Fresh from peer review a new and improved version of @taoranfu.bsky.social’s paper out today in @asm.org mSystems journals.asm.org/eprint/8NWNW...

Inflammation-like environments limit the loss of quorum sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa | mSystems

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common cause of chronic infections characterized by persistent inflammation. Host inflammatory responses alter within-host environments, including by increasing levels of antimicrobial stressors and releasing free amino acids ...

journals.asm.org

Michael Brockhurst@brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 2y ago

A nice way to wrap-up 2024: a neat preprint by @taoranfu.bsky.social (hot on the heels of her successful PhD viva) testing how inflammation-like environments shape Pseudomonas adaptation, limiting loss of quorum sensing www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

‼️I'm looking for a postdoc‼️ Come join effort in using metagenomes to quantify microbial catabolic potential and carbon substrate availability at the ecosystem level. We seek to understand evolutionary forces shaping the carbon cycle. Part of ccomp-stc.org careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Postdoctoral Associate

MIT - Postdoctoral Associate - Cambridge MA 02139

careers.peopleclick.com

New preprint! Deacon is a versatile tool for filtering FASTA/FASTQ files and streams at hundreds of megabases per second using minimizers, built with rapid metagenomic host depletion in mind, but equally useful for search. github.com/bede/deacon

bioRxiv Bioinfo@biorxiv-bioinfo.bsky.social · last yr.

Deacon: fast sequence filtering and contaminant depletion https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.09.658732v1

New additions in fellowships, industry, and academic jobs! If you've recently gotten a fellowship or a job (research, industry, PUI) please consider contributing your application materials. It's a helpful resource for those on the job market! github.com/RILAB/statem...

GitHub - RILAB/statements: Successful Job Applications and Grants

Successful Job Applications and Grants. Contribute to RILAB/statements development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

Sharing the most significant work from my group, led by the @evolvingstem.bsky.social team. Come for the discoveries of how Pseudomonas adapts in biofilms, stay for the story of how they were discovered by thousands of young scientists in grades 9-12. 🧪🧫🧬🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Student-led experimental evolution reveals novel biofilm regulatory networks underlying adaptations to multiple niches

We established a research-education partnership known as EvolvingSTEM that provides secondary school students the opportunity to conduct authentic research experiments centered on microbial evolution....

biorxiv.org

Student-led experimental evolution reveals novel biofilm regulatory networks underlying adaptations to multiple niches https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.06.06.658356v1

We have a new 3-year postdoc position in our group at the @hifmb.de to study plasmids and plasmids systems of the marine environment to survey their utility in microbial responses to environmental change. Please see the official job ad here, and spread the word: jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/20...

The Wadsworth Center is expanding it's research focus on #virology /vector-borne diseases! www.asmcareerconnections.org/job/research-scientist-5-g-31/78488664/ This is a unicorn assistant prof equivalent position with 12-month hard money salary and no teaching commitments (!) Reposts appreciated 🙏

Check out this brand new fellowship from the Simon’s Foundation in Ecology and Evolution. Incoming grad students this year are eligible to apply. No citizenship restrictions. www.simonsfoundation.org/grant/simons...

Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution

The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecolo...

simonsfoundation.org

This might be worth a read from @peterhotezmdphd.bsky.social in @plosbiology.org : journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs. Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng Custom Lab Hardware Turn Key Genetic Design Please repost for reach 💚

Our new preprint by @nanamikubota.bsky.social shows that P. aeruginosa, and likely many other bacteria carrying filamentous prophages (like V. parahaemolyticus), risk being exploited by these phages in a runaway process that reduces fitness of both host and virus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵

Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness

Many bacteria carry phage genome(s) in their chromosome (i.e., prophage), and this intertwines the fitness of the bacterium and the phage. Most Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains carry filamentous phages ...

biorxiv.org

Preprint out! Bacteria w/ hyper-replicative filamentous phage lead to overnight emergence of cheater phages. Bacteria w/ both phages can outcompete wildtype, then rapidly lose phage via a phage Tragedy of the Commons @shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness

Many bacteria carry phage genome(s) in their chromosome (i.e., prophage), and this intertwines the fitness of the bacterium and the phage. Most Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains carry filamentous phages ...

biorxiv.org

Excited to see a project I started back in high school finally published! Relative changes in precipitation drive global patterns of bird beta diversity. Huge thanks to Pedro, Mario, and José—couldn't have done it without you!

Pedro Abellán@pabellan.bsky.social · last yr.

