Gytis Dudas
@evogytis.bsky.social
PI @ Vilnius University Life Sciences Center 🦠🧬🌳🌍🐾📈.
Enthusiast of orthomyxos (& other (-)ssRNA viruses), RNA virus discovery, evolution & ecology, genomic epidemiology, data-vis, matplotlib.
EMBO installation grantee.
evogytis.github.io
Enthusiast of orthomyxos (& other (-)ssRNA viruses), RNA virus discovery, evolution & ecology, genomic epidemiology, data-vis, matplotlib.
EMBO installation grantee.
evogytis.github.io
Pinned
Gytis Dudas
@evogytis.bsky.social
· Jul 17
This is quite late but our lab has a preprint out about a SARS-CoV-2 situation we had in mink in Lithuania back in 2021. It's a doozy with re-emergence of extinct lineages, a country-wide test of all mink farms in Lithuania & some interesting dynamics in mink. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/5🧵
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
"SARS-CoV-2 is too well-adapted to humans [hence, insert your favorite conspiracy theory]".
That was never right because, for one, SARS-CoV-2 is a pandemic virus so it necessarily had to be "well-adapted".
Now, a new study shows the same is true for BANAL-236 - a related virus isolated from bats.
That was never right because, for one, SARS-CoV-2 is a pandemic virus so it necessarily had to be "well-adapted".
Now, a new study shows the same is true for BANAL-236 - a related virus isolated from bats.
November 10, 2025 at 8:09 PM
"SARS-CoV-2 is too well-adapted to humans [hence, insert your favorite conspiracy theory]".
That was never right because, for one, SARS-CoV-2 is a pandemic virus so it necessarily had to be "well-adapted".
Now, a new study shows the same is true for BANAL-236 - a related virus isolated from bats.
That was never right because, for one, SARS-CoV-2 is a pandemic virus so it necessarily had to be "well-adapted".
Now, a new study shows the same is true for BANAL-236 - a related virus isolated from bats.
Galbut (technically Galbūt) virus is Darren's discovery child named in Lithuanian (together with Chaq, a Klingon-named satellite of Galbūt) that turned out to be the most common RNA virus of Drosophila melanogaster. I'm loving the emerging "genomic epi, but like in insects" chapter of metagenomics!
November 10, 2025 at 4:51 PM
Galbut (technically Galbūt) virus is Darren's discovery child named in Lithuanian (together with Chaq, a Klingon-named satellite of Galbūt) that turned out to be the most common RNA virus of Drosophila melanogaster. I'm loving the emerging "genomic epi, but like in insects" chapter of metagenomics!
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Come join us - we are recruiting a postdoc in phylodynamics and epidemiological modelling to join an exciting project on foot-and-mouth-disease virus in African buffalo
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research...
Please share widely!
#jobs #disease #ecology #evolution #phylodynamics
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research...
Please share widely!
#jobs #disease #ecology #evolution #phylodynamics
Research Assistant/Associate
Job Purpose You will contribute to an international collaborative project entitled “Multi-scale infection dynamics from cells to landscapes: FMD in African buffalo”, working with Prof Roman Biek. T...
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk
November 9, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Come join us - we are recruiting a postdoc in phylodynamics and epidemiological modelling to join an exciting project on foot-and-mouth-disease virus in African buffalo
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research...
Please share widely!
#jobs #disease #ecology #evolution #phylodynamics
www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research...
Please share widely!
#jobs #disease #ecology #evolution #phylodynamics
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
🧪 🦠 Prefusion structure, evasion and neutralization of HSV-1 glycoprotein B www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Prefusion structure, evasion and neutralization of HSV-1 glycoprotein B - Nature Microbiology
Cryo-EM structures of the stabilized prefusion conformation of the glycoprotein B ectodomain—the HSV-1 entry machine—identify a prefusion-specific neutralizing antibody and reveal how prefusion glycop...
www.nature.com
November 8, 2025 at 3:37 AM
🧪 🦠 Prefusion structure, evasion and neutralization of HSV-1 glycoprotein B www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
If you are looking for a PhD in the UK, please check out the LIDo program - www.lido-dtp.ac.uk/apply.
