Ellie Rand
@ellie-rand.bsky.social
Harvard Systems Biology PhD in the @baym.lol lab. Fan of science and sports. Not necessary in that order
Pinned
Ellie Rand
@ellie-rand.bsky.social
· Nov 23
Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624878v1
Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624878v1
Phages interact with many components of bacterial physiology from the surface to the cytoplasm. Alth
www.biorxiv.org
Get ready to dance, our paper – Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture – has been pre-printed! 🪩 This has been a really fun project to work on with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @nquinoneso.bsky.social, and our two talented undergrads Kesther and Carmen!
Reposted by Ellie Rand
What is the best strategy to win any contest?
Eliminate your opponents of course.
Recently, my friend @fernpizza.bsky.social showed how plasmids compete intracellularly (check out his paper published in Science today!). With @baym.lol, we now know they can fight.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Eliminate your opponents of course.
Recently, my friend @fernpizza.bsky.social showed how plasmids compete intracellularly (check out his paper published in Science today!). With @baym.lol, we now know they can fight.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 20, 2025 at 10:12 PM
What is the best strategy to win any contest?
Eliminate your opponents of course.
Recently, my friend @fernpizza.bsky.social showed how plasmids compete intracellularly (check out his paper published in Science today!). With @baym.lol, we now know they can fight.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Eliminate your opponents of course.
Recently, my friend @fernpizza.bsky.social showed how plasmids compete intracellularly (check out his paper published in Science today!). With @baym.lol, we now know they can fight.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Ellie Rand
Loved having a chance this weekend to showcase the science behind bioluminescence & talk about the bioluminescent bays of Puerto Rico at the Harvard Museum's Celebremos Puerto Rico 🕺🇵🇷!
September 30, 2025 at 3:57 PM
Loved having a chance this weekend to showcase the science behind bioluminescence & talk about the bioluminescent bays of Puerto Rico at the Harvard Museum's Celebremos Puerto Rico 🕺🇵🇷!
Reposted by Ellie Rand
The Phage DisCo method originated in the @baym.lol lab where it was primarily developed by @ellie-rand.bsky.social. The project had received support through five separate federal grants, all of which were part of the mass termination of Harvard grants three weeks ago.
baym.lol
June 1, 2025 at 1:44 PM
The Phage DisCo method originated in the @baym.lol lab where it was primarily developed by @ellie-rand.bsky.social. The project had received support through five separate federal grants, all of which were part of the mass termination of Harvard grants three weeks ago.
Reposted by Ellie Rand
🎙️New PhageLine episode out now! This week, we discuss targeted #discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture.🦠🔬
New episodes every Sunday, 12 AM CEST.
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, any Podcatcher or here:
t1p.de/phageline
#PhageLine#Podcast#Bacteriophages#PhageDisCo
New episodes every Sunday, 12 AM CEST.
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, any Podcatcher or here:
t1p.de/phageline
#PhageLine#Podcast#Bacteriophages#PhageDisCo
Sie werden weitergeleitet ...
t1p.de
June 1, 2025 at 1:36 PM
🎙️New PhageLine episode out now! This week, we discuss targeted #discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture.🦠🔬
New episodes every Sunday, 12 AM CEST.
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, any Podcatcher or here:
t1p.de/phageline
#PhageLine#Podcast#Bacteriophages#PhageDisCo
New episodes every Sunday, 12 AM CEST.
🎧 Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, any Podcatcher or here:
t1p.de/phageline
#PhageLine#Podcast#Bacteriophages#PhageDisCo
Reposted by Ellie Rand
Phage DisCo is out in mSystems!! Super useful (and beautiful) method for targeted phage discovery for your every need :)
Phage DisCo can be further multiplexed with three bacterial strains in co-culture, and, when tested with characterized phages, the fluorescent signal shined! Maybe you can see where the disco ball comparison comes in here. 🪩 4/
May 29, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Phage DisCo is out in mSystems!! Super useful (and beautiful) method for targeted phage discovery for your every need :)
Reposted by Ellie Rand
I'll also add: all five federal grants that supported different parts this work were part of the mass termination of Harvard grants three weeks ago
May 29, 2025 at 2:21 AM
I'll also add: all five federal grants that supported different parts this work were part of the mass termination of Harvard grants three weeks ago
Reposted by Ellie Rand
The latest work from my lab, Phage Disco, a method
@ellie-rand.bsky.social
developed for targeted discovery of bacteriophages based on the bacterial receptor, defense system, or other component they interact with, is now live in mSystems
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@ellie-rand.bsky.social
developed for targeted discovery of bacteriophages based on the bacterial receptor, defense system, or other component they interact with, is now live in mSystems
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture | mSystems
In this work, we describe a targeted phage discovery method that allows immediate
isolation of phages with specific traits. Currently, to find a phage with specific
properties, huge libraries of phage...
