Dredging project is paused at Port Everglades but coral reef worries remain A pause in Port Everglades dredging is raising new questions about what happens next for coral reefs near the port entrance.

Dredging project paused at Port Everglades as concerns grow over risk to #Florida coral reef. www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/d... via @nbcmiami.com

ISOP-sponsored symposium on protistan symbioses across the Tree of Life went fantastic! Thanks all contributors (Ondrej, Gillian, and @mixotrophe.bsky.social) and the best co-host, @nicolecoots.bsky.social! #ProtistsOnSky @protistologyopen.bsky.social

New paper out in @natureportfolio.nature.com @commsearth.nature.com!

A major bottleneck in coral restoration is that newly settled corals rarely survive.

We show that simple engineered substrates can increase early-stage survivorship by ~4×.

Link to paper: rdcu.be/femTN

Never ending summer
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#miami #florida #photography

Our publication in Nature Ecology and Evolution reveal a multiscale expansion process with both short- and long-distance dispersal or Oropouche virus, a new re-emergent pathogen. Our results also demonstrate a rapid advance on methods that can be used to track pathogens of global importance.

Dan Weinberger and I @yalesph.bsky.social are hiring multiple research positions in microbial/virus sequencing and bioinformatics workflows with respiratory pathogens, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, RSV, and/or hMPV.

See 👉 forms.gle/xpmzTtNqHFqK...

New publication out @natcomms.nature.com! We identify novel viruses that actively infect highly productive chemoautotrophs, and reveal key trophic interactions and virus-host dynamics that impact microbial carbon cycling in aphotic environments.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Remarkably, many GIs are hotspot of genes with bacterial origins, providing a mechanistic framework of gene transfer from bacteria to giant viruses.

Work spearheaded by our PhD student Benjamin Minch!

GIs seem to shape several key features of giant virus genomes - giagantism & diverse gene repertiores. We show that these islands promote intra-strain differences in genome sizes and hypervariabilty in giant viruses.

Sharing the latest preprint from our lab where we identify pervasive presence of Genomic Islands (GIs) in diverse giant viruses and characterize their functions and origins - leveraging cultured isolate genomes and long-read sequenced giant virus genomes.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Postdoc in Soil viral ecology - Vacancy at Aarhus University Vacancy at Department of Agroecology - Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Aarhus University

I'm hiring my first postdoc! Apply by 20/4/26, position #20443. Seeking an environmental microbiologist with experience in metagenomics (preferably viromics) and molecular biology. Experience with targeted metabolomics is a plus.
international.au.dk/about/profil...

Attending Protistology Open? Check out @nicolecoots.bsky.social & I's ISOP-sponsored symposium "The Symbiotic Continuum across the Tree of Life" (April 20th @ 11 AM)! We have an amazing lineup of speakers including Ondřej Pomahač, @mixotrophe.bsky.social, & Gillian Gile #ProtistsOnSky #Symbiosis

Converting Relative Amplicon Abundances to Absolute Abundances via Flow Cytometry: Metagenomic Validation and Application to Long Ocean Transects Abstract. With microbes critical for ocean ecological and biogeochemical processes, we need to understand their abundance and diversity distributions. Whil

Want to convert old relative abundance ocean amplicon data into absolute abundances? Williams et al. show a flow cytometry "anchor" can provide reasonable absolute abundances, validated by internal-standard corrected metagenomics with single copy genes, and amplicons academic.oup.com/ismecommun/a...

Flyby
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Miami, FL 2026.

#photography #Moon

Excited to see this come out! 13 years ago Stella Hein (Executive Director, Office of Access and Community Empowerment) performed work as part of her PhD looking at a Diadema mass mortality in Tahiti. I was excited to help her publish this! www.int-res.com/journals/mep...

This is my favorite climate change chart. Japanese monks, aristocrats, and emperors kept meticulous records of cherry blossom festivals for 1,200 years and accidentally built the world's longest climate dataset.

My main gripe with the alphafold example is how it shows you need decades and decades of high quality data, well structured, open and accessible to train a model -- and yet they always gloss over it and pretend it's just AI and magic. No, we need to continuously invest in real data and FAIR data.

Hi, Blue Sky phage enthusiasts @phagepapers.bsky.social! My lab has been busy cooking up some cool phage science that is all out now on BioRxiv, so I am here to share with you:

Thank you for sharing! The bat one and the endogenous poxvirus one are in my list!

Study finds viral DNA embedded in polar algae may help them survive ex Viruses are usually known for causing disease. But new research suggests that in some organisms, viral DNA may actually help them survive.

Viruses are usually known for causing disease. But new research suggests that in some organisms, viral DNA may actually help them survive.

An ocean full of stars
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Miami, FL. #photography

New paper alert!

Probably a couple billions..it is infecting a planet! :D

Giant virus DNA may help polar algae survive harsh environments In the game of survival, you can't always go it alone. Tiny algae living in the harsh conditions of the world's polar oceans appear to be better able to withstand the cold, high salinity, and extreme UV radiation, thanks in part to giant virus DNA in their genome, according to a study published in Current Biology.

Giant virus DNA integrated into polar algae genomes appears to enhance their ability to withstand extreme cold, salinity, and UV radiation by activating stress-responsive viral genes. doi.org/hbtxtt

Thank you, Jozef!

Genes from giant viruses help polar algae survive frigid waters and harsh sunlight A prior infection may create lasting, beneficial evolutionary change in these hardy microbes

🧪 My first byline with @science.org in more than a year! We do love a giant virus.

www.science.org/content/arti...

Extensive array of endogenous giant viral elements in a polar alga shows dynamic transcriptional response to abiotic stress Schultz et al. show that polar algae harbor extensive endogenous giant virus elements that are transcriptionally active, stress responsive, and integrated into host regulatory networks, highlighting v...

Excited to share our lab's new paper in Current Biology featuring MS student Sydney Schultz's work. We show that a polar alga carries large amount of giant viral DNA in its genome, and many of the viral genes respond to stress - with implications for host adaptation.

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Assistant Professor in Marine Biology and Ecology - Marine Biomedical Science or Quantitative Systems Ecology in Miami, Florida, United States of America | Faculty & Physicians at University of Miami Apply for Assistant Professor in Marine Biology and Ecology - Marine Biomedical Science or Quantitative Systems Ecology job with University of Miami in Miami, Florida, United States of America. Facult...

We have a new Assistant Professor position open in our department! Please see the details, and share!

careers.miami.edu/us/en/job/R1...

Image of the cover of the 1st volume of ISME Host Microbe a new official journal of the International Society for Microbial Ecology. Cover images shows a plant stomata with bacteria around and entering.

Excited to announce our new journal from @isme-microbes.bsky.social ISME Host Microbe is live and now accepting submissions. Look forward to receiving your papers! #Microsky 🧫 🦠

European Academy of Microbiology welcomes 95 new Fellows Discover the latest election of 95 new Fellows by the European Academy of Microbiology, highlighting diverse expertise in the field.

Honoured to join this list of high-flying scientists as Fellow of the European Academy of Microbiology. I will promote eukaryotes as microbial wonders #protistsonsky A BIG thanks to the reviewers who put fwd my name and many colleagues throughout the years fems-microbiology.org/european-aca...