🚨 NEW: The majority holder of the world's genetic sequence data is a bad actor who can cut off access to critics and competing services. We've tolerated this for years, and now it threatens the pandemic treaty. Time for WHO to step in. With @ctrlalttim.com: www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/to-f...

The mobilization of the research community by Gaynor Watson-Creed and others has been successful, and Parliament has withdrawn its abusive data request. Via @widowweb.bsky.social on www.linkedin.com/posts/maydia...

If you're interested in using pangenome graphs for comparative genomics, check out my webinar, part of EMBL-EBI's "Concepts, methods, and resources in pangenomics" series, available on-demand: www.ebi.ac.uk/training/eve...

Love the idea of the "deletion test" posed by @needhibhalla.bsky.social & coauthors in their commentary about costs of cutting DEI efforts in science. What if that student were "deleted?" What will the costs be? Screenshots attached to enhance access. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If you're looking for a faculty position at the intersection of ecology and computing (both broadly defined), please apply to this joint search between the CEE Department and the College of Computing at MIT: cee.mit.edu/people/share...

🧬 🦠 🏙️ Urban vs rural lifestyles create dramatically different gut microbiomes. But how do these different gut microbiomes affect the host? Excited to share our new paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Are you looking for a #tenuretrack or #openrank job in #biostatistics or #statistics? @fredhutch.org is hiring! Seattle is a wonderful place to grow your career; the bio/stat & science scene here is world-class; and you will work w/ amazing UW Biostat students. Apply! apply.interfolio.com/176402

One week to go! Abstract submissions for Annual Conference 2026 close at 23:59 GMT on Tuesday 11 November. If you study microbes, there’s a home for your work at #Microbio26 Submit your work to one of >20 available sessions at: microb.io/AC26Abstracts

Il n'y a aucune raison valable pour faire un "audit" des pistes cyclables à Montréal. Une fois construites, elles sont utilisées et c'est parce qu'elles sont sécuritaires! Est-ce qu'on va faire un audit des voies automobiles, pour savoir lesquelles sont dangereuses? www.lapresse.ca/dialogue/chr...

Continuons d'avancer! 🚲 Le REV Saint-Denis, une piste cyclable qui atteint des sommets www.lapresse.ca/dialogue/chr...

How much are MPs entitled to know about research grants? Not as much as they think. A parliamentary committee is asking for researchers' personal information in what seems like an anti-DEI crusade, by @picardonhealth.bsky.social www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti... via @theglobeandmail.com

We should be paying more attention to this situation. An online letter has been put together and is being circulated to stop this data from being disclosed. Please sign the online letter here, if you are comfortable: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Applications are currently being accepted for UBC's ✨️ Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellowship ✨️ (two positions!!), due Jan. 15 Please share far and wide 🚀 (See thread)

Nature suggests you use their "Manuscript Adviser" bot to get advice before submitting I uploaded the classic Watson & Crick paper about DNA structure, and the Adviser had this to say about one of the greatest paper endings of the century:

My 11-year-old officially works harder to accommodate people at his birthday parties than the Quebec state.

🔊 Applications for the tenure-track illuminate global challenge fellowships at Queen’s are now open! Comes with 5 years protected research time, a PhD studentship, & 60k start-up. I had one of these before getting my FLF, happy to chat to anyone interested! www.qub.ac.uk/Research/fel...

🚨 Exciting new work out today led by @carolinecummings.bsky.social! Do bats host deadly viruses? Yes - but only specific bats (that just happen to be found in a lot of places!). Challenging some big ideas in the zoonosis world with data. Well done Caroline and team!!

JD Vance claims that diversity weakens unions, as people end up distrusting each other and not organizing. Let me tell you two menswear stories related to this claim. 🧵

Excited to share: DNA glycosylases are diverse antiviral effectors. They recognize phage base modifications and initiate genome destruction. A structure‑guided approach made the scope of this discovery possible! 🧪 #phagesky doi.org/10.1101/2025... #phage #microbiology

I've often wondered about what we should call organisms whose similarity might be due to acquired genetic material. It got a little complicated, but I made a stab at it here Classifying Convergences in the Light of Horizontal Gene Transfer: Epaktovars and Xenotypes academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

We have an open PhD position (application deadline 9 January 2026) in "Theory of fitness landscapes" at @unibe.ch 🤓⛰️📊👩‍💻🎓: banklab.github.io/positions/ Please share widely! #QueerInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #BlackInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #CarersInSTEM #AcademicSky #HigherED

“Being truly pro-cycling isn’t just about saying you like bikes. It’s about accepting that [...] we sometimes need to rebalance public space, which means, yes, removing a few parking spaces or reallocating a traffic lane.” “If you love cycling, make room for it” by @jfrheault.bsky.social

I was delighted to speak with WTAE anchor Shannon Perrine about how the “inclusion” of students put our EvolvingSTEM program at risk, among many others. We continue to “engage” >2500 students annually throughout Western PA and with various partners in 10 states.

circular AI shrimp are decidedly cursed

Sorry Toronto, but Montreal will be cheering for the Dodgers tonight!

