky to receive NSF funding to develop our TARDIS method of modeling plants' flowering activity in varying environments. Watch for grad (MSci) opportunities in Fall 2027, and a postdoc position sooner than that 🌿 buff.ly/OHpbfB0
The Yoder Lab is building the TARDIS, with new support from NSF
Chaparral whitethorn, Ceanothus leucodermis, bearing flowers and fruits near the Red Box Picnic Area along the Angeles Crest Highway in early May, 2026. (Flickr, jby) Why do Joshua trees grow only …
lab.jbyoder.org
Where are mutations most likely to happen in the genome? @mattjago.bsky.social has answers! This paper is also a masterclass in simple visualizations of complicated ideas. I really enjoyed getting deep into these results as a middle author 🧬
Matt Jago@mattjago.bsky.social · 4mo agoOur work characterizing how mutational bias is influenced by the local sequence context beyond trinucleotides is out now @pnas.org! We also showed which motifs are most prone to mutations caused by strand misalignment, revealing several new hotspots! 🧬 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
1 week left to apply for scholarships ! If you are based at an institution in an ODA recipient country (e.g. Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico; full list: tinyurl.com/5dv7vvs8), you can get all expenses covered to attend the summer school in Lausanne for a week.
Charles Mullon@charlesmullon.bsky.social · 5mo agoApplications now open for the UNIL Summer School on Modelling for Evolutionary Biology (31 Aug–5 Sep 2026, Lausanne)! For PhD & postdocs interested in formal approaches to evolutionary ecology (incl. social evo, life-history, species interactions). Scholarships available, Pls RP! shorturl.at/fo1GA
Want to join us for Social Viruses in Vancouver this summer? One week to go until we start looking at applications (May 7th). To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky
Asher Leeks@asherleeks.bsky.social · 5mo agoThe Social Lives of Viruses is coming to Vancouver, Canada, from 4th-8th August 2026! This is a free meeting dedicated to all aspects of virus-virus interactions & evolution. To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca @sociovirology.bsky.social #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky
We're recruiting! We're looking for two graduate students to join us at UBC in Vancouver. Fully funded and open to global applicants, with flexible start-date. Topics include theory, bioinformatics, and microbiology. More details: asherleeks.com/apply #socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪
Thrilled to have my first PhD paper with @mmdesai.bsky.social out! @science.org Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Thread below: #mevosky #evosky #evobio #popgen #evolsky #ecoevo #molevol
Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation by purging hitchhiking load
Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms that maintain sex despite its direct costs is a long-standing challenge. Previous work has shown that sexual recombination can accelerate adaptation, in part ...
science.org
Shreyas Pai@theshreyaspai.bsky.social · last yr.Why is sex so common if it's so costly? Super excited to share our new preprint “Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation”, where we bring a new angle to this age-old evolutionary question. Co-led by Parris Humphrey, in Michael Desai's lab. Short thread here: (1/n)
Apply now for the EEB Scholars Program offered by Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The EEB Scholars program equips aspiring academics in Ecology and Evolution with the tools they need to successfully apply to grad school programs. Applications open until May 15th!
Interested in a *staff computational scientist* position? We are looking for an experienced computational biologist (ideally with microbiology experience) to support published packages while also driving new research. Pay range $73k-$111k w excellent benefits. careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
Computational Biology Program Scientist
MIT - Computational Biology Program Scientist - Cambridge MA 02139
careers.peopleclick.com
The Social Lives of Viruses is coming to Vancouver, Canada, from 4th-8th August 2026! This is a free meeting dedicated to all aspects of virus-virus interactions & evolution. To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca @sociovirology.bsky.social #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky
Massive and important positive news... #NSF #GRFP awards are out. 2,599 awards! + 1,440 Honorable Mentions. A significant boost from last year. Congratulations to the winners (and HM-s)! & many thanks to the reviewers & program officers who made this possible. www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...
