Ellinor Alseth
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ellinoralseth.bsky.social
Ellinor Alseth
@ellinoralseth.bsky.social
Eco-evo with microbes. I happen to like fjords, I think they give a lovely baroque feel to a continent. The University of Tromsø. Opinions my own. She/her
Pinned
Mystique is here! When I started my position at @cmdi.bsky.social there were no readily available phage against my A. baumannii focal strain. The solution? Finding my own phage ofc. Mystique is a broad host range Acinetobacter phage, and I'm thrilled to see this work out today #PhageSky 🧪🦠
Mystique, a broad host range Acinetobacter phage, reveals the impact of culturing conditions on phage isolation and infectivity
Author summary Bacterial infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii are a major global health concern due to high antibiotic resistance, earning it a critical priority pathogen ranking by the WHO. P...
journals.plos.org
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, there was a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Our paper, led by @martibartfast.bsky.social
a) correcting errors in 4.5 million genomes & their phylogeny
b) improving representation of the Global South in public data
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(thread 1/n)
Addressing pandemic-wide systematic errors in the SARS-CoV-2 phylogeny - Nature Methods
This Resource paper presents a global SARS-CoV-2 phylogenetic tree of 4,471,579 high-quality genomes consistently constructed by Viridian, an efficient amplicon-aware assembler.
www.nature.com
February 9, 2026 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
New PDRA position with @knightjar.bsky.social @coytelab.bsky.social & me

Community assembly processes in soil microbiomes with focus on bioinformatics and computational modelling of data from field and lab experiments

www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
'Research Associate in Microbiome Ecology:Manchester
We wish to appoint a PostDoctoral Research Associate to an exciting project exploring the assembly, stability and function of microbial decomposer communities.
www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk
February 6, 2026 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Love it when you stumble across a random 1995 paper that could just as well be a 2026 preprint.
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
February 6, 2026 at 11:48 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
New paper out! Here's a puzzle: phototrophy, the ability to use light for energy, is one of life's great innovations. It evolved early and transformed the biosphere. But it evolved 2x. Why not just once, why not more? Our work suggests the answer is priority effects.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Priority effects inhibit the repeated evolution of phototrophy - npj Complexity
npj Complexity - Priority effects inhibit the repeated evolution of phototrophy
www.nature.com
February 3, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
www.biorxiv.org
February 3, 2026 at 6:09 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
This is very bad news
January 30, 2026 at 8:19 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Un poste de Maître de Conférence est ouvert pour rejoindre notre unité à Lyon !

Possibilité de rejoindre mon équipe pour travailler sur:
- caractérisation des mécanismes de défense anti-phage
- transfert horizontal et interactions entre éléments génétiques mobiles

N'hésitez pas à me contacter
📢 Recrutement d’un(e) Maître(sses) de conférence en Biochimie générale, spécialité bactériologie moléculaire à MMSB

🔬Recherche
*Immunité anti-phages
*Réponse au stress, modulation de la croissance bactérienne
✉️ christophe.grangeasse@cnrs.fr

📚Enseignement : Université Lyon I
✉️ patrice.gouet@ibcp.fr
January 29, 2026 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
If you have been dreaming of moving to France as an ECR looking to build a long-term research career, now is your chance: @inrae-france.bsky.social yearly hiring for permanent research scientist positions is open: deadline March 5! jobs.inrae.fr/en/open-comp...
Open competitions for research scientists - on job profiles (CRCN)
Each year, INRAE organises open competitions to recruit research scientists on permanent positions. The recruitment campaign is generally aimed at researchers who have recently obtained their PhD. Candidates are recruited on the basis of their scientific competence which they will put to the service of INRAE's major research axes by responding to a research topic. Candidates must have published articles on the results of their PhD.Would you like to take part in public research and participate in projects which are vital for society such as adapting to climate change, food security, human health and preserving natural resources? Then join our research teams by sending in your application to our open competitions for research scientists.Schedule for the 2026 recruitment campaign- Opening date for applications: January 27, 2026- Deadline for applications: March 5, 2026- Pre-selections (on scientific file): from April 13 to 30, 2026- Final selections (interview): from June 1 to 14, 2026- Starting date for appointments: from September 1, 2026
jobs.inrae.fr
January 29, 2026 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Why should microbiologists be interested in historical infection remedies, and how can we best investigate them for antimicrobial discovery? Thoroughly enjoyed co-writing this Microbiology Primer with @tosinorababa.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #MicroSky #Ancientbiotics
Microbial Primer: Ancientbiotics – making modern antimicrobials from historical infection remedies
The modern antibiotic era began in the early twentieth century, but humans have long used materials from the natural world to attempt to treat the symptoms of infection. In this primer, we will discus...
www.microbiologyresearch.org
January 29, 2026 at 10:44 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Come and join our editorial team
Microbiology is seeking Editors to help ensure the publication of high-quality research and to foster engagement across the microbiology community.
Expertise in biotechnology, regulation, sensing, signalling or AMR is especially welcome.
🗓️ Apply by 16 February: https://microb.io/4qKdgJ6
<i>Microbiology</i> Editors: Call for expressions of interest
microb.io
January 29, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Cool stuff!

