Mike Blazanin

Representation in science and trust in scientists in the USA - Nature Human Behaviour Druckman et al. document gaps in trust in scientists in the USA. People from groups less represented among scientists (for example, women and those with lower economic status) are less trusting. Incre...

Representation in science and trust in scientists in the USA
#scienceSky

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

I wrote a guide on constructive peer review. This is a polished version of an internal guide I had for my group. Of course, constructive feedback is welcome, peers!
deboer.bme.ubc.ca/2025/12/09/g...

The fitness costs of reproductive specialization scale inversely with organismal size The evolution of reproductive specialization represents a fundamental innovation in multicellular life, yet the conditions favoring its evolution remain poorly understood. Here, we develop a populatio...

1/28 New preprint up, which I think is the best theoretical idea I've ever had. We asked a simple question: what are the costs of investment into non-reproductive somatic cells? Turns out these costs decrease with the *logarithm* of organism size!

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

Phages are full of genes of unknown function that are likely adaptive in specific conditions.
New preprint: Phage TnSeq identifies essential genes rapidly and knocks all non-essentials. We would like to send a pool of phiKZ mutants to anyone wanting it! Reach out
tinyurl.com/bdcfrejh

Just preprinted what I think is the best theoretical insight I've ever had, which I believe fundamentally changes how we understand the evolution of germ-soma specialization.

Hopefully the preprint will be up tomorrow and I can do a deep dive!

A wonderful commentary by @asherleeks.bsky.social and @sociovirology.bsky.social on our recent work with P. aeruginosa filamentous cheater miniphages!

@vscooper.micropopbio.org @shellyscrib.bsky.social

Phage–bacteria dynamics: The tragedy of the commons at hyperspeed A recent study found that apparently stable coexistence between a clinically important pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and its integrated prophages can break down, setting off an evolutionary cycle ...

It was great to write a brief commentary with @sociovirology.bsky.social on @nanamikubota.bsky.social and @vscooper.micropopbio.org's recent discovery of cheat-driven cycles in Pseudomonas (www.cell.com/current-biol... - amazing example of the tragedy of the commons!

🧪 #socialviruses #evosky

Great question!

1) First and foremost, we evaluate a candidate based on the departmental guidelines and expectations provided. We don't hold the candidate to arbitrary standards, or even to those of our own institution unless asked to do so. We assess the materials against the guidelines provided.

Details | Laboratory Specialist | Careers | Division of Human Resources | Virginia Tech

The Department of Biological Sciences at Virginia Tech is hiring a full-time laboratory-specialist for our microbiology teaching laboratory operations. Check out the position!

careers.pageuppeople.com/968/cw/en-us...

Dated gene duplications elucidate the evolutionary assembly of eukaryotes - Nature Analysis of eukaryotic gene sequences using a relaxed molecular clock methodology indicate that eukaryotes emerged 3.0–2.25 billion years ago as a result of mitochondrial endosymbiosis with complex ar...

Eukaryotes evolved endosymbiotic mitochondria late, but in Archaea during a time when the oceans were still harsh and anoxic. Sophisticated cellular machinery evolved first, according to molecular clocks relevant to dating gene duplications.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hi everyone! I'm co-organizing this retreat/workshop June 15-19 for those looking to get started in mathematical/computational modeling of biological processes. Location is a beautiful farm in NC. Please share with students and others who want to build modeling skills. Interdisciplinarity welcome!

Early career academics: if you had to give one piece of advice to junior grad students preparing for their preliminary (aka qualifying) exam, what would it be?

The evolution of plasticity and evolvability in a simple gene regulatory network How do organisms adapt to changing environments? Do they respond plastically or evolve through genetic alterations? We present a large-scale simulation stu

#paper How do organisms adapt to changing environments? Through plasticity, evolution, or a combination of both?
Find out in our new paper by Alger Jorritsma, where we show which strategies evolve under different environmental conditions. @journal-evo.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/evolut/advan...

YouTube video by Giant's Shoulder Ranking Evolution’s Most Outrageous Survival Strategies! Tier List

Tony Burnetti and I recorded this super fun podcast in which we rank evolution's craziest adaptations. I think it turned out great! I might make this an exercise for one of my final evolution lectures next time I teach (dynamically rank / debate in class!).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSum...

I am recruiting graduate students for Fall 2026! The Microbial Ecosystems Lab @hot-mes-asu.bsky.social at ASU studies microbial interactions, spatial ecology, and imaging-driven microbiome science. If you love microbes, microfluidics, or single-cell analysis, let’s talk! www.microbialeco.systems

Comparative Assessment of Large Language Models for Microbial Phenotype Annotation Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly used to extract knowledge from text, yet their coverage and reliability in biology remain unclear. Microbial phenotypes are especially important to assess...

