Elia Mascolo
@eliamascolo.bsky.social
I love studying evolution through the lens of theoretical and computational biology. Math enthusiast and amateur jazz piano player.
https://eliamascolo.github.io/
https://eliamascolo.github.io/
Reposted by Elia Mascolo
With @eliamascolo.bsky.social we'll be presenting this project at the #EvoKE2025 conference in Athens🇬🇷 this November! Check out what the initiative is doing to promote the education and outreach of (biological) evolution in Europe!
➡️ @evokeproject.bsky.social
➡️ @evokeproject.bsky.social
With @eliamascolo.bsky.social we developed an interactive class on biological evolution (focusing on mutations 👾) for science #teacher through a card game 🎲 We crash-tested it with #HighSchool students from Milan and made it available online for broader use: replicards.netlify.app #SciCom #EvoBio
The Replicards – Replicards
replicards.netlify.app
October 15, 2025 at 3:33 PM
With @eliamascolo.bsky.social we'll be presenting this project at the #EvoKE2025 conference in Athens🇬🇷 this November! Check out what the initiative is doing to promote the education and outreach of (biological) evolution in Europe!
➡️ @evokeproject.bsky.social
➡️ @evokeproject.bsky.social
Reposted by Elia Mascolo
Happy to announce that our study on the latent cis-regulatory potential of mobile DNA is officially published!
TLDR: mobile DNA in bacteria (Insertion Sequences) have a proclivity for evolving new promoters. At least 25% of them probably already encode functional promoters as well.
TLDR: mobile DNA in bacteria (Insertion Sequences) have a proclivity for evolving new promoters. At least 25% of them probably already encode functional promoters as well.
The latent cis-regulatory potential of mobile DNA in Escherichia coli - Nature Communications
The mechanism and extent to which transposons can alter the gene expression of their hosts is not well understood. This study finds that in the IS3 family of transposable elements in E.coli, de-novo p...
www.nature.com
May 22, 2025 at 7:22 AM
Happy to announce that our study on the latent cis-regulatory potential of mobile DNA is officially published!
TLDR: mobile DNA in bacteria (Insertion Sequences) have a proclivity for evolving new promoters. At least 25% of them probably already encode functional promoters as well.
TLDR: mobile DNA in bacteria (Insertion Sequences) have a proclivity for evolving new promoters. At least 25% of them probably already encode functional promoters as well.
Reposted by Elia Mascolo
Very happy to share that this work that I took part in via @forrt.bsky.social is receiving the 2025 Commendation of @improvingpsych.org !
✨ The Annotated introductory reading list for neurodiversity is a stepping stone for those wishing to learn more about neurodiversity. buff.ly/67f2F6q. The contributors would like to acknowledge @forrt.bsky.social
Point of View: An annotated introductory reading list for neurodiversity
A collaboratively developed annotated reading list expands upon core themes in neurodiversity, aiming to enhance understanding and to promote rigorous, destigmatizing, and inclusive practices in…
elifesciences.org
July 25, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Very happy to share that this work that I took part in via @forrt.bsky.social is receiving the 2025 Commendation of @improvingpsych.org !
Reposted by Elia Mascolo
🚨 #Internship alert in #MachineLearning
I am recruiting a BSc (or MSc) student in #ComputerScience #DataScience for an internship this Spring
On-site @univie.ac.at or remotely
Possibility to develop a BSc/MSc thesis project
Please share around & reach out if you have any questions!
More details 🔽
I am recruiting a BSc (or MSc) student in #ComputerScience #DataScience for an internship this Spring
On-site @univie.ac.at or remotely
Possibility to develop a BSc/MSc thesis project
Please share around & reach out if you have any questions!
More details 🔽
yseulthb.github.io
March 22, 2025 at 4:31 PM
🚨 #Internship alert in #MachineLearning
I am recruiting a BSc (or MSc) student in #ComputerScience #DataScience for an internship this Spring
On-site @univie.ac.at or remotely
Possibility to develop a BSc/MSc thesis project
Please share around & reach out if you have any questions!
More details 🔽
I am recruiting a BSc (or MSc) student in #ComputerScience #DataScience for an internship this Spring
On-site @univie.ac.at or remotely
Possibility to develop a BSc/MSc thesis project
Please share around & reach out if you have any questions!