If you are interested in viruses and making genetically edited salmon, please look up my icase project.
International students are welcome to apply!
Please reach out if you have questions.
If you are interested in viruses and making genetically edited salmon, please look up my icase project.
International students are welcome to apply!
Please reach out if you have questions.
November 4, 2025 at 11:14 AM
If you are looking for a PhD in the UK, please check out the LIDo program - www.lido-dtp.ac.uk/apply.
If you are interested in viruses and making genetically edited salmon, please look up my icase project.
International students are welcome to apply!
Please reach out if you have questions.
If you are interested in viruses and making genetically edited salmon, please look up my icase project.
International students are welcome to apply!
Please reach out if you have questions.
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
New work published today from the RasgonLab! The first thesis chapter from @zureishon.bsky.social!
Project highlights some of the difficulties we had with sample collection during the early days of COVID
journals.plos.org/plosntds/art...
Project highlights some of the difficulties we had with sample collection during the early days of COVID
journals.plos.org/plosntds/art...
Virome profiling of Culex tarsalis through small RNA-seq: A challenge of suboptimal samples
Author summary Mosquitoes are capable of transmitting pathogenic viruses to humans and other vertebrate hosts during feeding. However, they can also carry viruses that infect only mosquitoes, which ar...
journals.plos.org
November 3, 2025 at 9:24 PM
New work published today from the RasgonLab! The first thesis chapter from @zureishon.bsky.social!
Project highlights some of the difficulties we had with sample collection during the early days of COVID
journals.plos.org/plosntds/art...
Project highlights some of the difficulties we had with sample collection during the early days of COVID
journals.plos.org/plosntds/art...
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Our new preprint is out 🥳🥳🥳
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
November 3, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Our new preprint is out 🥳🥳🥳
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
👇
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Sad day for the folks who staked their reputations on lab leak conspiracy theories.
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
October 31, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Sad day for the folks who staked their reputations on lab leak conspiracy theories.
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Excited to announce the final version of the Mosquito Cell Atlas is out now in @cellpress.bsky.social!! 🦟🩸
There is SO much left to find & investigate in this dataset (& the rich biology of the Aedes aegypti mosquito)! We hope this helps scientists in many fields!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
There is SO much left to find & investigate in this dataset (& the rich biology of the Aedes aegypti mosquito)! We hope this helps scientists in many fields!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
A single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of the adult Aedes aegypti mosquito
A comprehensive single-nucleus RNA-seq atlas of >367,000 nuclei from male and female
Aedes aegypti mosquitoes reveals sexual dimorphism in sensory systems and brain cell
types and widespread co-expres...
www.cell.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:05 PM
Excited to announce the final version of the Mosquito Cell Atlas is out now in @cellpress.bsky.social!! 🦟🩸
There is SO much left to find & investigate in this dataset (& the rich biology of the Aedes aegypti mosquito)! We hope this helps scientists in many fields!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
There is SO much left to find & investigate in this dataset (& the rich biology of the Aedes aegypti mosquito)! We hope this helps scientists in many fields!
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
As expected, unfortunately.
If ever you needed a reason for never using GISAID ever again (as a data producer or data user - we're both), look no further.
Time to move on to more trusted and transparent solutions.
If ever you needed a reason for never using GISAID ever again (as a data producer or data user - we're both), look no further.
Time to move on to more trusted and transparent solutions.
October 31, 2025 at 1:41 AM
As expected, unfortunately.
If ever you needed a reason for never using GISAID ever again (as a data producer or data user - we're both), look no further.
Time to move on to more trusted and transparent solutions.
If ever you needed a reason for never using GISAID ever again (as a data producer or data user - we're both), look no further.
Time to move on to more trusted and transparent solutions.
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Come join the Workshop on Phylogenomics in Cesky Krumlov, Czechia, from January 25 through February 7, 2026!
Applications close November 15!
#phylogenetics #evolution #genomics #ai
evomics.org/apply-worksh...
Applications close November 15!
#phylogenetics #evolution #genomics #ai
evomics.org/apply-worksh...
