Rebecca Case
@beccase.bsky.social
marine microbial ecologist 1 degree north
Looking forward to @isme-microbes.bsky.social - 2026 in Auckland, NZ, this week! Below are poster and talks from my group and collaborators in @scelse.bsky.social. It'll be a great meeting - thank you Mike Taylor and all the organising committee for ISME 20!
Today, Mr. Shou Chew, CEO TikTok Singapore, gave the commencement speech at NTU on following curiosity through career. It reminded me of the moment I realised Singapore was home - watching him, with Singaporean politeness, in the US Senate. I still cry with laughter www.youtube.com/shorts/bVzRL...
US senator asks TikTok’s Singaporean CEO if he’s Chinese Communist Party member
YouTube video by CNA
youtube.com
Over the last three years, Joao Pereyra and I have collaborated with Huang Danwei and Jani Tanzil's teams on finding heat resilient corals in Singapore's turbid reefs, HIIT train them and dose them with probiotics. Somehow it worked! @scelse.bsky.social www.straitstimes.com/singapore/en...
Training Singapore corals to withstand hotter seas
Singaporean scientists are using 'good' bacteria and HIIT training to make corals more resilient to rising sea temperatures and prevent bleaching. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitsti...
straitstimes.com
I met Prof. Kjelleberg as a 2nd year in his motility lecture, and throughout my career, when I have a big picture question, I seek his perspective. Often it's two years between conversations as ISME is the meeting we find each other at - it's been lovely to now share a home in SCELSE
ISME - International Society for Microbial Ecology@isme-microbes.bsky.social · 2mo agoISME Fellow and @scelse.bsky.social founding director Staffan Kjelleberg reflects on building a world-leading research centre and the future of microbial ecology in a One Health world Read more isme-microbes.org/public-intro... #ISME #MicrobialEcology
Succession and host selection are often confounding factors in microbial communities and we've attempted to deconvolute these in seagrass meadows
bioRxiv Ecology@biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social · 6mo agoUncoupling of seagrass host selection and succession for microbial guilds in meadow chronosequence https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.24.714081v1
Our new work on a megaplasmid (or chromid) that transforms a coral pathogen to a symbiont that extends the thermal range of it's coral host
bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 4mo agoA beneficial megaplasmid transforms an opportunistic bacterial pathogen to benefit coral by extending their thermal range https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.19.733351v1
The symbiotic relationship between Ned Ruby's lab, who focus primarily on the bacteria, Vibrio fischeri and Margaret McFall-Ngai's lab, who focus primarily on the bobtail squid, has led to a deep understanding of what symbiosis really means at the molecular level youtu.be/M5rZ52wcQ08
You Gotta Be Squid-ding Me!: microTalk with Ned Ruby and Margaret McFall-Ngai at ASM Microbe 2026
YouTube video by ASM - Microbes Make Our World
youtu.be
Singapore planning and funding projects to build resilience in our changing climate - rising sea level is critical for our Island Nation www.theedgesingapore.com/news/singapo...
Singapore to begin giant project to fight rising sea levels
Singapore is pursuing a US$100 billion strategy to build resilience against climate impacts including flooding threats and storm surges.
theedgesingapore.com
Four decades of satellite observations reveal that mangrove forests globally have recently shifted from net loss to net gain, with reduced degradation and continued regrowth and expansion, suggesting early signs of conservation success. Learn more this week in Science: https://scim.ag/4vMGzx9
I guess as scientists we should all create more content for these channels... maybe an objective for my next sabatical... www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The future of science communication is not an article like this
Researchers and science publishers need to seize the opportunity offered by the drastic shifts in the way news is produced — one reason Nature has joined TikTok.
nature.com
Very excited to share our new paper out in Nature. Congrats to Xiaoqian (Annie) Yu and all the coauthors. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genome-wide sweeps create ecological units in the human gut microbiome - Nature
Genome-wide selective sweeps commonly occur in the human gut microbiome and can spread across the world within decades to produce epidemic-like population structures.
nature.com
Marine Sciences in Singapore to launch new Centre of Excellence! SCELSE PIs have been involved in the previous marine sciences programs MSRDP and MCCS where they collaborate across universities and centres. @beccase.bsky.social Read Straits Times: www.straitstimes.com/singapore/en...
