I just had my PhD candidacy. Grateful for a challenging and incredibly helpful examination, and for the committee’s time and thoughtful questions. A real privilege to discuss my work with such excellent scholars: @spribille.bsky.social @j-karst.bsky.social, Glen Uhrig, Daniel Stanton and Joel Dacks

Is overeating driven by hedonism? @danasmall.bsky.social &co argue that the pleasure of eating food is not a driver of the #obesity epidemic, but rather the regular consumption of an unhealthy diet blunts sensitivity to interoceptive signals that drive food reward #neurosky 🧪 plos.io/4nTlHQc

A newly published study takes a major step toward solving one of lichen biology’s biggest questions, namely, how these symbiotic organisms produce their remarkable array of compounds known as lichen acids.

A new review paper from our lab courtesy of @jazzsynbio.bsky.social is published in Trends in Biotechnology In this review, we look at the many opportunities for synthetic biology to be used in the research and applications of Holobionts.

Whilst at Whitlingham C.P. today I walked past this thistle rosette and twigged that it looked slightly unusual. I stopped and had a closer look, noticing that one of the leaves has edged by the slime mould Diachea leucopodia.

#Lichens form their complex thalli through a partnership involving at least a fungus and an alga. But can these living structures be rebuilt in vitro? For more than a century, people have tried. With @spribille.bsky.social we revisited 150 years of #lichen #resynthesis to ask: has anyone succeeded?

This skull is tiny! Again, illustration and photo. Could you guess the species? The red color in the teeth that can be appreciated in the photo is their actual color 😮 #SciArt #anatomy #art #illustration #mammals

In this paper, we show that photobiont diversity increases as lichens age. Interestingly, as the thallus grows, autosporine algae become more prevalent at the expense of zoosporine algae, likely because the latter play a key role in lichen establishment. 1url.cz/@Proto