Excited to be part of the Global Young Academy + join an interesting and daunting discussion about the challenges facing scientific enterprise. Many challenges, but inspiring group of scientists in @globalyacademy.bsky.social dreaming up solutions. Thanks Robbert Dijkgraaf for starting discussion!

Wohoo! Great news and congratulations!

Nice discussion with @alicesunreports.bsky.social in @knowablemag.bsky.social on the potential of #eDNA, particularly invertebrate-derived DNA, to contribute to biomonitoring and studying disease ecology: knowablemagazine.org/content/arti...

Amazing speed from the teams in Uganda and the DRC - impressive! Three genomes released so far - a few quick takes: 1️⃣ New genomes ~equidistant from 2007 and 2012 outbreaks. 2️⃣ Represents new spillover from reservoir. 3️⃣ Limited diversity, so too early to speculate on timing. Great work ⭐!

Rapid release of multiplex PCR amplicon scheme for Andes hantavirus whole genome sequencing validated on control material: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @scalene.bsky.social @stevepullan.bsky.social @ukhsa.bsky.social output from HPRU in Public Health Genomics

A peer review credit system to incentivize reviewing and editing - seems like it could be worth a try?Paying reviewers actual money though, rather than a new credit seems reasoable too, especially given the profit margins of scientific publishers ;) www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Bei #CiFly werden Schüler:innen zu Forschenden: Im Citizen Science-Projekt des @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social sammeln sie mit @greifswaldmoor.bsky.social Daten zu antimikrobiellen Resistenzen in Moorlandschaften - einem Schlüsselökosystem für Klima und Gesundheit: www.helmholtz-hzi.de/media-center...

Don't be shy to take on a little two-week side project. These five months will be the most precious three years of your academic journey.

🌍 Guest Lecture at HIOH Prof. Lee White – conservationist, biologist & former Environment Minister of Gabon – speaks on: 🎤 “From science to global policy – Saving the Congo Basin’s rainforests” From field research to COP26, bridging science & policy - Join us for an inspiring talk! #OneHealth

A new study in Nature Microbiology reveals that an eye condition called POH-VAU (persistent ocular hypertensive viral anterior uveitis) is caused by covert mortality nodavirus (CMNV) - a virus that's been devastating shrimp farms for over a decade. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nice coverage by @kakape.bsky.social in @science.org of our preprint, where we present data showing orthopoxviruses, including MPXV, infect duikers, which are popular bushmeat in many mpox endemic regions. Highlights lots more about orthopoxvirus ecology to explore: www.science.org/content/arti...

For the #eDNA crowd: we are putting together a special issue about terrestrial vertebrate biomonitoring: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal.... If you have questions or ideas - happy to discuss!

Every day is a good day for sharing one of the most useful papers about research data ever written. PLEASE get your people to understand and follow this advice. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

🎉 Congratulations to Ariane Düx on successfully defending her dissertation! 🎓 A wonderful conclusion to years of intensive research—Thank you for your inspiring work and valuable contribution to research 🌟 All the best and continued success! #PhD #OneHealth #Research #Science #AcademicLife

🚨 Hiwi-Job in der Wissenschaftskommunikation! Du studierst und hast Lust auf Social Media, Website, Gestaltung & Events? Dann unterstütze uns als studentische/wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft (w/m/d). 👉 www.uni-greifswald.de/universitaet... #HiwiJob #Greifswald #SciComm #OneHealth

Dogs evolved to eat your leftovers! Comparing dog & wolf genomes revealed dogs have up to 30 EXTRA copies of the amylase gene (AMY2B) that helps digest starch. This is a key genomic signature of living alongside humans & table scraps for thousands of years 🐕 www.nature.com/articles/nat... #2026MMM

Capturing dynamic phage–pathogen coevolution by clinical surveillance "we capture the acquisition of a parasitic anti-phage mobile genetic element, PLE11, that initiated a selective sweep coinciding with the largest cholera outbreak in recent records. " www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Friendly reminder that simply changing the search engine you use can contribute to forest #restoration efforts! A cool video highlighting our efforts in Uganda's Kibale National Park: youtu.be/gNQjGYqaN0w @ecosiasearch.bsky.social @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social

3,500 years of sheeppox virus evolution inferred from archaeological and codicological genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.707469v1

🚨 New research traces Mpox (MPXV)🧬 Fire-footed rope squirrels are a likely reservoir. In Taï NP,mangabeys caught MPXV by eating them—showing a direct spillover pathway & zoonotic risk. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Mpox @taichimpproject.bsky.social @jangogarten.bsky.social @scs22.bsky.social

We are offering a Masters project with Benno Kreuels at the BNITM, with aim of developing #eDNA tools to monitor #snakes and help determine snake species involved with bites. Involves work with patient samples and combines lab experiments, bioinfo analyses, and testing international sample sets.

Fantastic :-) Fits well with the great project of heimspiel-wissenschaft.de

Now I try in German :) In all dem Chaos in der Welt: ein kleiner Lichtblick aus #MecklenburgVorpommern. Vor ein paar Wochen lud mich der ehemalige Bürgermeister von Weitenhagen (bei Greifswald) zu einem „Stammtisch“ ein – zum Kennenlernen und Reden.

