Really happy to have played a small part in this cool piece of work led by @guido-valverde.bsky.social and @msabrysarhan.bsky.social. We characterised S. pyogenes in a pre-Columbian Bolivian mummy (suggesting circulation before European contact) #VivaBolivianMummies
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A scientist drills a skull in search of ancient human DNA

Until now, scientists have identified only a few dozen variants that went through natural selection in humans in the past 10,000 years. A new study claims to find hundreds--maybe thousands. Here's my story on the provocative research, and the mixed reception it's getting. Gift link: nyti.ms/4tSJH9G

Wildlife trade drives animal-to-human pathogen transmission over 40 years

New in @science.org ‼️ In the most comprehensive study to date, we show that wildlife trade is driving animal-to-human zoonotic spillover at a planetary scale, with +1 spillover per host every 10 years. Live animal markets and illegal trade pose even greater risks. 🔓 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Myloasm, our long-read metagenome assembler, is now published! w/ @mgmarin.bsky.social and @lh3lh3.bsky.social

Very rewarding after > a year of development and countless hours thinking about assembly. Thanks to beta testers, Li lab, and reviewers who gave very helpful feedback.

rdcu.be/famFj

Improving the solvent tolerance of E. coli by understanding the rules of accumulation at University of Birmingham on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Improving the solvent tolerance of E. coli by understanding the rules of accumulation at University of Birmingham, listed on FindAPhD.com

PhD available with @overtonlab.bsky.social Sara Jabbari and me associated with our BBSRC sLoLa project!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project... (UK students only)

Lineage dynamics of invasive Escherichia coli isolates in the Netherlands from 1975 to 2021: a retrospective longitudinal genomic analysis Escherichia coli is a common cause of invasive infections such as bloodstream and cerebrospinal fluid infections in neonates. Strains positive for the…

Am stoked and thrilled that our latest paper is now out. A longitudinal study of invasive E. coli from children in the Netherlands over 50 years

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Research Fellow (Postdoctoral) - School of Biosciences - 107071 - Grade 7 This post-doctoral position will contribute to both complementary programmes, developing ‘broadband’ metagenomic sequencing capabilities for rapid detection and characterisation of emerging and unknow...

ARTIC are hiring! Postdoctoral opportunity in metagenomics at the University of Birmingham

edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Bacterial defense systems and host ecology drive the evolution of intra-species lineages Staphylococcus aureus lineages vary widely in the frequency of gene exchange and the diversity of genome content. Gorzynski and Harling-Lee et al. show that both host ecology and the horizontal acquis...

Great work by Jamie Gorzynski and Josh-Harling-Lee from the group providing insights into the evolutionary origins of bacterial lineages. A collaboration with @jrpenades.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social. #Staph Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports...

I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.

A tour de force in
1) genomic epidemiology,
2) global equity of access and representation, and
3) phylogenetic wizardry.

Congrats Zam and Viridian team on this tremendous resource!

At long last, my final PhD chapter is out: we developed a novel evolutionary simulator of bacterial pangenomes, Pansim, fitting it to data from >600K genomes using a likelihood-free framework, PopPUNK-mod, to explore neutral and adaptive pangenome dynamics www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New blog post: ONT read QC strategies for assembly
rrwick.github.io/2026/02/05/r...

Mini-study comparing a few QC/subsampling approaches, plus practical notes from my experience.

We're Hiring! We're looking for a postdoc with bioinformatics/modelling skills to join us in an exciting microbiome ecology project in Manchester (deadline 1st March) www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

EMBL-EBI Training. Sustainable computing in science: an introduction to the environmental impacts of computational research. This course has been developed in collaboration with the Cambridge Sustainable Computing Lab at the University of Cambridge. It was supported by funding from the Wellcome Trust Foundation and the University of Cambridge.

Have you ever paused and wondered about the many different ways in which computing infrastructure and activities impact the environment?

@loiclnlg.bsky.social and our own Flaminia Zane have created a free guide dedicated to sustainable computing in science: www.ebi.ac.uk/training/onl...

