Douda Bensasson
dbensasson.bsky.social
Douda Bensasson
@dbensasson.bsky.social
Population geneticist, bioinformatician, ecological genomicist, working to understand microbial evolution and #DiversifySTEM.
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
A new paper and video about levels of drug resistance in different countries

I am so happy to share a new paper and a new video (see below). The paper describes a simple mathematical model that describes levels of drug resistance. I called the model the Resistance-Acquisition-Purifying-Selection…
A new paper and video about levels of drug resistance in different countries
I am so happy to share a new paper and a new video (see below). The paper describes a simple mathematical model that describes levels of drug resistance. I called the model the Resistance-Acquisition-Purifying-Selection model (RAPS). While the model is simple, it wasn't easy to write the paper or to get it published. Before submitting to the journal Epidemics, I submitted to Nature (desk reject, late 2023), Science (reject after useful reviews, early 2024) and PNAS (another reject after constructive reviews, mid 2024).
abetterscientist.wordpress.com
August 29, 2025 at 12:43 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
We're very happy to release our new database Metalog metalog.embl.de ! It offers manually curated and harmonised contextual data for 110k metagenomics samples across the globe, incl. precomputed taxonomic profiles, for interactive browsing and for download 🧵 1/7

#microsky
Metalog
Metalog is a repository of manually annotated metadata (or contextual data) for metagenomic sequencing data from across the globe.
metalog.embl.de
August 15, 2025 at 8:07 AM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
🧵 New preprint alert!

From the Future Oak project, led by @cenococcum.bsky.social

Landscape-scale impacts of environment and disease on the tree microbiome 🌳🦠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Environment and disease have tissue-specific effects on the tree microbiome
Trees are essential for ecosystem function, but due to their long lifespan, are disproportionately impacted by climate change and disease. Tree-associated microbiota are critical for tree health and r...
www.biorxiv.org
August 16, 2025 at 6:48 AM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Jacqueline Peña @jjpena-ecoevo.bsky.social asks if humans 👥🍺🍷🍞 left an impact on wild yeast 🌳

They estimate that S. cerevisiae spread across the global after the last glacial maximum

Looks like wild strains are NOT independent of human movement

Lab of @dbensasson.bsky.social #Evol2025 #Evol25
June 23, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Audrey Ward @audreykward.bsky.social from the Bensasson lab @dbensasson.bsky.social explores the pop genomics of the yeast 🧫🧽 L. thermotolerans 🍷

They find five major divergence groups and intercontinental migration ✈️

#Evol2025 #Evol25
June 22, 2025 at 3:10 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
❄️ Cool it! Are wild yeast locally adapting to higher 🔥 temperatures?

Work from Douda Bensasson @dbensasson.bsky.social shows large standing variation within yeast species for growth at high temps

#Evol2025 #Evol25
June 22, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
A 4-year postdoc in red fox population genomics is open at the University of East Anglia, starting Dec 2025. Role involves genomic data analysis. Salary from £38,249. More info: https://vacancies.uea.ac.uk/vacancies/1593/senior-research-associate-in-population-genomics-ra2327.html #postdoc
Senior Research Associate in Population Genomics (RA2327) in University of East Anglia - UEA
Senior Research Associate in Population Genomics (RA2327) in University of East Anglia - UEA
vacancies.uea.ac.uk
June 16, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Hi Fungal friends! I’m looking for postdoc positions or job opportunities in NC, GA or remote! My skills are mostly in bioinformatics and phylogenetics. Any leads are appreciated! My references include @mcmomany.bsky.social and @dbensasson.bsky.social !
#fungi #postdoc
May 22, 2025 at 4:18 PM
Congratulations Dr Jacque Peña!
I now have my PhD!!! My committee members @mcmomany.bsky.social @kdyerlab.bsky.social Jill Anderson and Marin Brewer
and my advisor @dbensasson.bsky.social have been instrumental to my growth as a scientist and as a person!! I'm also thankful to have wonderful lab mates, friends, and family!!
April 3, 2025 at 1:46 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
I now have my PhD!!! My committee members @mcmomany.bsky.social @kdyerlab.bsky.social Jill Anderson and Marin Brewer
and my advisor @dbensasson.bsky.social have been instrumental to my growth as a scientist and as a person!! I'm also thankful to have wonderful lab mates, friends, and family!!
April 3, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Congratulations Dr Audrey Ward - nice work! We will miss your infectious enthusiasm for Lachancea thermotolerans populations and everything else.
So excited to have successfully defended my PhD - thank you to @dbensasson.bsky.social for your mentorship and encouragement over the years!!
March 28, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Many US students don’t know how to seek opportunities outside the US. With some help from our colleagues in EU and Canada, we could put together a consolidated website of PhD opportunities and scholarships outside the US, organized by field. There might still be time for this year in some places.
I’m having similar conversations and sharing international opportunities a lot. I’m sure for a lot of US based trainees that feels overwhelming. I moved to Europe for my postdoc.Happy to chat with any trainees about my experience if it would be helpful.
Heartbreaking chats this week with students thinking of giving up on their dreams of getting a PhD. They worry about getting in PhD programs and careers post PhD. My suggestions: don’t be hasty, think broadly incl EU & Canada, & careers beyond traditional academia. What’re you telling your students?
March 1, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Firings happening right now at the NSF.
February 18, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Join a protest on #President’sDay. Musk not our President!! We object to actions taken to steal our country by #ElonMusk. #Indivisible
12:00 Monday, 2/17 AT ATHENS GA CITY HALL
Wear Black
Signs will be provided
February 14, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
This does away with awards based on underrepresentation, student support services based on race, scholarships, etc. Let me explain, pre coffee (wrote this morning, no time to update, you're getting a cut n paste), why this is a bad idea. 🧵

