Four years ago I missed my favourite conference ("BlinkOn") for a bad cold. It's been the biggest frustration of my lab that I couldn't find the virus that caused it. Now, that I have a 32-way panel from YouSeq.com I finally know why: It was a bacteria, H.Influenzea, not a virus at all!

Instead of spending $2,000 for windows-only software for my new (used) Bio-Rad C1000/CFX96 thermocycler, I have spent the last couple weeks with Claude reverse engineering formats and protocols and building a web app! Check it out: zpcr.rbyers.ca. I'm learning SO much about how qPCR works this way!

I'm trying to adopt agentic engineering practices in my lab work (eg. putting claude code in charge). I was worried it would screw up my pristine data but instead it's really pissing me off by identifying tons of mistakes I've made in my notes over the years!

I finally bought a serious lab qPCR machine: Bio-Rad CFX96 Touch (96 well, 5 channels), compared to my Biomeme Franklin (9 well, 3 channels). Already I can tell I'll be able to do so much more with it!

I'm working on a blog post for low-cost DIY SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing using a cheap miniPCR and manual fluorescence visualization. Is this visualization of positives vs. negatives clear enough?

There's lots of fear about what companies will do with our DNA data. Personally I go the other direction, my full genome is public: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

This weekend I was happy to be invited for a discussion about at-home SARS-CoV-2 PCR testing with the "Still Coviding" group: www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Um.... Updated slides I used: docs.google.com/presentation...

I was asked today: if I was just getting started in molecular biology and and wanted a simple low-cost PCR lab for COVID testing, what would I buy? Here is my shopping list for a basic endpoint qPCR setup: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... Disclaimer: be safe and follow local laws

Three RSV RATs I did at the same time: 1. A shallow (but thorough) nasal swab, fully negative 2/3. Deep mid-turbinate nasal swabs, clearly positive. I'm surprised by the difference. In my PCR tests of other viruses I've seen very little difference from swab depth.

Did another Europe cruise with my family, came home harbouring another new virus for my collection. That's three for three: Dec 2023 in the Caribbean: Influenza A July 2024 on the Danube: Parainfluenza 3 Mar 2026 on the Rhine: Respiratory syncytial virus A Perhaps I should be learning something?

I sequenced my remaining 3 SARS-CoV-2 samples: - Feb 2025 I had JN.1.4.3.1 - Aug 2025 my son had PQ.24 - Feb 2026 my daughter had PQ.2.8.1 I now have 7 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from my family, nextclade puts them on the phylogenetic tree this way:

Finally a Zoo which does the full tree of life some justice! Micropia at ARTIS Zoo Amsterdam: www.artis.nl/nl/artis-mic...

In 1958 a gel extracted from seaweed, “iota carrageenan”, was found to dramatically reduce Influenza death in animals. In 2020 a double-blind placebo controlled study found it had an 80% reduction in SARS-COV-2 transmission (www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.2...). In 2026 it’s still largely unknown.

My teenage daughter just tested positive for COVID. I'm taking care of her this weekend. It's been two years since I've had COVID and 4 months since my last booster. Will I be able to keep from getting infected?

SiPhox (siphoxhealth.com) is pretty awesome. I've been doing monthly blood tests for a variety of biomarkers without the hassle of going to get a blood draw. It makes it so much easier to stay on top of things like cholesterol and blood sugar, and really learn how to move them.

At-Home Blood Tests | Comprehensive Health Testing & Biomarker Analysis | SiPhox Health

SiPhox Health brings comprehensive, at-home blood testing to your door! Take control of your disease risk and increase your healthspan today with affordable, convenient at-home blood testing. No lab v...

siphoxhealth.com

6 years and 300+ experiments later, I've concluded that sequencing all the viruses going through my house is actually slightly useful, while still wildly impractical of course! lab.rbyers.ca/essays/20260...

Yes! I dream of a day when regular checkups will include a broad antibody profile like in this research: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC....

VirScan: High-throughput Profiling of Antiviral Antibody Epitopes

Profiling the specificities of antibodies can reveal a wealth of information about humoral immune responses and the antigens they target. Here, we present a protocol for VirScan, an application of the phage immunoprecipitation sequencing (PhIP-Seq) ...

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Oh oh 😬. My Google News feed thought this was a story I'd be interested in... abcnews.go.com/US/fbi-inves.... Would I get the same press coverage if police searched my house and found this? At least they'd find nothing labeled HIV or Ebola in my freezer!

Wow, I am constantly impressed by Google Antigravity and Gemini 3.5 pro. I used it to build a whole blog website, including totally custom Tweet archive, in just a few hours of work! Eg. see lab.rbyers.ca/posts/2024. Code at github.com/Rbyers/lab-b....

I hear Science Twitter has largely moved to BlueSky, is that true? I've moved my @RickByersLab profile from X here to BlueSky. I've also archived my old tweets at lab.rbyers.ca/posts (largely because I use my tweets as my own memory).