I'm super bummed to be missing #ESEB2025 @eseb2025.bsky.social due to a cancelled flight! Here's a quick overview of my talk "Gene- and genome-focused perspectives on microbial pangenomes" slated to be part of The Evolution of Microbial Pangenomes -- which I recommend you attend tomorrow (Fri) ! 1/n

In case you missed it, check out my latest #substack on life, entropy, and the arrow of time. Trying to get a bit more poetic with this one. If this isn't your thing, stay tuned next week, for another prose post. gibbological.substack.com/p/on-life-en...

Obligatory new job swag and selfie. Excited to start as an Assistant Professor at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, Canada! Come work with me! douglaslab.ca

Lopezguerra & Douglas recommend the high-quality Xylocopa violacea reference genome by Nash et al., 2024, Heredity, the first annotated pseudo-chromosomal assembly for any Xylocopa bee! 🐝 A crucial step for pollinator research, conservation, and even cancer therapy studies #ERGA tinyurl.com/vwknzu2b

At PCI Genomics, we are pleased to have recommended all ERGA manuscripts and publications to date, helping to bring together this vital body of work at the heart of European biodiversity genomics. 🔗 genomics.peercommunityin.org #ERGA #Genomics #Biodiversity #PCIGenomics #OpenScience

An update on open postdoc positions, in my group and the adjacent group of Howard Ochman, here at UT-Austin. #SymbioSky Mine: insect-bacterial symbiosis with emphasis on intracellular endosymbionts and molecular mechanisms. web.biosci.utexas.edu/moran/contac...

Howard's: evolution of microbial genes, genomes and communities. Can be experimental or computational. If interested, contact Howard Ochman, [email protected] Homepage: web.biosci.utexas.edu/ochman/index...

We just published our first paper in the Peer Community Journal - diamond open access, no APCs! Awesome experience, with less than a week from submission after receommendation by #pcigenomics. Highly recommended! #molpalmuc @lmumuenchen.bsky.social @peercommunityin.bsky.social

Come join us at @mcgill.ca as an assistant professor in virus-host interactions! Please share widely. mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...

New preprint (and brief🧵)! “Co-occurrence drives horizontal gene transfer (HGT) among marine prokaryotes”. doi.org/10.1101/2025...

I'm pleased to introduce our new paper rooting the eukaryote Tree of Life (eToL) that resulted from a collaboration led by PhD student Kelsey Williamson and a large group of collaborators doi.org/10.1038/s415...htt

Big news: we are setting up a new non-profit organization to run bioRxiv and medRxiv. It's called openRxiv [no it's not a new preprint server; it's dedicated organization to oversee the servers] openrxiv.org 1/n

I am a little late, but I am very happy to see this work published. Congrats to @ellistorrance.bsky.social for all the hard work on her last chapter! doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

📑 New PCI Genomics recommendation, by Nicolas Pollet: https://buff.ly/40lxBsq On the work of Sallé et al. (2024) Spatio-temporal diversity and genetic architecture of pyrantel resistance in Cylicocyclus nassatus, the most abundant horse parasite https://buff.ly/4jCCiqK

I am looking for graduate students interested in investigating bacterial genome evolution, esp. pangenomes and intergenic regions, and the relative importance of genetic drift! https://buff.ly/3UPVcQ9

What are folks favourite *free* tools for finding potential reviewers for manuscripts? I have used JANE (https://buff.ly/2XdHUyw) previously, which is great, but I'm wondering if there are other open tools to try too.

This looks interesting: SCARAP: scalable cross-species comparative genomics of prokaryotes academic.oup.com/bioinformati...

14. There are huge benefits to converting your current journal clubs into preprint review clubs. *Share usable feedback and improve science *Help ECRs build a public track record *Actual training op-ed: buff.ly/3zjLltQ You could post the reviews to @prereview.bsky.social too! #PreprintAdvent

Reminder for newcomers that bioRxiv has Bluesky accounts in every subject category - great way to keep up (please re-skeet) connect.biorxiv.org/news/2023/09...

📑 New PCI Genomics recommendation, by Federico Hoffmann: https://buff.ly/41bWBnZ A recommendation of a thorough investigation into the factors affecting single gene tree dating, from Guillaume Louvel and Hugues Roest Crollius: https://buff.ly/4eRtARP

Really interesting episode! Disturbing to think how often this bias may occur in investigations where it's not obvious.

