Matt Olm
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mattolm.bsky.social
Matt Olm
@mattolm.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at CU Boulder
Studying the human microbiome
https://www.colorado.edu/lab/olm/
Reposted by Matt Olm
A lifehack for turning "non-significant" results into pure gold?

(ICYMI)

statsepi.substack.com/p/one-simple...
One simple trick that statisticians hate
If you don't like the results, just ignore the control group
statsepi.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
The one year anniversary of my arrival at UBC flew by a month ago. Thanks to fellow newPI and former grad school pal @mattolm.bsky.social for reminding me of one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned this past year: *make* time to reflect! Here are some reflections on my first year as a PI & prof… 🧵
October 29, 2025 at 3:48 PM
I have officially been a professor for just over a year! I’ve been reflecting on what this first year has been like and wanted to share a few thoughts on how it compares to the expectations I had when I decided to pursue this career over a decade ago.
October 28, 2025 at 1:48 PM
My fantastic department at CU Boulder is hiring a tenure-track Assistant Professor! This is a broad search spanning nearly all areas of biology. Applications are due Nov 13, 2025. Feel free to reach out to me with questions, and please share widely.
jobs.colorado.edu/jobs/JobDeta...
October 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM
I reviewed this paper a bit ago and have been waiting for it to come out. A great resource for us Bifidobacteria researchers!
July 17, 2025 at 1:44 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
Cool paper, I appreciate how they compare observed vs expected breadth of coverage.

Missing phylogenetics, could be very interesting to genotype and/or assemble some of these pathogens if coverage is high enough
July 13, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Reposted by Matt Olm
Do people in the same household share strains when they have the same species?

How many cells transmit when a strain is shared?
Can strain composition be dynamic when species composition is stable?

We answer these and related questions for the facial skin microbiome in our latest paper.

🧵[1/10]
May 1, 2025 at 6:41 PM
Reposted by Matt Olm
I am very happy (and anxious) to share with you our most recent work in which we evaluated four of the most popular long-read assemblers,

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

and tell you just a little bit about it in the following 🧵
Assemblies of long-read metagenomes suffer from diverse errors
Genomes from metagenomes have revolutionised our understanding of microbial diversity, ecology, and evolution, propelling advances in basic science, biomedicine, and biotechnology. Assembly algorithms...
www.biorxiv.org
April 28, 2025 at 8:08 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
Many pregnant women in rural #BurkinaFaso struggle to eat enough to meet the demands of their growing babies. This leads to higher rates of #miscarriage, still- and #preterm birth, and intrauterine growth restriction.
March 25, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
Just yesterday, we published a deep dive into the physiological effects of #BEP supplementation on both mom and baby: rdcu.be/ed5Wb 🥰
Maternal balanced energy-protein supplementation reshapes the maternal gut microbiome and enhances carbohydrate metabolism in infants: a randomized controlled trial
Nature Communications - Here, in a sub-study of the MISAME-III randomized controlled trial, the authors show that maternal balanced energy-protein supplementation during pregnancy and lactation...
rdcu.be
March 25, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
Good thread and good accompanying article. The conceptualization of all Alzheimer's research as a monolith of closed minded thought based on fraud is just a myth that doesn't stand up to scrutiny

www.statnews.com/2025/02/14/a...
March 5, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Reposted by Matt Olm
The University of Pittsburgh confirmed Friday that there would be no new Ph.D. offers of admission while Pitt works to understand how reduced federal aid could impact the institution.
The University of Pittsburgh pauses its Ph.D. admissions process amid research funding uncertainty
A spokesperson for the University told WESA Friday that the school has "temporarily paused additional Ph.D. offers of admission," while Pitt works to understand how proposed federal funding cuts could...
www.wesa.fm
February 21, 2025 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Matt Olm
good news, finally submitted my grant to nsf on Technical biases in quantifying the inclusive fitness of minority alleles under diversifying selection in diverse microbial communities
February 4, 2025 at 4:05 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
Putting on my editor's hat for my yearly rant about scientists who do not review manuscripts enough for journals.