More details 🔽
The best part was seeing students who were never exposed to #evolution concepts using evolutionary thinking to interpret the results of the card game. Only after they figured out what was going on, we introduced the scientific jargon (like "selection" and "drift") used to refer to those phenomena.
With @eliamascolo.bsky.social we developed an interactive class on biological evolution (focusing on mutations 👾) for science #teacher through a card game 🎲 We crash-tested it with #HighSchool students from Milan and made it available online for broader use: replicards.netlify.app #SciCom #EvoBio
The Replicards – Replicards
replicards.netlify.app
February 27, 2025 at 10:31 AM
The best part was seeing students who were never exposed to #evolution concepts using evolutionary thinking to interpret the results of the card game. Only after they figured out what was going on, we introduced the scientific jargon (like "selection" and "drift") used to refer to those phenomena.
Reposted by Elia Mascolo
A really lovely perspective on our paper led by @grantkinsler.bsky.social and Yuping Li in Plos Biology! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Regulatory networks may evolve to favor adaptive foresight
Pleiotropy (a single mutation altering many traits) has long been seen as hindering adaptation. A new study in PLOS Biology offers a striking counterexample, suggesting that regulatory networks may ev...
journals.plos.org
December 9, 2024 at 7:07 PM
A really lovely perspective on our paper led by @grantkinsler.bsky.social and Yuping Li in Plos Biology! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
With neural style transfer we can paint an image with the style of van Gogh. But can we also use it to study the evolution of visual signals and preferences? YES!!! Cool experiments on Darters 🐟😍
👇
👇
🚨Freshly published in Ecological Informatics: our paper on using neural style transfer to test preferences for patterns in E. caeruleum 🐟 with Kara Million, Julien Renoult & Tamra Mendelson! #GenerativeAI #ML #EvoBio
doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...
doi.org/10.1016/j.ec...
November 10, 2024 at 7:27 PM
With neural style transfer we can paint an image with the style of van Gogh. But can we also use it to study the evolution of visual signals and preferences? YES!!! Cool experiments on Darters 🐟😍
👇
👇
Why are 🦠 genes organized into operons? Gene copy number fluctuates depending on distance from ori due to DNA replication. Operons keep gene clusters balanced in terms of copy number, reducing unbalance in expression level. Evo explanation for metabolic operons 👇
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
A new selective force driving metabolic gene clustering | mSystems
The formation of clusters of functionally related genes in microbial genomes has puzzled
microbiologists since their discovery. Here, we suggest that replication, and the
copy number variations due to...
journals.asm.org
October 31, 2024 at 4:16 AM
Why are 🦠 genes organized into operons? Gene copy number fluctuates depending on distance from ori due to DNA replication. Operons keep gene clusters balanced in terms of copy number, reducing unbalance in expression level. Evo explanation for metabolic operons 👇
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Elia Mascolo
Reading through a thread on latest conda TOS issue
Conda TOS changed last year, and they're blocking IPs from larger nonprofit organizations (such as universities) with more than 200 connections/downloads. Connections will remain blocked until targeted organizations pay up.
💻🧬🧪
Conda TOS changed last year, and they're blocking IPs from larger nonprofit organizations (such as universities) with more than 200 connections/downloads. Connections will remain blocked until targeted organizations pay up.
💻🧬🧪
August 7, 2024 at 8:31 PM
Reading through a thread on latest conda TOS issue
Conda TOS changed last year, and they're blocking IPs from larger nonprofit organizations (such as universities) with more than 200 connections/downloads. Connections will remain blocked until targeted organizations pay up.
💻🧬🧪
Conda TOS changed last year, and they're blocking IPs from larger nonprofit organizations (such as universities) with more than 200 connections/downloads. Connections will remain blocked until targeted organizations pay up.
💻🧬🧪
Two years ago we published about what we named "lytic deferment" in bacteriophages (doi.org/10.3389/fmic...). The concept is re-discussed in this recent review by Casters et al. "Phage transmission strategies: are phages framing their host?" doi.org/10.1016/j.mi...
Food for thought.
🧬🦠🔬
Food for thought.
