Caitlin Billiot, PhD

Black and white ink drawing of an agar filled petri dish with black spots or plaques covering the surface. One of these plaques is surrounded by a circle, connected by dotted lines to a larger magnified circle showing a lawn of bacteria punctured by a circlar hole with 7 smaller bacteriophages inside

Day 3, Soft. Soft agar is used to visualise phages - plaque assay: bacteria infected with phages are mixed with soft agar, poured over an agar plate. A bacterial lawn grows & plaques appear - as phages infect bacteria, multiply, kill & repeat to form an expanding hole. #drawtober #SciArt #Phagesky

I don't know anyone in particular, but there are lots of artists on Etsy that do commissions like that!

Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139) | UiT The Arctic University of Norway Job title: Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139), Employer: UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Deadline: Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Feels surreal to say but: I'm hiring! If you are or know anyone interested in looking at the evolution of phage resistance using A. baumannii and natural transformation, then this might be for you
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Comic. The Most-Observed Animal and Plant in Each State on iNaturalist. (Not the most common species in the state, just the one people have reported the most times.) [labeled map of the US] WA: Mallard/Western Sword Fern. OR: Mule Deer/Western Ponderosa Pine. CA: Western Fence Lizard/California Poppy. HI: Green Sea Turtle/‘Ōhi’a Lehua. ID: Mallard/Big Sagebrush. NV: Common Side-Blotched Lizard/Creosote Bush. MT: White-Tailed Deer/Common Yarrow. WY: American Bison/Sticky Geranium. UT: Mule Deer/Utah Juniper. AZ: Ornate Tree Lizard/Saguaro. CO: Mule Deer/Great Mullein. NM: Mule Deer/Creosote Bush. AK: Moose/Fireweed. ND: American Bison/Prairie Rose. SD: American Bison/Hoary Vervain. NE: American Robin/Common Milkweed. KS: Ornate Box Turtle/Amur Honeysuckle. OK: Pond Slider/Eastern Redcedar. TX: Northern Cardinal/Pinladies. MN, WI, IL: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Common Milkweed. IA, MI: White-Tailed Deer/Common Milkweed. MO: Brown-Belted Bumble Bee/Amur Honeysuckle. AR: Three-toed Box Turtle/Chinese Privet. LA: Green Anole/Baldcypress. IN: American Robin/Amur Honeysuckle. OH: Eastern Pondhawk/Virginia Springbeauty. KY: Common Box Turtle/Amur Honeysuckle. TN: American Robin/Christmas Fern. MS: Northern Cardinal/Pale Pitcher Plant. AL: Gulf Fritillary/American Sweetgum. GA: Green Anole/American Sweetgum. FL: Brown Anole/White Beggarticks. NY: Eastern Gray Squirrel/White Snakeroot. PA: White-Tailed Deer/Garlic Mustard. WV: White-Tailed Deer/Great Rhododendron. VA: White-Tailed Deer/Eastern Poison Ivy. MD: White-Tailed Deer/Wineberry. DE: Fowler’s Toad/American Pokeweed. NC: Eastern Gray Squirrel/Christmas Fern. SC: Northern Cardinal/American Sweetgum. NJ: Spotted Lanternfly/Common Mugwort. VT: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Eastern White Pine. NH: White-Tailed Deer/Eastern White Pine. MA: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Eastern White Pine. CT: Common Eastern Bumble Bee/Striped Wintergreen. RI: American Herring Gull. ME: American Herring Gull/Canadian Bunchberry.

iNaturalist Animals and Plants

xkcd.com/3118/

For STEM Professionals - Letters to a Pre-Scientist Pen Pal Program Overview We encourage STEM Professionals of all kinds to get involved with Letters to a Pre-Scientist! STEM professionals send and receive letters throughout a school year from ...

I'm signed up to be a pen pal with Letters to a Pre-Scientist and I highly recommend it! LPS is recruiting STEM professionals to send and receive 4 rounds of letters throughout the school year with a middle school student. Learn more on their website: prescientist.org/volunteers/?...

A tuxedo cat with dilated eyes in a cat tunnel

Happy to be home to miss Luna Belle 🥹

Flight got delayed, btw. Won’t be home until midnight now 😵‍💫

The science was cutting edge, and the company was unparalleled- thank you everyone for such a welcoming and thrilling #GRCMicroPop! Looking forward to cyberstalking all your google scholar profiles ❤️

Sitting in the airport waiting to go back to Memphis after the Microbial Population Biology GRC! I had a really lovely time and met so many great people. Thank you all for making me feel at home! Apologies if I didn’t get to connect with you, but I am looking forward to 2 years from now!

A celebratory cake at the 40th anniversary of the Gordon conference that says “ 40 years Micro Pop Bio Answering big questions with little things” .

This week I am at the #GRC meeting for Microbial Population Biology. It is my favourite meeting. There is nothing like these small meetings for gathering a community together, and I learn a huge amount here every time. Here is to 40 more years of this incredible conference!

A projector screen with text welcoming people to the 2025 GRS on Microbial Population Biology.

Finally on site for my first GRS and GRC!

Today is the last day! #ASMicrobe 🧪🦠 #Microsky

Comic. PERSON: It’s weird how, despite being one of the main branches of the tree of life, no archaea species are known to cause disease in humans. PERSON WITH SHORT HAIR: Personally, I think it’s because those gross methane breathers are too weird and incompetent to figure out how to hurt us even if they wanted to. [from small point under microscope on desk]: *Hey!* [caption] Bad news: After overhearing a conversation in our lab, Archaea has finally started harming humans.

