From early morning to late evening; from registration to reception: it's a wrap for the first day of #ECMTB26! Looking forward to more exciting talks, discussions, and the first round of poster presentations tomorrow!

"Sleep is for the weak" seems to be a part of the official policy handbook at @ecmtb2026.org -- woke up at 04.35am to somebody rehearsing their talk with an open window 😁

Now that the dust has settled. As someone who is not exactly the master of the technique, talking before the audience at the International Metaproteomics Symposium was... an interesting experience, let's put it this way. I have discovered an amazing community

🔥 Published today, and just in time for summer conferences, here are your guidelines for presenting badly www.nature.com/articles/s41... rdcu.be/fqa92

🐦 Interested in avian reproduction, microbiomes, or reproductive microbiomes? I'm looking for outstanding early-career researchers interested in applying for an NWO Veni grant to join my group at NIOO. Pre-proposals are due after the summer. Email me to discuss ideas. #EarlyCareerResearcher #Postdoc

The NWO Life conference was a blast! Great keynotes, very valuable input on our current research, and the cherry on the top was the focus session on socially transferred materials. There I gave a talk on my post-doc shenanigans regarding microbial up-cycling of social fluids in ant colonies...

This Friday: microbial superheroes in socially transferred materials! Those who know me can easily guess I will be mostly talking about the feeders, but one just has to appreciate _all_ the microbial goods that circulate in STMs.

Joris M. Koene@joriskoene.bsky.social · 4mo ago

With Bart Pollux and @anikokorosi.bsky.social , I will chair the Focus session “Socially Transferred Materials" at NWO Life (28-29 May 2026) 🐜🐸🐌🐄🥚 Invites speakers are @sanjahakala.bsky.social , @pranasag.bsky.social, Peter Kwant and @melissahrowe.bsky.social @socialtransfernet.bsky.social

With Bart Pollux and @anikokorosi.bsky.social , I will chair the Focus session “Socially Transferred Materials" at NWO Life (28-29 May 2026) 🐜🐸🐌🐄🥚 Invites speakers are @sanjahakala.bsky.social , @pranasag.bsky.social, Peter Kwant and @melissahrowe.bsky.social @socialtransfernet.bsky.social

Why to choose between ants and microbes when you can have both? @khadlily.bsky.social, @adriatica.bsky.social and co. have been diving into what's happening in the honeypot ant repletes for years, and the first papers are coming out 🎉 (photo copyright: Smithsonian Institution-NMNH-Insect Zoo)

bioRxiv Genomics@biorxiv-genomic.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Genomic insights into bacterial isolates dominating honeypot ant crop microbiomes reveal metabolically distinct Fructilactobacillus sp. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.09.717501v1

I will probably be hiring either a PhD or a Postdoc in the near future. If you are interested in deep biochemical history or molecular mechanisms of evolution please get in touch.

Spring is here and Piglette is getting ready to swim in Liebig's barrel while reading about it in the brand new chapter on Microeconomics of cell metabolism by Jumpei Yamagishi and Tetsuhiro Hatakeyama. Find it here in the new edition of our textbook principlescellphysiology.org/book-economi...

Late spring 🌼 is an excellent time to be back in the Lowlands, especially as a part of a great line-up at the STM focus session! Thanks @joriskoene.bsky.social @anikokorosi.bsky.social and Bart for the invitation - looking forward

Joris M. Koene@joriskoene.bsky.social · 5mo ago

What do milk, seminal fluid, eggs, and regurgitates have in common? Find out during our Focus Session at NWO Life 2026 “Socially Transferred Materials: Connecting Physiology, Ecology & Evolution” (28-29 May 2026, Egmond aan Zee, NL) 🐜 🐸 🐌 🐄🥚 @socialtransfernet.bsky.social

KIT Successfully Defends Its Title as University of Excellence! “We are overjoyed,” says Professor Jan S. Hesthaven, President of KIT. www.kit.edu/kit/english/... #KITKarlsruhe #UniversityOfExcellence #ScienceForImpact #ExcellenceStrategy

🚀 VAAM Annual Conference 2026, Berlin, 23–25 March Don’t miss out — register now & meet the microbiology community for talks, poster sessions, Research and PhD Awards, and special events for Young Scientists. Connect, learn, and exchange ideas! 👉 Join us & register here: t1p.de/b2vf8 #VAAM2026

PhD position: AI-driven bioprocess modelling for circular bioproduction @univie.ac.at | Cluster of Excellence: Circular Bioengineering Focus: Simulation. Optimization. Data-driven biotech Apply here careers.univie.ac.at/en/praedoc/s...

