Soon available in my group: 1 PhD position to investigate prokaryotic histones. See our recent work that highlights the existence and diversity of prokaryotic histones (e.g. Schwab et al., TIBS, 2025; Schwab et al., Nat Comm, 2024; Hu et al., Nucl Acids Res, 2024). Please DM for informal enquiries.

🧙‍♀️ Something is brewing in the WitChi cauldron… After some excellent peer review feedback, a new update of WitChi is taking shape, refining how we detect and prune compositional bias in phylogenomic alignments. Stay tuned for the next release! 🧙‍♀️ Can’t model it? Prune it! github.com/stephkoest/w...

Lab’s first paper is out!! We show the first structures of #Asgard #chromatin by #cryo-EM 🧬❄️ Asgard histones form closed and open hypernucleosomes. Closed are conserved across #Archaea, while open resemble eukaryotic H3–H4 octasomes and are Asgard-specific. More here: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

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! 🦠

Glad to share our paper out today @NatureEcoEvo: “Serial innovations by Asgard archaea shaped the DNA replication machinery of the early eukaryotic ancestor”. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microsky #archaeasky

Nou nee, dat mag niet. Een school moet een veilige plek zijn voor álle leerlingen. Dat staat ook in de wet. Het afwijzen van homoseksuele relaties geeft de boodschap dat iemand niet zichzelf mag zijn. Dat mag niet én is ronduit schadelijk. nos.nl/nieuwsuur/co...

Live cell imaging of Ca. Nha. antarcticus and Hrr. lacusprofundi using agarose pads. Protocol now live! www.archaea.bio/protocols/li...

There's a PhD position now available with me in Bath, on the evolution of symbiosis. www.findaphd.com/phds/project.... The supervisory team also includes @anja1.bsky.social @phil-donoghue.bsky.social and others. NB, this is open both to UK-based students *and* to international students :)

Very nice documentary about the origins of complex life with my PhD advisor Berend Snel @binfutrecht.bsky.social!

OK, somebody should say it: the term 'one-stop-shop' has no place in academic research. Due to their diverse and exploratory nature, there is no single solution for scientific projects - else this would be routine research. RT if you agree, or feel free to argue otherwise below.

Coincidental and exciting! Anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) do like carbon monoxide - two independent studies showcasing CO metabolism across freshwater and marine ANME (ANME-2d and -2b). ANME-2d: doi.org/10.1101/2025... (Welte lab) ANME-2b: reposted (Orphan lab)

hey bluesky 👋 visa hurdles mean I’m looking for opportunities outside the US. I’m a computational biologist (bacterial + phage genomics, postdoc in Koonin’s group @ NIH). I am interested in teaming up on funding apps. reach out if this resonates!

Archaeal Virus Ph.D. project! (With Tessa Quax) www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...

We are hiring a PhD student! Are you fascinated by microbes and evolution? Come join us in Barcelona!

We are looking for a 3-year postdoc to work with Daniel Probst, Justin van der Hooft and myself on an exciting project involving federated learning and integrative omics for discovery of new antibiotics from natural products. Apply here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p... Please share!

Please re-post: If you know (or are!) somebody who might fancy doing a PhD (Oct 2026 start) in my group @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social, working on chromatin evolution in prokaryotes (or other things we're interested in), please have a look at www.bioch.ox.ac.uk/supervisors-...

Then @kassipan.bsky.social from Wageningen University showed her PhD work to expand the genome diversity in the PVC superphylum, finding multiple phylum-level lineages and opening a door to investigating the cool cellular features in this phylum. Way to go, Kassi! #ProudSupervisor #ESEB2025

🧵 Our study on the elusive titration control mechanism of the replication initiator DnaA in Escherichia coli is now out on @natcomms.nature.com‬! @stephkoe.bsky.social @hohlbeinlab.bsky.social‬ @nicoc-micsynmet.bsky.social @ettema.bsky.social‬ @mib-wur.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s414...

academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-... Happy to share this one. We investigated the #phylogenetic placement and #genome_evolution of Pangui/Njordarchaea-unique #Asgardarchaea that might have undergone genome reduction...

The @scilifelab.se ancient DNA unit is looking for an bioinformatician placed at Uppsala University. This is a great way to be part of diverse #aDNA research projects as a staff scientist with permanent (!!) employment: www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...

We are on the lookout for postdocs for two different projects at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and the human microbiome. See thread for more information and reach out!

Feels surreal to say but: I'm hiring! If you are or know anyone interested in looking at the evolution of phage resistance using A. baumannii and natural transformation, then this might be for you www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Dr. Anni Hämäläinen from @tcsmtutu.bsky.social is looking for a PhD researcher to @utu.fi co-supervised by me and @teppo-h.bsky.social on experimental evolution of host-microbiota interactions (Drosphila). Please spread the message. ats.talentadore.com/apply/vaitos...

I am excited to announce that the position of a senior postdoc (3 +3 years) in the field of theoretical biology is available in my group. The position provides the opportunity to closely interact with experimentalists and develop own research projects. Please RT. Details 👇: shorturl.at/iiiOv

New preprint up now! Interested in the evolution of halophily within DPANN archaea we decided to investigate the sister phylum to the Nanohaloarchaeota, GTDB phylum EX4484-52, for which we propose the name Caliditerrarchaeota www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Want to acquire #ExM images like this and help us understand the true extent of cytoskeletal diversity across the tree of life? This position might be for you! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j... With @dudinlab.bsky.social @embl.org @biology-unige.bsky.social @moorefound.bsky.social

Ready to lead pioneering research that bridges systems-level investigations of biological systems to molecular mechanism? The EMBL Molecular Systems Biology Unit in Heidelberg is hiring a Group Leader!