Archaea

xkcd.com/3095/

Cupcake with white icing as a base and decorated as a bacterial streak plate with blue and pink icing as the streak.

When your labmate is a baker, you get VRE chromagar cupcakes

#ASMicrobe @ LA is just over a month away! Binning Singletons helps lower the activation energy required to have a great meeting through mentoring and community!

Image is line paper with writing showing an English word followed by how it is written in the Cherokee language followed by how it is spelled and pronounced. The words are trans visibility and pronounced dahdahnaytleeyuhskuhee guhkawaduhdee gaysuhee

Your Cherokee words for today.
The top word is English followed by how it is written in the Cherokee language followed by how it is spelled in English then how to pronounce it phonetically.

For everyone observing Trans Visibility Day

Bacteriocin production facilitates nosocomial emergence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium - Nature Microbiology Genomic and functional analyses of healthcare-associated vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium reveal that bacteriocin T8 is enriched in emergent lineages and provides a competitive advantage in v...

Excited to share our latest, out today in @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social Bacteriocin production facilitates nosocomial emergence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium www.nature.com/articles/s41... @idpittstop.bsky.social

My hand posed palm down with my fingernails facing the camera. All the nails are at least partially visible. The middle and ring finger nails have a green (velvet magnetic) background with fluid art bacteria. The other nails are the inverse of this. On all nails the bacteria are outlined in white and flagellae have been painted on one end of each.

The same mani, a close-up of 4 fingernails.

A close up of the thumb nail.

Did this fun bacteria mani a few weeks back using a couple of my favourite nail art techniques - fluid art and velvet-style magnetics.

NSURP.org National Summer Undergraduate Research Project

Although we are not federally funded for this summer, WE WILL STILL RUN The National Summer Undergraduate Research Project (NSURP) in 2025. We remain committed to the work that needs to be done and will continue to meet people where they are. 1/4 nsurp.org

(Tried putting the cats in the snow, they were not fans)

Happy snow day, Memphis! Working from home today with a warm cup of coffee!

Two photos of Anna, a young white woman using an electric wheelchair, wearing a blue lab coat that fits her well with tables and dry-lab equipment in the background. Text reads: "A team of researchers and designers led by UCL is looking for wheelchair users working in wet lab environments to user-test what is believed to be the first-ever prototype of a lab coat adapted for wheelchair users."

Do you know a UK-based wheelchair user who works in a lab and would be willing to user-test our prototype of what is believed to be the first-ever lab coat adapted for wheelchair users?

Please share far & wide! Interest form: forms.office.com/e/66FhcQjqRT

More info: www.ucl.ac.uk/ucl-east/new...

Round enamel pin with a trans flag design and the words "It's Dr, actually". The pin is on a pin backing card with a grassy design that says canopyrobin.etsy.com

"It's Dr, actually"

I'm very excited to share this new pin with you all! canopyrobin.etsy.com/listing/1841...

🌿 Over 50 Indigenous Peoples from around the world collaborated on this groundbreaking book (including me!), now available for preorder.

📚 Use code S25 for 20% off and free shipping through June 30, 2025.

#NativesInSTEM #IndigenizeSTEM #NativesInAcademia

osupress.oregonstate.edu/book/indigen...

Vancomycin colored over to be a 🎄

Forget Die Hard vancomycin is a Christmas antibiotic

Venmo | Binning Singletons Use Venmo to connect with Binning Singletons (@binningsingletons) - We help make scientific meetings easier by matching new or solo participants (Singletons) with an experienced attendee to provide a ...

Help us out this #GivingTuesday!

Over the last 5 years we have directly helped hundreds at meetings through mentorship and community building!

We are a grassroots and 100% volunteer organization. All donations go directly to the program.

Thanks!

venmo.com/code?user_id...

Desert background in strong purple and pink color tones. Event details (listed in post) superimposed in foreground.

PLEASE AMPLIFY: We will host our Summer 2025 workshop on #Indigenous #Health & Artificial Intelligence to take place on the lands of the Ak-Chin Maricopa Indian Community in AZ week of June 2-6: indigidata.org

Travel & Lodging 100% Covered
Deadline to apply: January 31st #AI

Aletu! I would like to be added! I am from the United Houma Nation. I am currently looking at how multi-drug resistant organisms colonize the gut.

That’s my friend!! @csebastianbio.bsky.social

A herd of bison grazing pasture in the Bluegrass with woodlands in the distance. Copyright Tom Kimmerer

Two bison in a woodland pasture wandering toward the camera. The brown bison are lit by the morning sun, which also lights the spring trees. Copyright Tom Kimmerer

Bison in a woodland pasture wandering toward the camera in early morning light which lights up their brown fur. It also lights up the spring trees in the background. Copyright Tom Kimmerer

Closeup of the head of a large bison, its brown fur lit by the morning sun, showing a single short horn and sparkling eyes. Copyright Tom Kimmerer

It's National Bison Day! Bison were abundant in the Bluegrass prior to European settlement, probably the largest population east of the Mississippi, and had a key role in creating the Bluegrass woodland pasture ecosystem. This, minus the fences, are what the Bluegrass looked like before 1780.