#ECNP2025 @ecnp.eu was a great experience!
Big thanks to @jfcryan.bsky.social and @katherine-maki1.bsky.social for putting together a symposium on Microbes and mental health. I also really enjoyed the other talks by Jane Foster, Thomaz Bastiaansen and @sofiacus.bsky.social!

What a fantastic #EESMicrobiome conference this week!
It was really inspiring to hear so many excellent presentations, and meet many former colleagues, collaborators, and friends in beautiful Heidelberg.
A big thank you to the organizers for putting this together!

TLDR:
🧬 Unknown microbes
🦠 Social transmission
🌳 Potential conservation relevance

Shoutout to all co-authors!

We didn’t find evidence for microbiome acquisition through geophagy, but following the approach we developed for humans, we were excited to see very clear strain sharing patterns within social groups, which mirrored territory occupancy and interaction networks!

Indeed, Indris have a proportionally large core microbiome, and their microbiomes cluster far from any other primate. But after incorporating the assembled MAGs into release Jan23 of ChocoPhlAN and profiling with MetaPhlAn 4, we highly improved the mappability.

Our collaborators collected fecal samples from indris in 6 different social groups, together with soil samples (as indris engage in geophagy, i.e. they eat soil). We did metagenomic sequencing and found their microbiomes are virtually uncharacterised: E. coli is the only one cultivated member!

The Indri indri is Madagascar’s largest living lemur. It’s critically endangered, with no successful captive breeding to date. Could its gut microbiome hold clues for conservation?

On my way to @cnb-csic.bsky.social to present our work as part of the Women in Microbiology conference series. Looking forward!

Do you want to work with us?
The Microbiome Research Group @upf.edu is looking for a project manager/research technician.

Details at: www.upf.edu/web/biomed/j... (ref. MELIS-PSR-INDF-2025-12)
Application deadline: 03/03/3025
Feel free to get in touch for more info!

Discussing the social transmission of the human microbiome and its impact in health and disease with MCarmen Collado @rutgerwalls.bsky.social Francisco Guarner at the @SEMIPYP meeting in Barcelona - always interesting to discuss the steps to bring our work to specific applications 🦠

Exciting day! Right after seeing the half marathon world record being smashed together with the women's course record @mitjabarcelona, discussing the influence of the microbiome on our health at the radio studio of @ondacero.bsky.social with @juliaoteroradio.bsky.social-inspiring conversation! ✨

Also nice to see all the attention the poster from PhD student Albert Garcia-Valiente @upf.edu received!

Really enjoyed #MindMoodMicrobes in Amsterdam this week! Very interesting talks, stimulating discussions, and meeting old and new friends.

Do you want to start a PhD and study the transmission of the microbiome and alterations in neurological disorders? 🦠🖥️

We have a fully-funded position (deadline: 05/01/25)! All details: tinyurl.com/2b3sre8a
Feel free to get in touch for more info!

Well done, Davide!