Peer Community In Genomics is now on Bluesky! 👋 We're a free and transparent platform for evaluating and recommending genomics preprints 📑 ✍️ Part of @peercommunityin.bsky.social , and associated with (optional) Diamond OA journal @peercomjournal.bsky.social 🎈

Microbiome FacultyJob at UC Davis in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology (one of the departments where I reside ...) See recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF06847

Microbial people! Especially postdocs and maybe some assistant professors who are feeling antsy ... the University of Montana is doing a search for a microbiologist! This is a great department, in a great place. (I worked there for 10 years, loved it, ping me with Qs) apply.interfolio.com/159494

Anyone have thoughts on the "ordered quantile normalization"? www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... It transforms data to normal distribution, and retains the order but not the scale of original data. Reasonable to use with models that assume normality, if you are interested in relative ranking?

I'm excited to be starting as an Assistant Professor (@BiologyUnb) at the University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, Canada) in July 2025! My group will be exploring the evolutionary forces driving pangenome variation in prokaryotes. Details here: https://buff.ly/3UPVcQ9

I'm hiring a postdoc! To use substitution models to understand protein evolution and/or improve phylogenetic methods. evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

The Canadian research funding agencies are currently re-evaluating their policy on open access publishing. I wrote this policy memo on this topic, which was just published in the Journal of Science Policy & Governance! Check it out here:

A reminder that this job posting is open for 1 more week! Come join us! #microsky #microbiome

🆕 I’m looking for a postdoc to join the group! This is for a project as part of the @multidefence.bsky.social consortium, looking at genome defences and horizontal gene transfer in Pseudomonas. Deadline 12th August. 🧵 my.corehr.com/pls/ulivrecr...

Are you going to #ISME19? Will you present a poster? Do you use #anvio for your research? If yes, yes, and yes, please consider filling out this form so we can bring stickers to your poster, say hi, and ask your advice on how to make anvi'o better. forms.gle/idoXJbN5bpUP... Thank you! 😇

Hiring a bioinformatician at @uniofexeter.bsky.social to work with the Exeter sequencing facility. Please spread the word! jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

Floria: fast and accurate strain haplotyping in metagenomes academic.oup.com/bioinformati... 🧬🖥️ github.com/bluenote-157...

Microflora Danica: the atlas of Danish environmental microbiomes 10,686 shotgun metagenomes from a variety of environments across Denmark www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

einstein sent this to curie in 1911 when she was being harassed by tabloids. it contains everything you’d want in such a letter: (1) your haters are trash (2) you’re a baller, a true queen (3) i have determined the statistical law of motion of the diatomic molecule in planck’s radiation field 🧪⚛️

Tenure track position (Assistant Prof or Associate Prof) in Science & Technology Studies at University of Lausanne, Switzerland Closing date for applications: 15.08.2024 further details: career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree... #STS #HPS

This looks fantastic from Tanya Stadler and co: decodinggenomes.org

Instant classic in this month's Evolution: Warren Ewens on the history and current status of Fisher's Fundamental Theorem of Natural Selection: 🧪 academic.oup.com/evolut/artic...

If you like cyanobacteria and are curious about the role of their microbiome, this PhD position might be for you evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi... #INRAE_CARRTEL Project in collaboration with @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social

Come work with us! New tenure-track faculty position now open in microbiology / biotechnology at INRS (Quebec, Canada). Please share broadly! inrs.ca/en/jobs/prof...

A student emailed to ask if they actually needed to attend my class this semester or would it be OK to not attend. It reminded me of one of my very favorite poems, which should be in the email signature of anyone who teaches www.loc.gov/programs/poe...

If understanding the eco-evo dynamics of Icelandic hot-spring microbial communities sounds like fun, then this might be the perfect PhD for you! With @coytelab.bsky.social and Sophie Nixon and part of an exciting multidisciplinary consortium www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Very happy to see this paper out over the holidays! With Alan Beavan and @jomcinerney.bsky.social . Short(ish) thread about it to follow. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The paper is "Pseudogenes act as a neutral reference for detecting selection in prokaryotic pangenomes"! (I was excepting a thumbnail of the link address to appear, but apparently I have much to learn about BlueSky!)

Happy to see my new paper with @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social published! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... Bonus of this great News and Views article that was a surprise to us both: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Along with our own blog post on the topic where we summarize the work: tinyurl.com/34r87kr9

A very nice method for detection of sweeps in gut microbial populations:

I hope this preprint is useful for folks tracking SARS-CoV-2 lineages from wastewater sequences! @ssutcliffe.bsky.social led this group effort by 9 teams from 6 countries. We tested 9 tools to find & quantify lineages in a simulated mixture of BA.1, BA.2, and Delta. Some take-homes: 1/n

New postdoc position in our lab for a project led by Marie Touchon (bioinformatics) and with O Tenaillon (experiments) on the evolution and dynamics of microbial genomes to understand their diversification by gene flow. Check research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...