Lignin chemistry!! I’ve drawn a line tree with the lignin polymer behind it. I’ve drawn it as one single polymer throughout! This messy, highly irregular biopolymer gives plants structural strength and helps protect their cell walls. #sciart #chemsky

A few folks have asked how I make molecular animations from ChemDraw. Sadly, the answer has been “the old-fashioned way,” frame by frame. This was too slow. So I worked with Claude Science to create a webpage that animates your ChemDraws. Give it a try: rshenvi.github.io/cdxmorph/

1/17 Submissions are now open for the 2027 Microbial Population Biology GRC! We expect this meeting to be extraordinarily oversubscribed. If you want to come, time is of the essence--apply ASAP! June 27–July 2 • Andover, NH www.grc.org/microbial-po...

What, is it over already? MEEHubs2026 concluded just minutes ago. It's been a blast, and here are some stats for you: 711 registrations, 241 posters, 71 talks, 3 days, participants from 32 countries. Bye from all the hubs 🩵🩵🩵 #MEEHubs2026 #MEEHubs26

Just after wrapping an amazing three days in Montreal, I can say that I highly recommend organizing a hub! Hope to see you all again in 2028

MEEhubs@meehubs.bsky.social · 2mo ago

If you want to keep MEEHubs alive and see it back in 2028, consider being an organizer yourself! Please fill out this very short survey by scanning the QR code or clicking here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Nutrient environments shape amino acid auxotrophy and cross-feeding www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #jcampubs

Check out our pre-print led by the fantastic Massimo Amicone, collaborating with the Bollenbach lab! tinyurl.com/4h9p8mfb We build a simple intuition on how ecological interactions affect resistance evolution by expanding evolutionary rescue theory and testing it with two large sets of experiments

Bingo! Do I win a prize now?

Looks interesting 🤓: "Community context reshapes microbial proteomes and reduces functional overlap" @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Community context reshapes microbial proteomes and reduces functional overlap - Nature Microbiology

Biotic interactions modulate protein abundance, reducing functional redundancy and increasing productivity in complex bacterial communities.

nature.com

job alert. 🧪👩‍🔬🌍🌐🌱🐞🦠🦔

Dan Mennill@dmennill.bsky.social · 7mo ago

We're hiring an Assistant Professor of Ecology! Come and join me and a great group of colleagues at University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Our job ad: efhc.fa.ca2.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... Message me if you have questions. @ibiouwindsor.bsky.social @uwindsor.bsky.social

Understanding how “marine snow” acts as a carbon sink. #science #news www.lifescience.net/news/7083/un...

Understanding how “marine snow” acts as a carbon sink

A new study finds hitchhiking bacteria dissolve essential ballast in ubiquitous “snow” particles, which could counteract the ocean’s ability to sequester carbon.

lifescience.net

OK folk I need some advice. We have a microbiome pub that we're having trouble getting published (not even getting to the review stage-being bounced editorially as "not mechanistic") Large paper, 11 figures + supplement Where is a good venue these days to publish "descriptive" microbiome studies?

So excited to share our newest paper on #marine #exometabolites. A great effort led by Yuting Zhu, Hanna Anderson, and others in the C-CoMP team www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Characterization of phytoplankton-excreted metabolites mediating carbon flux through the surface ocean | PNAS

The marine labile dissolved organic carbon (DOC) pool is a dynamic reservoir of thousands of molecules that cycles approximately one-quarter of Ear...

pnas.org

🧬 Please repost 🧬 I was asked to organise a panel discussion for a SynBio Student Meetup in Hamburg in the middle of May and I'm still looking for panellist! If you know any researchers at the PhD/Postdoc who have expertise in metabolic/genome/multicellular organism engineering, please reach out!

