Exactly one month away from the sixth GIGA conference and workshop: July 6- 10. Focus sessions include Philippine biodiversity, mollusc genomics, conservation transcriptomics biodiversity genomics and more. Not too late to join us: gigavi.org
Joe Lopez
@jochrome1.bsky.social
Human Being/Male/American/Filipino/Scientist/Evolutionary Biologist/Optimist/Progressive/Pragmatist/Doer/Writer/Reader/Mentor/Student/Collaborator/Diver/Joker/Artist/PianoPlayer/Swimmer/People Watcher/Animal Watcher/Traveler/Chess player/Promoter/
Registration and abstracts to present posters at GIGA VI are still being accepted - gigavi.org. We have a little more room but don't wait too long. The final meeting agenda will be posted soon.
Hello! We are pleased to announce that the GIGA VI conference website is now open to view, and answer a quick survey. This will help us design the final program - gigavi.org. (Full registration and instructions will open in January 2026).
Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance VI
Global Invertebrate Genome Alliance VI, July 2026, Philippines
gigavi.org
Seats are still available for this intensive conservation genetics course. Skills apply for both marine and terrestrial systems. Please pass along congenglobal.org/brazil2026/
ConGen 2026 – ConGen Global
congenglobal.org
Congrats to the Nick Schizas lab for assisting the Photosymbiosis Hub of the Aquatic Symbiosis Genome (ASG) project with the production of the first whole genome of the sea fan, Gorgonia ventalina. (Photograph by Jaaziel E. García-Hernández). wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/11-...
Hello! We are pleased to announce that the GIGA VI conference website is now open to view, and answer a quick survey. This will help us design the final program - gigavi.org. (Full registration and instructions will open in January 2026).
Global Invertebrate Genomics Alliance VI
Global Invertebrate Genome Alliance VI, July 2026, Philippines
gigavi.org
Happy to announce a new Frontiers in Water publication on Lake O cyanoHABs, wrapping up our first project characterizing microbial interactions: lopez-lab.net/2025/10/15/1...
Bloom-forming cyanobacteria have complex interactions with the underlying heterotrophic communities on Lake Okeechobee
Congratulations to MMG student and lab manager Paisley Samuel who has published the bulk of her MS thesis in Frontiers in Water for her first primary authored paper “Diversity fluctuations of…
lopez-lab.net
Chromosomal level sponge Diacarnus erythraeanus whole genome published. Congrats to Laura Steindler and the ASG Photosymbiosis hub. lopez-lab.net/2025/08/30/c...
Chromosomal Genome of the Red Sea sponge, Diacarnus erythraeanus, Kelly-Borges & Vacelet, 1995, and its Associated Microbial Metagenomes Published
A high quality whole chromosomal genome of the sponge Diacarnus erythraeanus and the metagenomes of its microbial associates have been published from the Photosymbiosis Hub, a component of the Well…
lopez-lab.net
This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered
Check out our new community funding proposal "Adopt an Invertebrate Genome with GIGA". The focus is to help scientists get funds for sequencing invertebrate genomes through crowdsourcing. Details here if you are interested : www.gigacos.org/index.php/20... #genome #omics #genomics #invertebrate
Whole Genome Sequencing meets Community Science Funding – GIGA
gigacos.org
The Aquatic Symbiosis Genome (ASG) Project has now published the first chromosomal-level, whole nuclear genome of the giant barrel sponge, Xestospongia muta, and its accompanying microbial cohort. wellcomeopenresearch.org/articles/10-...
New publication from our lab. Please tell your local eateries about biodegradable PHA plastic and Phade straws which will be much better for the environment. lopez-lab.net/2025/05/29/n...
New publication has characterized the microbial degradation of polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) drinking straws in a coastal marine setting
Plastic pollution represents a huge environmental problem, and drinking straws are a major component of such pollution. It is estimated that 8.3 billion plastic straws contaminate the world’s beach…
lopez-lab.net
Be kind to a coral near or far away (by lowering our carbon foootprints) www.earth.com/news/world-r...
World Reef Awareness Day 2025: Bringing corals back to life
World Reef Awareness Day 2025 highlights the coral reef crisis and the urgent need for global conservation action.
earth.com
This is an absolute disaster. If we don't stop this, they will turn NSF into a pawn of the Trump administration. There will be no research on climate, biodiversity, or anything that isn't eugenics or AI or how to more efficiently destroy the planet for profit. This cannot be allowed to happen.
Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions
Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund
science.org
Timeline cleanse: do you want to see one of the best fossil animations I have EVER seen? @kiabugboy.bsky.social you are literally a master of the form. BBC or Discovery (whoever pays more) should hire you immediately 🧪🦑⚒️
More Oncocerida from Gotland
YouTube video by Kiabugboy
youtu.be
Claims by the Trump administration that marine protected areas are a heavy-handed restriction on the U.S. fishing industry do not hold water. Science shows these refuges for sea life help local economies and allow fish populations to thrive By @whysharksmatter.bsky.social
Trump is stripping protections from marine protected areas – why that’s a problem for fishing’s future, and for whales, corals and other ocean life
America’s marine protected areas help fish populations thrive. Trump’s plan to open them to industrial fishing may ultimately harm the fishing industry itself.
buff.ly
We had a great time at the 2025 meeting of the FL Branch of the American Society for Microbiology (FLASM) at Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft Myers this weekend. One my students was awarded best grad student poster. #FLASM and lopez-lab.net/2025/03/30/m...?
Save the date: Our next GIGA Conference takes place July 5-10, 2026 in the Philippines. More info coming soon, we hope you can join us!
We had a decent stand up for science event in S Florida. Thanks for showing up and all the friendly honks!!
Sponges and better climate change calibration www.nature.com/articles/s41...
300 years of sclerosponge thermometry shows global warming has exceeded 1.5 °C - Nature Climate Change
Understanding temperature change since the pre-industrial period is essential for climate action. This study uses an ocean proxy to better quantify when anthropogenic warming began and estimates that ...
nature.com
Apparently it is World Seagrass Day A good excuse to remind about this paper from 2024 about how their global distribution and diversity may shift due to climate change Open access link: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #WorldSeagrassDay2025 #WorldSeagassDay #SeagrassDay
Getting dangerously close to censorship in science - www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...
The Erasing of American Science
How far can the Trump administration bend U.S. research before it breaks?
theatlantic.com
I finished my dissertation in the MD/DC area, and enjoyed going to the capital Mall on special events. I was able to capture the moment serendipitously during a parade on Constitution Ave. I think it sums up our democracy; the words behind the people say "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty"
I have shown this video routinely to my microbiology classes the past few years. It allows me to enhance Covid-19 lessons. It illustrates some of the constructive things that the CDC and USAID have done in the past, but which we are now actively dismantling. m.youtube.com/watch?v=ukr0...
How America Helped Stop Covid-19. Just Not in the U.S. | NYT Opinion
YouTube video by The New York Times
m.youtube.com
High flying immunity? www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bat genomes illuminate adaptations to viral tolerance and disease resistance - Nature
A systematic analysis of 115 mammalian genomes, including 10 new bat genomes, reveals prevalent positive selection in immune genes in bats and shows key adaptations in the antiviral gene ISG15 that ai...
nature.com
I had a great time participating in the last third of the Conservation Genomics 2025 course (conservationgenetics.org/congen2025/) held at the Cheetah Conservation Center in Otjiwarongo, Namibia. Thanks to Laurie Marker and CCF for hosting. I’m also happy to help the board plan the next workshop.