Very happy to see this paper finally out in Global Ecology and Biogeography. "Precipitation Steepness Drives Global Patterns of Changes in Bird Community Composition Without Major Phylogenetic Signal". @unisevilla.bsky.social @queenscollegecuny.bsky.social onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

ATTN: Pennsylvania science folks! @laurenkreeger.bsky.social and I visited Senator McCormick (PA) yesterday and spoke to him about NIH cuts. He *did not know* there were active cuts to grants in part because he does not currently have a health care or science legislative aide to brief him. (1/2)

Susan Gottesman and Gisela Storz, pioneers in regulatory RNA research, reflect on their personal scientific journeys and the evolution of their groundbreaking group research in two compelling articles. Gigi: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Susan: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #RNA

Unexpected Richness of the Bacterial Small RNA World

I stumbled onto a small RNA (sRNA) induced by oxidative stress when I did the “wrong” northern blot experiment as a second-year graduate student. I wa…

sciencedirect.com

1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Genome duplication in a long-term multicellularity evolution experiment - Nature

In the Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment, diploid yeast evolve to be tetraploid under selection for larger multicellular size, revealing how whole-genome duplication can arise due to its...

nature.com

Donald Trump is lying to you.

New post with the WTAE Pittsburgh news story www.wtae.com/article/pitt...

Pittsburgh biomedical research funding hit hard by Trump policies, warns former NIH director

Berg explained that President Donald Trump's first tactic to halt biomedical research came with a general federal funding freeze, which a judge later reversed. His second tactic: Not updating the Fede...

wtae.com

Anne Carpenter writes about the science cuts: “this is like suddenly announcing that you will pay for doctors and nurses but not the hospital building they work in” for the LaPorte Herald Dispatch in IN 🌽 🧪🧬🔬🏠 @drannecarpenter.bsky.social www.lpheralddispatch.com/opinion/gues...

Indiana’s health and economy depends on U.S.-funded science

When people ask me what city I’m from, I say I’m not from a city – I’m from a county!

lpheralddispatch.com

I wrote a short letter to the editor of The Missoulian, my hometown newspaper in Montana, about the importance of science funding. I'm posting here in a thread, in case others want a template for writing home to their red state papers. Disclaimer: these are my own personal opinions/views. 🧵 1/9

My editorial simultaneously published in all of @asm.org's journals addresses the ongoing effort by the administration to halt efforts to diversify science. It should be obvious from ASM Journals' efforts over the years, but we aren't fans journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A call for healing and unity | mBio

Executive orders signed since 20 January 2025 aim to end programs intended to diversify the scientific workforce via equitable and inclusive practices and processes; cut federal funding for research and innovation; and stifle scientific communications. They represent a stunning reversal of policies that have been the bedrock of the U.S. scientific research enterprise and its leadership in the world, and therefore not surprisingly they have been met with a number of legal challenges. Some of the executive orders have been blocked by temporary restraining orders, and others are pending judicial review.

journals.asm.org

It's time to stand up and speak out. Call (202) 224-3121 and tell your representatives to not let Donald Trump and his administration take away your services.

Reminder that this starts tomorrow! #EconomicBlackout

“It would have a similar effect to the closing of a steel mill,” said Vaughn Cooper, a professor of microbiology. “This is not a steel town anymore; it’s a biomedical research town, and those cuts would affect Pittsburgh perhaps more than any other city in the country.”

Vaughn Cooper@vscooper.micropopbio.org · last yr.

Excellent reporting by @venuri.bsky.social about effects of NIH cuts and blocks on Pittsburgh. www.publicsource.org/research-fun... I speak as a community member and not on behalf of my employer.

Russell Vought & his ex-wife Mary have a daughter with cystic fibrosis, who is being treated with elexacaftor/tezacaftor/ivacaftor, drugs developed with the support of the National Institutes of Health. Now Russ & Mary are trying to destroy the agency. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Project 2025 is gutting medical funding that helped Russell Vought's own kid

Its architect's daughter has cystic fibrosis—and benefits from a "miracle drug" backed by an agency he's attacking.

motherjones.com

Wondering if your study section cancelled? I update this sheet daily. As of today, 56/124 study sections that should have met since Jan 2, 2025 have "not met as scheduled." docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

2025 Study section tracking

docs.google.com

What did we lose when we lost more than 22,000 (so far) fired government workers? This website connects numbers to people -- and to the important work they did. trumpcostsamerica.com

Trump Costs America

Highlighting the real people whose lives have been ruined, the good American jobs that are being destroyed, and the important public goods being lost.

trumpcostsamerica.com

🚨PA colleagues: "Senator Fetterman wants to hear from you about how the federal funding freeze is affecting Pennsylvania." "If your project has been impacted, please fill out our constituent impact form:" forms.office.com/g/mFv2JAPxpC Get out your Other Support and share that info!

I am restarting the StatDivLab blog! Goal is rigorous but accessible statistics for microbiome science. Here's the new scope & welcome: 😽✉️📝 statdivlab.github.io/blog/index.h... PS. I see you, friends. What a disaster. Please keep resisting, and encourage those around you to do the same.