As a quantitative approach, consider reviewing 3X the papers submitted by you or your lab in a calendar year (the number 3X comes from if you expect 3 reviews for your own papers).
January 30, 2025 at 1:57 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
#reading "Gut microbiota strain richness is species specific and affects engraftment" by Chen-Liaw et al.

As usual, quoted text is from manuscript [slight edits], unquoted is mine

These are idiosyncratic personal notes, not a comprehensive review!

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586…
Gut microbiota strain richness is species specific and affects engraftment - Nature
Strain richness of gut microbiota ecosystems is a key characteristic underpinning engraftment in faecal microbiota transplantation, and could improve the design of defined live biotherapeutic…
www.nature.com
January 29, 2025 at 3:56 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
Reposted by Matt Olm
NCBI's Taxonomy changes over time. We built Taxonomy Time Machine to track these changes:

🕰️ app: taxonomy.onecodex.com
📄 pre-print: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
December 13, 2024 at 5:29 PM
Reposted by Matt Olm
New specific comment on the use of newer scientific names for species.
TL;DR a reminder that once a name is validly published, it can always be used. You don't *have* to use a new name just because someone published it.
zenodo.org/records/1461...
Guidelines of the Ad Hoc Committee on Mitigating Changes in Prokaryotic Nomenclature
These are the guidelines issued by the Ad Hoc Committee on Mitigating Changes in Prokaryotic Nomenclature (CoMiCProN). The guidelines are ratified at CoMiCProN meetings. Mission Statement. CoMiCProN i...
zenodo.org
January 8, 2025 at 9:43 AM
Our technique for studying strain-level IgA binding in the microbiome is out now at @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social! Fascinated by IgA since Sean Spencer told me about it, here we make some fundamental discoveries about strain-level IgA dynamics in the healthy human gut (1/5) doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing reveals IgA coating of microbial strains in the healthy human gut - Nature Microbiology
Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing (MIg-seq) uncovered patterns of IgA antibody binding of bacterial strains in the healthy human gut microbiome.
doi.org
January 3, 2025 at 6:27 PM
Thanks for the shout-out, Dan!
January 3, 2025 at 6:03 PM
Reposted by Matt Olm
OUT NOW: Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing (MIg-seq) reveals IgA coating of microbial strains in the healthy human gut

by Justin Sonnenburg, Matt Olm, Sean Spencer & co

#microsky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing reveals IgA coating of microbial strains in the healthy human gut - Nature Microbiology
Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing (MIg-seq) uncovered patterns of IgA antibody binding of bacterial strains in the healthy human gut microbiome.
www.nature.com
January 2, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Bifidobacteria are the primary consumers of breast milk and very important in the infant gut. However, current methods for profiling them require custom implementation. @ben-braun.bsky.social tackled this during his rotation in my lab by creating a fast, robust, and user-friendly tool. Check it out!
Excited to share Bifidotyper, a tool that quickly takes you from stool sequencing to quantifications of Bifidobacterial species and HMO metabolism genes! It emphasizes speed and ease of use. Just throw in your FastQ files and get results in minutes!

github.com/Bennibraun/b...
December 14, 2024 at 9:17 PM
Just finished my first semester teaching as a professor! I taught biostatistics in R- despite not knowing R before this class. Teaching while learning was a bit chaotic, but at least now I understand both ANOVA and cryptic R dependency error messages!
December 13, 2024 at 2:18 AM
Reposted by Matt Olm
Today we report that an engineered skin bacterium, swabbed gently on the head of a mouse, can unleash a potent antibody response against a pathogen. Could lead to topical vaccines that are applied in a cream. @djenetbousbaine.bsky.social led the charge... @natureportfolio.bsky.social 1/55
December 11, 2024 at 4:29 PM
Experiment was 70% successful again, but this time with friends! Here's to 100% success in the new year! @jingqian.bsky.social
December 6, 2024 at 11:13 PM