To all post-docs: The Genome Biology dept ‪@embl.org has an Independent faculty position. Fantastic place to set up your lab –great package: core funding, fantastic Ph.D. students, cutting edge core facilities & great colleagues. Closing date Sept 19th embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

1. 🧵 New preprint out! WitChi: a fast, open-source Python tool to detect, quantify & prune compositional bias in MSAs. Lightweight, tree-free, scalable to 5k+ taxa... so we applied it to the GTDB archaea MSA. #ArchaeaSky #MEvoSky #MicroSky 🔗 doi.org/10.1101/2025... 💻 github.com/stephkoest/w...

Our latest work, driven by the fabulous @stephkoe.bsky.social! WitChi takes care of compositional bias in large phylogenomic datasets! WitChi is fast, efficient and free, try it out! With @kassipan.bsky.social and @danieltamarit.bsky.social

If you’re interested in sexual dimorphism, epigenetic, evolution and live imaging, joins us for your PhD!

New paper from my colleague Soheil in the Mahamid and @jonasries.bsky.social groups looking at factors influencing laser devitrification on frozen #cryoem samples. With a far-red fluorophore, all-gold support grids will be especially good for correlative cryo-SMLM and EM! doi.org/10.1016/j.js...

In a couple of days, my grad student Stavros Trimmer will present his new Asgard archaea culture at the GRC Archaea. He named it Skadiarchaeum after Skadi, the Norse goddess of skiing and hunting. Cartoon of Skadi based on cryoET, which was performed together with with @florianwollweber.bsky.social

Out in @natbiotech.nature.com: Metagenome taxonomy profilers usually ignore unknown species. SingleM is an accurate profiler which doesn't, even detecting phyla with no MAGs. Profiles of 700,000 metagenomes at sandpiper.qut.edu.au. A 🧵

Please help get the word out - We are hiring at all levels (graduate students, technicians, and postdocs)! If you are interested in sponges, cell biology, evolution, immunity, and symbiosis, please don’t hesitate to contact me to learn more.

TREC is hiring! @embl.org is looking for a field technician/engineer to coordinate soil sampling: plan activities, apply protocols, lead site scouting, coordinate teams & more. Join an amazing international team exploring a hidden universe beneath our feet. Please spread the word! bit.ly/4eSTPbZ

🧬 Looking for a PhD position in molecular or developmental biology? 🔬 ✉️ The Hubrecht Institute now has its very own PhD program! Applications are open and will be accepted until September 15th. Read more here 👉 www.hubrecht.eu/hipp/

Our preprint on estimating how many more prokaryotic taxa can be discovered in the unbinned fraction of metagenomic samples. We predict that there are 10 archaeal and 145 bacterial novel phyla across all habitats. #MicrobialDarkMatter #TreeOfLife #Microbiome #Archaea #Bacteria #Metagenomics

I almost can't believe it: Two new papers published in @femsjournals.bsky.social FEMS Microbiology Ecology within one week!🦠🎉

Excited to share our new paper in @cellreports.bsky.social that reshapes our understanding of chromosome organization's deep evolutionary roots! Our work dives into the origins of the machinery that structures our very genomes. 🔗: doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... #Genomics #Evolution #CellBiology #LECA

🎉 Now out “Phylogenomic analyses indicate the archaeal superphylum DPANN originated from free‑living euryarchaeal‑like ancestors” www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bezuinigingen op onderwijs zijn geen natuurwet, maar een politieke keuze. Een domme keuze vinden wij. Daarom dienden we vandaag dit amendement in met een financiële dekking. Dus géén gratis bier. Laten we hopen dat partijen die zeggen niet te willen bezuinigen, ook daad bij woord voegen!

Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪 www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...

We’ve uncovered Asgard chromatin structures formed by a Hodarchaeal histone : closed hypernucleosome conserved in archaea and an open form resembling the H3-H4 eukaryotic octasome. Fantastic work by @harshranawat.bsky.social! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #Chromatin #Asgard #Archaea #cryoEM

#Asgard,#phylogeny 1/ 🧵 Does MAGs contamination affect the placement of Njord as suggested by Zhang et al, 2025? www.nature.com/articles/s41... Our updated analysis suggests instead... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Has anyone tried/seen/failed using ATTO 643 for STORM? Probably does not switch, does it? Works great for STED though. #SMLM

On this day, 10 years ago, my lab published the @nature.com paper reporting the discovery of the Asgard archaea (Lokiarchaeota at the time), revealing the archaeal nature of eukaryotic cells, and reshaping the Tree of Life. What a ride it has been since then... www.nature.com/articles/nat...

Great Mentor, Exciting project, Fun city. What more could you wish for!?

Tune in for our last (😭) APH session of this semester next WEDNESDAY, May 14th, at 10 AM EST / 4 PM CET!!! Check your email soon for the Zoom link or sign up to join our mailing list here: t.co/b17JFAaZQ6. Check out the exciting talks we have planned for you:

Looking to appoint a PhD candidate with background in Microbiology, Biochemistry, Biotechnology or related field to work on discovery of infection combatting therapeutics in marine sponge-associated bacteria. Closing date 31st May 2025. International applications welcomed!🌎