Want to work with awesome colleagues and students? We are looking for a vertebrate biologist to apply for a TT position in Biological Sciences at Wellesley College. See here for more info: tinyurl.com/TTvertebrate

Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences

Please review the details for the position before applying. When applying, please confirm your legal name is entered exactly as it appears on your government-issued identification. Ensure that you hav...

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🎉 New paper alert, and it's an editor's pick! Looking at the gut #microbiome #brain axis in infants using metagenomics and EEG 🧪🦠 with @emma-margolis.bsky.social, @laurelgd.bsky.social, @gfahurbottino.bsky.social, done in @mightycrobe.bsky.social 's lab. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... 🧵 1/x

This was a huge effort, but so great to have such amazing collaborators to work with! Way to go @laurelgd.bsky.social @emma-margolis.bsky.social @mightycrobe.bsky.social ! 🧪🦠🔬 #microbesky

Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam@laurelgd.bsky.social · last yr.

Early gut changes around 4-6 months of age especially relate to the largest number of subsequent brain changes over the next postnatal year! with the incredible @emma-margolis.bsky.social @kevinbonham.com @mightycrobe.bsky.social, Guilherme Bottino, Kirsty Donald, and our Khula study team!

Our work on codevelopment of the infant gut microbiome and visual circuitry is finally out! Dream team: @kevinbonham.com @gfahurbottino.bsky.social @laurelgd.bsky.social @emma-margolis.bsky.social Kirsty Donald and Khula South Africa study team! Check it out: doi.org/10.1128/mbio...

Codevelopment of gut microbial metabolism and visual neural circuitry over human infancy | mBio

Over the past decade, extensive research has revealed strong links between the gut microbiome and the brain, at least in adults or those with neuropsychiatric disorders. This study explores how these associations emerge in early development using a ...

doi.org

Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam@laurelgd.bsky.social · last yr.

Early gut changes around 4-6 months of age especially relate to the largest number of subsequent brain changes over the next postnatal year! with the incredible @emma-margolis.bsky.social @kevinbonham.com @mightycrobe.bsky.social, Guilherme Bottino, Kirsty Donald, and our Khula study team!

Cool things happen when you partner up w/ @zymoresearch.bsky.social. My undergrad course in microbio’s Adopt-a-microbe assignment resulted in @wellesley.edu student Sophia Shin’s card being selected to go into the 2025 deck of Mighty Microbe cards!!

Great job @gfahurbottino.bsky.social presenting our lab’s work on the gut microbiome age model at #ASM2025

@wellesley.edu students Arla & Sara’s work this summer includes setting up and testing the water quality sensors and the weather station! We’ll move the sensors with the buoy to the middle of the lake in a few weeks. Huge thanks to Andrew from Onset and nd Nef from WC for their help!

‼️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

Congrats to the four VKC lab graduates, Nina Zhang, Meredith Swanson, Sally Song, and Trisha Rahman (unfortunately not in the photos). I'm so proud of you, I already miss you, and I cannot wait to read and hear about your next big achievements!

VKC lab party from last April - painting with microbes.

Thrilled to share our new paper in @science.org describing our discovery that bacteria can switch from competitors to bonafide predators when resources run dry—arming nanoscale “spears” (T6SS) to stab & consume neighbours. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #MicroSKy #Microbiology

Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities

In natural habitats, nutrient availability limits bacterial growth. We discovered that bacteria can overcome this limitation by acquiring nutrients by lysing neighboring cells through contact-dependen...

science.org

In today's WSJ by their editorial board www.wsj.com/opinion/rfk-...

I am grateful for a lab full of kind, supportive, joyful, smart and hard-working people. These days, I am extra thankful to each and every one of them as they keep things light and fun. This is how they surprised me last week 🥰:

Vaccines work. Look at the data - lots of great interactive charts: ourworldindata.org/vaccination). Also, if measles is linked to poor diet, why are free, nutritious school lunches for low-income kids going away?

Carl Zimmer@carlzimmer.com · last yr.

Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health, Citing Fringe Theories. Story by @teddyrosenbluth.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/3FvFUej

My two undergraduate research students, Nina and Sally, presenting their research at the MIT Microbiome Symposium last Friday. Great meeting w great talks and wonderful people! I always learn something new.

