Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
@mepa-social-media.bsky.social
We bring together biological collections and biomedical experts from across the Americas in an effort to build cross-disciplinary collaborations.
Website: https://mepa-network.weebly.com/
Website: https://mepa-network.weebly.com/
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Dr. Alejandra Camacho is our next core group organizers to present from MEPA! You can guess from what is hanging on her office what she is interested in! #mammals #bats #Ecuador #Neotropics @alecamacho.bsky.social
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MEPA has officially started its Youtube channel. So you have missed and wants to catch up with any of MEPA's previous sessions, please visit www.youtube.com/@Museums_and... Don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell! #pathogens #Americas #museums #naturalhistory #disease
Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas
The majority of emerging diseases in humans come from wildlife; however, wildlife biorepositories – which include DNA and tissue biobanks and other biological materials – are not adequately involved i...
www.youtube.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM
MEPA has officially started its Youtube channel. So you have missed and wants to catch up with any of MEPA's previous sessions, please visit www.youtube.com/@Museums_and... Don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell! #pathogens #Americas #museums #naturalhistory #disease
Dr. Alejandra Camacho is our next core group organizers to present from MEPA! You can guess from what is hanging on her office what she is interested in! #mammals #bats #Ecuador #Neotropics @alecamacho.bsky.social
October 13, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Dr. Alejandra Camacho is our next core group organizers to present from MEPA! You can guess from what is hanging on her office what she is interested in! #mammals #bats #Ecuador #Neotropics @alecamacho.bsky.social
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Emergent Directedness in Social Contagion arxiv.org/abs/2510.06012
Emergent Directedness in Social Contagion
An enduring challenge in contagion theory is that the pathways contagions follow through social networks exhibit emergent complexities that are difficult to predict using network structure. Here, we a...
arxiv.org
October 10, 2025 at 8:55 AM
Emergent Directedness in Social Contagion arxiv.org/abs/2510.06012
MEPA has officially started its Youtube channel. So you have missed and wants to catch up with any of MEPA's previous sessions, please visit www.youtube.com/@Museums_and... Don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell! #pathogens #Americas #museums #naturalhistory #disease
Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas
The majority of emerging diseases in humans come from wildlife; however, wildlife biorepositories – which include DNA and tissue biobanks and other biological materials – are not adequately involved i...
www.youtube.com
October 10, 2025 at 3:41 PM
MEPA has officially started its Youtube channel. So you have missed and wants to catch up with any of MEPA's previous sessions, please visit www.youtube.com/@Museums_and... Don't forget to subscribe and ring the bell! #pathogens #Americas #museums #naturalhistory #disease
Congrats, @dannyibaneziv.bsky.social !!! Danny is involved in the organization of MEPA in general and has played an important part in the success of the development of our activities!
Double the celebration! 🎉🐭🦇 Congrats to KU Mammalogy graduate students Alex Hey & Danny Ibanez on successfully defending their master’s theses!
Alex studied hybrid woodrats (Neotoma) in the field using Nanopore tech; Danny explored Hipposideros bat genomics in the Solomons.
PhDs up next at KU! 🎓
Alex studied hybrid woodrats (Neotoma) in the field using Nanopore tech; Danny explored Hipposideros bat genomics in the Solomons.
PhDs up next at KU! 🎓
September 30, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Congrats, @dannyibaneziv.bsky.social !!! Danny is involved in the organization of MEPA in general and has played an important part in the success of the development of our activities!
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Identifying COVID-19 peaks using early warning signals journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Identifying COVID-19 peaks using early warning signals
Author summary The application of early warning signals (EWS), which uses statistics to predict changes in real-world data, has increasingly shown promise in successfully anticipating disease (re-)eme...
journals.plos.org
September 25, 2025 at 6:47 AM
Identifying COVID-19 peaks using early warning signals journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
First confirmed case of betanodavirus infection (viral nervous necrosis) in grouper in 2025 in Catalonia, Spain – epidemiological implications
spr.ly/63324AbNLa
spr.ly/63324AbNLa
September 25, 2025 at 2:23 PM
First confirmed case of betanodavirus infection (viral nervous necrosis) in grouper in 2025 in Catalonia, Spain – epidemiological implications
spr.ly/63324AbNLa
spr.ly/63324AbNLa
And our next Core Group MEPA organizer and first member to be introduced from Latin America is Diego Soler-Tovar! If you are interested in bats and one of the deadliest diseases in the world, please follow him and his work! @dsolert.bsky.social
September 22, 2025 at 9:43 PM
And our next Core Group MEPA organizer and first member to be introduced from Latin America is Diego Soler-Tovar! If you are interested in bats and one of the deadliest diseases in the world, please follow him and his work! @dsolert.bsky.social
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Check out the museums and Emerging Pathogens' new website! Join us to learn about how working with museums might benefit your research! #research #science #evolution
September 22, 2025 at 9:48 AM
Check out the museums and Emerging Pathogens' new website! Join us to learn about how working with museums might benefit your research! #research #science #evolution
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Super excited to finally share this! #CollectionsAreEssential
🦇🦠 New preprint - in a long-term effort led by the amazing @mayajuman.bsky.social, we've shown that the ML tools developed by @viralemergence.org let us efficiently screen museum collections for pathogens with pandemic potential
🎉🔓 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🎉🔓 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Museum collections and machine learning guide discovery of novel coronaviruses and paramyxoviruses
Natural history museum collections are valuable but underutilized resources for viral discovery, offering opportunities to test hypotheses about viral occurrence across space, time, and taxonomic grou...
