I am being informed that I have not been deposed, and further, I am not allowed to abdicate. The purchasing system is, sadly, a glitch they will resolve soon, and I remain yoked to the Department Chair throne.

Call for manuscripts on bacterial chemotaxis and swimming! I'm partnering with JoVE to assemble a new collection of method, reviews, and research. ➡️Abstracts due Nov. 23rd. I invite you to share your love (and knowledge) of swimming bacteria! www.jove.com/topical-coll... 🧪 🦠 🧫 #microsky

Excited to participate in the upcoming ASM Northwest Branch Meeting Oct. 31-Nov. 1 in Moscow, ID! Looking forward to meeting fellow microbiologists from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana (my home state😉). Abstract and registration deadline is Oct. 16. Hope to see you there!

"most [young scientists] have never experienced a payline above 12% or tasted a chloroform-isoamyl alcohol mixture, and I genuinely do not know which of those losses is more devastating." Easily the best thing I've read this week inpreparation.substack.com/p/opinion-re...

Opinion: I Miss When The NIH Payline Was 40% And We All Mouth-Pipetted Phenol

By Dr. Douglas R. Waverly, Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry, Yale University

inpreparation.substack.com

The UGA Genetics Department is hiring! Please help spread the word. We have an opening for an Associate Professor/Professor in Genetics, Synthetic Biology, and Biological Engineering. See ad for details – and join us here in Athens, GA!

I am still a bit speechless but my main PhD project is finally out in Science Advances. It was a long process, but I am so happy with the final results! Massive thanks to everyone involved, especially my co-authors and everyone involved in sampling! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Stability in flexibility: Shifting alliances stabilize the symbioses of marine animals over 150 million years

Many animals benefit from microbial symbionts that aid digestion, supply essential nutrients, or provide defense. When this dependence becomes obligate, as in gutless marine oligochaetes that have los...

science.org

Two announcements regarding AccuSNV, which calls high precision SNVs across microbial genomes: Version 1.1 is now incredibly easy to install, run, and perform downstream analyses with (see image of typical output!). The manuscript was also published this summer in Genome Research! Links next...

Ever wondered how plasmid mobility differs across natural environments? In our new ISME Commun paper, Sebastian Bonhoeffer, @jhuisman.bsky.social and I ask: do F-like plasmids in E.coli associated with cows, pigs and poultry differ in their ability to transfer? [1/6] doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Transfer potential of F-like plasmids in Escherichia coli differs by animal environment

Abstract. Plasmids play a key role in the spread of virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes to new genetic backgrounds. Genetic variation in the trans

doi.org

Excited to see our work out in @pnas.org! We asked how mobile genetic elements generate functional diversity in symbionts and found a plasmid that protects aphids from lethal pathogens, helping to explain variation in defence across natural aphid populations. See @ben-parker.bsky.social thread👇

Phenotypic divergence is driven by mobile genetic elements in a heritable insect symbiont | PNAS

Heritable microbes profoundly influence insect biology, yet the traits they confer often evolve rapidly and differ among closely related symbiont s...

pnas.org

Ben Parker@ben-parker.bsky.social · 2w ago

Excited that our new paper with @henrylabsymbio.bsky.social and Kerry Oliver is out @pnas.org! We show that mobile genetic elements can spread adaptive host-benefiting traits across heritable insect symbionts on eco-evolutionary timescales.🧵 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

New Perspective w/ @petrovadmitri.bsky.social and Paul Schmidt! We ask what evolution-in-action studies tell us about an old question: what genetic variation matters for fitness, and what maintains it? ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

Application review for the GRC in Microbial Population Biology will start October 15th! Please apply before then if you are keen on coming. www.grc.org/microbial-po...

We built GenoPHI: a machine learning workflow that predicts phage-host interactions at strain level. This could help rapidly select phages to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections or for microbiome engineering without exhaustive lab testing. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Happy to share that @averynoonan.bsky.social paper “Phylogeny-agnostic strain-level prediction of phage–host interactions from genomes using machine learning” is now published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com 🎉🎊 👉🏽 rdcu.be/nR2NizD7H5va

Avery Noonan@averynoonan.bsky.social · 11mo ago

We built GenoPHI: a machine learning workflow that predicts phage-host interactions at strain level. This could help rapidly select phages to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections or for microbiome engineering without exhaustive lab testing. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

One of the most neglected, least understood, and willingly ignored concepts in microbiology is how fast cells grown in their native habitat. We just extrapolate from cultures, which is unrealistic. I wish I could get funds to measure growth in a bunch of habitats and do some foundational work ;(

I am hiring a postdoc! Are you interested to work on population genetics/ drug resistance/ data? Want to work in Montpellier, France? Fastq files don't scare you? PhD required, start date hopefully Nov 1! (end date Sep 30 2028) Please share! abetterscientist.wordpress.com/2026/09/29/p...

