Becca Satterwhite
@satterwhite.bsky.social
Evolutionary microbiologist 🧪🧫🧪 Postdoc at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, co-advised by Dr. Vaughn Cooper and Dr. Kathy Shair
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Excited to share our latest paper led by Ph.D. Candidate, Owen Hale, titled Elevated rates and Biased Spectra of Mutations in Anaerobically Cultured Lactic Acid Bacteria out now in mBio!
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Elevated rates and biased spectra of mutations in anaerobically cultured lactic acid bacteria | mBio
Despite Earth’s oxygen-free origins and the abundance of microorganisms that thrive
without oxygen, little is known about the rates and patterns of mutations in anaerobic
species. This study directly ...
journals.asm.org
November 13, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Excited to share our latest paper led by Ph.D. Candidate, Owen Hale, titled Elevated rates and Biased Spectra of Mutations in Anaerobically Cultured Lactic Acid Bacteria out now in mBio!
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
A new study provides evidence of a biological mechanism for how Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) may trigger lupus.
EBV seems to reprogram B-cells at the beginning of a cascade that ultimately results in autoimmunity.
The authors mention that EBV is a cause of MS, and may be related to LongCOVID.
EBV seems to reprogram B-cells at the beginning of a cascade that ultimately results in autoimmunity.
The authors mention that EBV is a cause of MS, and may be related to LongCOVID.
Epstein-Barr virus reprograms autoreactive B cells as antigen-presenting cells in systemic lupus erythematosus
Epstein-Barr virus reprograms autoreactive B cells as antigen-presenting cells to promote pathogenic antinuclear T and B cell responses in lupus.
www.science.org
November 13, 2025 at 1:45 AM
A new study provides evidence of a biological mechanism for how Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) may trigger lupus.
EBV seems to reprogram B-cells at the beginning of a cascade that ultimately results in autoimmunity.
The authors mention that EBV is a cause of MS, and may be related to LongCOVID.
EBV seems to reprogram B-cells at the beginning of a cascade that ultimately results in autoimmunity.
The authors mention that EBV is a cause of MS, and may be related to LongCOVID.
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Excited to share some new work led by grad student Sophie Walton (w/ @petrovadmitri.bsky.social). We used in vitro gut communities to study how natural selection acts on strains of the same species as they compete within larger communities. Check out Sophie's thread below for details!
Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 12, 2025 at 3:43 AM
Excited to share some new work led by grad student Sophie Walton (w/ @petrovadmitri.bsky.social). We used in vitro gut communities to study how natural selection acts on strains of the same species as they compete within larger communities. Check out Sophie's thread below for details!
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Probably the most badass thing I've ever seen!
AZ Rep Yassamin Ansari has set up a table outside of Mike Johnson’s offical Speaker Of The House office with a "Mike Johnson is using the government shutdown to cover up the Epstein Files - Change My Mind" sign!! 😆
AZ Rep Yassamin Ansari has set up a table outside of Mike Johnson’s offical Speaker Of The House office with a "Mike Johnson is using the government shutdown to cover up the Epstein Files - Change My Mind" sign!! 😆
November 7, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Probably the most badass thing I've ever seen!
AZ Rep Yassamin Ansari has set up a table outside of Mike Johnson’s offical Speaker Of The House office with a "Mike Johnson is using the government shutdown to cover up the Epstein Files - Change My Mind" sign!! 😆
AZ Rep Yassamin Ansari has set up a table outside of Mike Johnson’s offical Speaker Of The House office with a "Mike Johnson is using the government shutdown to cover up the Epstein Files - Change My Mind" sign!! 😆
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Today on Club EvMed we enjoyed a super discussion with the authors of this important paper. Join us next time or enjoy the recording!
"Waning immunity drives respiratory virus evolution and reinfection" by Antia, Koelle & Bull
Club EvMed: sites.duke.edu/clubevmed/
academic.oup.com/emph/article...
"Waning immunity drives respiratory virus evolution and reinfection" by Antia, Koelle & Bull
Club EvMed: sites.duke.edu/clubevmed/
academic.oup.com/emph/article...
Waning immunity drives respiratory virus evolution and reinfection
Abstract. Viruses differ in the number and types of host tissues in which they replicate. For example, systemically replicating viruses such as measles inf
academic.oup.com
October 30, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Today on Club EvMed we enjoyed a super discussion with the authors of this important paper. Join us next time or enjoy the recording!