journals.asm.org
May 29, 2025 at 2:17 AM
The latest work from my lab, Phage Disco, a method
@ellie-rand.bsky.social
developed for targeted discovery of bacteriophages based on the bacterial receptor, defense system, or other component they interact with, is now live in mSystems
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@ellie-rand.bsky.social
developed for targeted discovery of bacteriophages based on the bacterial receptor, defense system, or other component they interact with, is now live in mSystems
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
💙💙
HUGE celebration moment, on Friday @ellie-rand.bsky.social defended her PhD!! Took a lot of determination✨ but it was awesome to see and I am so proud of the newly titled Dr Rand :)
April 28, 2025 at 3:34 PM
💙💙
Reposted by Ellie Rand
Finally I can post my photo compilation of people accidentally twinning with figures from this paper
Stacked bar chart (upside down but still) @theshreyaspai.bsky.social @baym.lol
1/3
Stacked bar chart (upside down but still) @theshreyaspai.bsky.social @baym.lol
1/3
February 21, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Finally I can post my photo compilation of people accidentally twinning with figures from this paper
Stacked bar chart (upside down but still) @theshreyaspai.bsky.social @baym.lol
1/3
Stacked bar chart (upside down but still) @theshreyaspai.bsky.social @baym.lol
1/3
Reposted by Ellie Rand
My scientific career changed the day I met Fernando and my faith in science restored. In a world dominated by sequencing and LLMs, this project shows how much biology is hidden in plain sight waiting for the right person to make the connection, a must read for any scientist!
I'm so happy that I can finally share the results of my first postdoc paper with @baym.lol!!! Turns out plasmids are an amazing system to study multi-scale evolution and we can track within-cell and between-cell dynamics!
(1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...
(1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
Conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution, from populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements in microbes. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-r...
www.biorxiv.org
February 21, 2025 at 8:40 PM
My scientific career changed the day I met Fernando and my faith in science restored. In a world dominated by sequencing and LLMs, this project shows how much biology is hidden in plain sight waiting for the right person to make the connection, a must read for any scientist!
Reposted by Ellie Rand
I'm so happy that I can finally share the results of my first postdoc paper with @baym.lol!!! Turns out plasmids are an amazing system to study multi-scale evolution and we can track within-cell and between-cell dynamics!
(1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...
(1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
Conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution, from populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements in microbes. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-r...
www.biorxiv.org
February 21, 2025 at 8:36 PM
I'm so happy that I can finally share the results of my first postdoc paper with @baym.lol!!! Turns out plasmids are an amazing system to study multi-scale evolution and we can track within-cell and between-cell dynamics!
(1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...
(1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/earl...
Reposted by Ellie Rand
This is a super cool science story, but maybe also a deeper message for current events… Even though the light is much dimmer in the past few weeks, we need to survive and be ready to thrive when even a small bit returns! Channel your inner Arctic phytoplankton! 🧪
How Does Life Happen When There’s Barely Any Light? www.quantamagazine.org/how-does-lif... @quantamagazine.bsky.social
Photosynthetic light requirement near the theoretical minimum detected in Arctic microalgae: Clara Hoppe et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#Protists #Algae #Diatoms #Arctic
Photosynthetic light requirement near the theoretical minimum detected in Arctic microalgae: Clara Hoppe et al. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#Protists #Algae #Diatoms #Arctic
January 31, 2025 at 2:20 PM
This is a super cool science story, but maybe also a deeper message for current events… Even though the light is much dimmer in the past few weeks, we need to survive and be ready to thrive when even a small bit returns! Channel your inner Arctic phytoplankton! 🧪
Reposted by Ellie Rand
Post the amazing science things you have done with federal funding.
January 28, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Post the amazing science things you have done with federal funding.