🧬🖥️📊🌱

Research Group Leader Do you want to lead groundbreaking research in computational biology? Join us at EMBL-EBI! EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is seeking talented and highly-motivated scientists to jo...

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 blog post with some thoughts on @nanoporetech.com and their recent announcement that the P2 Solo will be discontinued:
rrwick.github.io/2026/01/21/p...

"Machine learning-based lineage prediction from antimicrobial susceptibility testing phenotypes for Escherichia coli sequence type 131 clade C surveillance across infection types" Spoiler: the MDR ST131-C is pervasive in UTIs, underlying BSI trends. doi.org/10.1099/mgen... @microbiologysociety.org

This position is still open. The Weisberg lab is recruiting a postdoc or Ph.D. student to study horizontal gene transfer in plant-associated microbial communities. Please see the job ad for more information and feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

PanForest: predicting genes in genomes using random forests AbstractMotivation. The presence or absence of some genes in a genome can influence whether other genes are likely to be present or absent. Understanding t

New paper out in Bioinformatics! PanForest uses random forests to predict gene presence/absence in bacterial genomes based on other genes present. Joint work with Alan Beavan & Maria Rosa Domingo-Sananes.
🔗 doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btag005

We are looking for a new lab administrator (0.5 FTE) - come and join in pushing forward our research and impact in infectious disease! www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc...

Phold's manuscript is now available @narjournal.bsky.social thanks to @susiegriggo.bsky.social @npbhavya.bsky.social @vijinim.bsky.social @linsalrob.bsky.social @martinsteinegger.bsky.social @milot.bsky.social @eunbelivable.bsky.social & others not on bsky #phagesky academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

My team at @cbitoulouse.bsky.social is recruiting a postdoc #bioinformatics with solid experience in metagenomic analyses.
Interest in evolution, ecology & MGEs is important.
The offer stands until the perfect candidate is found, and it could be you 🫵

🔁 🙏

#microSky #phagesky #UTIsky
@cnrs.fr

I didn't even realize how long I had been waiting for a tool like this!

We've got ISSUES. Literally.

We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do?

arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563

A 🧵 1/n

The strain on scientific publishing Abstract. Scientists are increasingly overwhelmed by the volume of articles being published. The total number of articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science has grown exponentially in recent years; ...

In the strain on scientific publishing, we showed that total publications have grown out of control. A huge part of that was guest edited special issues by groups like #MDPI and #Frontiers.

This ongoing practice is the largest delegation of editorial power academia has ever seen.

2/n

Home - EMBO Workshop Shigella: from biology to prevention EMBO Workshop Shigella: from biology to prevention

Just two more days to submit your abstracts to the @shigellameeting.bsky.social - can't wait to see everyone there! www.shigella2026.conferences-pasteur.org/home

We need to talk about salaries in science Academia too often has a ‘passion first, money second’ culture. Overcoming this mindset is crucial for building a happy career.

Academia too often has a ‘passion first, money second’ culture. Overcoming this mindset is crucial for building a happy career

go.nature.com/4bvaCCh

Creating bacterial genomic diversity through large-scale reconfigurations reveals phenotype robustness to organizational genome change
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Research Fellow - Department of Microbes, Infection and Microbiomes - 106849 - Grade 7 To create and contribute to the creation of knowledge by undertaking a specified range of activities as part of an Investigator project funded by Wellcome, focusing on understanding microbial and diet...

Happy New Year – new role! 🎉

We’re looking for a PostDoc to join us in @halllab.bsky.social @unibirmingham.bsky.social.

Full-time, fixed-term to March 2028. Note tight closing date: 11 Jan 2026. CV + cover letter (submit via portal).

Further details 👇

edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Just a few hours left to apply for this #PhD!!

Do you like phages, genomes & public health impact?🦠🧬🏥

Wanna work in a cutting edge of science, with some awesome people @quadraminstitute.bsky.social?

🤔this could be just the project for you!!🧑‍🔬😎

Apply NOW before midnight

#PhDposition #academicsky