Cathy Hernandez
@cathyhernandez.bsky.social
Postdoc in the Turner lab @ Yale EEB | chernandezsci.com
Pinned
Very happy to share that I will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina in January! My group will be working on environmental phage ecology and evolution, and I am recruiting for the upcoming year (more info below).
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
Very excited to share the latest work from our lab, which was published today in Nature!
nature.com/articles/s41...
PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.
nature.com/articles/s41...
PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.
Isolation, engineering and ecology of temperate phages from the human gut - Nature
Human host-associated cellular products may act as induction agents for bacteriophages.
nature.com
October 15, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Very excited to share the latest work from our lab, which was published today in Nature!
nature.com/articles/s41...
PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.
nature.com/articles/s41...
PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
Phages evolve fast, or do they?
In oysters, some stay identical for years.
With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements.
Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
In oysters, some stay identical for years.
With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements.
Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Ecological constraints foster both extreme viral-host lineage stability and mobile element diversity in a marine community
Phages are typically viewed as very rapidly evolving biological entities. Little is known, however, about whether and how phages can establish long-term genetic stability. We addressed this eco-evolut...
www.biorxiv.org
October 12, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Phages evolve fast, or do they?
In oysters, some stay identical for years.
With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements.
Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
In oysters, some stay identical for years.
With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements.
Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
Is a healthy microbiome one that is rich in phages? 🦠 Excited to share our paper out in Lancet Microbe with @bkoskella.bsky.social & @dholtappels.bsky.social where we test whether virome diversity can be used a broad signature of microbiome health 📈
New research article
Evaluation of bacteriophages as a signature of #microbiome health: a systematic review and meta-analysis
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
#IDSky #ClinMicro #ViroSky #Phage #OpenAccess #OA
Evaluation of bacteriophages as a signature of #microbiome health: a systematic review and meta-analysis
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
#IDSky #ClinMicro #ViroSky #Phage #OpenAccess #OA
October 10, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Is a healthy microbiome one that is rich in phages? 🦠 Excited to share our paper out in Lancet Microbe with @bkoskella.bsky.social & @dholtappels.bsky.social where we test whether virome diversity can be used a broad signature of microbiome health 📈
Very happy to share that I will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina in January! My group will be working on environmental phage ecology and evolution, and I am recruiting for the upcoming year (more info below).
October 8, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Very happy to share that I will be starting as an Assistant Professor in the department of Biological Sciences at the University of South Carolina in January! My group will be working on environmental phage ecology and evolution, and I am recruiting for the upcoming year (more info below).
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
I gave a talk last year at TEDxNewEngland aimed at introducing the idea of viral sociality to a general audience, including implications for evolution & virology. Video now available online below.
#socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪
#socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪
The social lives of viruses | Asher Leeks | TEDxNewEngland
YouTube video by TEDx Talks
www.youtube.com
October 7, 2025 at 10:38 PM
I gave a talk last year at TEDxNewEngland aimed at introducing the idea of viral sociality to a general audience, including implications for evolution & virology. Video now available online below.
#socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪
#socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
New paper alert! We suggest caution in the analyses of viral auxiliary metabolic genes and propose a new overarching term - 'auxiliary viral genes' (AVGs) to describe different types of such genes. @simrouxvirus.bsky.social #phagesky #Microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A call for caution in the biological interpretation of viral auxiliary metabolic genes - Nature Microbiology
This Perspective discusses virus-encoded auxiliary metabolic genes and provides a framework for the biological interpretation of these genes.
www.nature.com
August 27, 2025 at 12:24 PM
New paper alert! We suggest caution in the analyses of viral auxiliary metabolic genes and propose a new overarching term - 'auxiliary viral genes' (AVGs) to describe different types of such genes. @simrouxvirus.bsky.social #phagesky #Microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
Have you ever wondered what increasing environmental stress will do to microbial communities?
In our new preprint, @martinadalbello.bsky.social, Jeff Gore and I studied the impact of salinity on microbial community composition and function. 🧵 (1/5)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
In our new preprint, @martinadalbello.bsky.social, Jeff Gore and I studied the impact of salinity on microbial community composition and function. 🧵 (1/5)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Microbial communities demonstrate robustness in stressful environments due to predictable composition shifts
Environmental stress reduces species growth rates, but its impact on the function of microbial communities is less clear. Here, we experimentally demonstrate that increasing salinity stress shifts com...
www.biorxiv.org
August 25, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Have you ever wondered what increasing environmental stress will do to microbial communities?
In our new preprint, @martinadalbello.bsky.social, Jeff Gore and I studied the impact of salinity on microbial community composition and function. 🧵 (1/5)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
In our new preprint, @martinadalbello.bsky.social, Jeff Gore and I studied the impact of salinity on microbial community composition and function. 🧵 (1/5)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
Excited to share new #program, STEPS, which can simulate #dynamics of the E. coli Long-Term Evolution Experiment (#LTEE) or other microbes in serial transfer regime.
telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/s...
STEPS developed by @devinmlake.bsky.social, Zachary Matson, Minako Izutsu, and me.
telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/s...
STEPS developed by @devinmlake.bsky.social, Zachary Matson, Minako Izutsu, and me.
