Shaun Cross
banner
shauntcross.bsky.social
Shaun Cross
@shauntcross.bsky.social
Assistant Professor University of Nebraska Medical Center | Pathogen Genomics, Virome, and Vector Biology
Reposted by Shaun Cross
Do you teach #rstats? Do your students complain about how lame and old-fashioned dplyr is? Don't worry: I have the solution for you: github.com/hadley/genzp....

genzplyr is dplyr, but bussin fr fr no cap.
GitHub - hadley/genzplyr: dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap
dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap. Contribute to hadley/genzplyr development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com
November 6, 2025 at 11:25 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
🚀 Excited to share (with a little delay) my first first-author publication on #Vago genes in #mosquitoes! 🦟 🦠 Have a look to see how we questioned a mosquito immunity dogma and challenged the existing understanding of Vago-like genes as antiviral factors ⬇️

bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
Aedes aegypti VLG-1 challenges the assumed antiviral nature of Vago genes - BMC Biology
Background Arthropod-borne viruses (arboviruses) such as dengue virus (DENV) and Zika virus (ZIKV) pose a significant threat to global health. Novel approaches to control the spread of arboviruses foc...
bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com
August 27, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
Our study is now published in @natcomms.nature.com and describes the 1st definitive identification of genetic variants linked to DENV susceptibility in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. (1/3)
August 18, 2025 at 12:05 PM
Still looking for candidates! Either DM or send me an email if interested.
Have a postdoc position to start October 2025 to develop vector-borne pathogen genomic assays on ONT platforms. International travel will be required to Southeast Asia (Singapore and Malaysia). Looking for a hybrid position of wet lab and bioinformatics. DM me for more information. Please share!
August 14, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
This piece on infection history as a driver of individual heterogeneity in infection outcomes was fun to think about and to write with @chadisaadroy.bsky.social and Mike Boots. Also suggest that systems like #Drosophila can offer useful tools to tackle the epidemiological consequences.
August 12, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
📣 I'm recruiting a postdoc researcher to join my team for a project on mosquito-specific viruses and host interactions. Peep the job description & how to apply below. Perfect for soon-to-be or recent PhD graduates in mosquito vector biology 🦟 or arbovirology 🦠
🗓️ Application deadline 31 August 2025
July 28, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Have a postdoc position to start October 2025 to develop vector-borne pathogen genomic assays on ONT platforms. International travel will be required to Southeast Asia (Singapore and Malaysia). Looking for a hybrid position of wet lab and bioinformatics. DM me for more information. Please share!
June 21, 2025 at 1:52 AM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
Two good follows for this evening

@jenna-m-norton.bsky.social
@ianlmorgan.bsky.social

Two of the leaders at NIH who wrote the #BethedaDeclaration and are standing up and speaking out for all of us.

@standupforscience.bsky.social
June 11, 2025 at 4:28 AM
Had a great time! Thanks @aphl.org and Uganda CPHL for coordinating the training!
Fantastic training by @aphl.org and @unmc.bsky.social (Dr. Shaun Cross) with Uganda CPHL on @nextstrain.org data viz for #mpox & #Ebola Sudan virus. The workshop brought together lab, epi, and IT staff—and by the end, they were building phylogenetic trees for other pathogens too! 🧬🌍 #GenomicEpi
June 8, 2025 at 7:04 AM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
In a new #RESInsectMolecBio article, temperature-dependent alternative splicing affects gene expression in #AedesAegypti #mosquitoes midgut 🦟 🧬

Learn more now🔽
doi.org/10.1111/imb.13002

@sassanasgari.bsky.social @gulianusslab.bsky.social @wiley.com
June 7, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
It is difficult to interpret single #pathogen burden during #infection. It is hard to untangle default in resistance and tolerance to explain #susceptibility. We help making sense of with-host dynamics and give tools to study infection, especially in #Drosophila.
elifesciences.org/articles/104...
A within-host infection model to explore tolerance and resistance
A mathematical model of pathogen within-host dynamics and experimental validations elucidates the interplay between immune response, damage and pathogen proliferation, highlighting the limitations of ...
elifesciences.org
June 6, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
Happy to share our new preprint! We explored the mechanisms underlying differences between male and female #Drosophila in susceptibility to intestinal #infection. #symbiosky
#immunity #AcademicSky #insect #symbiosis
Sex Differences in Drosophila Intestinal Metabolism Contribute to Sexually Dimorphic Infection Outcome and Alter Gut Pathogen Virulence
Sexual dimorphism in infection outcomes is a pervasive phenomenon, the underlying mechanisms of which remain incompletely understood. Here, utilizing Pseudomonas entomophila intestinal infection in Dr...
www.biorxiv.org
May 28, 2025 at 7:46 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
In our latest study, we use #spatialtranscriptomics to characterize cold ischemic injury at multiple time points modeling a kidney transplant setting to reveal compartment-specific changes

