Rubén González
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rubengonzalez.bsky.social
Rubén González
@rubengonzalez.bsky.social
Viral Infections and Virus Evolution.

A happy postdoctoral researcher at @salehlabparis.bsky.social, Institut Pasteur (Paris, France).

https://gonzalezrvirus.com
Pinned
In my first Drosophila study at @salehlabparis.bsky.social, we found that:

1. Enteric viral infections accelerate aging.
2. Even if the infection is cleared, aging process remains triggered.
3. Accelerated aging correlates with reduced lifespan.

📑Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Rubén González
IT'S HAPPENING! 💥 I'm psyched to launch the collaboration between @qedscience.bsky.social & @openrxiv.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Preprint + q.e.d = your science is out there, and anyone can appreciate it. Let's care about making discoveries, and not on “getting published” (1/3) 👇
November 6, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
🧬 Thrilled to share our latest paper in @natmicrobiol.nature.com 📄

A collaboration to give the Flaviviridae (home to Zika, Dengue & HCV) a much-needed taxonomic re-think.

Our at-scale AI structure prediction gave a complementary perspective on viral evolution.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Taxonomic expansion and reorganization of Flaviviridae - Nature Microbiology
Analysis of RNA polymerase hallmark gene phylogenies supported by protein structure relationships of flaviviruses and ‘flavi-like’ viruses underpins the taxonomic expansion and reorganization of Flavi...
www.nature.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:52 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
Apart from the AI junk part… the notion that one should not offer a potential mechanistic explanation for an observation, without first spending years & (unavailable) $$ trying to test possibilities before sharing the observation with others (who may be better equipped to investigate the mechanism)…
Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting

I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:
November 3, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
🪰 folks! I spoke to the Transmitter about FlyBase. As noted at flybase.org, bridge $ ran out and many staff were laid off.

Good news is stopgap contributions will keep core FlyBase operations active. But community support remains essential. Please donate @FlyBase and share! 1/2

tinyurl.com/FlyBase
FlyBase secures funding for year, but future still uncertain
The FlyBase team’s fundraising efforts have proven successful in the short term, but restoration of its federal grant remains uncertain.
tinyurl.com
October 29, 2025 at 12:31 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
Last chance to download my book for free! It's still available until tomorrow.
New Element in the Philosophy of Biology series—free to download until Oct. 24! @djnicholson.bsky.social uncovers Schrödinger’s motivations for writing "What Is Life?", revisits its central arguments & examines the book’s lasting impact on cell & molecular biology👇 www.cambridge.org/core/element...
October 23, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
What makes PhD students happy? Good supervision www.nature.com/articles/d41...
What makes PhD students happy? Good supervision
Supervisors who invest in positive mentoring relationships with their PhD candidates also reap the benefits for their own research.
www.nature.com
October 23, 2025 at 9:33 AM
Science is so much fun!
(3/5)
But first, I wanna share some sneak peeks of how this work has come to be, how I made the lab home, and the bonding that comes with working closely:
October 17, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
I'm so excited to share this with all of you!
This is the very first paper where I am the first author 🥹
Let me share some insights about our work 👇🧵(1/5):

How do persistent viral infections impact the host?

What happens when a fly becomes persistently infected by a virus?
October 17, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
Microbiome composition modulates the lethal outcome of Drosophila A virus infection https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.16.682821v1
October 16, 2025 at 8:17 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
🦖 Something HUGE just hatched.

Plasmidsaurus now offers RNA sequencing for gene expression analysis:
• As fast as 3 day turnaround
• $50/sample for academia, $80 for industry
• Up to ~10M unique transcript 3’ end reads per sample
• Interactive results

Explore Plasmidsaurus RNA-Seq today.
October 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
1/3 What happens when a fly gets persistently infected by a virus? In our latest work, we established persistent infections to examine their impact on this model organism. By tracking four natural, persistent RNA viruses...
October 13, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
Dear JEDIs,
as we are self-organizing using the #EDRC as a nucleator we decided it is time for a JEDI database to boost our network! If you identify as a JEDI, please contact us here or send a mail to katja.rust@uni-marburg.de to be added to our database.
#Drosophila
@fly-eds.bsky.social
September 26, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
Virology lost one of his monuments, David Baltimore. To learn more about him and his contributions, I recommend (re)-listening to this great TWIV episode : www.microbe.tv/twiv/twiv-10...
September 8, 2025 at 12:58 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
if you have your team and grants, not forget to support @flybase.bsky.social www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...
meanwhile, we need to think longterm and protect this data, dl it, share it
portal.datarescueproject.org/datasets/fly...
FlyBase
Links to public data archived through combined efforts and coordinated by the Data Rescue Project.
portal.datarescueproject.org
September 3, 2025 at 8:37 AM
Reposted by Rubén González
The 2025-26 Eco-Evo job list is out. Good luck to those applying!

