NEW: "Ecological and socioeconomic factors associated with globally reported tick-borne viruses", led by @samsambado.bsky.social, in which she applied BRT modelling to a global database of TBVs to pick apart the complicated pathway from transmission to reported cases! www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Ecological and socioeconomic factors associated with globally reported tick-borne viruses - Communications Medicine

Sambado et al. examine how environmental and social conditions shape where tick-borne viruses are reported worldwide. Using machine learning, they find that both ecological and economic are important, and that wealthier nations are more likely to report these overlooked diseases.

nature.com

🦇 Very excited to share our Artibeus jamaicensis genome and IG locus annotations! A beautiful piece of work led by Ashley Reers in collaboration with the @schountz.bsky.social lab. This is just the beginning of a dive into the fascinating world of bat Igs in the future! 🦇🦠 doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

This is going to be so, so useful. Amazing job, @stephseifertphd.bsky.social and especially Dr Alexander Brown!

Steph N. Seifert, PhD@stephseifertphd.bsky.social · last yr.

🚨 Our team just released a reproducible Docker pipeline for RNAseq assembly and annotation designed for nonmodel organisms! We're using it to explore how bats manage viral infections, but it's built for broad utility in wildlife transcriptomics. @viralemergence.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

An update from the team on the uncertain future of our program and the impact of NSF budget cuts. Please share and reach out 🦠

Please enjoy this fabulous meme made by a student in my “biology of bats” class. (I obviously laminated it and put it on my office door.)

5: This is so embarrassing. Husband: What? 5: You. So it begins.

I cannot imagine my career #WithoutNSF. My DDIG made me feel like a real scientist and gave me the data and confidence that allowed me to start my lab, (get additional NSF funding!), investigate bat immunity, and train 5 PhD students, 1 postdoc, 2 masters students and many undergrads!

Leslie Rissler@ljrissler.bsky.social · last yr.

Why is the U.S. National Science Foundation important? Please share your stories! Use the hashtags #WithoutNSF or #WithoutScience

About NSF’s new(est) bulletin - 15% indirect cost rates will kill universities. Apparently that’s the point. I am sick.

SaveNSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the NSF. The mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation. Join: www.savensf.com

Absolutely devastating and unconscionable what this administration is doing to destroy science in the US

Science Magazine@science.org · last yr.

Exclusive: National Science Foundation staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced.

The degree of squint is closely correlated with the level of excitement and gratitude.

Sunshine Van Bael@vanbaellab.bsky.social · last yr.

@bat-lady.bsky.social Congratulations to Dr. Hannah Frank for winning the Early Career Achievement Award from Tulane’s School of Science and Engineering. Well deserved!

@sjryan3.bsky.social is awesome and this looks like a great opportunity!

Sadie J. Ryan (she/her)@sjryan3.bsky.social · last yr.

Do you want to work on some cool pandemic expansion questions with me/us? Check this out!

Cuts to US foreign aid, science and public health are having and will have devastating consequences including many deaths. Today’s version: my personal nightmare, drug-resistant TB. apple.news/ABACC9a5RRlK...

The World’s Deadliest Infectious Disease Is About to Get Worse — The Atlantic

By retracting foreign aid, President Trump could make tuberculosis untreatable again.

apple.news

Conference registration and lodging are now open for #BatID2025! Sign up at batid.org by April 15! @bat-lady.bsky.social @virology.bsky.social @danjbecker.bsky.social @stephseifertphd.bsky.social

Firings happening right now at the NSF.

Bats are a diverse and species rich order (Chiroptera). This diversity also brings along differences in immune systems. Read more here, led by the Becker and Frank laboratories, along with contributions from us. #LZCI @danjbecker.bsky.social @bat-lady.bsky.social ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

I thought zombies would be a fun way to give my students practice with SIR/ compartment models. It was but mostly we learned that people have wildly diverging and strong opinions on how one becomes a zombie. 🧟‍♀️

Abstract submissions and travel scholarships are now open for BatID 2025! Submit your abstracts by March 15 and your scholarship requests by February 28 on our website: batid.org @danjbecker.bsky.social @bat-lady.bsky.social @virology.bsky.social @stephseifertphd.bsky.social

It’s a confusing, anxious, no good very bad day for scientists, conservationists, community helpers…

Kathleen (Katie) Ferris@ferrisifolius.bsky.social · 2y ago

What the actual fuck is happening right now.

Hi BlueSky, it’s snowing in New Orleans. 😬