Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check out our new paper led by brilliant @jhuisman.bsky.social about how microbial communities cope with stress due to increasing salinity in their environment. We have all your favorites: isolate phenotyping, pairwise competitions, community propagations, and theory. #microsky #mevosky #ecosky

You can get an accurate estimate of total bacterial biomass from stool metagenomes by simply normalizing by host read count, without needing any additional measurements.

Excellent work by UW Master's student Gechlang Tang in @asm.org #mSystems Journal.

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
🧵

Because of a lack of separation of the time scales for TF binding/unbinding and fluctuations in active TF levels, non-equilibrium gene regulation may be common in bacteria.
Check out this nice piece by ‪@philipcball.bsky.social‬ on our new publication in PRX Life.
physics.aps.org/articles/v18...

The Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health, is currently recruiting for a Research Scientist 5 (Assistant/Associate Professor equivalent) to lead an independent research program focused on zoonotic and/or vector-borne pathogens (viral and bacterial).

Flybase lost all of the NIH support overnight - it is a disaster for the community. Please consider donating. I just did! www.philanthropy.cam.ac.uk/give-to-camb...

One of the coolest papers I've ever read: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Within-colony bacterial dynamics.

And the figures are absolutely striking and clear.

We organized this one: academic.oup.com/femsle/artic... in 2024. It is coming back in 2026 with 2 hubs in the US (Michigan and SoCal). It was a great experience

Bacteria have a simple yet potent mechanism that controls their sensitivity to environmental stimuli. A new study by researchers led by <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:mpi2uwwkiofxvcgr5lzmjnra" class="hover:underline text-blue-600 dark:text-sky-400 no-card-link" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-link="bsky-mention">@erikvannimwegen.bsky.social @biozentrum.unibas.ch shows: the slower cells grow, the more sensitively they respond to their environment.

Nice review article on a fascinating problem—the coexistence of strains in microbial communities. @akshitg.bsky.social & @gchure.bsky.social

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Whimsical Friday afternoon read—1976 study of the microbiomes of astronauts undergoing isolation training, which concluded B. theta abundance responds specifically to "anger stress"

Wow

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A cellular entity retaining only its replicative core: Hidden archaeal lineage with an ultra-reduced genome

Kevin Hall, one of the only nutrition researchers in the world running controlled trials of ultraprocessed foods, just announced his early retirement from NIH, citing censorship of his research communications: www.cnn.com/2025/04/16/h...

... but how many genetic edits would one have to make to actually get a new species?

Taxa is hiring! We're looking for a Computational Biologist to spearhead the analysis of massive genomic datasets for our flagship probiotics. Exciting science, great team, and transparent compensation. Apply here 👇

Know any soon to graduate or recently graduated undergrads interested in a full year, paid postbac research position in microbiome sciences? Have them join our zoom Q&A session on Friday, April 11, 11:30am-12:30pm PST. More info here: sites.google.com/berkeley.edu...

Greatly enjoyed this thought provoking, deeply researched, and extremely well written review from @saradirienzi.bsky.social and Robert Britton

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Super interesting study www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My lab at NYU is hiring a postdoc in microbial ecology and evolution! We are looking for someone interested in both wet and dry lab techniques, including experimental evolution, genome editing, bioinformatics, and some modeling. Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/164683

New online! Interactions and evolutionary relationships among bacterial mobile genetic elements

Finally, our paper, "A Conserved Bacterial Genetic Basis for Commensal-Host Specificity," has been officially published in Science.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Interesting new study in @science.org:

A conserved bacterial genetic basis for commensal-host specificity

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Please suggest a cool paper/preprint in your field in the last year or so!

For a course I teach, I am collecting papers on: cell/dev bio, microbio, neuro, maths/stats/CS/chem/phys applied to biology.

Students use one paper as the basis for a "research grant application" that they will write. 1/2

The bacteria in your gut depend on where you are in the social network around you.

The microbes within us treat our social networks as the extended environment in which they thrive. They can spread from person to person.

New #HNL work out today in @natureportfolio.bsky.social . 1/

I'm new here, so I'll share our recent work here too 😁🧫

Using Tn-seq + live imaging in engineered airway organoids, we explored the fitness tradeoffs P. aeruginosa faces while growing and surviving antibiotic treatment on the mucosal surface.

Check it out: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#MicroSky