Check out the preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧵👇 1/n
May 29, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
New preprint! Autocycler is a tool for long-read consensus assembly of bacterial genomes. It's like Trycycler but can be run fully automated (without any human intervention).
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
(1/6)
Autocycler: long-read consensus assembly for bacterial genomes
Motivation Long-read sequencing enables complete bacterial genome assemblies, but individual assemblers are imperfect and often produce sequence-level and structural errors. Consensus assembly using T...
www.biorxiv.org
May 21, 2025 at 3:29 AM
Received exciting news about a project and will be opening a search for a postdoc. Focused in pathogen genomics--specifically vector-borne diseases. Looking for expertise in genomics, bioinformatics, and able to do some international travel. Please reach out to me if interested or know somebody!
May 14, 2025 at 2:00 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
FYI “Spencer Foundation, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, William T. Grant Foundation and Kapor Foundation are providing quick turnaround grants of up to $25k for education scholars impacted by the abrupt NSF grant cancellations.” www.spencer.org/news/meeting...
Meeting the Moment Together
We are returning from the AERA Annual Meeting in Denver reinvigorated and with a deep appreciation for all that scholars and higher education leaders are holding in this moment. Rapid shifts in fed...
www.spencer.org
May 2, 2025 at 11:10 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
A Preprint for our ~$40 USD, open source, 3D printed DNA Fluorometer, the #DIYNAFLUOR, has just been posted to bioRxiv outlining its performance and applications for #eDNA analysis!🦕🧪🧬

A big thanks to all the co-authors!

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

Git
tinyurl.com/yfh33dsx

#science
DIYNAFLUOR: An Affordable DIY Plug-and-Play Nucleic Acid Fluorometer for eDNA Quantification in Resource Limited Settings
Nucleic Acid (NA) fluorometry is widely employed for quantifying environmental DNA (eDNA) samples and their downstream DNA sequencing libraries, owing to its sensitivity, accuracy, and speed. However,...
www.biorxiv.org
December 17, 2024 at 7:04 AM
Excited to announce that my research group is launching a *FREE* tick testing program called Nebraska Tick Testing (NeTT). We accept any ticks, both inside and outside Nebraska. We will identify the tick, screen it for pathogens, and provide a report. For more information visit: go.unmc.edu/nett
Home
Welcome to the Nebraska Tick Testing (NeTT) laboratory homepage! Learn more about how you can collect and submit ticks for testing.
go.unmc.edu
May 2, 2025 at 12:56 AM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
🦟🧪 ***I'm recruiting*** one student (M.S. or Ph.D.) to join my lab January 2026. Students need a 3.0 GPA and have an interest/experience in mosquito taxonomy, phenotypes, or ecology. Work on genetics/genomics is a plus. Deadline is 15 October 2025. US based students only. yeemosquitolab.org
Yee Mosquito Lab
Visit the post for more.
yeemosquitolab.org
April 24, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS

We received a heads up from a trusted source that you should proactively download/print/screen shot any documentation on research.gov pertaining to your NSF awards, both those that are current and any that have closed in the last 5-6 years.

1/n
a cartoon of a man holding a frying pan and a spoon with red alert written above him
ALT: a cartoon of a man holding a frying pan and a spoon with red alert written above him
media.tenor.com
April 24, 2025 at 9:09 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
ACTION ITEM-----ACTION ITEM

Implementation of Schedule F

This is what a lot of us have been worried about.

This allows for many civil service positions to replaced with political appointees. This could include NIH institute directors and even POs.

BUT THERE IS A COMMENT PERIOD...

1/n
the word alert is in a purple circle
ALT: the word alert is in a purple circle
media.tenor.com
April 23, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
✨🦟✨HOW DO MOSQUITOES HAVE SEX? ✨🦟✨

Join us for a wild journey into hidden female control, rapidly evolving stimulation devices, fierce species competition, and DEADLY MOSQUITOES!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
April 20, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
I know you like #Drosophila and I know you like #Genomes - but do you also like #Genes? Coding DNA annotation of 304 species of Drosophilidae! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Comparative gene annotation of 304 species of Drosophilidae
www.biorxiv.org
April 16, 2025 at 6:21 AM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
📝 [Preprint] What if insecticidal bednets increased #mosquito attraction to humans? 🦟

We explored this counterintuitive effect using a transmission model for #malaria.

🧪 Available on medRxiv: buff.ly/S0Wnn1n

#mathematicalmodeling #vectorcontrol #publichealth
The potential of attractive insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) in reducing malaria transmission: a modeling study
Introduction Recent studies suggest that insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) may actively attract malaria vectors, increasing their likelihood of coming into contact with the insecticide while…
buff.ly
April 15, 2025 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Shaun Cross
@haraipapilio.bsky.social paper on evolution of Wolbachia MK mechanism through prophage acquisition in molina butterflies - avoiding suppression by the host. Now out! #symbiosky www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... With @daisukekageyama.bsky.social @bolinabug.bsky.social and others
Evolution of Wolbachia male-killing mechanism within a host species
Male-killing bacterial symbionts, prevalent in arthropods, skew population sex ratios by selectively killing male progeny, profoundly impacting ecolog…
www.sciencedirect.com
April 9, 2025 at 3:45 PM