¿Hiciste tu doctorado en México? ¿Quieres hacer un postdoc en California? ¿Te interesa la genética evolutiva? ¡Checa esta beca y mándame un mensaje! alianzamx.universityofcalifornia.edu/research-and...

On Oct 1, 2025, GISAID informed us that they had ended updates to the flat file of SARS-CoV-2 genomic sequences and associated metadata that we had used to update Nextstrain analyses since Feb 2020. GISAID's stated rationale was that their "resources are limited". 1/5

I want to spell this out in case the implications aren't clear: This means all public tools/webapps of GISAID data (all the ones you've been used to seeing thru the pandemic, as far as we can tell) are prohibited. The file allowed this. Cut that - cut off all tools the public & others were using.

If you read and watch one thing today it should be this pice accompanying @agawande.bsky.social documentary. "As of November 5th, it estimated that U.S.A.I.D.’s dismantling has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children." www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...

In moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, oral icotrokinra led to a skin-clearance response in 50 to 65% of patients at week 16, as compared with 4 to 8% with placebo. The incidence of adverse events was similar in the two groups. Full ICONIC-LEAD phase 3 trial results: nej.md/3WDM6qg #MedSky

🚨 NEW: The majority holder of the world's genetic sequence data is a bad actor who can cut off access to critics and competing services. We've tolerated this for years, and now it threatens the pandemic treaty. Time for WHO to step in. With @ctrlalttim.com: www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/to-f...

Interesting that there has been absolutely no communication with submitters/users of the system, and no statements from the scientific governance or compliance boards on what would seem to be a fairly significant change to GISAID data access policy and platform operations. gisaid.org/about-us/gov...

Monumental effort led by Peter Simmonds and Jens Kuhn to reorganize the Family Flaviviridae based on analysis of RNA-directed RNA polymerase (RdRP) hallmark gene sequences is finally out. Enjoy reading. #ICTV @utmbhealth.bsky.social @astmh.bsky.social @sbvirologia.bsky.social

Excited to announce the final version of the Mosquito Cell Atlas is out now in @cellpress.bsky.social!! 🦟🩸 There is SO much left to find & investigate in this dataset (& the rich biology of the Aedes aegypti mosquito)! We hope this helps scientists in many fields! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

@andersonfbrito.bsky.social and I are seeking input from the community on hosting/sharing arbovirus sequencing data (DENV, CHIKV, OROV, ZIKV, & YFV) on @pathoplexus.org. Please consider filling out this VERY SHORT survey about your interest and/or concerns. docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/d... Really good conversation with @philippmarkolin.bsky.social on his book about the the science of COVID’s origin, then lab leak ‘hypothesis’ and its weaponisation by a bunch grifters associated with the MAGA movement and its equivalent in the UK

And now NextStrain as well. Next up, will GISAID start charging open-source community tools to have access? That would completely shaft users who contributed to GISAID, where we never agreed to that and assumed GISAID would be good custodians of the data we contributed. They're not.

Really cool mechanisms here.

Flamenco plasticity tunes somatic piRNAs, rewiring host isoforms and opening a route to heritable transposon spread https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.13.681963v1

Just published an interactive article about a magical algorithm known as the Burrows-Wheeler Transform, which powers sequence alignment tools like bowtie and bwa: sandbox.bio/concepts/bwt It's also notoriously unintuitive so I'm hoping this article helps you build that intuition.

𝘈𝘦𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘦𝘨𝘺𝘱𝘵𝘪 mosquitoes spread chikungunya, dengue, and Zika. In a trial in Mexico, targeted indoor residual spraying led to lower mosquito levels but not lower disease risk. Full trial results: nej.md/46J4e7O #MedSky #IDSky

The role of climate variability in shaping the 2023/24 outbreak of Dengue in Brazil (📉 in north regions; 📈 in southern populous regions). Brazil recorded the largest outbreak on record which coincided with the warmest ever reported temperatures in the Americas. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

so here it is folks, with one day to spare the complete #SciArt collage of critters for #invertober2024 by @fossilforager.bsky.social and now I have a fresh clean slate to start the 2025 list! which hopefully is done before September 2026...

www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🧪

Develop expertise in microbiome #metagenomics for understanding child health in Africa! 🦠 🗓️12-17 April 2026 + post-course mentoring and #SciComms skills development for #PublicHealth. 📍 @kemriwellcome.bsky.social 🧬 #GutMetagenomics26 Apply by 3 November📩 Find out more 👉🏾 bit.ly/4n00owP

A new analysis of individuals living with HIV reveals key sex differences in innate immune profiles and the complexity of the HIV proviral reservoir. Read more in #ScienceTranslationalMedicine: https://scim.ag/4mridnp

📢New preprint on the impact of dengue virus genetic diversity on inhibition by Wolbachia 🦟🦠🧬 Project led by Afeez Sodeinde, @emiliefinch.bsky.social, and @keli5734.bsky.social! ✨ Key findings in thread below 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Key finding #5: Potential for dengue virus strain selection following Wolbachia interventions, with selection for few strains with a high average relative dissemination 📈

The yellow fever mosquito has conquered the world—and that's kind of our fault. That story and more of the best in @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

our paper on the population genomics of An. funestus, one of the major (yet less studied) human malaria vectors in Africa, is now out in @science.org 🦟 read @mariloumercedes.bsky.social's original preprint thread to find out more! bsky.app/profile/mari...

