Proud moment to see the first Master student of the team (Lotte Mayer) successfully defend her Master's thesis work digging into viral factories of #giantViruses. A link to part of her work: doi.org/10.1101/2025... @erc.europa.eu @univie.ac.at @cemess.bsky.social @dome-vienna.bsky.social

Last week #ESEB2025 wrapped up. It was a great opportunity to chat with colleagues, hear about great evolutionary research, present the group's work, and be a proud PI of Laura, who did a great job presenting her PhD work! Two years to go until next ESEB! @eseb2025.bsky.social

A really great review written by @simrouxvirus.bsky.social and Clement Coclet on the state of the field of viromics and viral ecology. Well worth a look, and provides a solid reading list for those entering the field wanting more background on how it has developed and what tools are available.

I'm happy to announce the latest release of the GlobDB, available at globdb.org. The GlobDB is a database of "species dereplicated" microbial genomes, and as of release 226 contains twice the number of species-representative genomes (306,260) than the latest GTDB release.

New work out! Spearheaded by Lotte, we have developed a single-molecule messenger RNA fluorescence in situ hybridisation (smFISH) protocol for #giantViruses in an #Acanthamoeba host. doi.org/10.1101/2025... 1/4 #ProtistsOnSky #MicroSky @dome-vienna.bsky.social @cemess.bsky.social @erc.europa.eu

Our new study in @naturecomms.bsky.social showing the recurrent assembly of microbial modules over polar day and night, based on four years of autonomous sampling in the Arctic www.nature.com/articles/s41... Fantastic teamwork by #AWI @mpimarinemicrobio.bsky.social @hhu.bsky.social & many others 🙂

🚨 🌟 Submissions & Registrations Open for #ViBioM2025! 🌟 🚨 Join us 13–15 May 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal! 🦠💻 Present your research, connect with global experts, and shape the future of #Virology & #Bioinformatics. 📅 Details & links: evbc.uni-jena.de/events/vibio...

What is the diversity of antiphage systems out there ? We used protein and genomic language models (and defense score!) to start bringing some answers: >45 000 protein families. Leb by E. Mordret. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Interactive UMAP to have fun mdmparis.github.io/antiphage-la...

We are very happy to announce a free-to-attend #anvio workshop and ECR symposium in Oldenburg to discuss integrated microbial 'omics and learn applications of anvi'o. More information and application link (application deadline is Jan 10): anvio.org/workshops/20... Please apply and/or circulate 😇

🚨 Save the Date! 🚨 We're excited to announce #ViBioM2025, the International Virus Bioinformatics Meeting, happening 13–15 May 2025 in Lisbon, Portugal! 🦠💻 Stay tuned for further details: evbc.uni-jena.de/vibiom2025/ #VirusBioinformatics

Congratulations @dominikluecking.bsky.social for successfully defending his #PhD thesis on "Mechanisms of genetic transfer between archaea and bacteria via membrane vesicles, plasmid vesicles and viruses"!! 🎓🎉 www.mpi-bremen.de/en/Max-Planc...