"Waning immunity drives respiratory virus evolution and reinfection" by Antia, Koelle & Bull
Club EvMed: sites.duke.edu/clubevmed/
academic.oup.com/emph/article...
"Waning immunity drives respiratory virus evolution and reinfection" by Antia, Koelle & Bull
Club EvMed: sites.duke.edu/clubevmed/
academic.oup.com/emph/article...
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Good evening from the Arctic!
October 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Good evening from the Arctic!
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
That’s absolutely beautiful
Two back-to-back stories on mitosis led by my incredible postdoc @krunovuk.bsky.social at @institutrb.bsky.social, in which we challenge the gliding model of CENP-E-driven chromosome congression! Today in @natcomms.nature.com
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
October 28, 2025 at 8:48 PM
That’s absolutely beautiful
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Two PROTAC questions:
1) Does anyone know of a PROTAC for GFP (which could be used to degrade any GFP-tagged protein)?
2) Does anyone have experience with any of the available PROTACs for Halo (like HaloPROTAC3)?
1) Does anyone know of a PROTAC for GFP (which could be used to degrade any GFP-tagged protein)?
2) Does anyone have experience with any of the available PROTACs for Halo (like HaloPROTAC3)?
October 28, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Two PROTAC questions:
1) Does anyone know of a PROTAC for GFP (which could be used to degrade any GFP-tagged protein)?
2) Does anyone have experience with any of the available PROTACs for Halo (like HaloPROTAC3)?
1) Does anyone know of a PROTAC for GFP (which could be used to degrade any GFP-tagged protein)?
2) Does anyone have experience with any of the available PROTACs for Halo (like HaloPROTAC3)?
Behold my seasonal culinary skills (and my 🐈⬛ who wants to share): monster mouths, ghostly bananas, and mummy pigs-in-a-blanket 🎃
October 26, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Behold my seasonal culinary skills (and my 🐈⬛ who wants to share): monster mouths, ghostly bananas, and mummy pigs-in-a-blanket 🎃
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Hey Yaniv Brandvain is not on Bluesky but his most recent biostats ebook is live ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/. His stats resources have been so helpful to me as I develop my own stats course, so check it out. Github repo here: github.com/ybrandvain/b...
Applied Biostatistics
ybrandvain.github.io
October 24, 2025 at 2:47 PM
Hey Yaniv Brandvain is not on Bluesky but his most recent biostats ebook is live ybrandvain.github.io/biostats/. His stats resources have been so helpful to me as I develop my own stats course, so check it out. Github repo here: github.com/ybrandvain/b...
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Free, professional illustrations of research organisms! 🎨🐁🪼🧪
We compiled original vector/raster graphics of 70+ organisms & viruses into a CC0 library. All by @arcadiascience.com's Audrey Bell
Check it out & show us how you use them!
research.arcadiascience.com/pub/resource... #SciArt #OpenScience
We compiled original vector/raster graphics of 70+ organisms & viruses into a CC0 library. All by @arcadiascience.com's Audrey Bell
Check it out & show us how you use them!
research.arcadiascience.com/pub/resource... #SciArt #OpenScience
September 29, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Free, professional illustrations of research organisms! 🎨🐁🪼🧪
We compiled original vector/raster graphics of 70+ organisms & viruses into a CC0 library. All by @arcadiascience.com's Audrey Bell
Check it out & show us how you use them!
research.arcadiascience.com/pub/resource... #SciArt #OpenScience
We compiled original vector/raster graphics of 70+ organisms & viruses into a CC0 library. All by @arcadiascience.com's Audrey Bell
Check it out & show us how you use them!
research.arcadiascience.com/pub/resource... #SciArt #OpenScience
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
October 15, 2025 at 3:53 PM
We're excited to be recruiting an NIH funded postdoc to work in the Coop lab at UC Davis. We're specifically interested in candidates who are want to work at the intersection of human genetics, GWAS, and population genetics modeling. Please RT
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Antimicrobial resistance is responsible for some 1.2 million deaths a year a year and contributes to millions more. Data in the new report shows that the problem is growing at an alarming rate. n.pr/3J0HVBC
Study: We're losing the war against drug-resistant infections faster than we thought
Antimicrobial resistance is responsible for some 1.2 million deaths a year a year and contributes to millions more. Data in the new report shows that the problem is growing at an alarming rate.
n.pr
October 15, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Antimicrobial resistance is responsible for some 1.2 million deaths a year a year and contributes to millions more. Data in the new report shows that the problem is growing at an alarming rate. n.pr/3J0HVBC
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Did you know that it only takes one spontaneous mutation in your bacterial culture to activate a phage, and trigger a subsequent cascade of bacterial/phage evolution? 🧪 Curious how you could detect similar events in your experiments? Check out Nanami’s work!