Apply: Workshop on Phylogenomics 2026 - Evolution and Genomics
Application for the 2026 Workshop on Phylogenomics Use this form to apply for the 2026 Workshop on Phylogenomics being held in Cesky Krumlov, Czechia from 25th January through 7th February, ...
evomics.org
October 29, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Come join the Workshop on Phylogenomics in Cesky Krumlov, Czechia, from January 25 through February 7, 2026!
Applications close November 15!
#phylogenetics #evolution #genomics #ai
evomics.org/apply-worksh...
Applications close November 15!
#phylogenetics #evolution #genomics #ai
evomics.org/apply-worksh...
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
My paper is out! Uncovering hundreds of exogenous and endogenous RNA viral RdRp sequences amongst uncharacterised sequences in public protein databases. doi.org/10.1093/ve/v... 💻🧬 1/5 🧵
October 28, 2025 at 1:27 PM
My paper is out! Uncovering hundreds of exogenous and endogenous RNA viral RdRp sequences amongst uncharacterised sequences in public protein databases. doi.org/10.1093/ve/v... 💻🧬 1/5 🧵
Just to add - after the molecular clock anomaly of the 2014 Lomela EBOV outbreak in DRC I wondered if @arambaut.bsky.social & I got the West African/Makona EBOV epidemic root wrong. Very happy to see JT McCrone correct the record (or at least get closer to the truth).
Our paper on the phenomenon of persistence and latency in Ebola virus in an unobserved reservoir is finally out in preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Evidence of latency reshapes our understanding of Ebola virus reservoir dynamics
Ebola virus (EBOV) has caused severe outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever in Central and West Africa since the first observed zoonotic epidemic in the late 1970s. While recent outbreaks have revealed much ...
www.biorxiv.org
October 20, 2025 at 6:27 AM
Just to add - after the molecular clock anomaly of the 2014 Lomela EBOV outbreak in DRC I wondered if @arambaut.bsky.social & I got the West African/Makona EBOV epidemic root wrong. Very happy to see JT McCrone correct the record (or at least get closer to the truth).
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Our paper on the phenomenon of persistence and latency in Ebola virus in an unobserved reservoir is finally out in preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Evidence of latency reshapes our understanding of Ebola virus reservoir dynamics
Ebola virus (EBOV) has caused severe outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever in Central and West Africa since the first observed zoonotic epidemic in the late 1970s. While recent outbreaks have revealed much ...
www.biorxiv.org
October 19, 2025 at 11:36 AM
Our paper on the phenomenon of persistence and latency in Ebola virus in an unobserved reservoir is finally out in preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Interesting that there has been absolutely no communication with submitters/users of the system, and no statements from the scientific governance or compliance boards on what would seem to be a fairly significant change to GISAID data access policy and platform operations. gisaid.org/about-us/gov...
October 17, 2025 at 7:07 PM
Interesting that there has been absolutely no communication with submitters/users of the system, and no statements from the scientific governance or compliance boards on what would seem to be a fairly significant change to GISAID data access policy and platform operations. gisaid.org/about-us/gov...
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Evolutionary biologist @scs22.bsky.social has had a lot of success recently sequencing ancient RNA viruses from museum samples. This summer I had the chance to accompany him and a team of researchers to the Arctic where they hope that the permafrost might allow them to go further back in time.
🧪
🧪
On an Arctic archipelago, frozen soil may preserve a hidden history of viruses
Scientists are hunting for ancient RNA in Svalbard’s permafrost, hoping to shed light on the evolution of viral diseases
www.science.org
October 16, 2025 at 7:12 PM
Evolutionary biologist @scs22.bsky.social has had a lot of success recently sequencing ancient RNA viruses from museum samples. This summer I had the chance to accompany him and a team of researchers to the Arctic where they hope that the permafrost might allow them to go further back in time.
🧪
🧪
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
And now NextStrain as well.
Next up, will GISAID start charging open-source community tools to have access?
That would completely shaft users who contributed to GISAID, where we never agreed to that and assumed GISAID would be good custodians of the data we contributed. They're not.
Next up, will GISAID start charging open-source community tools to have access?
That would completely shaft users who contributed to GISAID, where we never agreed to that and assumed GISAID would be good custodians of the data we contributed. They're not.
