Finally, we’ve solved a long-standing mystery: what tintinnid shells are actually made of:
A new class of biomaterial formed by remarkable structural proteins unique to tintinnids.
A major milestone after 3 years of work! Read about it in our preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202...
#ProtistsOnSky

"A newly identified amoeba can survive at the temperature of a medium-well done steak" lol @scifri.bsky.social an apt comparison a hadn't previously considered...

A pleasure chatting about our research led by @hbrappap.bsky.social & with a wonderful team of colleagues.

Sometimes life finds a way… like this newly discovered “fire amoeba,” thriving at 145 °F deep in the hot springs of Lassen Volcanic National Park 🌋 Even in the harshest places, life endures. That kind of resilience gives us hope. ✨ #OceanHoptimism #NatureFindsAWay #Extremophiles #Resilience

Delighted to share some coverage of our new preprint (doi.org/10.1101/2025...) from Scientific American

and thank you @sciam.bsky.social @andreatweather.bsky.social for taking the time to chat with @hbrappap.bsky.social and I about why we are so excited about the geothermal 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘦𝘣𝘢

Thanks nature news for featuring our recent preprint on 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢𝘮𝘰𝘦𝘣𝘢 led by @hbrappap.bsky.social

(check out preprint here: doi.org/10.1101/2025...) #protistsonsky

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth!
#protistsonsky 🧵

Accepted version of our article "Half of microbial eukaryote literature focuses on only twelve human parasites" now out in ISMEJ!

Awesome effort led by undergrad Joanna Lepper and with @hbrappap.bsky.social.

New lab pre-print up! "Twelve species of human parasites make up half the literature on microbial eukaryotes"
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

We (led by UG Joanna Lepper and with @hbrappap.bsky.social) quantified all mentions of protist species in the scientific literature 🧵

#protistsonsky #microsky

🍾Our small #UExM adventure is only starting! #ProtistsOnSky

We are happy to announce that the Moore Foundation will be funding our efforts in creating an Expansion Microscopy atlas of #Microbial #Eukaryotes with @gautamdey.bsky.social @UNIGE
@embl.org

LINK: www.unige.ch/sciences/chi...

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Happy to share our effort to understand the role of acetic acid bacteria in sourdough starter microbiomes using genomics + synthetic experiments! Led by @hbrappap.bsky.social and w/ @benwolfe.bsky.social @nimshika.bsky.social and @saerobe.bsky.social

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
#microsky

Super cool update!! @rmshepherd.bsky.social was able to culture some thermophilic amoebae from our built environment steam vent samples on campus that can happily grow at at least 50C! They are most closely related to Fumarolamoeba (isolated from... yep... fumaroles!) #protistsOnSky #MicroSky

Paper led by lab member Beryl Rappaport was just published in @genomebiolevol.bsky.social - we synthesized adaptations and genomic innovations across microbial and macrobial eukaryotic lineages that are often in very separate research silos #MicroSky🦠🧫🧪 #MicrobiomeSky doi.org/10.1093/gbe/...

Thermophilic amoebae from Lassen Volcanic NP are happy and active today at 57C 😱😍😍 This is quite hot for euks and the current known limit for amoeboid lineages - and we suspect they may be able to withstand even higher temps... stay tuned!

Awesome image is from lab member Hannah Rappaport.

Thanks SU A&S for the nice feature on our lab's research on #protists in #extremeenvironments - artsandsciences.syracuse.edu/news-all/new...