🧬🦠🔬
July 9, 2024 at 7:38 PM
Two years ago we published about what we named "lytic deferment" in bacteriophages (doi.org/10.3389/fmic...). The concept is re-discussed in this recent review by Casters et al. "Phage transmission strategies: are phages framing their host?" doi.org/10.1016/j.mi...
Food for thought.
🧬🦠🔬
Food for thought.
🧬🦠🔬
Reposted by Elia Mascolo
Hey flagellum, shift into reverse gear!
by Christoph — In a classical manual gearbox, a gearwheel is inserted between the countershaft and the drive shaft. This reverses the direction of rotation of the drive shaft. Flagella have found a smart...
Read more > tinyurl.com/mrpeyfe8
#MicroSky #CryoEM
by Christoph — In a classical manual gearbox, a gearwheel is inserted between the countershaft and the drive shaft. This reverses the direction of rotation of the drive shaft. Flagella have found a smart...
Read more > tinyurl.com/mrpeyfe8
#MicroSky #CryoEM
![Screenshot from animation demonstrating gearing in the Salmonella flagellum. [Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38459206/]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:gudh3x7pgeh4uc6eee3zogtr/bafkreiemp4m2gpdh3whvhbkrow4olwurbba3ncymqhdetfdulmh5db4a3a@jpeg)
May 13, 2024 at 9:18 AM
Hey flagellum, shift into reverse gear!
by Christoph — In a classical manual gearbox, a gearwheel is inserted between the countershaft and the drive shaft. This reverses the direction of rotation of the drive shaft. Flagella have found a smart...
Read more > tinyurl.com/mrpeyfe8
#MicroSky #CryoEM
by Christoph — In a classical manual gearbox, a gearwheel is inserted between the countershaft and the drive shaft. This reverses the direction of rotation of the drive shaft. Flagella have found a smart...
Read more > tinyurl.com/mrpeyfe8
#MicroSky #CryoEM
Tagging 🦠🖥️🧬
Can AlphaFold3 predict bacterial transcription factor binding sites on DNA? I tried to devise a fair test. The results are quite impressive. My test: I chose LexA (favorite TF at the @ErillLab) from E. coli K-12, and I generated "randomized" binding sites from the PWM. First 1/
May 12, 2024 at 8:22 PM
Tagging 🦠🖥️🧬
Can AlphaFold3 predict bacterial transcription factor binding sites on DNA? I tried to devise a fair test. The results are quite impressive. My test: I chose LexA (favorite TF at the @ErillLab) from E. coli K-12, and I generated "randomized" binding sites from the PWM. First 1/
May 10, 2024 at 4:19 PM
Can AlphaFold3 predict bacterial transcription factor binding sites on DNA? I tried to devise a fair test. The results are quite impressive. My test: I chose LexA (favorite TF at the @ErillLab) from E. coli K-12, and I generated "randomized" binding sites from the PWM. First 1/
So great to see our recent work featured in This Week in Virology (TWiV)
rdcu.be/dpUZc
Thanks @jrrmicro.bsky.social for discussing our work and the cool world of phage satellites!
#Microsky #Phagesky
rdcu.be/dpUZc
Thanks @jrrmicro.bsky.social for discussing our work and the cool world of phage satellites!
#Microsky #Phagesky
December 11, 2023 at 2:18 AM
#Microsky #Phagesky
Interesting "primer for evolutionary biologists interested in studying social evolution in viruses" 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Interesting "primer for evolutionary biologists interested in studying social evolution in viruses" 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Open questions in the social lives of viruses
Social interactions among viruses are diverse and pervasive, with the potential to affect every stage of the viral lifecycle. Here, we explore some of the challenges and opportunities that these inte....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 25, 2023 at 8:18 PM
#Microsky #Phagesky
Interesting "primer for evolutionary biologists interested in studying social evolution in viruses" 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Interesting "primer for evolutionary biologists interested in studying social evolution in viruses" 👇
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Human voices (just chatting, whatever the language) is the scariest sound for wild animals in the savanna. More scary than the roar of a lion. 👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 17, 2023 at 6:28 PM
Human voices (just chatting, whatever the language) is the scariest sound for wild animals in the savanna. More scary than the roar of a lion. 👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
My first thread post on Bluesky 👇
November 12, 2023 at 5:09 AM
My first thread post on Bluesky 👇