Postdoc position on drug resistance evolution in Montpellier, France

I have some exciting news (again!). I got money from the region (Occitanie) to hire a postdoc (and later an engineer / technician) to work on drug resistance evolution in malaria (P. faciparum) and…

abetterscientist.wordpress.com

Applications are now open for the International Travel Stipends to attend the 2027 Evolution meeting in San Juan, Puerto Rico! Funds cover registration, travel, meals, and lodging. Submit your application by November 1st! www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci... @evolmtg.bsky.social

Our latest, spearheaded by the truly indefatigable @emderrick.bsky.social in which we search for selective sweeps in nature and genetic targets of selection within a species in the context of a diverse background community @isme-microbes.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/isme... 🧵 1/n

The first chapter of my PhD is finally out! I learned 1) studying evolution within natural communities is difficult and 2) the publishing process is more difficult See below for a great summary by Jesse

Jesse Shapiro@bjesseshapiro.bsky.social · 4d ago

Our latest, spearheaded by the truly indefatigable @emderrick.bsky.social in which we search for selective sweeps in nature and genetic targets of selection within a species in the context of a diverse background community @isme-microbes.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/isme... 🧵 1/n

My group is recruiting a Ph.D student for Fall 2027! We're a friendly group of mathematically-minded and computationally-inspired biologists studying topics including social evolution, host-pathogen interactions, genetics, and demography. See vancleve.theoretical.bio for more info!

Proudly present our fantastic collaborative effort within SFB 1535 "Microbial networking" @mibinet.bsky.social now out in The ISME Journal. "Context-dependent siderophore exploitability shapes microbial community structure" academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... @hhu.de @fz-juelich.de @dfg.de

🎉 Scaling Phage-Bacteria Interaction Contexts: From Pairwise Mechanisms to Community Dynamics www.annualreviews.org/content/jour... #phagesky

Scaling Phage-Bacteria Interaction Contexts: From Pairwise Mechanisms to Community Dynamics

Bacteriophages (phages), viruses that parasitize bacteria, hold tremendous potential as antimicrobial agents, microbiome modulators, and industrial biocontrol tools; yet clinical and environmental app...

annualreviews.org

In our brand new 🥳 review, @hemaa-selvakumar.bsky.social & team pull a scattered literature in phage biology into a coherent framework for scaling up to engineering complex communities. We poured our hearts into this to share challenges & future opportunities for the nextGen!

The Emory Biology department is hiring a tenure-track ecologist at any rank. Deadline is Nov 1, link below! As I've said many times before, I couldn't ask for a more supportive department. Our faculty colleagues, dept chair, and admin staff are truly awesome ❤️ apply.interfolio.com/191783

Reminder: our tenure-track Assistant Professor search (open field) closes October 15, less than three weeks away. Please share!

Berkeley Population Sciences@berkeleypopcenter.bsky.social · 2mo ago

The UC Berkeley Department of Demography is recruiting a tenure-track Assistant Professor, open field. Applications are due October 15, 2026. See details and applications: aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF05488 Please share widely.

Two weeks left to apply for these postoc positions! We seek two postdocs interested in 1) building trait prediction models capable of resolving complex microbial traits from genomes and metagenomes, and/or (2) building mathematical models of microbial community dynamics in the human microbiome.

JL Weissman@jlw-ecoevo.bsky.social · 3w ago

My lab is hiring two(!) postdocs interested in (1) building trait prediction models capable of resolving complex microbial traits from genomes and metagenomes, and/or (2) building mathematical models of microbial community dynamics www.microbialgamut.com/mGAMUT_postd...

How do we recognize world-class science? Not by the journal it appeared in Science predicts. Pseudoscience doesn’t. Twenty-nine years How to science, and how not to What’s a failed experiment? Death by statistics Ditch the bar graphs Get credit for all of it kamounlab.medium.com/how-do-we-re...

JOB ALERT: UNC Bio is hiring 2 tenure track assistant profs doing molecular, cell, and dev bio. The search is intentionally broad, so please share widely and spread the word! Find more information and apply here: unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/325... Application review begins Nov 1.

New paper with my postdoc advisor @wcratcliff.bsky.social. I love his creativity in putting together this video to summarize the work. Happy we had the chance to collaborate with each other!

Will Ratcliff@wcratcliff.bsky.social · 5d ago

New paper out with @kaylastoy.bsky.social: academic.oup.com/evlett/advan...

TT Assistant Professor position in Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Disease at University of Florida

Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc

Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)

An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.

nyti.ms