New paper! From Sam Snodgrass and @genomeofforrest.bsky.social, w/ @druncie.bsky.social, @gcbias.bsky.social, and a collaboration with Andres Moreno and @santiagogmm.bsky.social. Can we quantify the impact of humans on maize dispersal? Plant yourself in a comfy chair and lend me your ear: 1/10

Feel like doing a SynBio PhD in Spain? Check this offer, many fellowships available 👉🏻 lifehub.csic.es/synbio-cofund/

10/28 Our hypothesis: chlorophototrophy and retinalophototrophy together create an evolutionary priority effect. They've saturated the available phototrophic niche space, blocking any newcomer from gaining a foothold. Two is the magic number because two is all it takes to fill that space.

So you sequenced a billion+ bases. That don’t impress me much. JERBOA is a toolkit to figure out what genes do at scale. We've used it to unlock 43 non-model microbes across 12 different phyla.

In terms of Northern Hemisphere day length changes, February is the best month. Day length is increasing rapidly now, and the month brings us from the middle of winter to the first signs of spring.

Not managed to check out my crazy bacteria vs castles #sciart project yet? Well let me tell you about it #biosky #artsky I like drawing #bacteria, but I wanted to add texture to make the drawing more EXCITING! So I added a map of the village I grew up in. This is a Mycoplasma. (We call her Mimi.)

We are hiring for group leaders again — EBI is a great place to start your research group! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hin...

New paper out in @pnas.org, and it made the cover! 👁️ We represent plasmids as circles and mutations as dots, resembling an eye, because in this paper we literally 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ plasmids evolve. ‼️Check Paula’s 🧵 and the paper👇 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗺𝗶𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The Laboratory of Biophysics at Wageningen University & Research (NL) is looking for a new chair! Details here: www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/f...

I'm so happy and proud! 😇 Yesterday, Jolina successfully defended her excellent master's thesis, thereby completing her dual study programme in #Biotechnology at the @hsanhalt.bsky.social and the @leibnizipk.bsky.social. This is also the first graduation completed within the #BGEgroup.

Bacteria are amazing! The abundant Dps protein binds and protects DNA in stationary-phase cells with minimal effect on chromosome accessibility, dynamics, and organization. Now in NAR doi.org/10.1093/nar/...; I'm really proud of our multidisciplinary team led by Lauren, Lindsay, and Xiaofeng, et al.

Why I’m genetically engineering a rainbow flower… And how a Russian fairy tale inspired the idea 🧵

Bluesky is definitely a place for science, research and citing papers. We hope it will continue to close the gap as rapidly as it has with legacy social media. Research, science and dank memes need many homes on the internet. Bluesky provides one of the more inviting ones. Happy New Year.

Totally! 💯 Whenever there is a survey here in the UK, I keep suggesting that every grant holder should review 4 grant proposals per year for the body from which they receive funding. This should be a commitment at the stage of accepting the award. If you have received,you give back to the community

After 4 years of joint effort of my Lab and Dr. Llorente Team we took for first time SCRaMbLE to a bacterial system! This allowed us to massively reordered the main chromosome of Vibrio natriegens! biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Here's a 🧵

Hello Bluesky! We’re here to talk #microbes, #metabolism, #CRISPR, #metabolomics and more.

A few years ago, through luck and vibes, I managed to produce this blue colored bean variety. This was an early step in trying to answer the question, [paraphrased] "Why isn't blue as common as red in beans, even though they're both anthocyanins and the plant has the genes for both?"

Doing some tricky organic chemistry with "Feuerzangenbowle".

These strange trees are called 'pewen' or 'piñonero' in their native Chile, but when they reached England as an ornamental, barrister Charles Austin commented: "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that" So now, in English, they're called "monkey-puzzles." They get weirder up close...

New GM tomato available for sale!!! www.norfolkhealthyproduce.com/collections/...

Today's timeline theme is "Awesome Shirts" apparently.

