Nancy Moran

My department at UT Austin is looking to hire an Assistant Professor in Evolutionary Biology, broadly defined. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you may have.
apply.interfolio.com/177547

The Lariviere lab at UMiami is recruiting PhD students! Incoming students will join us in studying host-microbe interactions in the honey bee gut, using molecular and genetic approaches. Please see the attached flyer for more details.

#Symbiosis #SymbioSky #MicroSky #PhDOpportunity #AcademicJobs

Honey wasps differ from other wasps in possessing large gut communities dominated by host-restricted bacteria | mBio Honey-feeding social insects such as honey bees and bumble bees have conserved gut bacterial communities that are transmitted among nestmates. These bacteria benefit hosts by providing defense against...

Jo Holley led an undergrad team for this study, about wasps that are trying to be bees, using a new microbiome.

Two Mexican honey wasps, which are bee-like insects with black bodies, yellow stripes on the lower abdomen and honey-colored wings. Photo credit: Alex Wild.

The Mexican honey wasp is a bit of an oddball: it makes and eats honey like a bee, but when it’s hankering for protein, instead of pollen, it eats other insects. A new study finds its gut microbiome is more like bees than wasps. Funded by USDA and NSF. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

#MicroSky #SymbioSky

Sloan Lab Welcome! Our research focuses on the evolutionary process at the molecular level. In particular, we investigate how a mixture of natural selection and non-adaptive forces create and maintain the amazi...

Please share! Our lab is recruiting a PhD student to join us starting fall 2026. Our group is broadly interested in plant molecular evolution and comparative genomics. More info about our lab and grad programs at Colorado St. is available on our lab website.

sites.google.com/site/danielb...

A pleasure to see Jerry develop this project and now to see it published! A very odd symbiosis, very harmful but sometimes very helpful to the host.

Howard's: evolution of microbial genes, genomes and communities. Can be experimental or computational. If interested, contact Howard Ochman, howard.ochman@austin.utexas.edu
Homepage: web.biosci.utexas.edu/ochman/index...

An update on open postdoc positions, in my group and the adjacent group of Howard Ochman, here at UT-Austin. #SymbioSky

Mine: insect-bacterial symbiosis with emphasis on intracellular endosymbionts and molecular mechanisms.
web.biosci.utexas.edu/moran/contac...

Looking for a postdoc on bacterial-insect symbiosis, combining evolution and molecular mechanisms? I'll have one open in my lab starting Sept 2025. If interested contact me (or find me at the GRC on Animal-microbe symbiosis if you'll be there). #SymbioSky

The new cover is beautiful!

Unbelievable. Richard Youle, winner of the Breakthrough Prize for Life Sciences, just got fired from the NIH. If you want to know what madness looks like, here it is, my friend.

#symbiosky bsky.app/profile/nanc...

We had a terrific symposium on "evolution of symbiosis, insects, and bacteria" this past saturday, with many former members of the Moran/Ochman lab. I'm grateful to all of them.

We had a terrific symposium on "evolution of symbiosis, insects, and bacteria" this past saturday, with many former members of the Moran/Ochman lab. I'm grateful to all of them.

First -- congratulations on your child!

We had a great time. Here's a photo, all former people in the lab.

It was a pleasure to sign this. It is a small step, but a step nonetheless…

Yes too bad, it was terrific! But perhaps see you at the Gordon Conference in Maine this year?

Happen to be in central Texas this weekend, and interested in symbionts &/or evolution and/or insects? #SymbioSky

NEW: Baldwin, Welch Announce Forum on Devastating Trump Cuts at NIH Jeopardizing Cures for Alzheimer’s Disease, Cancers | U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Peter Welch (D-VT) announced that...

www.baldwin.senate.gov/news/press-r...

Amazing story about a person who loved insects and could observe nature with an open mind!

A woman studies embryos for decades, struggles for funding and respect. She publishes under her husband’s name, until they divorce. A single mother, she moves across an ocean to continue her studies. It all sounds quite modern, until you learn that she also worried she’d be burned as a witch. 🧵 1/15

Standing Up for Science (and Democracy) We the People take to the streets to fight to preserve America

Nice piece here from the organizer of the Austin Stand Up for Science event, @benjaminjriley.bsky.social‬ 👇. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting, Ben!

buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/standing-u...

so let's hope they actually take place!

What about advisory council meetings? No awards are made without them. Study sections may be just a way to waste scientists' time and to give false hope. Even proposals scored in Oct 2024 remain in limbo because council meetings have all been canceled.

Not the first time Mary Ann and I have confused people!

thanks, got it. One reason to join!

Hi BlueSkyers! I'm an evolutionary biologist, microbiologist, entomologist, lover of nature, and long-time researcher on symbiosis.

I'm realizing that BlueSky is useful and generally non-toxic so here I am (having quit Facebook in Jan 2017, and Twitter in Oct 2022).