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
Wouldn’t it be kind of wild if someone actually pulled everything we know about what happens to eDNA between shedding and detection?
Decay, transport, microbes, temperature, rivers, oceans, all of it?!

We did that.

📄 Preprint link: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8...
🧬🔍🌊
#eDNA #MolecularEcology
Fate and transport of environmental DNA: mapping the knowns and unknowns
The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) in routine biomonitoring is transforming our ability to detect and quantify aquatic species. However, translating these indirect molecular detections into ecologica...
www.researchsquare.com
I was recently humbled by the presence of the type specimen of the first bird ever.

The #Archeopteryx is truly a magical thing.

This object here defines what a bird🐓 is.
December 19, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Marion, idk who you are, but you are very funny.
December 19, 2025 at 8:06 PM
We put this out as a preprint so the community can help pressure-test it. If we missed your work, misinterpreted something, or if you have data that alters any conclusion, please tell us. This only gets better with more eyes on it!
#eDNA #Molecularecology #Ecology
December 12, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Wouldn’t it be kind of wild if someone actually pulled everything we know about what happens to eDNA between shedding and detection?
Decay, transport, microbes, temperature, rivers, oceans, all of it?!

We did that.

📄 Preprint link: www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-8...
🧬🔍🌊
#eDNA #MolecularEcology
Fate and transport of environmental DNA: mapping the knowns and unknowns
The use of environmental DNA (eDNA) in routine biomonitoring is transforming our ability to detect and quantify aquatic species. However, translating these indirect molecular detections into ecologica...
www.researchsquare.com
December 12, 2025 at 4:33 PM
There is a list of modern issues that have to be outlawed/regulated by ALL countries around the world ASAP, but people are too busy discussing non-issues.

This is somewhere at the top of that list.
What in the everloving—and I can’t stress this enough—FUCK
December 12, 2025 at 4:25 AM
Packing for the #CRESST research cruise and preparing a manifest was not easy.

The neat part is we will have a full #eDNA workflow going in the ship itself - sampling, extraction, PCR, sequencing, and bioinformatics!

Our hopes are resting on many ways to tie things down 🪢 and seasickness pills!
December 11, 2025 at 4:34 AM
Cool study, but the projections are🤪.
-They predict fewer birds than we already have.
-The Bayesian model goes off the rails.
-Including prokaryotes is questionable as "species" hardly applies.

Any species-count model that doesn`t have # of active taxonomists as a factor will be just broken.
Fascinated to learn that we are still discovering new species at the highest rate ever. Mapping Earth's biodiversity is far from over, and while we learn more and more about it, let's protect what we do know as well as we can!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The past and future of known biodiversity: Rates, patterns, and projections of new species over time
The number of known species on Earth is increasing rapidly, suggesting unexpectedly large numbers of many groups.
www.science.org
December 8, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Every time I have to write "°C" I just google "degrees celsius" and copy the ° symbol. Same for μ! . Sure, I can insert symbols, but it feels faster! I can`t be the only one, right?
December 3, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

-Maned wolf (lobo-guará)
-Banded cotinga (crejoá)
-Dwarf tinamou (carapé)
-Whooping crane
-Orca

Cerrado + Atlantic Forest (where I grew up in the ecotone), plus Texas from my PhD years, and Washington now.

Do google them if you have to :)
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Polar bear
Beluga whale
Moose
Wolf
Lynx

(it was hard to pick 5)
Introduce yourself with 5 animals you've seen in the wild:

Caribou
Ravens
Seals
Kea
Turkeys
November 29, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Save the date for a Global #eDNA 🧬 conference! More details to come soon.
November 26, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Apparently bats 🦇 have never evolved to become flightless, while birds 🐓 have done it over 150 times and insects many others as well.

Old news for many, but someone just told me that and now I have been thinking about it for a long time.
November 21, 2025 at 2:57 AM
This tiny thing is a fully functional thermocycler for up to 16 tubes.🤯
🧬 We will pair it with a MinION sequencer, an e-Gel and a tiny centrifuge for a field deployable eDNA lab that fits inside a suitcase.
#eDNA
November 21, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Funny geographic coincidence: drill straight through my hometown in Brazil and you land in the Philippine Sea… where I’ll be on a #UW #CRESST research cruise in a couple of months!!

Instead of New Year’s with family, I’ll be as far from home as I could get without being an astronaut 👨‍🚀.
#science
November 19, 2025 at 3:48 AM
Reason 272 to dislike coding: the code worked fine yesterday but does not work today.
November 17, 2025 at 4:49 PM
Nothing like starting the day with a well-written and relevant paper.
Today’s pick was genuinely rewarding to read, so I’m sharing it:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Kudos to @katfiishn.bsky.social
How Fragmented Is eDNA? A Case Study on Shark DNA in Tropical Reef Seawater
This study quantified mitochondrial eDNA fragment lengths in offshore tropical seawater using qPCR assays targeting amplicons from 119 to 15,727 bp in tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier). Copy numbers st...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:57 PM
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