Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
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pedrobd.bsky.social
Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
@pedrobd.bsky.social
Biologist, molecular ecologist🧑‍🔬 , eDNA nerd 🧬, birder 🐦, coin collector 🪙, insect enjoyer 🐜, Brazilian mineiro, and more.
Currently a Postdoc in the Kelly Lab at UW.
Pinned
I had an idea—just a hunch, really— on how to link #Popgen and #eDNA.
I was lucky to be in a lab that embraced curiosity, open discussion, and let me run with it.

One year, many equations, and a few too many simulations later, here’s the result:

🧬 Preprint now live: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Estimating Organism Abundance Using Within-Sample Haplotype Frequencies of eDNA Metabarcoding Data
Environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding provides powerful insights into species presence and community composition, but remains limited in its ability to quantify species abundance or structure. Here, ...
doi.org
Just received an invitation to volunteer as an editor for a for-profit publisher that charges thousands in fees.

Nope.

"But it counts on your CV!"

🙄
November 7, 2025 at 6:34 PM
On our survey, someone "does not believe #eDNA" because it has given them "nonsensical results". Which result, you ask?

Wolves in the city. 🐾

Well... 🐕🐩🐶🦮
November 4, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Bird field guides that hide maps at the back: unacceptable. 🤦

No weight saved. Clarity gone.

Range matters so much for ID — put the maps where they belong!! 🗺️🐦

#vent #birding
November 2, 2025 at 4:32 PM
When I say I am lucky for bad luck, people think I am joking

Have you ever been at the louvre and it got ROBBED the moment you arrived?

Well, it just happened to me LOL
October 19, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Happy 1000th life bird day!! 🐦 🥳

I went into a nearby hotspot today to get this done... it was a great one, complete with friendly local birders. 56 total sp with 13 lifers at once, which put me at 1004 life birds!

Not sure who the exact 1000th bird was, my best guess is the Water Rail!
October 16, 2025 at 10:25 AM
🚀 The @ednacollab.bsky.social just launched the DIYNAFLUOR Microgrant 2025!

They’re offering materials + support to build a low-cost DIY fluorometer for eDNA quantification.

It can be as effective as Qubit at a % of the cost.

Great opportunity for anyone in #eDNA, #DIYBio, #CitizenScience 👇
October 15, 2025 at 6:58 PM
It turns out you can buy a monthly public transit pass and save money in Paris!😄🐓

(But it is valid from the first calendar day of the month, not the day you first use it)😑

You can also buy a weekly 7 day pass!

(But its valid from Monday to Sunday of a given week, not any 7 consecutive days)🥴
October 15, 2025 at 9:44 AM
New paper shows that spotting rare birds increases the odds of people starting a checklist, thus data is a little biases.

Makes sense ... I do the same! On routine walks or usual hikes I skip eBird, but when something unusual 🦤 (or a lifer!) appears, I can’t resist starting an eBird list 😅
Large citizen science datasets are powerful tools for biodiversity science, but they may have biases. Nice new paper from @louisbackstrom.bsky.social et al. showing that for eBird and Birdtrack lists there is a tendency for rare species to be over-represented
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
October 14, 2025 at 5:04 PM
Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
Only negative controls amplified.
In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand

I'll go first: Six page commercial lease.
October 12, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
super cool study found human artifacts in Bearded vulture nests, incl. "weaponry like a crossbow bolt and wooden lance, decorated sheep leather, and parts of a slingshot....a shoe made from twigs and grass is ~675-years-old." link to paper: doi.org/10.1002/ecy..... www.popsci.com/environment/... 🧪🌍🦉
Multi-generational vulture nests hold 700 years of human artifacts
Crossbow bolts, sandals, slingshots, and more.
www.popsci.com
October 3, 2025 at 1:06 PM
Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
Pre-print em português (sorry @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social ) do nosso artigo publicado recentemente na PECON disponível no @ecoevorxiv.bsky.social

ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...
Ciclos irregulares de financiamento no Brasil são uma barreira à conservação da biodiversidade e à liderança global do país
ecoevorxiv.org
October 5, 2025 at 2:55 PM
Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
I have gone through Fig 2 of my upcoming paper ~20x now. Every time, I find a small error that I hadn't seen before, which triggers a series of ~10 steps and 5 min of work to update it. It`s a complex figure.

If y`all find an error in it while reading the paper, please DO NOT tell me. Thank you 🥰
October 4, 2025 at 5:08 AM
How many Nanopores is too many Nanopores to have running all at once? Well, @AdenIp has four (!!!!) up here at the @ednacollab.bsky.social right now 💢💢💢💢

Why, you ask?
"Why not?" - he says

Lots of air eDNA data coming out of the oven (literally, these basicalling GPUs warm up the room a lot 🔥🔥🔥)
October 3, 2025 at 4:07 AM
Today the glove box gave me a glove with no thumb and dared me to do science without opposable thumbs. I rejected the challenge 👍
September 30, 2025 at 3:40 PM
I feel like we tend to complain loudly and often when manuscript peer reviews are bad or unfavorable.

But today I got reviews... and they were reasonable and polite!

Faith slightly restored!!
September 30, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Toxic trait of bioinfo folks:
Everyone insists on building their own pipeline 👨‍💻

Is it (a) distrust, (b) dreams of citations, (c) tryna prove competency— or all?
Even if it’s a wrapper on a wrapper, god forbid you just use an established one!

I am half guilty as well.
xkcd nailed it long ago.
September 26, 2025 at 1:02 AM
Why are statistical methods so often explained as if the authors are afraid someone might actually understand what they did?
September 25, 2025 at 4:26 PM
The Miseq i100 has a baby now
September 19, 2025 at 6:57 PM
Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
The Dept. of BioSciences at #RiceUniversity, in Houston, Texas, invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor position in Evolutionary Biology, with a preferred focus on organismal responses to environmental change. Please RT!

Apply: apply.interfolio.com/173889
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
September 12, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Pedro Brandão-Dias F Pinto
September 18, 2025 at 5:27 PM
If you are upset that I am shitposting, please understand: I am on a visa, I cannot not shitpost. I CAN not post, but once I do post, I cannot not shitpost. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
September 18, 2025 at 4:41 PM
I had a nightmare where I had to correctly identify 2 juvenile winter gulls in the PNW or my eBird lists would be all invalidated. 🦅

#birding
September 18, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Define evil you said?👺

Article Publishing Charge (APC): USD 4,200 (excluding taxes)
(Mandatory)

🤡
September 17, 2025 at 10:17 PM