I still contend that >90% of the benefit of writing a review isn't the audience. It's for the author going through the literature, finding gaps in knowledge, learning how experiments are done, etc. It really isn't about writing a review. It's about doing the review yourself. AI can't do that for you

Excellent article on quantitative production of fermentation products by the microbiota. Key takeaway: microbial fermentation products may be more important in mice than humans, amplifying microbiome effects in mice. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

The landscape of microbial associations in human cancer www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... TLDR -- most cancers do not have microbiomes...but a few do have consistent microbe associations (i.e., colorectal and oral cancers). Make sense!

If you are UK-based and working on any aspect of microbiomes (human, plant, insect, soil, animal, ...), please do sign up to Microbiome-Net for details of networking, funding and training opportunities. forms.office.com/pages/respon...

Hope this is useful - consensus statement "Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies" rdcu.be/er3Io

EDITORIAL: Ensuring rigour of low-biomass microbiome research Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microsky #microbiomesky 🧪

Our latest editorial is now online, in advance of our February issue that will be available next week. Brain microbiome: is it all in our heads? www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

If this could be circulated to all of my recent grant funding panels, that would be great 😄

Frustrating - I reviewed a paper that was highly problematic, mainly in scientific rigour undermining most of the conclusions, so I recommend Reject. However the editor decides to Revise presumably due to the more positive comments from reviewer 2... /1

Interested in being and editor for the journal 'Microbial Genomics' @MicrobioSoc : microbiologysociety.org/news/society...?

Abigail was just the greatest. I miss her.

last couple days to apply (for free! from anywhere in the world!) to the Sanger 2025 PhD Programme — Deadline: 28th November 2024 (09:00 GMT) For more info, visit www.sanger.ac.uk/about/study/...

Hot off the press: "Fecal microbial load is a major determinant of gut microbiome variation and a confounder for disease associations" www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... See below for @suguru-nishijima.bsky.social 's thread on the preprint! #microsky #microbiome

Paperboy, turnstile operator, shelf stacker, pipe grinder, pet shop boy, rose breeder, field hand, warehouse dispatcher, and medical laboratory scientific officer (trainee). And I gave it all up for a life of studying poop. It's a strange universe.

After editing, this very short letter to New Scientist is even shorter now. But I think it gets the point across! @faecalmatters.bsky.social

For anyone interested, The Microbiologist has published a couple of short articles summarising a nice recent chat I had with Yang Yue from UEA, including some musings on microbiome research, and networking/public engagement opportunities for ECRs: www.the-microbiologist.com/alan-walker/...