New preprint out now!
Comparative Assessment of Large Language Models for Microbial Phenotype Annotation
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are thrilled to announce the first official release (v0.1.8) of #𝗯𝗲𝗱𝗱𝗲𝗿, the successor to one of our flagship tool, #𝗯𝗲𝗱𝘁𝗼𝗼𝗹𝘀! Based on ideas we conceived of long ago (!), this was achieved thanks to the dedication of Brent Pedersen.

1/n

Poster deadline for the Keystone Microbiome Meeting in Banff is December 30th www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

Will be a great meeting focused on human microbiomes, spanning basic, mechanistic, and applied. Organized by myself, @amibhatt.bsky.social , and Harry Sokol. Join us!

Long-read metagenomics reveals phage dynamics in the human gut microbiome - Nature Complex prophage integration dynamics, including low-level induction, cross-family host range and transposase-mediated mobilization, challenge existing paradigms and deepen our understanding of phage–...

Long read Metagenomics, #phage and #prophage in the gut by Ami Bhatt's group. Beautiful data showing changes in phages over two years

#phagesky

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

🧬🛡️How are new immune mechanisms created?

We show how Lamassu antiphage system, originated from a DNA-repair complex and evolved into a compact and modular immune machine, wt Dinshaw Patel lab in @pnas.org.
👏 @matthieu-haudiquet.bsky.social, Arpita Chakravarti & all authors!

doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

The host range of generalist and specialist phages in capsule-diverse Klebsiella hosts is driven by the evolvability of receptor-binding proteins Capsule diversity limits phage host range by affecting RBP interactions in capsulated bacteria. This study shows that generalist phages evolve host range through RBP mutations and recombination, while...

The host range of generalist and specialist phages in capsule-diverse Klebsiella hosts is driven by the evolvability of receptor-binding proteins

@plosbiology.org from @pilardomingoc.bsky.social

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York, listed on FindAPhD.com

Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York.
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️

tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.

Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.

A thread 1/8

Two conferences two weeks apart, thank you to everyone who came and chatted to me at my poster (or in general) at the Phages.fr conference in Nancy and the @microbiologysociety.org #MicroEvo25 conference in Liverpool. It was great to show the first data from my postdoc and get advice and feedback

📢 New preprint is out on bioRxiv 📢:

How much does virome prep influence our view of the human gut virome?

Short answer: a lot.

Long answer:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Different methods lead to distinct community structures, richness, and major virus-host abundance patterns.

🧵 1/5

Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly journals in ecology and evolutionary biology Abstract. The current economics of scientific publishing reveal a profound imbalance: academia pays prices far exceeding the actual costs of publication. R

Time to publish responsibly: DAFNEE, a database of academia-friendly journals in ecology and evolutionary biology url: academic.oup.com/jeb/article/...

Proud of this work led by Rocio Espinosa and Henriette Lyng Roder. Fun collaboration & innovation!

*Used custom 3D-printed flow systems to study evolution in biofilms of two competing Pseudomonas species in communities of varying complexity, using microscopy + WGS

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

Orchestrating Microbiome Analysis with Bioconductor 2–6 February 2026

Join our online course Orchestrating Microbiome Analysis with @bioconductor.bsky.social (2–6 Feb 2026)! Learn hands-on microbiome data analysis, diversity metrics, and multi-omics integration with @antagomir.bsky.social & Tuomas Borman .

www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...

BarTn7: Optimizing Bacterial Lineage Tracking at Sub-Species Resolution for Population Dynamics in Ecological and Evolutionary Studies Communities of bacteria undergo population bottlenecks which are crucial to their population, ecological, and evolutionary dynamics. However, conventional amplicon sequencing cannot distinguish such d...

Very excited to share a big part of my dissertation work with the Deutschbauer lab at LBNL and @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social! BarTn7: A method for bacterial lineage tracking at sub-species resolution in population, ecological, and evolutionary experiments.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Flyer that says American Society of Naturalists Diversity Committee. The DC works to promote diversity, equity, and inclusiveness to enhance the study of evolution, ecology, and behavior and to foster the career of its developing scientists. We pursue initiatives that support marginalized groups, which include helping to create an inclusive, accessible environment at the Evolution conference, the stand-alone ASN meeting, and our field in general. Apply by November 1. Seeking two new members starting Jan 2026. 3 year term

Please apply to join the Diversity Committee of the American Society of Naturalists!
www.amnat.org/announcement...