Renske Gilissen is gespecialiseerd in #suïcidepreventie Met haar onderzoek en onderwijs richt zij zich op preventiemaatregelen.

Leidse hoogleraar in nieuwe podcast over zelfdodingsgedachten

Wist je dat ongeveer 25% van de mensen ooit aan zelfdoding heeft gedacht? In een nieuwe podcast van de Universiteit van Nederland vertelt hoogleraar Renske Gilissen over inzichten en praktische handva...

universiteitleiden.nl

I might be biased about whether they are *the* best, but they are truly amazing.

Elise Cutts@elisecutts.bsky.social · 6mo ago

Guys I need you to watch this video about this ant. It is the best ant. That is all.

The book chapter (1st as the last author 😎) is finally "officially" out: doi.org/10.1007/978-... Thanks to the team! (DM for the pdf if you need one)

From Genome to Function: Metabolism-Wide Models of Lifecycle Stages of Parasites

Metabolism is a complex network of biochemical reactions that cells use to obtain free energy transduced from nutrients and synthesize new cellular components. Understanding the wiring of metabolism c...

doi.org

Pranas Grigaitis@pranasag.bsky.social · 11mo ago

It's a common wisdom that the whole genome is not expressed at the same time. Is trying to make a map of the 'entirety' of the metabolic potential (aka genome-scale model) useless, and potentially reckless? It's only an intermediate stop. Especially for unicellular parasites. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Mitochondrial ribosome content as a proxy for respiration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700566v1

Upon their kind invitation from my lovely colleagues from Uni Verona, I am delighted to join the speakers' list of the online symposium: 📌 Mining Non-Conventional Yeasts (NCY) Biodiversity 📅 February 17, 2026 Details and registration: www.dbt.univr.it?ent=seminari...

This is such hard news to process. Such an amazing scientist and inspiration for so many of us. www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL

EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.

embl.org

🧃☕️ BYOF Seminar | Fri Oct 24 @ 10 am EDT🥛🍹 Bring-Your-Own-Fluid + enjoy 7 min talks about social fluids: 🦈 Viviparity & matrotrophy • Daniel Hughes 🐦 Crop milk • Victoria Farrar 🦂 Sexual stings • Yuqi Reitsema-Wang Email hello@socialtransfer.net for the Zoom link! 🔗 @socialtransfernet.bsky.social

Another round of selfish self-promotion: please join us for the best bridging event to your Halloween party if you are nearby Amsterdam on that day (mandatory music reference: youtu.be/vFwYJYl5GUQ?...)

Type O Negative - Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare -All) [HD Remaster] [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

YouTube video by Roadrunner Records

youtu.be

Pranas Grigaitis@pranasag.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Metabolic modeling aficionados in the Netherlands (and close to border), attention please! (promo thread)

Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community @natcomms.nature.com from @oventurelli2.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community - Nature Communications

Here the authors leverage a crossfeeding, engineered microbial community to demonstrate that strain abundance cycles are robust across environmental conditions. They pair this with a nonlinear dynamic model to elucidate population cycles.

nature.com

I'm going to be advertising for a few positions in my group in the next couple of months for a big project on synthetic microbial communities. I would love to hear from you if you are interested and I'd also appreciate if everyone could share this far and wide!

Metabolic modeling aficionados in the Netherlands (and close to border), attention please! (promo thread)

There’s a leak - and a conceptual artist - at the Max Planck 👌

It's a common wisdom that the whole genome is not expressed at the same time. Is trying to make a map of the 'entirety' of the metabolic potential (aka genome-scale model) useless, and potentially reckless? It's only an intermediate stop. Especially for unicellular parasites. doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

Good ideas come from having lots of experience. And experience comes from having lots of bad ideas.

@berasymbionts.bsky.social speaking about socially transferred materials and her amazing beetles and fungal symbiont transfer opening the @socialtransfernet.bsky.social symposium at #ESEB2025