Proud to announce SimPhyNI, a new tool for bacterial GWAS with higher precision and scalability than existing tools. Try it out and let us know what you think!!

One of the things from 2025 that gives me hope for the future is the many people who protested in the US. The two biggest protests ever were in the summer and fall of 2025. 7 of the biggest 10 were during Trump 1 and 2. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...

This story is heartbreaking. Brenna Henn is a wonderful scientist, and the work their lab does is truly insightful. Anger and rage… www.nytimes.com/2026/01/02/s...

New preprint to close out the year! Led by Alana Papula and together with Daniel Fisher, we used single-cell genomes to infer the evolution of Prochlorococcus—one of the most abundant and genetically diverse bacteria on Earth. Check it out here: doi.org/10.64898/202...

@degette.house.gov Let me second Colette's suggestion. Waiting for RFK, Jr. to respond, writing strongly worded letters, furrowing brows, won't help. Impeachment action is a next step if you are serious about American public health. FYI. I directed an NIH institute from 2003-2011.

Congrats @jeffgroh.bsky.social et al. Some avocado trees open female-phase flowers in the morning & then male in afternoon. Others show complementary pattern (m->f), to synchronize pollination of two types. Jeff show this to be a >45Mya polymorphism at a transcription factor across 100s of species.

My quote of the day Masha Gessen

I am very excited to announce that a fully funded PhD position is available in my group. Topic: Synergistic coevolution in mono-specific and multi-species microbial consortia Please RT or forward this information to interested candidates. Deadline: 11.01.26 More info: shorturl.at/f1TuF

This year has been brutal for science, especially early career researchers and those working with communities further marginalized by this administration. Please read the experiences of these scientists. And when you’re done reading, find a way to fight back. theconversation.com/this-year-ne...

Excited that SpaceBar is now out in Nature Methods!🥳 We combined clone tracing with spatial transcriptomics to untangle what drives gene expression in tumors: a cell's identity or its neighborhood? Most genes were driven by location, but some showed strong clonal patterns. rdcu.be/eVhpc

So, after thinking for a bit on this: -always (and still) good practice to debrief with PO regardless of panel summary -less ad hoc reviews means you’re going to (overall) get less specific comments and more sporadic frustrating comments -funding is a shitshow bc of continuing resolutions

Very excited about this meeting!

Working on this paper fundamentally changed how I thought about bacterial evolution, and I couldn't ask for a better to Hannukah present than to see it out, at last!

We gave Jay Bhattacharya an opportunity to clarify his vaccine stance: does he REALLY believe that the vaccine is worse than the disease? Instead, he launched into a defense of MAHA as the future of scientific inquiry, and never really gave us a straight answer... @repauchincloss.bsky.social

This is a disaster. I would not be where I am today without the constructive (and yes, sometimes frustrating) reviews my NSF proposals received as a young investigator. This feedback didn't come from the POs but rather the peer reviewers and panelists who saw how I was trying to enter the field

This is just bad...

I’m so speechless at this meaningless cruelty and disrespect for the best of our citizens who often had to QUIT TENURED JOBS to serve our country instead. Way to make us great again I guess 🤬

1/28 New preprint up, which I think is the best theoretical idea I've ever had. We asked a simple question: what are the costs of investment into non-reproductive somatic cells? Turns out these costs decrease with the *logarithm* of organism size! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

"Prebunking works by exposing people to the techniques used to create misleading arguments before they encounter them in the wild."

Excited to co-organize with @weieli.bsky.social a symposium at SMBE 2026 on how synthetic & systems biology can illuminate the molecular mechanisms of evolution. Honored to have @christianlandry.bsky.social as invited speaker! Join us!

22% fewer NIH grants

Even a decade ago I'd have far sooner predicted that the US would succumb to authoritarian rule than that it would become a state where vaccines were unavailable. But if we don't throw RFK Jr. out on his ass, we're headed there fast.

The newly discovered archaean 𝘚𝘶𝘬𝘶𝘯𝘢𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘶𝘮 𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘦 has a genome with 238,000 base pairs, far fewer than humans (billions) or 𝘌. 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘪 (millions). The species was named after Sukuna-biko-na, a Shinto deity known for being tiny.

Every year #ESEB distinguishes a young evolutionary biologist with the John Maynard Smith Prize! Nominations for the 2026 prize are due by January 15th! Find out more here: eseb.org/prizes-fundi...