“A quorum-sensing molecule from Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen”

#microsky
A quorum-sensing molecule from Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces defensive multicellularity in a coinfecting pathogen | PNAS
Microorganisms commonly exist in polymicrobial communities, where they can respond to interspecies secreted molecules by altering behaviors and phy...
www.pnas.org
January 29, 2026 at 11:06 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
New paper out in @pnas.org, and it made the cover! 👁️

We represent plasmids as circles and mutations as dots, resembling an eye, because in this paper we literally 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ plasmids evolve.

‼️Check Paula’s 🧵 and the paper👇

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗺𝗶𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
January 27, 2026 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Phage therapy offers a powerful tool against AMR infections—but only if we move from isolated cases to coordinated systems. The first initiative of the ASM Health Unit, led by Colleen Kraft and Dev Mittar, will tackle this. Delighted by this scientific leadership, join us!

asm.org/about-asm/as...
Phage Therapy Coordination Network | ASM.org
ASM Health is unlocking bacteriophage therapies for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through coordinated access and regulatory approvals.
asm.org
January 27, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Thrilled to see this paper finally out! journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... It was a difficult story to communicate and took us a while to get right. Big congratulations to @wbjorn.bsky.social, Pablo Guridi and Flora Arias-Sanchez!! And thank you the reviewers who helped improve it. Keep reading...
Novel artificial selection method improves function of simulated microbial communities
Author summary Artificial selection has been extremely powerful in improving properties of complex biological or biochemical entities. The most familiar examples come from the breeding of animals and ...
journals.plos.org
January 27, 2026 at 1:41 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
PhD studentships available through our BBSRC-funded doctoral programme.

🦠🧫💻 Contact me if you're interested in using bioinformatics/lab-based approaches with cultivated and uncultivated bacteria of the human microbiome, to identify and characterize novel enzymes with potential biotech applications.
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Doctoral Training Programme - The University of Nottingham
www.nottingham.ac.uk
January 22, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
So much work still to do to break the glass ceiling!

Analysis of millions of biomed & life science articles reveal that female-authored articles spend longer under review than comparable male-authored ones
@plosbiology.org

🧪 plos.io/4658FZN
Biomedical and life science articles by female researchers spend longer under review
Women are underrepresented in academia, especially in STEMM fields, at top institutions, and in senior positions. This study analyzes millions of biomedical and life science articles, revealing that f...
plos.io
January 23, 2026 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Cool study showing in exquisite details what every parent of kids in daycare already knows...
January 21, 2026 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Our latest CRISPR ring nuclease paper focusses on Csx15 - which seems to act as of a sponge as well as a canonical phosphodiesterase. Great work led by @haotianchi.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
www.biorxiv.org
January 22, 2026 at 8:57 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Phage folks who use the wizard DNA clean up kit to extract Phage DNA, I understand how the silica can hold onto DNA, how does the kit open up the phage in the first place? Mechanical stress from the 10µm silica beads in the resin? Or does the guanidinium thiocyanate do the job?
January 19, 2026 at 4:24 PM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Application deadline for this postdoc position in my group closing next week 🦠 thank you all who have shared so far!
🔊 Job Opportunity: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Bacterial Evolution.

Looking to recruit a postdoc to join a UKRI FLF-funded project on antibiotic resistance evolution in the microbiome 🦠

3 years funding, deadline 26th Jan, please share!
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...
Job profile
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk
January 19, 2026 at 11:32 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
My team at @cbitoulouse.bsky.social is recruiting a postdoc #bioinformatics with solid experience in metagenomic analyses.
Interest in evolution, ecology & MGEs is important.
The offer stands until the perfect candidate is found, and it could be you 🫵

🔁 🙏

#microSky #phagesky #UTIsky
@cnrs.fr
January 15, 2026 at 11:19 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Lovely paper! 😎

Shorthand for microbes is getting confusing though. I get that Kazachstania pintolopesii is a mouthful, but Kp is Klebsiella pneumoniae, or @katholt.bsky.social 🤪?

#MicroSky #FridayProblems 🧪
January 16, 2026 at 11:37 AM
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
We've got ISSUES. Literally.

We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?

arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563

A 🧵 1/n
January 13, 2026 at 8:27 AM