October 16, 2025 at 7:48 PM
And now NextStrain as well.
Next up, will GISAID start charging open-source community tools to have access?
That would completely shaft users who contributed to GISAID, where we never agreed to that and assumed GISAID would be good custodians of the data we contributed. They're not.
Next up, will GISAID start charging open-source community tools to have access?
That would completely shaft users who contributed to GISAID, where we never agreed to that and assumed GISAID would be good custodians of the data we contributed. They're not.
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Tanja Stadler @tanjastadler.bsky.social @ethz.ch awarded prestigious #DoronPrize for pioneering work in computational evolution and public health. Big congrats, Tanja!
> u.ethz.ch/IxSY8
> u.ethz.ch/IxSY8
October 13, 2025 at 11:29 AM
Tanja Stadler @tanjastadler.bsky.social @ethz.ch awarded prestigious #DoronPrize for pioneering work in computational evolution and public health. Big congrats, Tanja!
> u.ethz.ch/IxSY8
> u.ethz.ch/IxSY8
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Just published an interactive article about a magical algorithm known as the Burrows-Wheeler Transform, which powers sequence alignment tools like bowtie and bwa: sandbox.bio/concepts/bwt
It's also notoriously unintuitive so I'm hoping this article helps you build that intuition.
It's also notoriously unintuitive so I'm hoping this article helps you build that intuition.
October 9, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Just published an interactive article about a magical algorithm known as the Burrows-Wheeler Transform, which powers sequence alignment tools like bowtie and bwa: sandbox.bio/concepts/bwt
It's also notoriously unintuitive so I'm hoping this article helps you build that intuition.
It's also notoriously unintuitive so I'm hoping this article helps you build that intuition.
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
🚨🧪 Interested in primate genomics and GxE interactions?
My lab is recruiting graduate students and postdocs to help start projects on primate gene regulation and immune evolution. Reach out if you would like to learn more, and please spread widely!
#ScienceJobs
My lab is recruiting graduate students and postdocs to help start projects on primate gene regulation and immune evolution. Reach out if you would like to learn more, and please spread widely!
#ScienceJobs
October 9, 2025 at 5:53 PM
🚨🧪 Interested in primate genomics and GxE interactions?
My lab is recruiting graduate students and postdocs to help start projects on primate gene regulation and immune evolution. Reach out if you would like to learn more, and please spread widely!
#ScienceJobs
My lab is recruiting graduate students and postdocs to help start projects on primate gene regulation and immune evolution. Reach out if you would like to learn more, and please spread widely!
#ScienceJobs
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
You heard it straight from Kennedy himself: Gold Standard Science is actually just data fabrication.
RFK Jr on Tylenol and autism: "It is not proof. We're doing the studies to make the proof."
October 9, 2025 at 9:23 PM
You heard it straight from Kennedy himself: Gold Standard Science is actually just data fabrication.
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
I'm excited to report that a species has been named after my son Ze Frank, "in recognition of his outstanding contributions to science communication, which have inspired curiosity, wonder, and deeper public engagement with the natural world"
October 6, 2025 at 7:00 PM
I'm excited to report that a species has been named after my son Ze Frank, "in recognition of his outstanding contributions to science communication, which have inspired curiosity, wonder, and deeper public engagement with the natural world"
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Great story! (Although I think that this is a TE, not an endogenous retrovirus)
We discovered an endogenous retrovirus that's still spreading in natural D. melanogaster populations! It was horizontally transferred from D. erecta in Central Africa, so we named it "Kuruka", which means "jump" in Swahili. Read its cool story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 4, 2025 at 10:52 AM
Great story! (Although I think that this is a TE, not an endogenous retrovirus)
Reposted by Gytis Dudas
Invasive mosquito vector species detected in surveillance traps in United Kingdom
Invasive mosquito vector species detected in surveillance traps in United Kingdom
Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes are vectors of multiple diseases including dengue, chikungunya and Zika, posing a public health risk to populations within their native range.
phys.org
October 2, 2025 at 1:27 PM
Invasive mosquito vector species detected in surveillance traps in United Kingdom
