The Department of Integrative Biology at UT Austin has two open positions for assistant professors, one in evolutionary biology and one in mechanistic processes. Please share. Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/193270
Nancy Moran
@nancy-moran.bsky.social
Research biologist and lover of nature, mostly bacteria, insects and (lately) birds
Insights into the role of a genotoxin in nature, through the lens of a honeybee gut. Colibactin stabilizes a symbiont community and keeps out invaders... Congratulations to Yulin Song and other authors! rdcu.be/fBIeq or (subscription) www.nature.com/articles/s41...
rdcu.be
Our work on the symbiont-containing organelle that supports coral reefs is published today. Also, new genetic tools to study symbiosis in both corals and Aiptasia. Great work by Shumpei Maruyama, Cat Henderson, and the rest of the fantastic team. #SymbioSky www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Co-option of lysosomal machinery shapes the evolution of the intracellular photosymbiosis supporting coral reefs
Corals harbor intracellular algal symbionts in specialized organelles that enable them to build diverse reef ecosystems. Corals and other cnidarians have repeatedly evolved this symbiosis through the ...
cell.com
A step forward in discovering Buchnera's key to the aphid's heart, published today! Thanks to Jerry Maeda and other authors--a great team -- and to the helpful reviewers #SymbioSky doi: doi.org/10.1038/s415...
A secreted endosymbiont protein essential for colonizing host cells - Nature
SyeA was present in the Buchnera ancestor, is secreted into the host cytoplasm, is homologous to secreted effectors of bacterial pathogens and is essential for Buchnera transmission.
doi.org
My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have. apply.interfolio.com/177547
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The Lariviere lab at UMiami is recruiting PhD students! Incoming students will join us in studying host-microbe interactions in the honey bee gut, using molecular and genetic approaches. Please see the attached flyer for more details. #Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky #PhDOpportunity #AcademicJobs
Jo Holley led an undergrad team for this study, about wasps that are trying to be bees, using a new microbiome.
Honey wasps differ from other wasps in possessing large gut communities dominated by host-restricted bacteria | mBio
Honey-feeding social insects such as honey bees and bumble bees have conserved gut bacterial communities that are transmitted among nestmates. These bacteria benefit hosts by providing defense against...
journals.asm.org
The Mexican honey wasp is a bit of an oddball: it makes and eats honey like a bee, but when it’s hankering for protein, instead of pollen, it eats other insects. A new study finds its gut microbiome is more like bees than wasps. Funded by USDA and NSF. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Mark O. Martin@markowenmartin.bsky.social · last yr.It's another week. Another episode of #MattersMicrobial! Dr. John McCutcheon of Arizona State University discusses fascinating symbioses between insects & bacteria that shed light on endosymbiosis: how eukaryotic cells originated. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord! youtu.be/HZ9X6V7rpVk?...
Please share! Our lab is recruiting a PhD student to join us starting fall 2026. Our group is broadly interested in plant molecular evolution and comparative genomics. More info about our lab and grad programs at Colorado St. is available on our lab website. sites.google.com/site/danielb...
Sloan Lab
Welcome! Our research focuses on the evolutionary process at the molecular level. In particular, we investigate how a mixture of natural selection and non-adaptive forces create and maintain the amazi...
sites.google.com
An update on open postdoc positions, in my group and the adjacent group of Howard Ochman, here at UT-Austin. #SymbioSky Mine: insect-bacterial symbiosis with emphasis on intracellular endosymbionts and molecular mechanisms. web.biosci.utexas.edu/moran/contac...
Nancy Moran Contact
web.biosci.utexas.edu
Looking for a postdoc on bacterial-insect symbiosis, combining evolution and molecular mechanisms? I'll have one open in my lab starting Sept 2025. If interested contact me (or find me at the GRC on Animal-microbe symbiosis if you'll be there). #SymbioSky
Unbelievable. Richard Youle, winner of the Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences, just got fired from the NIH. If you want to know what madness looks like, here it is, my friend.
WIRED@wired.com · last yr.NEW: The doctor behind breakthrough Parkinson’s research was among the scientists purged from the National Institutes of Health, the US’s leading medical research agency. www.wired.com/story/doctor...
We had a terrific symposium on "evolution of symbiosis, insects, and bacteria" this past saturday, with many former members of the Moran/Ochman lab. I'm grateful to all of them.
We had a terrific symposium on "evolution of symbiosis, insects, and bacteria" this past saturday, with many former members of the Moran/Ochman lab. I'm grateful to all of them.
It was a pleasure to sign this. It is a small step, but a step nonetheless…
Thiago Carvalho@cyrilpedia.bsky.social · last yr.'In an open letter published Monday, nearly 2,000 of the nation’s top researchers called on the Trump administration to halt this “wholesale assault on U.S. science,” which they say is threatening America’s position as a global research leader as well as the health and safety of its citizens.'
Happen to be in central Texas this weekend, and interested in symbionts &/or evolution and/or insects? #SymbioSky
www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-r...
NEW: Baldwin, Welch Announce Forum on Devastating Trump Cuts at NIH Jeopardizing Cures for Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancers | U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Peter Welch (D-VT) announced that...
baldwin.senate.gov
A woman studies embryos for decades, struggles for funding and respect. She publishes under her husband’s name, until they divorce. A single mother, she moves across an ocean to continue her studies. It all sounds quite modern, until you learn that she also worried she’d be burned as a witch. 🧵 1/15
Nice piece here from the organizer of the Austin Stand Up for Science event, @benjaminjriley.bsky.social 👇. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting, Ben! buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/standing-u...
Standing Up for Science (and Democracy)
We the People take to the streets to fight to preserve America
buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com
Hi BlueSkyers! I'm an evolutionary biologist, microbiologist, entomologist, lover of nature, and long-time researcher on symbiosis. I'm realizing that BlueSky is useful and generally non-toxic so here I am (having quit Facebook in Jan 2017, and Twitter in Oct 2022).