Really, really happy that our work on microsporidian genomes is now out in @plosbiology.org! A huge thank you to my coauthors, my supervisors @mblaxter.bsky.social & @marakat.bsky.social, the editors @roliroberts.bsky.social & Joseph Heitman, and the reviewers ❤️ plos.io/48HsAQJ

Shiny wasp

If EMBL-EBI managed data resources have ever saved you time & effort, this is your chance to give back! Fill in a 15-minute survey to help us: 🌍Demonstrate the real-world impact of our resources 🤓Understand your needs 🌟Secure continued funding Closes 16 July www.surveymonkey.com/r/QGFMBH8?ch...

Hymenopteran Hotel

Proud to have authored this review with brilliant people. Hope we inspire more attempts to sequence the #protist genomes that are within reach! Huge thanks to Alexandra Schoenle for leading. #ProtistsOnSky authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S...

New preprint! We generate 40 new high-quality microsporidian genomes from infected arthropod hosts that were sequenced to create reference genomes by the Darwin Tree of Life project. 8 of our genomes are chromosome-level, and we’re able to generate Hi-C data for 7! 🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Forty New Genomes Shed Light on Sexual Reproduction and the Origin of Tetraploidy in Microsporidia https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.12.652816v1

First cooperative butterfly of the year

Our paper on myxozoan genomes is out now in G3! See thread below for a brief recap (slight change of title from the preprint, same content). Thank you also to @arunsethuraman.bsky.social for handling the manuscript and @joannamasel.bsky.social for helpful comments. academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Excited to be part of this project! Follow the starter pack for more great repro evo researchers!

Our paper on myxozoan genomes is out now in G3! See thread below for a brief recap (slight change of title from the preprint, same content). Thank you also to @arunsethuraman.bsky.social for handling the manuscript and @joannamasel.bsky.social for helpful comments. academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad...

Adaptation to life on land evolved multiple times in arthropods, but what about isopods? Join us on Weds 26 Feb at 2pm (UK) to hear #ProcB author @jessthorpemas.bsky.social discuss her work on this key ecological transition. Find out more & sign up: cassyni.com/events/VVbok...

Please share!

Thanks to @GeneticsGSA for featuring my paper on using Variational Autoencoders to identify contamination in long-read data in the latest issue of G3: academic.oup.com/g3journal/ar... A short thread written when the manuscript was first submitted: bsky.app/profile/cc77...

Myxozoans are tiny parasitic animals whose closest free-living relatives are jellyfish. They also haven't been extensively sequenced. However, we were lucky enough to spot some sequences in data from infected fish. After some experimenting, we got two new genomes: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Kudoa genomes from contaminated hosts reveal extensive gene order conservation and rapid sequence evolution https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.01.621499v1

Spider!

Now out in G3: academic.oup.com/g3journal/ad... (thanks to the editors and reviewers for attention to detail and efficiency!)

Have long-read data and want to know what you've really sequenced, and how much of it? Reliable taxonomic labels are often scarce if the target is from a less well-explored group. Fortunately, 2D embeddings from a VAE can tease apart different organisms in read sets: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Disentangling Cobionts and Contamination in Long-Read Genomic Data using Sequence Composition https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.05.30.596622v1

Interested in phylogenetic methods development, and looking for a postdoc? My colleagues in Nick Goldman's group at EMBL-EBI have a position open to work on pandemic-scale methods: www.embl.org/jobs/positio... (can vouch for the working environment)

Colourful waxcaps

✉️ Some science 🧪 buddies and I have written an open letter to the UK government, strongly opposing their “kicking woke ideology out of science” sentiments, which stand to damage the UK’s scientific standing and ability to deliver for public good. Please read and consider signing ✍🏻 t.co/H7rNzb0wGh

For enthusiasts of small eukaryotes: I'll be talking about myxozoans (very small parasitic cnidarians) tomorrow at Biodiversity Genomics 2023 (10am BST). Also featured in the session: Microsporidia and nematodes.