Dr. Line Roager

Thank you to all co-authors for great work: Peter Bing Svendsen, Mille Rask Sander, Cecille Jasmin Elizabeth Hobbs, Philip Staffeldt, Jette Melchiorsen, Sarah Kirstein, Yuyan Liu, Paul Kempen, @bentzontilia.bsky.social and @lonegram.bsky.social.

The other new species is P. bryozoorum from the estuary of Roskilde fjord, which we find repeatedly in association with bryozoans. It has the smallest Phaeobacter genome published yet, so perhaps this is a feature of a symbiotic relationship? 2/2

A scanning electron microcrograph of a cluster of bacteria forming a rosette. 12 bacterial cells form the rosette on a surface with a scale-bar showing that the cells are around 1 micrometer in length.

A scanning electron microcrograph of a bacterial cell. One long rod-shaped bacterial cell is shown with a scale-bar showing that the cell is around 10 micrometer in length and 1 micrometer in width.

New Phaeobacter species are now out! 🦠🔬 We found two new species - I am especially fascinated by the really, really long cells P. cretensis makes, something we have never seen in Phaeobacter before! Please comment your thoughts about why that is 🤔 1/2
www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Preparing to apply to PhDs in the US as an international student is… confusing. 😵‍💫

If anybody wants to share their academic CV or take a look at mine, let me know!

ecoevojobs.net 2025-26

The 2025-26 Eco-Evo job list is out. Good luck to those applying!

docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

Hi Zoë, just wanted to say that your posts are where I go when I am feeling a bit down about this whole academia thing. Thank you for continuing to be here!

There's this trope that you have to be so into your PhD topic that you live and breathe it and can't possibly stop thinking about it, so here's your regular reminder that passion is good, but burnout isn't. It's okay and recommended to take breaks, enjoy the weekend, and treat a PhD like a job.

EXPERT ON THE EFFECTS OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION ON MARINE ECOSYSTEMS at Marine and Freshwater Research Institute in Hafnarfjörður, ICELAND Aug 14, 2025 | The Marine Research Institute is looking for an ambitious individual for a temporary specialist position for 2 years. The position involves... | NEW JOB

Come work with us! If you work with ocean acidification and are interested in living in Iceland (Reykjavík area), please consider applying! Shoot me a message if you have any questions about life in Iceland, relocating or similar.
www.researchgate.net/job/1025279_...

European Citizens' Initiative Give your support !

The goal to make EU ban conversion therapy is growing ever nearer. Last day to vote and we're almost there.

eci.ec.europa.eu/043/public/#...

INTRODUCTION

Modern-Day Oracles or Bullshit Machines?

Jevin West (@jevinwest.bsky.social) and I have spent the last eight months developing the course on large language models (LLMs) that we think every college freshman needs to take.

thebullshitmachines.com

I (and other people in our lab) still use QIIME 2 very happily - the team behind have been staying quite well up to date with implementing plugins of new tools as they come out, etc. But I do get the sense (at conferences etc.) that lots of people are moving away from amplicon.

Image with text that reads: It's happening now: I know it's totally overwhelming but here are just a handful of things happening in US Science & public health RIGHT NOW. I need you to know, so you can realise how you are being defrauded from a healthy, disease free future, with thriving science. I need you to know, so you can tell others.

Huge thanks to my sister for helping put these together.

You hear about our successes a lot on here, but I don't talk enough about the rejections. As of today, 10 out of the 12 grants members of our lab put in this year didn't get up. Most grants were led by early-career researchers in/with our team as a way for them to lead independent programs. 1/3

Metabolomics folks / mass spectrometrists, are you looking for a cool postdoc opportunity? Dr. Anitra Ingalls @ the Univ. of Washington is hiring a postdoc to work with an international team (including yours truly) on the metabolites of marine critters. Come work with us!
apply.interfolio.com/150110

Hey, science followers! I need some help locating an outside source for a story about photosynthesis in near total darkness.

Are you someone who studies photosynthesis, phytoplankton, and their relationship with light? reply here or shoot me an email (aelbein at gmail)

Thanks!

🧪🌿

Readvertising this for the new protist lovers out there. Use #protistsonsky

Also very honored that this was selected as Editor's pick!