Preprint out! Bacteria w/ hyper-replicative filamentous phage lead to overnight emergence of cheater phages. Bacteria w/ both phages can outcompete wildtype, then rapidly lose phage via a phage Tragedy of the Commons
@shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness
Many bacteria carry phage genome(s) in their chromosome (i.e., prophage), and this intertwines the fitness of the bacterium and the phage. Most Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains carry filamentous phages ...
www.biorxiv.org
April 2, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Did you know that it only takes one spontaneous mutation in your bacterial culture to activate a phage, and trigger a subsequent cascade of bacterial/phage evolution? 🧪 Curious how you could detect similar events in your experiments? Check out Nanami’s work!
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
1/3 To those interested in microbial iron & metal transport: In 1992, the late JB Neilands (UCB), the pioneer in the study of Fe transport entrusted me with his collection of purified siderophores from a wide range of microbes—many of them unique chemical species that can no longer be reproduced
October 14, 2025 at 2:54 PM
1/3 To those interested in microbial iron & metal transport: In 1992, the late JB Neilands (UCB), the pioneer in the study of Fe transport entrusted me with his collection of purified siderophores from a wide range of microbes—many of them unique chemical species that can no longer be reproduced
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Mike Travisano back at MSU to give EEB Distinguished Alumni Lecture on "The major consequences of micro-evolution"
Mike a key player in establishing #LTEE and microbial expt'l evolution more generally. Here we are with LTEE lines in the incubator & Mike holding y'day flasks w/ @ofria.bsky.social
Mike a key player in establishing #LTEE and microbial expt'l evolution more generally. Here we are with LTEE lines in the incubator & Mike holding y'day flasks w/ @ofria.bsky.social
October 9, 2025 at 5:34 PM
Mike Travisano back at MSU to give EEB Distinguished Alumni Lecture on "The major consequences of micro-evolution"
Mike a key player in establishing #LTEE and microbial expt'l evolution more generally. Here we are with LTEE lines in the incubator & Mike holding y'day flasks w/ @ofria.bsky.social
Mike a key player in establishing #LTEE and microbial expt'l evolution more generally. Here we are with LTEE lines in the incubator & Mike holding y'day flasks w/ @ofria.bsky.social
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
🌱🧬 Penn State’s @hockettlab.bsky.social and team discovered how tomato leaf microbiomes can suppress bacterial speck disease.
Xanthomonas & Pseudomonas → less disease → possible microbial tools to protect crops.
🔗 Read more: www.psu.edu/news/agricul...
Xanthomonas & Pseudomonas → less disease → possible microbial tools to protect crops.
🔗 Read more: www.psu.edu/news/agricul...
New clues in how plant microbiomes protect against bacterial speck disease | Penn State University
Bacterial speck is a common disease affecting tomatoes that can result in lower yields for growers. A new study led by researchers at Penn State gives new clues on how a plant’s microbiome can be used...
www.psu.edu
October 2, 2025 at 7:26 PM
🌱🧬 Penn State’s @hockettlab.bsky.social and team discovered how tomato leaf microbiomes can suppress bacterial speck disease.
Xanthomonas & Pseudomonas → less disease → possible microbial tools to protect crops.
🔗 Read more: www.psu.edu/news/agricul...
Xanthomonas & Pseudomonas → less disease → possible microbial tools to protect crops.
🔗 Read more: www.psu.edu/news/agricul...
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
The combination of Pf repressor mutation happening spontaneously + virome diversification means what you thought were bacterial clones might not be clones, and every colony/overnight might be different! A nightmare when doing experiments but very cool!
TLDR: most P. aeruginosa cells have active, diverse viromes that affect host-pathogen interactions.
➡️ Pf interact with host cells, interfere w/ antibiotics as @prsecor.bsky.social et al have shown.