In all the chaos that is happening in the world - a little sign of light from #Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in northern Germany. A few weeks ago the former mayor of Weitenhagen, a small village near Greifswald, reached out asking if I wanted to join him for a 'Stammtisch' to introduce myself and chat.

Cost of being female lead/corresponding author in biomedical sciences: "[T]he median amount of time spent under review is 7.4%–14.6% longer for female-authored articles than for male-authored articles" even in disciplines where women well-represented. #AcademicSky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Northern lights visible in Germany tonight :)

The idea to prioritize slowing down to improve the quality of work resonates with me - both as a advisor, an editor, and a scientist. Here is hoping that his effort to slow down science and evaluate the impact of ideas and papers, rather than numbers and journal metrics, succeeds!

A little follow up about this; adding amore eloquent critiques of the poor coverage of the original article by @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Painting roofs white and adding screens to doors and windows is a low-cost way to increase comfort and curb malaria risk. https://scim.ag/49QBSKi

This makes so much sense - and at the same time makes me question some of my recent life choices ;)

This report in Nature on the costs of competing for & administering scientific grants is shocking: "In other words, European taxpayers will have spent more on the funding process than on the funding itself, and the scientific ecosystem has been drained." www.nature.com/articles/d41... 🧪

Come work with me and Anna Obiegala in Greifswald at the @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social and Friedrich Loeffler Institute! A PhD position working on ticks and their microbiomes and how those interaction with the environmental microbiome, and tickborne diseases. Fieldwork in the @bexplo.bsky.social!

🦇 Two PhD positions available on our new ARC Discovery Grant: "From Diversity to Disease: Viral Ecology, Evolution and Persistence in Bats" The project will investigate how viral diversity evolves and persists, with a particular focus on recently discovered henipaviruses in Australian flying foxes.

Women are underrepresented in first / last author positions of retracted medical papers. Shocked to see the hand wringing about potential mechanisms in the coverage of the work, trying desperately to turn this into a positive for men. journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... www.nature.com/articles/d41...

A PhD Position! Aim is to use pop-scale metagenomics to map global phage diversity and uncover evolutionary signatures that could point to new antimicrobials. Work with @lucyvandorp.bsky.social + Joanne Santini - two creative scientists who are also very fun to work with! tinyurl.com/phagehunt

Fascinating story about evidence that #H5N1 #birdflu infected vampire bats in South America, raising the prospect of a potential new & dangerous host for the virus. Some good news: The virus didn't appear to spread well among the bats. By @martinenserink.bsky.social. www.science.org/content/arti...

Große Phagen, kleine Phagen, Phagen aus Primatenkot... 💩Die Forschenden am @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social, @helmholtz-hioh.bsky.social & HZI gehen in ihrer Bakteriophagen-Forschung an die Grenzen! @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social @jenshoer.bsky.social @gerovac.bsky.social @jangogarten.bsky.social #WAAW2025

💦 Weiter geht’s in der Vortragsreihe „Neue Moorlandschaften“! Am 17. Nov, 18 Uhr spricht Dr. Tjorven Hinzke über: „Wer isst wen in wiedervernässten Mooren?“ 📍 @wiko-greifswald.bsky.social in #Greifswald oder online Mehr Info: tinyurl.com/wetscapes2

"So far, eight suspected cases have been reported. Laboratory testing is ongoing at the Ethiopia Public Health Institute to determine the exact cause." Always worrying when viral hemorrhagic fever outbreak is suspected anywhere, definitely something to watch. #IDsky www.afro.who.int/news/ethiopi...

Three German universities offering post-docs for researchers "who cannot conduct or continue their work in the USA appropriately because of actual political pressure. " www.uni-konstanz.de/zukunftskoll...

Come join us - we are recruiting a postdoc in phylodynamics and epidemiological modelling to join an exciting project on foot-and-mouth-disease virus in African buffalo www.jobs.gla.ac.uk/job/research... Please share widely! #jobs #disease #ecology #evolution #phylodynamics

Are you interested in studying RNA phages? We are looking for a PhD student and a postdoc to join the lab! For more information and how to apply, see below 👇 Please RT!

A paper for the #eDNA crowd, in particular those using flies for terrestrial biomonitoring. We show that massive pooling works well, reducing costs + time, bringing us a step closer to scalable terrestrial eDNA biomonitoring. doi.org/10.1002/edn3...

Despite decades of effort, scientists have still not discovered a foolproof way to evaluate colleagues’ work that doesn’t involve reading the paper

New in @science.org, a paper from my PhD showing that ant groups fight epidemics by modifying the structure of their nests, giving them “architectural immunity”! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Fantastic reporting by @kakape.bsky.social on @scs22.bsky.social's work in the Arctic looking for sequenceable ancient RNA viruses. Amazing pictures (including this gem), and as always great story telling and commentary on the topic. Excited to see what they find. www.science.org/content/arti...

We're already at the hiding people from the secret police phase?

EXTREMELY COOL BAT STUFF: A study out in Science today found that the greater noctule bat, Europe's largest, hunts and catches *migrating birds* while in flight. In at least one case, a bat climbed to more than 1200 feet, then chased a robin downward FAST until it caught it near the ground.