STEPS To It
Announcing a new program, called STEPS, to simulate the dynamics of evolving microbial populations.
telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com
August 12, 2025 at 3:53 PM
Excited to share new #program, STEPS, which can simulate #dynamics of the E. coli Long-Term Evolution Experiment (#LTEE) or other microbes in serial transfer regime.
telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/s...
STEPS developed by @devinmlake.bsky.social, Zachary Matson, Minako Izutsu, and me.
telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/s...
STEPS developed by @devinmlake.bsky.social, Zachary Matson, Minako Izutsu, and me.
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
We (with Clement Coclet, not on Bsky) had the chance to work on a broad "state of viromics" review. We tried to use this to give an overview of how the field changed over the last ~ 15 years, and also what we think are some of the major remaining challenges. Full-text access at -> rdcu.be/excHt
July 22, 2025 at 3:06 PM
We (with Clement Coclet, not on Bsky) had the chance to work on a broad "state of viromics" review. We tried to use this to give an overview of how the field changed over the last ~ 15 years, and also what we think are some of the major remaining challenges. Full-text access at -> rdcu.be/excHt
For #ASMicrobe folks - looking forward to a busy phage day on Sunday!
Turner Lab representation at #ASMicrobe #ASMicrobe2025
(4/5)
Current postdoc, soon-to-be-PI @cathyhernandez.bsky.social is presenting a poster on the involvement of prophages in thermal ecology of marine microbes 🌊🦠
She is also convening a session on #prophages and giving a rapid fire talk! 🔥
(4/5)
Current postdoc, soon-to-be-PI @cathyhernandez.bsky.social is presenting a poster on the involvement of prophages in thermal ecology of marine microbes 🌊🦠
She is also convening a session on #prophages and giving a rapid fire talk! 🔥
June 20, 2025 at 7:06 PM
For #ASMicrobe folks - looking forward to a busy phage day on Sunday!
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
Preprint out! Bacteria w/ hyper-replicative filamentous phage lead to overnight emergence of cheater phages. Bacteria w/ both phages can outcompete wildtype, then rapidly lose phage via a phage Tragedy of the Commons
@shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness
Many bacteria carry phage genome(s) in their chromosome (i.e., prophage), and this intertwines the fitness of the bacterium and the phage. Most Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains carry filamentous phages ...
www.biorxiv.org
April 2, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Preprint out! Bacteria w/ hyper-replicative filamentous phage lead to overnight emergence of cheater phages. Bacteria w/ both phages can outcompete wildtype, then rapidly lose phage via a phage Tragedy of the Commons
@shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
New on #biorXiv: 'Inferring single-cell heterogeneity of bacteriophage life-history traits from population-scale dynamics'. A theory-experiment collaboration, led by @mariandm.bsky.social + Ran Tahan w/the Lindell group at Technion (and yes, I am excited).
a 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/contenat/10....
a 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/contenat/10....
March 26, 2025 at 2:29 PM
New on #biorXiv: 'Inferring single-cell heterogeneity of bacteriophage life-history traits from population-scale dynamics'. A theory-experiment collaboration, led by @mariandm.bsky.social + Ran Tahan w/the Lindell group at Technion (and yes, I am excited).
a 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/contenat/10....
a 🧵
www.biorxiv.org/contenat/10....
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
How can single-cell transcriptomics profile phage infection in individual microbial cells? Check out our preprint with Anika Gupta, Norma Morella, Dmitry Sutormin & other authors, in collaboration with Georg Seelig (UW) and Neel Dey (Fred Hutch). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Combinatorial phenotypic landscape enables bacterial resistance to phage infection
Success of phage therapies is limited by bacterial defenses against phages. While a large variety of anti-phage defense mechanisms has been characterized, how expression of these systems is distribute...
www.biorxiv.org
January 16, 2025 at 2:26 AM
How can single-cell transcriptomics profile phage infection in individual microbial cells? Check out our preprint with Anika Gupta, Norma Morella, Dmitry Sutormin & other authors, in collaboration with Georg Seelig (UW) and Neel Dey (Fred Hutch). www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
We developed a microscopy-based technique🔬 to measure attachment of viruses #phages to host cells. 🦠
The paper was posted online today:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#phagesky #microsky
The paper was posted online today:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#phagesky #microsky
December 19, 2024 at 10:10 PM
We developed a microscopy-based technique🔬 to measure attachment of viruses #phages to host cells. 🦠
The paper was posted online today:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#phagesky #microsky
The paper was posted online today:
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#phagesky #microsky
Reposted by Cathy Hernandez
Is it “winner-takes all” when the simplest living things compete? Check out my fresh publication on phage coexistence in Science and a thread below🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Diverse phage communities are maintained stably on a clonal bacterial host
Bacteriophages are the most abundant and phylogenetically diverse biological entities on Earth, yet the ecological mechanisms that sustain this extraordinary diversity remain unclear. In this study, w...
www.science.org
December 12, 2024 at 7:22 PM
Is it “winner-takes all” when the simplest living things compete? Check out my fresh publication on phage coexistence in Science and a thread below🧵 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Phage friends - hope to see you all next year in LA!
November 23, 2024 at 5:25 PM
Phage friends - hope to see you all next year in LA!