Impact of host species on assembly, composition, and functional profiles of phycosphere microbiomes | mSystems As the main primary producers of the oceans, microalgae serve as cornerstones of the ecosystems they are part of. Additionally, they are increasingly used for biotechnological purposes such as the pro...

New article out in mSystems! 🎉📜 I am so proud of this one and the data we obtained, linking microalgal microbiome compositions to potential functionality and to specific hosts🦠
Thank you to co-authors Eva Sonnenschein, Paul Kempen, Mikkel Bentzon-Tilia and Lone Gram
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Most microbial ecologists understand the importance of rigorous statistical analysis for conducting a replicable study. However, formal courses in the statis... Statistical thinking for microbial ecology

ICYMI, my EMBL seminar was recorded 🙏

It's not a research talk -- it's a mini course on different statistical paradigms and choosing what to estimate in HTS microbiome study.

Check it out! (If you like, no pressure, srsly ❤️)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvT3...

A cross-stitch of three brown seaweeds

A guess-who style card game featuring seaweeds.

Two long white skirts spread out in the sunshine with cyanotype paint on their edges.

A cyanotype-printed fabric with seaweeds printed in white on the blue backgrojnd

Student creative algae / seaweed projects taking shape! Tasked with teaching, inspiring others as a way to share what they’ve learned about algae beyond the classroom. Best part of the semester! 🧪🦑

Thank you!

Thank you!

Exactly one week ago, I defended my PhD! I am now officially #PhDone which is why I look so happy here 🎉🦠 I have also been sleeping extremely well since, so to any PhDs in the last phase out there - you can do it, and I promise it will feel amazing on the other side! 💪

Frontiers | Biogeographic distribution of five Antarctic cyanobacteria using large-scale k-mer searching with sourmash branchwater <p>Cyanobacteria form diverse communities and are important primary producers in Antarctic freshwater environments, but their geographic distribution pattern...

A COVID-shutdown-inspired bioinformatics project of ours just got published! 🎉

(I mean it's been on biorxiv forever, but.)

I have travel, room, and board for an art student interested in spending 10 weeks at Friday Harbor Labs this spring. Our awardee could not make it.

Apply here, decision Monday:
fridayharborlabs.wufoo.com/forms/x1c6oi...
🐡

Estimating Fold Changes from Partially Observed Outcomes with Applications in Microbial Metagenomics We consider the problem of estimating fold-changes in the expected value of a multivariate outcome that is observed subject to unknown sample-specific and category-specific perturbations. We are motivated by high-throughput sequencing studies of the abundance of microbial taxa, in which microbes are systematically over- and under-detected relative to their true abundances. Our log-linear model admits a partially identifiable estimand, and we establish full identifiability by imposing interpretable parameter constraints. To reduce bias and guarantee the existence of parameter estimates in the presence of sparse observations, we apply an asymptotically negligible and constraint-invariant penalty to our estimating function. We develop a fast coordinate descent algorithm for estimation, and an augmented Lagrangian algorithm for estimation under null hypotheses. We construct a model-robust score test, and demonstrate valid inference even for small sample sizes and violated distributional assumptions. The flexibility of the approach and comparisons to related methods are illustrated via a meta-analysis of microbial associations with colorectal cancer.

radEmu is here! ❤️🐦📈🔥

The StatDivLab's best differential abundance method yet!

arxiv.org/abs/2402.05231

We have a 3-year PDRA position available of evolution of symbiosis using RNAi and experimental evolution to understand the mechanisms and architecture of host control in the Paramecium-Chlorella photosymbiosis. Collab with Tom Richards and Dunc Cameron www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

"I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops."
- Stephen Jay Gould

Natural Products Conferences, Symposia, and Workshops Upcoming events This is a list of upcoming conferences, symposia, and workshops that may be of interest to researchers working on natural products (particularly secondary/specialized metabolites) Sub...

Natural product researchers, do you first hear about conferences when your PI says "I'll be gone next week"?

Here's a list of upcoming events for those who work on secondary/specialized metabolites, along with their deadlines:
tinyurl.com/NP-events

Thanks to those who have submitted events!

Some new jobs listed on our opportunities page.

🧪🔬Looking for a PhD position, Postdoc position or Curator position in diatoms or algae? Look no further! Positions in France, Germany, Portugal and the UK... isdr.org/opportunities/