On Oct. 23, 1945, the news broke that Jackie Robinson had been signed to play with the Montreal Royals. He would spend a season with the team before being promoted to the Brooklyn Dodgers on his way to the Hall of Fame. This is his story. 🧵 1/12

🦠📢If, like us, you lie awake at night wondering how cyanobacteria can be so good at adapting to any conditions, or if you just think they're cool and need an excuse to visit #Montreal, please consider submitting an abstract to our session by November 25th #ASLOSIL2026 www.aslo.org/aslo-sil-2026/

New paper with my (amazing) friend and mentor @jrpenades.bsky.social Really looking forward to see what plasmid aficionados think of this one!! With @asantoslopez.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social Akshay Sabins and others www.cell.com/cell-reports...

I’m very happy this is finally out! Here, we showcase the combination of BONCAT and SIP metaproteomics to uncover rare and active microbes driving anaerobic acetate turnover. We are excited to see what other microbial metabolisms and ecosystems this approach can help to illuminate! 🦠

Please share this with anyone who may be interested in a post-doc in Germany: jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/20... This is quite an exciting opportunity to push the boundaries of what is known regarding the molecular basis of the formation and demise of photosymbiotic relationships in marine habitats.

Why can’t I have more content like this?

Outside of Canada, many assume that the entire country uses bagged milk. The truth is, only part of Canada have bagged milk in the fridge. But why? Well, it comes down when Canada made the transition to the metric system. This is the story! 🧵 1/9

I'm delighted our paper is out: doi.org/10.1093/isme... With new SAR11 isolate genomes and time-series metagenomes, we reveal coastal and offshore SAR11 ecotypes, identify associated metabolic traits, and pinpoint selective gene sweeps as a likely evolutionary driver to niche partitioning. 🌊🦠

And now NextStrain as well. Next up, will GISAID start charging open-source community tools to have access? That would completely shaft users who contributed to GISAID, where we never agreed to that and assumed GISAID would be good custodians of the data we contributed. They're not.

Very cool phage study from @jeremyjbarr.bsky.social's lab. Isolation, engineering and ecology of temperate phages from the human gut #microbiomesky #phagesky

We are recruiting new faculty in IMES at MIT! IMES (Institute for Medical Engineering and Science) is the MIT home of the famous HST program. As faculty are also appointed in a department at MIT, we have diverse research programs, all focused on human health. faculty-searches.mit.edu/imes-search/

Phages evolve fast, or do they? In oysters, some stay identical for years. With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements. Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Montreal scene

Three Bicentenary research fellowships on offer at @officialuom.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social for exceptional ECRs with <3y postdoc experience 3yrs salary + £30k pa research expenses Do you have a great idea & want to join @mermanchester.bsky.social? www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/research/sup...

Reading the acknowledgments section of my student's PhD thesis...

Meanwhile in Canada, there have been more reported measles cases in Alberta (cases: 1,923; population: ~5M) than reported in all of the US this year (cases: 1,563, population: ~340M). Consequence: "The Americas region is at risk of losing its measles-free status..." globalnews.ca/news/1146683...

New pre-print www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Plasmid-dependent phage (PDPs) are ubiquitous, but the selective pressures that they impose on plasmids are not well understood. Project led by Daniel Cazares in collaboration with @brockhurstlab.bsky.social! #phagesky#microsky

Pleased to share new work tinkering with and testing the concept of the holobiont @isme-microbes.bsky.social "Experimental evolution of a mammalian holobiont: bank voles selected for herbivorous capability evolved distinct and robust gut bacterial communities" 🌾🐭🦠 academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Sabbatical planning: step 1.

www.cell.com/trends/ecolo... New entry into the Disability in Ecology and Evolution series in TREE featuring me :)

My department @geographieudem.bsky.social is looking for a professor in human geography specializing in the study of social-ecological transformations, political ecology, climate change, environmental justice and/or the geography of risks and infrastructures. Deadline November 10, share widely!

Here’s published version of our manuscript using GWAS to investigate tailocin sensitivity in Pseudomonas syringae. TL:DR pretty clear LPS is tailocin receptor but also that P.syringae often completely swaps out its entire O antigen biosynth pathway w/ recombination academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

New preprint! Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠 Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare! An epic effort by Rosanna Wright www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness Pseudomonas aeruginosa VS Pf phage @currentbiology.bsky.social by @nanamikubota.bsky.social, @shellyscrib.bsky.social and @vscooper.micropopbio.org www.cell.com/current-biol... #PhageSky

Sad news: Jane Goodall has died. She did more than any other human for our understanding and appreciation of our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. That chimpanzees are Endangered tells you everything about our species and about what made her so exceptional. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/01/o...