Blake Ushijima, Ph.D.

An Asgard Archaeon (Lokiarchaeum ossiferum) growing and retracting its arms

We are hiring!! Biological Sciences as UNC Charlotte has a broad search for a new assistant professor.
Apps reviewed 12/15.

Please spread the word! 💚⛏️
#PlantSci 🧪🦠🧬
jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/65141

The UNCW Department of Biology & Marine Biology is hiring a TT Invertebrate Biologist position! Come work with us!
jobs.uncw.edu/postings/37895

Wandering Sea Anemone (Phlyctenactis tuberculosa) Wandering Sea Anemone from 'Eastern side of Bare Island, Botany Bay, Sydney, Australia' on July 4, 2021 at 12:21 PM by Erik Schlögl

they look so ... orange cream mound like! Phlyctenactis www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Diving into the past: a new assemblage of Neogene elasmobranch microfossils from the eastern Pacific of South America The fossil record of chondrichthyans from the Pacific coast of South America is rich and diverse, with the Bahía Inglesa Formation distinguished as one of the most important in the region. Despite th...

Best. Name. Ever.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Warning. ⚠️ If you are writing an NSF GRFP, new this year, you need official transcripts to apply. Beware. They will not review applications without official transcripts. ‼️

A group of Blakes

When the lab surprises you for Halloween dressed as...you. 😂

2 iconic coral species are now functionally extinct off Florida, study finds – we witnessed the reef’s bleaching and devastation The crucial reef-building corals were decimated by a marine heat wave in the Florida Keys. Can advances in restoration help them recover?

😢
theconversation.com/2-iconic-cor...

It's been 10 years, but we're finally getting back into phages. Glorious enrichment assays from mud samples.

Polymyxin B lethality requires energy-dependent outer membrane disruption - Nature Microbiology The antibiotic polymyxin B requires bacterial metabolic activity to cause sufficient damage to the outer membrane to access the inner membrane, which it permeabilizes via an energy-independent mechanism to kill the cell.

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

#microsky

Programme Assistant (m/f/x) - part time BLUE ACTION FUND is searching for a:Programme AssistantREPORTS TO: Executive DirectorLOCATION: BerlinSALARY: CompetitiveCLOSING DATE: 2 November 2025START DATE: As soon as possibleCONTRACT: Part time ...

If you want to make a difference in the marine world 🌊🪸🐟... We are looking for a programme assistant (part time) based in in Berlin #OceanOptimism. ogy.de/6jtx

The Whitney lab at U FL is an interdisciplinary powerhouse of a scientific community. They're looking for a new faculty colleague in a VERY broad search in Marine Bioscience--link below.

explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

Call for abstracts We are pleased to announce that the Call for Abstracts is now open. Submissions are invited under the approved sessions, each aligned with one of the eight broad Symposium themes.

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS NOW LIVE! 16th International Coral Reef Symposium

Submit an abstract here: www.icrs2026.nz/call-for-abs...

#coralreefs #symposium #newzealand #icrs #coralresearch #networking #coral #internationalcoralreefsociety #marinescience #marinebiology

Vibrio2026: The International Meeting on the Biology of Vibrios Fourwaves - Vibrio2026: The International Meeting on the Biology of Vibrios

Delighted to announce that The International Meeting on the Biology of Vibrios will be back next year!

Vibrio2026 will be held in Berlin in September 13-16. See you there Vibriologists!

event.fourwaves.com/vibrio2026/p...

Just a reminder - if you run/recruit or have anything to do with an ecology & evolutionary biology PhD program, check out our database and update your departments salary here: rhettrautsaw.app/shiny/Biolog...

Phages with a broad host range are common across ecosystems - Nature Microbiology Proximity-ligation-based sequencing from 111 samples and 5 environments reveals that a substantial proportion of phages infect multiple species.

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

5 Dead, Dozens Hospitalized amid Outbreak of Flesh-Eating Bacteria Linked to Beaches and Seafood Vibrio vulnificus continues to sicken people in Louisiana as the state urges residents to take precautions.

people.com/flesh-eating...

A plasmid golden ratio? 🧬
Plasmid copy number ≈ 2.5% of chromosome size—consistent across bacterial species!
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... @jerorb.bsky.social
🧪 #microbesky

NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP)

The GRFP lives!! (due end of October)
www.nsf.gov/funding/oppo...

Assistant Professor in Microbiology APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

🎙️ Job Announcement: Penn State is seeking an ASSISTANT PROFESSOR in MICROBIOLOGY (any subdiscipline) in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Learn more and Join the Microbiome Jubilee: psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

Deadly ‘kissing bug’ parasite is now in 32 US states — and you might not even know you have it A kiss might steal your heart — but this one could stop it.

nypost.com/2025/09/03/h...

Phage folks, does anyone have suggestions for cheaper alternatives for low melt agarose for phage plaque assays? Much appreciated!

😮 Very interesting...

Bleaching and tissue loss coral diseases get all the attention, but there's also growth anomalies. We don't know for sure what causes them. However, our lab is going to be looking at these Acropora growth anomalies (the growths in the middle of the branches) under TEM!

A 9-armmed sea star (Luidia senegalensis) from Florida. Don't worry, "Stuart" is alive and well. We just needed some baseline samples from healthy specimens 🤩

Corals, tunicates, and sea stars oh my! 🧪🔬🧫🌊
UNCW Ph.D. students Erin Papke, Grace Kennedy, and Kiah Gongaware were down at the Smithsonian Marine Station (some for a month!) working on various projects ranging from nitrogen cycling in corals, identifying new sea squirts, and sea star microbiomes!

Flesh-eating bacteria cases surge in Southeast, North Carolina reports 59 infections This highlights the growing concern over Vibrio cases in the region.

"Flesh-eating bacteria [vibriosis] cases surge in Southeast, North Carolina reports 59 infections – WSOC TV" share.google/8NgvXmUokUnt...

Death of 5 billion starfish baffled scientists—until now The mass die-off, which began in 2013, saw sea star populations plunge and reshaped vital marine ecosystems in the U.S. and Canada.

We don't get color photos and articles in Newsweek very often; we sure appreciate this good science coverage.
www.newsweek.com/starfish-sea...

This is figure 2, which shows the disease signs and trajectory of P. helianthoides exposed to SSWD.

A study in Nature Ecology & Evolution identifies a bacterial species as a cause of sea star wasting disease, which has been responsible for billions of sea star deaths since 2013 and widespread loss of kelp habitats. go.nature.com/46I4kx2 🌊 🧪

After a four-year investigation, a breakthrough study reveals the cause of sea star wasting disease (SSWD). A strain of the bacterium Vibrio pectenicida is the culprit behind the marine epidemic that has killed billions of sea stars since 2013. Read the study: 🔗https://tinyurl.com/4rcb3xpf