Variations in annual dengue intensities are explained by temperature anomalies Our new work led by Abbey Porzucek, @rafalpx.bsky.social, @colincarlson.bsky.social, Dan Weinberger to develop a method to compare relative dengue intensity between years and countries. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Hey folks, am looking for examples of circularised/full plasmid sequences from "unusual " bacterial species, sequenced since 2020 (as independent validation for a plasmid identification tool that was trained on refseq2020+plsdb). Any tips? #microsky

Tens of thousands of annual cases of chickenpox, rotavirus, and other vaccine preventable diseases a year - in a country of six million people. Not only will Denmark’s vaccine schedule not work for the US, it already isn’t working for Denmark.

Sounds like someone is volunteering to review papers over the holidays - editors take note! ;)

'Go Habs Go' sneaks back into STM system via sly Hellmann's ad campaign montrealgazette.com/sports/hocke...

Preprint now, submit to journal in January

Ok now everybody’s getting on board

PSA:

We did a genome. Not just any genome. A Eukaryote! Telomeres, centromeres, introns! What the hell?! With megabrains @guyleonard.bsky.social Tom Richards, Fiona Savory at Oxford. A fun collaboration! Keep em peeled for more algal preprints coming soon!

How do bacteria deal with double costs? And how costly are unusual levels of mistranslation anyway? In short - antibiotics are more of an issue than less/more mistranslation, but the latter changes how populations deal with antibiotics. For the long story, check out our new paper!

Anyone interested in discussing this opportunity to eat, drink, be merry and ski with me, my DMs are open! (Oh yeah, and do some science to the tune of $1M/year x 8 years + $500k x 4 years)

Allow me to introduce Dr. Sana Naderi ! Her thesis brilliantly followed SARS-CoV-2 evolution (1) within hosts, (2) across animal species, and (3) into wastewater (not necessarily in that order...) 1) doi.org/10.1093/ve/v... 2) elifesciences.org/articles/83685 3) doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Born #OnThisDay in 1922, Esther Lederberg was the first to isolate the lambda phage in 1951. She characterised the lysogenic phase, whereby the phage are able to integrate into the bacterial genome, staying dormant. This discovery made them a model tool of study, leading to many more breakthroughs.

I always tell my pre-PhD mentees: the first 2 years of PhD are brutal time-wise and workload-wise, the last 3 years are brutal *emotionally*. You will question everything. Lean on your support system - peers and mentors- during these times. I wouldn't have gotten through without them.

Just decline the peer review invitation. What are you people even doing?

Gene-specific selective sweeps for the win! (Not that anyone is keeping score. Genome-wide sweeps and soft sweeps are also great)

Grateful to share our paper on gene-specific selective sweeps in human gut microbiomes, now out in Nature! It has been a joy to work with @rwolff.bsky.social, whose insights and hard work made this possible. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Have you ever wondered: just how strong *is* the evidence for Muller's ratchet on mtDNA? Well, wonder no more! (Project led by Yu Mo, with @smishra677.bsky.social and @yadirapga.bsky.social) "No molecular evidence for Muller's ratchet in mitochondrial genomes" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Yearly reminder that the world will not end if that new manuscript or revision sits on your desk for a couple more weeks, or you are realistic about decision times. Editors & reviewers are people too, are getting swamped with work just about now, and will likely enjoy a well-deserved break soon 🧪

My column on the death of Michael Whalen, who set the standard for sports broadcasting in this country – a standard that has slipped drastically since he retired. montrealgazette.com/sports/hocke...

🧵 🧪

Congratulations @angela-mcl.bsky.social and co-authors on publication of this important work quantifying the cases averted by PrEP in BC!

The first preprint from @izziepotterill.bsky.social PhD. A clone within ST131 clade C with a totally unique capsule region.

This is a disaster. I would not be where I am today without the constructive (and yes, sometimes frustrating) reviews my NSF proposals received as a young investigator. This feedback didn't come from the POs but rather the peer reviewers and panelists who saw how I was trying to enter the field

Absolutely stoked to have this published in @plosbiology.org We looked at the metabolism of #Klebsiella pneumoniae 🦠🧫. We not only demonstrated lineage-specific #metabolism, but that lineages can cross-feed and support each other. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... #MicroSky #microbiology 🧬 🧪 💊

Important work right here 👇 "Our data show a global pattern, a worldwide process of targeting climate and environmental protest. We argue that this reflects a wider ideological and political project to maintain the hegemonic interests of powerful states and corporations"

We love to fetishize "top" researchers and give them special big pots of money. But we get far more science by spreading money among all researchers (closer to the NSERC DG model). This old post is magically relevant again... scientistseessquirrel.wordpress.com/2015/05/12/w...