Dynamics can be FAST! If you don't look carefully, you'll miss it! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
➡️ Pf interact with host cells, interfere w/ antibiotics as @prsecor.bsky.social et al have shown.
Dynamics can be FAST! If you don't look carefully, you'll miss it! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 2, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness: Current Biology https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01198-4?rss=yes
Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness
Kubota et al. show that bacteria can use their filamentous phage to outcompete other bacteria, but increased phage production enables the evolution of cheater miniphages with truncated genomes. Miniphages exploit full-length phages and lower total phage production, causing some bacteria to lose their prophages and any associated fitness benefits.
www.cell.com
October 2, 2025 at 10:42 PM
Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness: Current Biology https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(25)01198-4?rss=yes
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Published in Current Biology! P. aeruginosa can use its filamentous phage to inhibit competitors but high phage production is susceptible to cheater miniphage invasion. Subsequent phage tragedy of the commons can lower bacteria and phage fitness. Link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5I3QW8S...
Preprint out! Bacteria w/ hyper-replicative filamentous phage lead to overnight emergence of cheater phages. Bacteria w/ both phages can outcompete wildtype, then rapidly lose phage via a phage Tragedy of the Commons
@shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@shellyscrib.bsky.social @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness
Many bacteria carry phage genome(s) in their chromosome (i.e., prophage), and this intertwines the fitness of the bacterium and the phage. Most Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains carry filamentous phages ...
www.biorxiv.org
October 2, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Published in Current Biology! P. aeruginosa can use its filamentous phage to inhibit competitors but high phage production is susceptible to cheater miniphage invasion. Subsequent phage tragedy of the commons can lower bacteria and phage fitness. Link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5I3QW8S...
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
let the gourd times roll
October 1, 2025 at 4:46 PM
let the gourd times roll
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Two postdoc positions with @ajfedorec.bsky.social: one computational and one wetlab, for a 5 year grant on synthetic microbial communities
Research Fellow in Computational Synthetic Biology
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Research Fellow in Synthetic Biology
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
#PostDoc
Research Fellow in Computational Synthetic Biology
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Research Fellow in Synthetic Biology
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
#PostDoc
UCL – University College London
UCL is consistently ranked as one of the top ten universities in the world (QS World University Rankings 2010-2022) and is No.2 in the UK for research power (Research Excellence Framework 2021).
www.ucl.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Two postdoc positions with @ajfedorec.bsky.social: one computational and one wetlab, for a 5 year grant on synthetic microbial communities
Research Fellow in Computational Synthetic Biology
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Research Fellow in Synthetic Biology
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
#PostDoc
Research Fellow in Computational Synthetic Biology
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
Research Fellow in Synthetic Biology
www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...
#PostDoc
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
Feel free to contact me for info about this open position and the project! Fully funded through @hfspo.bsky.social and in collaboration with @jacrickets.bsky.social and Shawn McGlynn
Postdoc opportunity in Dal Bello Lab at Yale EEB (starting Dec 2025). Focus is on microbial ecology and learning mechanisms. Apply via email to Martina with CV. More info: https://www.dalbellolab.com/ #postdoc
dal bello lab
dal bello lab
www.dalbellolab.com
September 25, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Feel free to contact me for info about this open position and the project! Fully funded through @hfspo.bsky.social and in collaboration with @jacrickets.bsky.social and Shawn McGlynn
Reposted by Becca Satterwhite
OK, here it is. Come work with me at the University of Liverpool making ALL THE AI models from ALL THE prokaryote pangenome data. Heck, we will make models from ALL the pangenomes, even eukaryotes!!! (link below👇) 1/4
September 25, 2025 at 9:49 AM
OK, here it is. Come work with me at the University of Liverpool making ALL THE AI models from ALL THE prokaryote pangenome data. Heck, we will make models from ALL the pangenomes, even eukaryotes!!! (link below👇) 1/4
Reading the 1975 paper as a graduate student and realizing they were the same person was absolutely mind blowing
This is a GREAT interview. Definitely worth a listen.
this is wild - i was aware of Mary-Claire King's absurdly important discoveries on BRCA / inherited breast cancer but I had no idea that her first PhD paper (King & Wilson 1975, Science, not bad lol) is the "99% of protein coding shared btwn chimps and humans" result
www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...
www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...
September 20, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Reading the 1975 paper as a graduate student and realizing they were the same person was absolutely mind blowing