A long standing goal in synthetic biology is ‘PURE makes PURE’ - effectively the start of self-replicating biology in a tube from just adding biochemicals and DNA instructions. This looks like a promising breakthrough from the Maerkl lab. 👀

Slight improvement by team members 😅

Organelles do NOT have a single uniform pH. And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you. A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n

Cetraria islandica, an edible #lichen, often called Iceland Moss…even though it isn’t a moss. Looks very Star Trek. Newfoundland, Canada. #fungi #fungifriends

🗞️ New preprint from the lab, led by our postdoc Ana Garoña (not on here) in collab with @andreagiometto.bsky.social: “Experimental evolution of cellular miniaturization reveals a mechanism for cell size evolution”, aka: “honey, we shrank the yeasts!” 🎥 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The 2025 Agar Art Contest winners have been selected! This year’s theme, “Microbes Make the World Go Round,” inspired 557 global entries—from food fermentation to antibiotic production. See the masterpieces and finalists! asm.org/press-releas... #agarart

Genetic engineering, painting, sculpting, floristry, and fantasy are united in @nickdesnoyer.bsky.social 's flower design art project. New essay out now on a blossoming frontier of transgenic art!

Pleased to share this thoughtful essay by Jess on my flower design project🌹🧬 As a small thank-you for spreading the work, I'm randomly giving away 5 of these new morphogenesis hoodies to whoever reposts this!

Love it when a Golde Gate cloning result looks like this. 🦠

I am obsessing waaay too much about getting cited for my research this year.

Compared to restriction-modification systems, streamlined plasmids prevent hosts from acquiring AMR plasmids more effectively! RM is effective in the short-term, however plasmids escape restriction fast (very likely via methylation) whereas streamlined plasmids remain efficient over several days.

PhD contract available in the @icmabcsic.bsky.social in my group to work on the synthesis and characterization of New Photosensitisers for Panchromatic Photoisomerization. Retweets appreciated. Candidates please contact me directly.

reading about genAI slop brokers makes me want to draw more weird manual art. extremely realistic brachiosaurus reconstruction for you

Check out this work by the amazing @leahmcphillips.bsky.social from during her PhD!!

As 2025 wraps up, we’re looking back at some of the most intriguing microbes that made their scientific debut this year. This blog highlights standout bacterial species that caught our eye. Read the full #FEMSmicroBlog: buff.ly/2wz7k16 #NewMicrobes

My contamination made it into the @contamclub.bsky.social calendar for 2026! 🦠 I just got my copy. Also will send out some calendars as x-mas presents to friends and collaborators. 🎅🏻🌲

Excited to share new work from @cultivarium.bsky.social on genetic tools (plasmids, inducible promoters, transposases, + more) for Sporosarcina pasteurii. S. pasteurii is used commercially for biocement, controlling road dust, and stabilizing soils, but had no prior published genetics:

sorry, but how dumb to still have an account there... 🤦‍♂️ how does any serious politician, organisation or journalist justify not to leave this "platform"? how much has to happen for you to stop supporting all this? www.politico.eu/article/x-ax...

A genetic platform for a biocementation bacterium https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.05.692644v1

IT WOOOORKED!!!!!! 🥳 My Himar1 antibiotic-free genome integration plasmid worked!!!! Not only did it shove my FuGFP transcription unit into the genome, but it did it FIVE DIFFERENT TIMES. HOW COOL IS THAT?! Link to genome of BL21 and BL21+FuGFP here: drive.google.com/drive/folder...

Exaptation — a shift in the function of a trait during evolution —is a basic evolutionary biology concept.

This series shows how a damselfly reaches a dewdrop on a horsetail stem, turns its head, touches its eye to the drop, and brings it onto its face for a drink.

There's a software engineer in Hong Kong who makes incredibly detailed scientific diagrams for wikipedia, like this clickable metro-style map of metabolic pathways!!!

A couple new #PhD opportunities to join my lab at the intersection of #synbio, #plantsci and #biotech as part of the Plant BioDesign doctoral programme spanning the University of York, University of Cambridge, University of Bristol and John Innes Centre. 1/4

We analyzed changes in physiology relative to menopause using two large scale studies that include millions of lab tests. Rather than align by age, we used statistical inference to align tests to final menstrual period. (1/2) arunamed.com/the-menopaus...

We have got an open position for a Max Planck Director in the field of Systems Biology and Bioengineering. There is no more comfortable position. Please nominate qualified candidates, you can also nominate yourself! #microsky 🧪

Paper alert! We have created a bacterium that eats plastic! We named it PETBuster! Great work by PhD student Dekel Freund @dekel-freund.bsky.social. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Feeling festive? Why not deck the halls with @cvrinfo.bsky.social's papercraft #VirusSnowflakes and celebrate the science of viruses and the fight against viral diseases. Download for free: cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl... #scicomm #sciart #decorations