I have questions.

Ah, the memories

I need more information before honking.

That was such a trip down memory lane. Coincidentally, my Google photos recently reminded me of play testing...

Wow, back in the old cardstock days even!

Filling out a form where the 5th question (not the first one!) is "Can you read? Y/N". Hrm.

Reading a paper that uses the phrase "quasi-quantitatively estimate". I feel like if you have to qualify it twice... it might be quantitative. :)

Honored and excited to have been a guest on the "Gaming with Science" podcast to talk about Gut Check: The Microbiome Game. Thanks Jason and Brian for having me on and talking about microbes! @gamingwithscience.bsky.social #themicrobiomegame www.podbean.com/ew/pb-webin-...

www.podbean.com/ew/pb-webin-...

The Hunt Narrows for Ebolavirus Hosts Bats are widely recognized as the primary hosts of filoviruses, such as Ebola, yet the specific host species of ebolaviruses are not definitively known. In a study led by the University of California,...

Nice press release from @ucdavis.bsky.social here:

www.ucdavis.edu/health/news/...

Decoding the blueprint of receptor binding by filoviruses through large-scale binding assays and machine learning Lasso et al. combine large-scale binding assays and machine learning to uncover molecular rules of filovirus-receptor binding, predict receptor-binding strength, and identify bats with the potential t...

The first two papers have come out of our new Center for Pandemic Insights (the work was done during the "pilot" phase of the grant). Here's one: "Decoding the blueprint of receptor binding by filoviruses through large-scale binding assays and machine learning" www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Ebolavirus evolution and emergence are associated with land use change Anthropogenic land use change facilitates disease emergence by altering the interface between humans and pathogen reservoirs and is hypothesized to drive pathogen evolution. Here, we show a positive ...

Currently reading the very interesting "Ebolavirus evolution and emergence are associated with land use change"... a nice mix of phylogenetic analysis combined with broader ecological factors. esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Careers Postdoctoral ResearcherSalary Range: $67,000-$79,000 USD per yearLocation: Onsite, UC DavisApplication Deadline: January 31, 2025

We are still looking for postdoc applications interesting in epidemiological modeling and related areas at the forefront of pandemic detection. Come join the new NSF-Center for Pandemic Insights at University of California, Davis!

ohi.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/careers

Looking for any examples of research using IR to look for febrile illness in marine mammals? Having trouble choosing the right Google Scholar terms. :)

I got to visit a robotics lab on campus this week to discuss novel air samplers for virus detection. And drones, of course drones.

We have an academic cultural issue of overstating the novelty of our work without the appropriate support of said claims.

I remember doing a lot of that at grad school parties... but it seems to have tailed off later in my career.

Reminds me of an old discussion with @bielleogy.bsky.social about unbiased DNA extractions.

Reading a paper where the abstract states "Using an unbiased metagenomics method...". I'm going to stop you right there and argue that there is no such thing, and can never be any such thing.

Careers Postdoctoral ResearcherSalary Range: $67,000-$79,000 USD per yearLocation: Onsite, UC DavisApplication Deadline: January 31, 2025

Posting this again since we are extending the posting through the end of January. An exciting postdoc opportunity at the new NSF-Center for Pandemic Insights @ucdavis.bsky.social ohi.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/careers

An obvious choice... but not in CA. Our permits are state-limited.

Careers Postdoctoral ResearcherSalary Range: $67,000-$79,000 USD per yearLocation: Onsite, UC DavisApplication Deadline: November 29, 2024

Anyone out there looking for an exciting postdoc in understanding the ecological and environmental drivers of zoonosis? Experience with mathematical modeling? Check out details here! ohi.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/careers cc @phylogenomics.bsky.social

Anyone in my extended social network know any researchers who work in/on bat caves in CA? Looking for potential field sites for new work and would love to chat with some experts!

NSF CPI

Very excited to be helping host the kickoff meeting for our new NSF Center for Pandemic Insights. Learning a ton of fascinating things... looking forward to 7 years of work in this space! www.pandemicinsights.org

I can't overstate how excited I am to sit in regular meetings that talk about viruses, bats, otters, pandemics, etc. I was away from science for too long.

The scariest thing I will see on Halloween!

USDA announces first H5N1 avian flu detection in US pigs

USDA announces first H5N1 avian flu detection in US pigs www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influe...

We are hiring!!! Assistant Professor in Emerging Zoonoses - based in the departments of Integrative Biology & Public Health

aprecruit.berkeley.edu/JPF04076

Hey new Bluesky users: this website has no centralized algorithm.

If you think it seems dead in here, it's absolutely not.

However, you are going to have to follow more people than you did on Twitter to see a lot of action in your Home feed.

Overheard at last job; "patients don't get lab results formatted properly because the HL7 messages aren't properly interpreted by the LIS on the receiving end". Overheard at my current job; "so we just published a paper about using drones to samples blowhole exhalations from orcas" #backinscience