15-year-old bug 😐 in an industry that has the highest profit margins possible pretty much www.theguardian.com/science/2017...

Absolutely. Even if he weren't a damaged creep, his approach to scientific evidence is completely disqualifying. We know the answer; We just don't have the science yet There is no study that says that it is not true. Bye, bye Bobby. You've "gone wild" enough. You going to kill lots of people.

Epic paper!!

It's been a busy few months for our group so wanted to highlight a few other recent preprints we’ve posted that I haven’t had the chance to share yet... (1/n)

Trump’s HHS put me on “non-disciplinary” admin leave today. This was retaliation for speaking up. Moves like this are designed to silence us. Let’s not let. www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8Dteoop/

PSA for people with NIH grant periods starting January 1st (including most NIGMS MIRAs): your RPPR is due Saturday, but they haven’t sent out the usual automated reminders, presumably due to the shutdown

Up to 323 cancelled CSR study sections. That's more than the 204 sections cancelled earlier this year. Rescheduling is going to be a hot mess with NIH staff reductions and study section members heading into finals and holidays that limit availability. 🧪

A devastating set of decisions on the part of UC leadership to withdraw support from our nationally recognized postdoc program that prioritizes research excellence combined with addressing our university public service mission. www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty...

Applications are currently being accepted for UBC's ✨️ Biodiversity Postdoctoral Fellowship ✨️ (two positions!!), due Jan. 15 Please share far and wide 🚀 (See thread)

Harvard PD looking for help identifying these people

New York Times editorial board has compiled "a list of 12 markers of democratic erosion." www.nytimes.com/interactive/... This is what "not the odds, but the stakes" was all about. During the 2024 campaign, those 12 markers could have been in place and operating to guide news coverage everywhere.

Well reported story on the PBS News Hour about science cuts and the ongoing and potential brain drain. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLvO... Thanks to Terrance Tao and other scientists at various career stages for having the courage to speak out. Watch and share! 1/7

Terrific thread w/ >2 great stories about labor movements that galvanize communities. Even if you know the stories well (where 'redneck' comes from, 'bread and roses') it's still thought provoking, e.g. how do we strengthen science coalitions?

We have an open PhD position (application deadline 9 January 2026) in "Theory of fitness landscapes" at @unibe.ch 🤓⛰️📊👩‍💻🎓: banklab.github.io/positions/ Please share widely! #QueerInSTEM #DisabledInSTEM #BlackInSTEM #WomenInSTEM #CarersInSTEM #AcademicSky #HigherED

I started a new job in Montpellier, France! Happy about new opportunities, sad about the state of things in the US. abetterscientist.wordpress.com/2025/10/26/w...

Yeah, this is the curse of my life. And yet, grants without deadlines (e.g., NSF) are so much worse!

One of the most exciting works of my career, years in the making. We used high-throughput precision genome editing to test the fitness effects of thousands of natural variants. Our findings challenge the long-held assumption that common variants are inconsequential. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Biology PhD program directors who want to join the conversation, my email and DM are open.

Once again, EVERY R1 research university depends on federal funding for ~15-25% of its budget. You simply can't unplug the largest or 2nd-largest source of $$ of every R1 university & expect it not to have devastating consequences for graduate education, which will spill over to undergrad education.

This is even worse for the Harvards of the world, but it's true of EVERY R1 research university:

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs - Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75% - Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60% - Social Sciences by 50–70% - History by 60% - Biology by 75% - The German department will lose all PhD seats - Sociology from six PhD students to zero

I’m excited to announce the launch of my lab at EPFL in Jan 2026 🎉. We’ll combine evolution & synthetic biology to study and (re)engineer bacterial communication. I’m recruiting PhD students to start in the first semester of 2026. Apply via EPFL PhD programs by Nov 1 drive.google.com/file/d/1cm-t...

Paper is finally out!! Thanks to reviewers we dig deeper on the differences between domestication events -spoiler alert: it doesn't matter that much. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

😳😂

Meanwhile in glorious Portland, OR. This feels like when your younger, blue haired, emo cousin absolutely owns your weird MAGA uncle at Thanksgiving dinner for being weird and MAGA. I’m living for it. MOCKERY WORKS.

Dear colleagues! @davidmccandlish.bsky.social and I are serving as guest editors for the new special issue of GENETICS on fitness landscapes: doi.org/10.1093/gene... Submissions are due on March 18, 2026. Please spread the word! And reach out if you have questions.