www.biorxiv.org
September 22, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Super excited to finally share this! #CollectionsAreEssential
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Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
2/N Many of these individuals are part of @mepa-social-media.bsky.social. The paper provides data on existing genetic resources from mammals available to researchers to study emerging infectious diseases, such as hantaviruses, arenaviruses, and other zoonotic pathogens.
#collectionsareessential
#collectionsareessential
1/N Check out our recent publication on South American mammal voucher and tissue collections!!! This paper was led by Marcelo Weksler, Guellermo D'Elia, and Pablo Teta, but it included contributions from over 100 scientists.
#mammalogy #collectionsareessential #onehealth
#mammalogy #collectionsareessential #onehealth
A comprehensive survey of mammal collections and genetic resources in South America: challenges and directions
Abstract. Natural history collections serve as crucial infrastructure for both basic and applied scientific research, providing temporal and spatial specim
academic.oup.com
September 16, 2025 at 5:24 PM
2/N Many of these individuals are part of @mepa-social-media.bsky.social. The paper provides data on existing genetic resources from mammals available to researchers to study emerging infectious diseases, such as hantaviruses, arenaviruses, and other zoonotic pathogens.
#collectionsareessential
#collectionsareessential
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
1/N Check out our recent publication on South American mammal voucher and tissue collections!!! This paper was led by Marcelo Weksler, Guellermo D'Elia, and Pablo Teta, but it included contributions from over 100 scientists.
#mammalogy #collectionsareessential #onehealth
#mammalogy #collectionsareessential #onehealth
A comprehensive survey of mammal collections and genetic resources in South America: challenges and directions
Abstract. Natural history collections serve as crucial infrastructure for both basic and applied scientific research, providing temporal and spatial specim
academic.oup.com
September 16, 2025 at 5:23 PM
1/N Check out our recent publication on South American mammal voucher and tissue collections!!! This paper was led by Marcelo Weksler, Guellermo D'Elia, and Pablo Teta, but it included contributions from over 100 scientists.
#mammalogy #collectionsareessential #onehealth
#mammalogy #collectionsareessential #onehealth
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
A rare human case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever has been confirmed in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.
spr.ly/63323AHJ4V
spr.ly/63323AHJ4V
September 8, 2025 at 8:18 PM
A rare human case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever has been confirmed in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada.
spr.ly/63323AHJ4V
spr.ly/63323AHJ4V
Today we are delighted to introduce to you one of the co-founders of MEPA and one of the most charismatic of our organizers: Dr. Joe Cook!
September 8, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Today we are delighted to introduce to you one of the co-founders of MEPA and one of the most charismatic of our organizers: Dr. Joe Cook!
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Evolution Meeting 2026 logo contest! The winner will receive meeting registration and an Evolution 2026 t-shirt. www.evolutionmeetings.org/2026-logo-co...
Evolution Conference Information
Evolution 2026 Cleveland needs a logo! Submit your design(s) to evolution.meetings@gmail.com with the subject header 'logo contest 2026' Guidance: 3-4 colors maximum try to avoid single organism...
www.evolutionmeetings.org
September 5, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Evolution Meeting 2026 logo contest! The winner will receive meeting registration and an Evolution 2026 t-shirt. www.evolutionmeetings.org/2026-logo-co...
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NEW EPISODE #ScienceInContext! Dr @eonore.bsky.social joins Dr Tamyo Mbisa @ukhsa.bsky.social & Vinicius Franceschi @imperialsph.bsky.social to speak about genetic evolution of #HIV disease progression 👇
🧵1/3
youtu.be/2ecIdiU9UcQ
🧵1/3
youtu.be/2ecIdiU9UcQ
youtu.be
September 5, 2025 at 1:53 PM
NEW EPISODE #ScienceInContext! Dr @eonore.bsky.social joins Dr Tamyo Mbisa @ukhsa.bsky.social & Vinicius Franceschi @imperialsph.bsky.social to speak about genetic evolution of #HIV disease progression 👇
🧵1/3
youtu.be/2ecIdiU9UcQ
🧵1/3
youtu.be/2ecIdiU9UcQ
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
We share the most recent publication by our researcher, Dr. Natalia Agudelo, and other authors, on the design and evaluation of an RT-PCR assay for the detection of reptarenavirus in snakes... revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/re...