🦠🧫 a collaboration with the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Tübingen and CERMEL in Gabon @cmfi.bsky.social

Cleared bike path beside groomed ski path is the best of winter in Montreal

Our story on plasmid streamlining is now published in PLoS Biology! With @andrewmatthews.bsky.social and @sonjalehtinen.bsky.social #MicroSky #Mevosky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

I mostly experience the benefits of this rule (no right turns on red) as a cyclist or pedestrian. But even as a driver, it's great. Red light? Just stop. Chill. Don't feel tempted to edge forward into a right turn. Just relax and wait for the light to change.

1/28 New preprint up, which I think is the best theoretical idea I've ever had. We asked a simple question: what are the costs of investment into non-reproductive somatic cells? Turns out these costs decrease with the *logarithm* of organism size! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It’s officially happening folks! The Microbial Population Biology Gordon Research Conference is back in Andover, New Hampshire starting June 27th of 2027! See you there!! @wcratcliff.bsky.social @ksbakes.bsky.social @surtlab.bsky.social #microsky #mevosky

How it’s going.

Perfect day for a winter BIXI!

some people have security blankets i have the 40 hidden slides in my presentation just in case i get asked specific obscure questions

My first lead author paper is out with Ben Kerr and @alisonfeder.bsky.social! We found that making an antiviral too strong can sometimes make resistance easier to evolve. This has implications for how we design drugs, choose doses, and think about viral evolution in the face of treatment. (1/n)

I taught Genetics again this year. We need to include discussion of the problematic history of our field, especially as the claims of eugenics are once again centered in our political discourse. Last year I wrote this piece, explaining my reasoning and approach 🧪 1/n www.cell.com/trends/genet...

Some of my work from the first year of my PhD is out as a preprint, please check it out! Virus evolution is rapid and prolific both across and within individuals. However, a significant amount of variation remains hidden due to computational bottlenecks in read-alignment and variant calling 1/n

I remember this!

“Every year, when I see 14 beams of light projected into the sky above Mount Royal, I have to catch my breath. “36 years ago, 14 young women were murdered in one of the most violent examples of misogynistic terrorism Canada has ever known.” An editorial by @mtltoula.bsky.social. #December6

Rencontre concernant la piste cyclable sur Atateken, lundi prochain à 18h30 à la salle du conseil de Ville-Marie. Cette piste devrait servir de détour de la piste Berri durant environ 2 ans. Je vous invite à assister si vous avez des opinions sur cette piste!

70-80% of the world has no access to MRI. At The Neuro, neuroscientist Udunna Anazodo is leading Imaging Without Borders (IMAGINE). An Open Science initiative developing low-cost, portable MRI systems using 3D-printing. 🔗 Learn more: www.mcgill.ca/neuro/articl... @mcgill.ca @cusm-muhc.bsky.social

Oh, Adenine Why can’tcha be true?

New preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It was great to write a brief commentary with @sociovirology.bsky.social on @nanamikubota.bsky.social and @vscooper.micropopbio.org's recent discovery of cheat-driven cycles in Pseudomonas (www.cell.com/current-biol... - amazing example of the tragedy of the commons! 🧪 #socialviruses #evosky

On scientific "style" for @undark.org: "[Style] is a positive feature of science that facilitates different routes to solving problems.....We can embrace differences in our approaches while still promoting rigor and clarity." undark.org/2025/12/04/o...

New editor's spotlights to highlight some of the exciting work we see at #MGen, getting kicked off by @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social diving into the latest work from @sylvainbrisse.bsky.social et al 🔍 vaccine impacts on non-target species! #MicroSky #MicrobiomeSky #IDSky #MedSky #evobio #clinmicro 💻🧬 🧪

And yet it seems that certain people long nostalgically for that pre-vaccine era

I am recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026! The Microbial Ecosystems Lab @hot-mes-asu.bsky.social at ASU studies microbial interactions, spatial ecology, and imaging-driven microbiome science. If you love microbes, microfluidics, or single-cell analysis, let’s talk! www.microbialeco.systems