Love RNA biology? Join us to explore the piRNA pathway with structural and genetic approaches (see 👇👇). PhD student/postdoc position co-supervised by Clemens Plaschka & myself. DM or email us if you’d like to know more! @vbcscitraining.bsky.social @imbavienna.bsky.social @impvienna.bsky.social

Forum @cp-trendspharma.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social Multivalent decoy receptor therapeutics to combat viral pandemics and evolution www.cell.com/trends/pharm...

Transcriptomic response of mosquitoes to Japanese encephalitis virus and identification of its potential entry factors www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Mystery of dancing spiders' 'dark DNA' could explain how they develop into new species. Scientists think non-coding regions of the spiders' DNA might enable them to adapt rapidly to changing environmental circumstances by developing into new species. 🧪🕷️🧬 www.bbc.com/news/article...

<sigh> Again, a warming climate helps disease spread. Example this time - Dengue Fever. 🧪 Link: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The 1st session in our Catalyst Seminar Series focuses on Long-COVID, with an emphasis on impacts to racialized and marginalized communities. Join us on October 17th to hear from Kathi Wilson (UTM) and Joseph Munn (Sunnybrook). Registration details here: bit.ly/4gcs13f #SeminarSeries #LongCOVID

New paper by our Plaschka lab with Brennecke’s lab at IMBA! Researchers at the Vienna BioCenter have solved a 20-year-old mystery in genome biology, revealing how PIWI proteins engage partner molecules to silence “jumping genes” that threaten genetic stability.

David Baltimore, Nobel-Winning Molecular Biologist, Dies at 87 www.nytimes.com/2025/09/07/s...

How can we understand the earliest events in evolution of eukaryotic immunity? @yao-li.bsky.social reports incredible molecular fossils of complete bacterial-like operons in eukaryotes that illuminate how animal immunity was first acquired from anti-phage defense www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New #review out 🚨 for mosquito enthusiasts 🦟 ! Have you ever questioned the approach you routinely use to investigate #mosquito-virus #interactions? ⬇️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... 🧪

Sequence data from the new Ebola outbreak in DRC suggests it is indeed a new spillover. And just incredible to see the virus sequenced and the data publicly shared less than 24 hours after confirmation of the outbreak. #IDsky 🧪 virological.org/t/the-16th-e...

Dengue disease severity in humans is augmented by waning Japanese encephalitis virus immunity www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

You may have missed this #ant poster at #ESEB2025, but be sure not to miss the article just published in #openacess in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our work on the function of miR-51/miR-100 is out! miR-100 is widely conserved across eumetazoans but its function has been mysterious. Emilio Santillán found in worms it regulates signaling and extracellular matrix genes, some of which seem to be conserved targets! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

✨ Applying for fellowships? Check out 40+ successful sample applications from: NSF-GRFP, PD Soros, HHMI Gilliam, Ford, NIH F31 …and more! Get inspired and strengthen your own application by learning from winners in your field. 🔗 cientificolatino.com/writing-center

Dengue has strong synchrony across the Americas, indicating that a mix of intrinsic and extrinsic factors drives epidemic transmission dynamics www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

ICYMI: New online! Clinical metagenomics for diagnosis and surveillance of viral pathogens

New online! Respiratory viral coinfections: interactions, mechanisms and clinical implications

the history describing the discovery of flamenco is nicely summarized here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/gen...

The challenges of immunobridging without established correlates of vaccine-induced protection - The Lancet Infectious Diseases www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Dengue, Zika, chikungunya & yellow fever are on the rise, putting 5.6B+ people at risk. Once limited to tropical & subtropical climates, Aedes mosquitoes are spreading to new regions, increasing the risk of outbreaks. New WHO guidelines covering all four mosquito-borne diseases 🔗 bit.ly/3Tu6BnJ

In this study, Mimoso et al. show that Restrictor serves as a transcriptional safeguard that suppresses the spurious transcription of non-coding RNAs, while preserving mRNA transcription. Learn more here: ➡️ tinyurl.com/gd352654

134/250 is Within-host genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 across animal species This fits with what we know about infection in deer vs other species

🦟New paper out in Evolutionary Applications🦟 The Australian mosquito Aedes vigilax is panmictic across one city (Newcastle) but has strong structure in another (Sydney). The structure was stable across years and may be due to industrial barriers doi.org/10.1111/eva.... @evolappjournal.bsky.social