September 3, 2025 at 11:15 PM
We share the most recent publication by our researcher, Dr. Natalia Agudelo, and other authors, on the design and evaluation of an RT-PCR assay for the detection of reptarenavirus in snakes... revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/re...
We are starting to present each the organizers of MEPA, who work hard to keep everything in place for the discussions, papers and projects to keep moving forward as they should. Today with great pleasure, we introduce Dr. Jocelyn Colella, one of the co-founders and core group of organizers of MEPA!
September 2, 2025 at 6:37 PM
We are starting to present each the organizers of MEPA, who work hard to keep everything in place for the discussions, papers and projects to keep moving forward as they should. Today with great pleasure, we introduce Dr. Jocelyn Colella, one of the co-founders and core group of organizers of MEPA!
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Excited to share our data paper on fungal diseases in tall fescue! Fun and useful experience having our data peer reviewed for usability and clarity. @fletcher-h.bsky.social @kokeeffe12.bsky.social @esajournals.bsky.social
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
Disease epidemics and species interactions: A manipulation of seasonal establishment of fungal diseases in an old field
Many disease epidemics recur seasonally, and such seasonal epidemics can be shaped by species interactions among parasites, pathogens, or other microbes. Field experiments are a classic approach for ...
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
March 10, 2025 at 4:30 PM
Excited to share our data paper on fungal diseases in tall fescue! Fun and useful experience having our data peer reviewed for usability and clarity. @fletcher-h.bsky.social @kokeeffe12.bsky.social @esajournals.bsky.social
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
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Interesting looking set of talks on 'What turns spillovers into epidemics?' w @jessmetcalf.bsky.social @danielstreicker.bsky.social @aineotoole.bsky.social @peacockflu.bsky.social @HouriyahTegally - 19th May www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/events/what-...
Panel Discussion: 'What turns spillovers into epidemics?'
This talk brings together experts in pathogen genomics, virology, ecology, climate science, and data science to explore how AI, genomic surveillance, and…
www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk
May 1, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Interesting looking set of talks on 'What turns spillovers into epidemics?' w @jessmetcalf.bsky.social @danielstreicker.bsky.social @aineotoole.bsky.social @peacockflu.bsky.social @HouriyahTegally - 19th May www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/events/what-...
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Check out the new MEPA (Museums and Pathogens in the Americas) @bsky.app page!!!
bsky.app/profile/mepa...
bsky.app/profile/mepa...
bsky.app
July 3, 2025 at 12:44 PM
Check out the new MEPA (Museums and Pathogens in the Americas) @bsky.app page!!!
bsky.app/profile/mepa...
bsky.app/profile/mepa...
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Check out our new paper in #BioScience!!! If COVID taught us anything, we very much need to be doubling down on our scientific structure and not regressing, and we need to improve collaborative networks that transcend geopolitical boundaries.
#naturalhistory #collectionsareessential
#naturalhistory #collectionsareessential
Harnessing natural history collections for collaborative pandemic preparedness
Five years after the outbreak of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we have the opportunity to gather lessons learned about needed infrastructure for predicting, und
academic.oup.com
June 2, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Check out our new paper in #BioScience!!! If COVID taught us anything, we very much need to be doubling down on our scientific structure and not regressing, and we need to improve collaborative networks that transcend geopolitical boundaries.
#naturalhistory #collectionsareessential
#naturalhistory #collectionsareessential
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Natural history museum collections may contain key data for predicting and preventing future pandemics, according to a new @umich.edu-led study analyzing how preserved biological specimens can support global disease surveillance. #science
news.umich.edu/worlds-natur...
news.umich.edu/worlds-natur...
World's natural history collections ready to aid in pandemic preparedness
Across the world, natural history museums hold about 3 billion specimens of plants and animals in collections—and these collections may also contain information needed to prevent, prepare for, and res...
news.umich.edu
June 2, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Natural history museum collections may contain key data for predicting and preventing future pandemics, according to a new @umich.edu-led study analyzing how preserved biological specimens can support global disease surveillance. #science
news.umich.edu/worlds-natur...
news.umich.edu/worlds-natur...
Reposted by Museums and Emerging Pathogens in the Americas (MEPA)
Do you study wildlife disease? Don't just share your sequences - share your testing data! We've developed a minimum data standard and an R package to help you, and wrote a little how-to-share-data handbook for disease ecology and One Health surveillance projects 🦇🦟🦠🗺️🔢
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A minimum data standard for wildlife disease research and surveillance - Scientific Data
Scientific Data - A minimum data standard for wildlife disease research and surveillance
www.nature.com
June 23, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Do you study wildlife disease? Don't just share your sequences - share your testing data! We've developed a minimum data standard and an R package to help you, and wrote a little how-to-share-data handbook for disease ecology and One Health surveillance projects 🦇🦟🦠🗺️🔢
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...