www.insidehighered.com/news/diversi...
Trump admin threatens to rescind federal funds over DEI
In a sweeping and unprecedented letter issued over the weekend, the Office for Civil Rights declared race-based scholarships, cultural centers and even graduation ceremonies illegal.
www.insidehighered.com
February 16, 2025 at 1:50 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Letter from the SSE/SSB/ASN councils on the scientific understanding of sex and gender, pls RT
Letter to the US President and Congress on the Scientific Understanding of Sex and Gender
President Donald J Trump Washington, DC Members of the US Congress Washington, DC February 5, 2025 RE: Scientific Understanding of Sex and Gender Dear President Trump and Members of the US Congr...
www.evolutionsociety.org
February 7, 2025 at 10:11 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
The US government has been turned over to a group of extraordinarily ignorant people, and they are working to destroy science in this country. Cutting over half the NSF budget would save < 0.1% of the federal budget, but do incalculable harm. Simply heartbreaking.

arstechnica.com/science/2025...
White House budget proposal could shatter the National Science Foundation
“This kind of cut would kill American science and boost China.”…
arstechnica.com
February 7, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Paper out in Ecology Letters from @akrinos.bsky.social : onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Exploring intraspecific diversity of thermal performance of G. huxelyi in lab experiments and ocean ecosystem models 🧪🌊🌡️#protistsonsky
Intraspecific Diversity in Thermal Performance Determines Phytoplankton Ecological Niche
Temperature impacts species of phytoplankton in biogeochemically important ways which can be modelled. We conducted a series of culture experiments that demonstrate that intraspecific diversity impac...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
February 7, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
Not only is today #Science #Trivia #Saturday, but it’s the start of #BlackHistoryMonth! Today I honor a #Black #Scientist whose name we should all know: George Washington Carver, #Botanist, #Inventor, & #Teacher. He discovered many uses for #Peanuts & developed methods to prevent #Soil #Depletion. 🧪
Ten Black Scientists That Science Teachers Should Know About
Help your students see the possibilities of careers in STEM fields by providing them with diverse role models.
www.pbs.org
February 1, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson
A Junta can be efficient, just not in the way that most people want...

Analysis in the form of a foreign dispatch via @vermontgmg.bsky.social, journalist & Pulitzer Prize finalist for his book on Watergate.

www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-s-jun...
Musk's Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government
Imagining how we'd cover overseas what's happening to the U.S. right now
www.doomsdayscenario.co
February 1, 2025 at 5:10 PM
Our accidental finding that "Low level contamination confounds population genomic analysis” is on bioRxiv - a fun collaborative project with the @mcmomany.bsky.social lab
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Low level contamination confounds population genomic analysis
Genome sequence contamination has a variety of causes and can originate from within or between species. Previous research focused primarily on cross-species contamination or on prokaryotes. This paper...
www.biorxiv.org
January 23, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Reposted by Douda Bensasson