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
ecoevojobs.net 2025-26
docs.google.com
August 19, 2025 at 7:19 AM
Reposted by Rubén González
This week, the capital of Evolution is Barcelona!
Over 1900 evolutionary biologists are gathering for the biennial meeting of the European Society for Evolutionary Biology, coorganised with its Spanish sister #ESEB2025.
Over 540 of us are on Bluesky! You can use these starter packs to connect: 1/n
August 18, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Reposted by Rubén González
Forecasting the effects of #epidemics is complicated by a population’s pathogen exposure history. @pfvale.bsky.social @chadisaadroy.bsky.social & Mike Boots argue for the use of experimental #DiseaseEcology to better understand the consequences of variations in #infection history 🧪
plos.io/4mdDVvW
The ghost of infections past: Accounting for heterogeneity in individual infection history improves accuracy in epidemic forecasting
Variable pathogen exposure history contributes to individual immune differences, complicating epidemic forecasting. This Essay argues that experimental disease ecology can offer powerful tools and app...
plos.io
August 12, 2025 at 9:04 AM
Reposted by Rubén González
We've tried to gather and unite the streptophyte algae community all around the world to join forces and develop tools and methods for these critters. Learn more about it on @currentbiology.bsky.social!
With @jandevries.bsky.social, @dolfweijers.bsky.social, and (many) others!

tinyurl.com/29n4zwen
A roadmap to developing unified streptophyte algal model systems
Carrillo-Carrasco and colleagues highlight the importance of the establishment of streptophyte algal model systems and the community efforts towards this goal.
www.cell.com
July 22, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Rubén González
The "reproducibility crisis" in science constantly makes headlines. Repro efforts are often limited. What if you could assess reproducibility of an entire field?

That's what @brunolemaitre.bsky.social et al. have done. Fly immunity is highly replicable & offers lessons for #metascience

A 🧵 1/n
July 10, 2025 at 8:23 AM
Reposted by Rubén González
Anyone pushing forward a « microbiome and beyond » WS proposal, that would be an awesome topic… 😉
📣The #EDRC2025 will select proposals for six workshops, each with up to nine speakers (12 minutes presentations + 3 minutes Q/A). If you are interested in hosting a workshop, please send a one-page proposal to edrc2025alicante@umh.es by May 5, 2025 🧪🪰
April 21, 2025 at 3:28 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
Thrilled to receive @anrs-mie.bsky.social grant with @lambrechtslab.bsky.social & @retrogenomics.bsky.social! Making mosquitoes intolerant to arboviruses. Thanks @pasteur.fr, @inserm.fr & @cnrs.fr for support. Exciting times for #ARBORETRO project! Stay tunned.
April 10, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
Hi #Drosophila folk: I'm advertising a 2-year #Postdoc, funded by a BBSRC grant on the genetic and immune determinants and evolutionary constraints underlying extreme pathogen transmission phenotypes. Deadline 29 April, details in the link below, or feel free to email:
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DMQ231/p...
Postdoctoral Research Associate at The University of Edinburgh
Apply now for the Postdoctoral Research Associate role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.
www.jobs.ac.uk
April 9, 2025 at 10:04 AM
Amazing new tools for studying fly immunity!! Fantastic work
Excited to finally announce this work which has been in the pipeline for 5 years: Layers of Immunity.

Faustine et al. made a set of immune mutants covering 4 major immune modules in #Drosophila, deleting melanization (ROS), phagocytosis, and both Toll & Imd NF-kB responses. What did we find?

1/n 🧵
Layers of immunity: Deconstructing the Drosophila effector response
The host innate immune response relies on the cooperation of multiple defense modules. In insects and other arthropods, which have only innate immune mechanisms, four main immune-specific modules cont...
www.biorxiv.org
April 4, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Reposted by Rubén González
It's finally out!!!! Our review on long-reads transcriptomics was published in @natrevgenet.bsky.social!! You can have a look at the paper here rdcu.be/efugl! We hope you like it 😀
March 28, 2025 at 11:25 AM