In the lab, antibiotics can make integrated viruses (prophages) pop out of bacterial genomes. In this (short!) preprint, we asked a simple question: how much does this happen outside the lab, in the human gut? TLDR: Not much overall, in specific bacterial species. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Species-specific prophage induction by ciprofloxacin in human gut metagenomes
Antibiotics are known to trigger prophage induction in controlled laboratory settings, but it remains unclear whether this also occurs within microbiomes in nature. Current methods investigating the link between antibiotics and prophage induction within the human gut rely on in vitro culturing of human gut bacterial isolates. Using a metagenomic approach, we aimed to measure prophage induction and whether it is associated with antibiotic exposure. Across two independent human cohorts, we compared prophage to bacterial host read depth ratios (P:H) across known or measured antibiotic exposures. We found that induction is not broadly associated with antibiotic exposures at the level of the overall microbiome, but that ciprofloxacin increases P:H ratios in specific bacterial species. We documented heterogeneous trajectories of P:H ratios over the course of antibiotic exposure, sometimes increasing and remaining high, or returning to baseline. This study complements experimental models by providing in vivo evidence of induction in the human gut. Importance Bacteriophages are viruses that infect a bacterial host. The lytic and lysogenic cycles are the two classic outcomes of phage infection. In the lytic cycle, the phage immediately replicates and lyses its host to release new viral particles. In the lysogenic cycle, the phage, now called a prophage, integrates its genome into that of its host without killing it. Prophages can switch to the lytic cycle in a process called induction, in which the viral genome is replicated, the host cell is lysed, and viral particles are released. The most immediate consequence of induction is host cell death which can impact bacterial populations and communities. Since prophages are mobile genetic elements that can move between bacteria, they are also an important vehicle for horizontal gene transfer. While induction has been well studied in vitro , whether and how induction occurs within the complex microbial ecosystem in humans is less well characterized. Understanding prophage induction in vivo is therefore critical in corroborating in vitro observations. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. NIH Common Fund, https://ror.org/001d55x84 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
biorxiv.org
Fantastic collaboration w/ @dbikard.bsky.social @audeber.bsky.social @rayanchikhi.bsky.social labs led by @jmouradesousa.bsky.social : We assessed the rates of variation of anti-phage systems in P4-like satellites and P2 helper phages. Quick conclusion: Huge variation! We focus on 4 key questions/5
Jorge Moura de Sousa@jmouradesousa.bsky.social · 7mo ago➡️ preprint from the lab! Bacteria have loads of antiviral defences in their mobile genetic elements (MGEs). So when MGEs move between bacteria, the defences move with them, generating a fast turnover of defences in bacteria. But what about the antiviral defence turnover in the MGEs themselves? 🤔 🧵👇
Many organisms, including humans, reshape their environments in ways that influence the conditions faced by future generations. We ask whether this can favour biological variation with @irisprigent.bsky.social in our new paper. Thanks to @dee-unil.bsky.social @snsf.ch www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
pnas.org
A nice collaboration from post-docs in my lab 😊 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @jingdi.bsky.social @luismsilva.bsky.social @paradyseb.bsky.social @molecularecolup.bsky.social
Integrating the Microbiome Into Infection Ecology and Evolution in Wild Animals
Parasites are a ubiquitous force in nature threatening wildlife populations and ecosystems. Interactions between hosts and their parasites are impacted by host-associated microbiomes, which are essen...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology. We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.
Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review
The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...
journals.plos.org
Excited to share a preprint of work from my postdoc with @paulturnerlab.bsky.social exploring how prophages can impact host thermal ecology and evolution. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
New Faculty Positions opening up at Wilfrid Laurier University! Integrative Organismal Zoologist: careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo... Microbial Systems: careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo... Computational Ecology/Modelling Biologist: careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo... Biochemistry: careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo...
Assistant Professor-Department of Biology (Zoologist)
Assistant Professor-Department of Biology (Zoologist)
careers.wlu.ca
SFI’s Santiago Elena has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. He joins 62 fellows in the 2026 class. His work explores how RNA viruses adapt to hosts and manipulate cellular resources. Since joining SFI in 2008, he has organized several working groups on virus evolution.
SFI External Professor Santiago Elena elected to the American Academy of Microbiology
SFI External Professor Santiago Elena has been elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, joining 62 other fellows in the class of 2026, each selected for their contributions in the ...
santafe.edu
How specific are heritable symbioses? And what can we learn from swapping obligate symbionts across host species? We address this in our latest, led by @inespons.bsky.social & in our collaboration w/ @microbiome.bsky.social 🦠🪲 Out today in @natcomms.nature.com! 1/n www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Now out & nicely formatted in @isme-microbes.bsky.social A big analysis of ocean genomes & metagenomes co-led by former postdocs, now PIs, @gmdouglas.bsky.social & @cyanophage.bsky.social along with co-PIs @lbobay.bsky.social & Samuel Chaffron. A few highlights... 🧵 (1/n) doi.org/10.1093/isme...
Co-occurrence is associated with horizontal gene transfer across marine bacteria independent of phylogeny
Abstract. Understanding the drivers and consequences of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a key goal of microbial evolution research. Although co-occurring
doi.org
Very excited for the upcoming seminars of the of the Internal Conflicts and Organismal Adaptation STN @eseb.bsky.social! Featuring @manishamuna.bsky.social, @mobilepurin.bsky.social, @joealcock.bsky.social, @asherleeks.bsky.social Join the email list here: internalconflictsstn.wordpress.com