Reposted by Ellie Rand
This paper has been a long time coming: We looked at the genomes of historical bacterial samples over a century to look for trends of antibiotic resistance genes, finding multiple instances of them in infections before the age of antibiotics, but an increase in both frequency and mobility after
Genomic resistance in historical clinical isolates increased in frequency and mobility after the age of antibiotics https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.16.633422v1
January 17, 2025 at 8:53 PM
This paper has been a long time coming: We looked at the genomes of historical bacterial samples over a century to look for trends of antibiotic resistance genes, finding multiple instances of them in infections before the age of antibiotics, but an increase in both frequency and mobility after
Reposted by Ellie Rand
50 years after its discovery, the role of the T7 kinase is finally revealed - shielding the phage against a wide variety of bacterial immune systems. Very interesting work from the Savitski & Typas labs
Pervasive phosphorylation by phage T7 kinase disarms bacterial defenses https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.20.629319v1
December 21, 2024 at 11:25 AM
50 years after its discovery, the role of the T7 kinase is finally revealed - shielding the phage against a wide variety of bacterial immune systems. Very interesting work from the Savitski & Typas labs
Reposted by Ellie Rand
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 Ellie Rand
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/...
Reposted by Ellie Rand
Friends don't let friends make bad graphs repo has been updated!
Friends don't let friends use boxplot for binomial (bimodal) data. Is your box plot hiding something from you?
#DataVisualization
github.com/cxli233/Frie...
Friends don't let friends use boxplot for binomial (bimodal) data. Is your box plot hiding something from you?
#DataVisualization
github.com/cxli233/Frie...
December 10, 2024 at 4:35 PM
Friends don't let friends make bad graphs repo has been updated!
Friends don't let friends use boxplot for binomial (bimodal) data. Is your box plot hiding something from you?
#DataVisualization
github.com/cxli233/Frie...
Friends don't let friends use boxplot for binomial (bimodal) data. Is your box plot hiding something from you?
#DataVisualization
github.com/cxli233/Frie...
Reposted by Ellie Rand
Hey bsky! In case you missed it, we recently pushed out a preprint showcasing the Phage DisCo method for targeted phage discovery. First author @ellie-rand.bsky.social wrote an excellent tweet thread with the highlights bsky.app/profile/elli... I am very exited about this method! Here's why... 1/
Get ready to dance, our paper – Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture – has been pre-printed! 🪩 This has been a really fun project to work on with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @nquinoneso.bsky.social, and our two talented undergrads Kesther and Carmen!
Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624878v1
December 4, 2024 at 11:29 PM
Hey bsky! In case you missed it, we recently pushed out a preprint showcasing the Phage DisCo method for targeted phage discovery. First author @ellie-rand.bsky.social wrote an excellent tweet thread with the highlights bsky.app/profile/elli... I am very exited about this method! Here's why... 1/
Reposted by Ellie Rand
Every academic right now
November 29, 2024 at 9:58 PM
Every academic right now
Reposted by Ellie Rand
The first review article from my lab, helmed by @celiasouque.bsky.social, "From Petri Dishes to Patients to Populations: Scales and Evolutionary Mechanisms Driving Antibiotic Resistance" is now online and open access at Annual Reviews Microbiology:
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
November 21, 2024 at 3:27 PM
The first review article from my lab, helmed by @celiasouque.bsky.social, "From Petri Dishes to Patients to Populations: Scales and Evolutionary Mechanisms Driving Antibiotic Resistance" is now online and open access at Annual Reviews Microbiology:
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Reposted by Ellie Rand
We've long been able to find new phages and figure out what they interact with. But what about the other direction: if you have a gene, like an antibiotic resistance efflux pump, or a phage defense system, and you want to find phages that do or do not interact with it?
Now you can!
Now you can!
What if we dug into a sample a little more “wild” and a little less characterized? We combined our strains with a wastewater sample (thank you citizens of Boston for your ~contributions~), and again we found fluorescent hits! Each was isolated and characteristics confirmed on monoculture lawns. 5/
November 23, 2024 at 6:49 PM
We've long been able to find new phages and figure out what they interact with. But what about the other direction: if you have a gene, like an antibiotic resistance efflux pump, or a phage defense system, and you want to find phages that do or do not interact with it?
Now you can!
Now you can!
Get ready to dance, our paper – Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture – has been pre-printed! 🪩 This has been a really fun project to work on with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @nquinoneso.bsky.social, and our two talented undergrads Kesther and Carmen!
Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624878v1
Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.22.624878v1
Phages interact with many components of bacterial physiology from the surface to the cytoplasm. Alth
www.biorxiv.org
November 23, 2024 at 6:12 PM
Get ready to dance, our paper – Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture – has been pre-printed! 🪩 This has been a really fun project to work on with @sianowen.bsky.social, @baym.lol, @nquinoneso.bsky.social, and our two talented undergrads Kesther and Carmen!