#medsky#pedsky#idsky#immunosky 🧪 In the midst of all of the scary headlines recently, I thought I could take a moment to share a bit of good news: for the first time in history, a malaria vaccine with >90% efficacy seems to be within reach! Here’s why that’s a really big deal for EVERYONE 🧵

Multiple faculty positions in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in association with the Center for Immunology, and the Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Cornell University

it’s not widely publicized but the minions were designed to represent various medically important protozoan parasites 🦠 🧫 🧪

New paper alert: Our 20-year study of viral ecology and evolution reveals viral roles in microbial dynamics, phage genome evolution over time, and key interactions with hosts. A big thank you to our awesome collaborators @quendi.bsky.social @archaeal.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Unravelling viral ecology and evolution over 20 years in a freshwater lake - Nature Microbiology

A long-term metagenomic time series reveals how viruses impact diversity, ecological dynamics and evolution of freshwater microbiomes.

nature.com

You’ll need to update your tshirt design with “vegan for… my microbiome” and I’ll be the first to buy it, @marlasrose.bsky.social

Alexander J. Stein@ajstein.bsky.social · 2y ago

#Diets affect the gut #microbiome, e.g. red #meat is a driver of #omnivore microbiomes linked to poor cardiometabolic #health, inflammatory bowel #disease, colorectal #cancer & low short-chain fatty acids; #vegan ones are linked to favorable markers: doi.org/10.1038/s415... #plant-based #nutrition

How a WHO Staff Member Turned the US Withdrawal into an Act of Solidarity who.foundation/blogs-post/h...

How a WHO Staff Member Turned the US Withdrawal into an Act of Solidarity

who.foundation

a 90-day pause on pepfar will kill so many people it will probably take years of research to document it. abhorrent www.npr.org/sections/goa...

PEPFAR, the acclaimed anti-HIV program, faces loss of funds as part of U.S. aid pause

On Friday, a memorandum signed by Marco Rubio called for a 90-day cessation of foreign aid. That would likely put on hold the work of PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

npr.org

Two seniors from the VKC lab standing next to the ancient autoclave after presenting their senior research at the Biochemistry Winter Session Retreat (right before the semester started)! Both did a great job explaining their work to other thesising seniors.

1st week is done! I’m teaching two microbio courses this semester & super excited about both - students are kind & chatty (in a good way!) & thoughtful. One thought I shared w/ them was this one 👇 students do better when intellectually challenged & stimulated but supported by all. Happy teaching!

@kevbonham.bsky.social - sad to see you leave the VKC lab but excited for your new lab at Tufts MC! Our last mtg at Wellesley - plotting out new projects together w @gfahurbottino.bsky.social! And an appropriate parting gift for a new professor! Looking fwd to testing them out in your new office!

Congrats! And peeps looking to do some exciting and cool microbiome work, apply to work w/ @kevbonham.bsky.social!

Kevin Bonham@kevinbonham.com · 2y ago

Very excited to announce that the Bonham Lab will be starting next month at Tufts (TMC GI division)! I'll be recruiting at multiple levels - if you are interested in the intersection between computing and medicine, esp multi-'omics, microbio and immuno, reach out! #academicsky 🧪🧫🦠

Huge congrats to the first author @gfahurbottino.bsky.social on - www.nature.com/articles/s41... Grateful to work with you and @kevbonham.bsky.social at @wellesleycollege.bsky.social ! And @gfahurbottino.bsky.social -- welcome to 🦋! #InfantGutMicrobiome #MicrobiomeAge

Early life microbial succession in the gut follows common patterns in humans across the globe - Nature Communications

Here, the authors perform a global analysis of over 3000 infant gut samples revealing a universal pattern of microbial changes over the first 1.5 years, with declines in Bifidobacterium and increases ...

nature.com

An incredibly talented undergraduate biochemistry student, Gabriel Bazan, made this illustration ❤️ to accompany our research rdcu.be/d6cCw just published with @naturecomms.bsky.social

Super proud of this paper on infant gut microbiome age coming from my lab. The paper has just been published with @springernature.bsky.social in @naturecomms.bsky.social. Read about it here: rdcu.be/d6cCw.

Early life microbial succession in the gut follows common patterns in humans across the globe

Nature Communications - Here, the authors perform a global analysis of over 3000 infant gut samples revealing a universal pattern of microbial changes over the first 1.5 years, with declines in...

rdcu.be

The good idea comes when one person feels comfortable enough to say something that might make them look stupid and their friend is open enough to recognize its potential.