Singapore launches $60m marine research centre
Singapore launches a $60 million marine research centre to advance ocean conservation and inform coastal policy decisions. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
straitstimes.com
My day is made. Someone threw a hot dog into my lecture. Every year I talk about microbes that survive on dissolved organic matter and how it just diffuses to them and how that would be like me living off of the hot dogs that float into my room. It took 10 years but one finally did!!! 🤣
"A/Prof Rebecca Case from SBS, NTU said she hopes that the centre of excellence will encompass the important role that microbes play in the ecosystem. ... We have the highest diversity per area in the world; we have monsoons rather than seasons, and our equatorial location uniquely places us"
Singapore launches $60m marine research centre
Singapore launches a $60 million marine research centre to advance ocean conservation and inform coastal policy decisions. Read more at straitstimes.com. Read more at straitstimes.com.
straitstimes.com
Looking forward to hosting Prof Lisa Stein for a wetlands seminar this Thursday morning
Public service announcement: Please stop with all the adaptationism. Issue 1: some beneficial traits arise through forces other than natural selection (i.e. they aren't results of adaptation). Issue 2: many seemingly beneficial traits are not beneficial at all (i.e., they don't increase fitness).
Exciting news announced by MOS Alvin Tan in Singapore's Parliament today! $60 million for Centre of Excellence in Marine Sciences mothership.sg/2026/03/new-...
NParks & NUS to establish new marine science research centre of excellence
A S$60 million research programme will be conducted at the centre.
mothership.sg
Microbes in action! Students at Science Discovery Camp 2025 explored microbial science at SCELSE, toured labs, and played Lockdown!, a pandemic-themed card game. Kudos to NTU College of Science! 📍18–20 Jun 2025 | NTU 🔗 blogs.ntu.edu.sg/science/2025/07/28/science-discovery-camp-2025/
Thank you Prof @Doralyn Dalisay for the SCELSE Seminar on “Natural Product Discovery from Philippine Biodiversity”. Her team advances discoveries from lab to market—antibiotics, therapeutics & more—showing innovation can thrive anywhere.
Our new article on circularised economy is out! Applied research is new for me, but the chance to collaborate with SCELSE's water engineers caught my interest. How little salt do they need to make omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids? A lot less than I thought! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reusing bioreactor effluent as a circular bioresource strategy for cultivating marine microalgae and producing Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids
The rapid growth of the aquaculture industry underscores the need for sustainable alternatives to traditional fishmeal. We investigated the potential …
sciencedirect.com
Discoveries with Roseobacteraceae: Bacterial Models for Ocean Heterotrophy www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... #jcampubs 🌊
Discoveries with Roseobacteraceae: Bacterial Models for Ocean Heterotrophy | Annual Reviews
The molecular revolution of the 1990s brought insights into the tremendous breadth of ecological and evolutionary diversity harbored within the bacterial and archaeal domains of life, enabling scienti...
annualreviews.org
Don't miss out on the 3rd West Pacific Marine Biology Symposium @ UQ Brisbane, 25–28 Nov. Reg & abstracts open: tinyurl.com/wpmbs2025 Early-bird regos now extended to 14 Oct, so you can still secure discounted registration rates! @cnrs.fr @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social UQ Centre for Marine Science
Bacteria enhance sulfur deficiency tolerance in plants Rhizosphere microbiome is remodeled under sulfur (S) deficiency with competition among bacteria increasing their release of glutathione, which benefits the plant at expense of bacterial fitness www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
A bacterial signal coordinates plant-microbe fitness trade-off to enhance sulfur deficiency tolerance in plants
Mukherjee et al. report fitness trade-off between plants and the rhizosphere microbiome under sulfur deficiency, mediated by the tri-peptide signal glutathione. Competition among rhizosphere bacteria ...
cell.com
Ten microbiology organizations have come together to develop a global strategy to integrate microbial science into climate solutions. ISME is proud to stand alongside these partners in shaping this roadmap. Read more: isme-microbes.org/microbes-wit... #MicrobialEcology #ClimateAction
The role of the microbiome in the successful transplantation of seagrass meadows - @universitedeliege.bsky.social www.sciences.uliege.be/cms/c_135245...
The role of the microbiome in the successful transplantation of Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadows
Research conducted by scientists at ULiège shows that the method used has a direct influence on plant survival.
sciences.uliege.be
Louisiana reports five deaths from flesh-eating bacterium in coastal waters - Ramon Antonio VARGAS @theguardian.com www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Louisiana reports five deaths from flesh-eating bacterium in coastal waters
Officials say deaths from Vibrio vulnificus exceeding average amid warning over climate-linked case increase
theguardian.com
Missed SCELSE Open House 2025? Catch the highlights in this 2-min video below. And look out for next year's Open House in Aug 2026! #SCELSE #SCELSEImpact #OpenHouse2025 #Microbiome #Biofilm
Nice summary from Songcan & Marc 🙏 on our discovery of a new microbial energy metabolism 🦠 🧫 ⚡ 🔌 Microbial Iron oxide respiration coupled to Sulfide Oxidation (MISO) @nature.com Research Briefing 😍 doi.org/10.1038/d415... 📰 Original paper www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microsky #microbiomesky
Iron-respiring microbes could have a role in sulfur cycling
A species of bacteria grows when both ferrihydrite and sulfide are present, but not when either is absent.
doi.org