‼️ New preprint: By solving a paradox in graph theory, we show that specialist symbionts constrain ecosystem structure, drive biodiversity, and face high extinction risk. With @jbyoder.org and @ctrlalttim.com: 🎉 Specialists drive biodiversity scaling in symbiotic relationships

If you're a senior PhD student or recent graduate interested in doing work at the intersection of AI and microbial genomics and/or microbiomes, please feel free to reach out to discuss the possibility of applying together for an MIT Novo Nordisk Fellowship engineering.mit.edu/novo-nordisk

Novo Nordisk Fellowship

Potential areas of focus for postdoctoral fellows participating in the MIT-Novo Nordisk Postdoc Program include, but are not limited to, the following: Your complete application should include: In the...

engineering.mit.edu

A chemist, physicist, and biologist walk into a bar go.nature.com/3PfmrDS

Knock knock, no one’s there. Study finds scientists’ jokes mostly fall flat

Survey examines how often academics attempt jokes during conference talks — and how these attempts at comedy land.

go.nature.com

Is there a consensus for ANI differences associated with Order, Family, or Genus level divergence in bacteria? I'm looking at ~79% ANI between two genomes and am wondering where that falls.

GAP-MS: Automated validation of gene predictions using integrated mass ‎spectrometry evidence [new] Confirms protein accuracy, filters errors, identifies missing genes in complex plant genomes, resolving annotation ambiguities.

Characterization of phytoplankton-excreted metabolites mediating carbon flux through the surface ocean www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs 🌊

Coming this August 3-5 to a hub near you (Switzerland, USA, Canada, Mexico, UK, Ukraine, or virtual only)! #Microbiome #MicroSky

MEEhubs@meehubs.bsky.social · 7mo ago

MEEHubs2026 registration and abstract submission is now online! 🚨🦠✨ Join us Aug 3 - 5, 2026 at one of the 7 hubs or online. We are incredibly excited about our lineup of speakers, and hope that you submit an abstract to contribute too! More information and registration links at: meehubs.org

MEEHubs2026 registration and abstract submission is now online! 🚨🦠✨ Join us Aug 3 - 5, 2026 at one of the 7 hubs or online. We are incredibly excited about our lineup of speakers, and hope that you submit an abstract to contribute too! More information and registration links at: meehubs.org

One of my favorite papers of past few years!

Nature Microbiology@natmicrobiol.nature.com · 8mo ago

Out Now! Skin androgens regulate Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity via quorum sensing #MicroSky

AI has huge promise for genomics -- but it has consistently failed at microbiome-based prediction. My new post on why simple models keep winning, where deep learning actually earns its place, and where the field is headed blekhman.substack.com/p/ai-keeps-f...

AI Keeps Failing at Microbiome Prediction

Why simple models keep winning, where deep learning still shines, and where the field is headed

blekhman.substack.com

Have you ever wondered why children starting nursery/daycare pick up so many germs? I certainly did, and with a crack team of parent-scientists/clinicians, we set out to answer that question. Is childcare a germ factory or an immune bootcamp? journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Germ factories or immune boot camps? Infection and immunity in childcare settings | Clinical Microbiology Reviews

SUMMARYChildcare outside the home is a common experience for many children in high-income countries. It is associated with an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases—not just for the child bu...

journals.asm.org

Paper published on preserving microbiomes to secure health in degrading ecosystems! I'm delighted to announce a new publication on the importance of preserving microbiomes to secure health in degrading ecosystems! The paper outlines strategies for preserving critical microbes, functions, and…

Paper published on preserving microbiomes to secure health in degrading ecosystems!

I'm delighted to announce a new publication on the importance of preserving microbiomes to secure health in degrading ecosystems! The paper outlines strategies for preserving critical microbes, functions, and microbial communities using some specific examples, and ties these back to opportunities and challenges to making conservation efforts. This paper was a collaborative effort by several members of the Microbiome Stewardship…

sueishaqlab.org

In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! 🚨 Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!) Sharing is appreciated 🙏 🧵👇 doi.org/10.1093/fems...

"Can you trust the results from gut microbiome tests? Maybe not." www.sciencenews.org/article/resu... I understand why the authors didn't disclose the different company IDs...but I'm very curious to know which is which

Can you trust the results from gut microbiome tests? Maybe not

Seven firms reported inconsistent results on the same sample, some over multiple tests. These gut microbe discrepancies could have health consequences.

sciencenews.org

The MIBiG 5.0 Annotathon is coming soon, and registration is now open! 🧬 Does your research involve biosynthetic gene clusters? Do you love natural product biosynthesis? Do you have an interest in rare & exotic enzymes? We can use your help & expertise. Register here 👉 forms.gle/C1cWcLHtrjT2...