Alvaro Sanchez

Secret Invasion: Strain Fate Across Microbiomes

New #BehindThePaper for our latest paper in @natcomms.nature.com (rdcu.be/e2qMK)
Secret Invasion: Strain Fate Across Microbiomes

Cover illustration by Helena Klein (@illuzation.bsky.social).
communities.springernature.com/posts/secret...

How does population density affect evolutionary trajectory?

Microbes construct their own niche which in turn reshapes their evolution.

Preprint drop from grad student @noahhoupt.bsky.social whose evolution experiments featured blue/white colonies, 1000 generations, a lab move, and much more!

Registration is open for the inaugural GRC conference in the Function of Evolving Systems. Aug 9-14, 2026, Waterville Valley. Truly stellar speaker lineup. Student/postdoc fellowships are available! Please come join us! www.grc.org/function-of-... @joybergelson.bsky.social

New paper out in @pnas.org, and it made the cover! 👁️

We represent plasmids as circles and mutations as dots, resembling an eye, because in this paper we literally 𝑤𝑎𝑡𝑐ℎ plasmids evolve.

‼️Check Paula’s 🧵 and the paper👇

𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘀𝗺𝗶𝗱 𝗺𝘂𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀 𝘀𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗰𝗼𝗽𝘆 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Very interesting theoretical paper on BEF and species interactions, presenting an elegant partitioning of species effects on ecosystem function.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Bacteriophages mobilize bacterial defense systems via lateral transduction Bacteriophages and PICIs spread bacterial defenses via lateral transduction, shaping microbial immunity and pathogen evolution.

@jakob-tr.bsky.social @jrpenades.bsky.social et al. 🔥!

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

We’re very happy to share the results from the last chapter of my PhD, now out as a preprint on bioRxiv
www.biorxiv.org/content/bior...

Structuring complexity by mapping the possible in microbial ecosystems Microbial ecosystems consist of many interacting components that integrate through stochastic and highly dynamic processes across multiple scales. Yet…

Happy to share the latest perspective piece from our lab! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

New year, new conferences! Consider submitting to the symposium on Fitness landscapes and Genotype-phenotype maps, linking computational and experimental approaches (organising with @n-martin.bsky.social; @dbajic.bsky.social invited spreaker) at SMBE (28/6-2/7)! Abstract deadline February 3rd!

Warning though: The job post is in "Spanish" only (in truth, a dialect used exclusively at the BOE), and the instructions for applying could be MUCH more clearly explained on the web, they are difficult to navigate for non-spaniards (even for most of us spaniards too!).

Importantly, there used to exist additional hurdles for scientists with PhDs from non-spanish institutions, but I believe these no longer exist for scientists with PhDs from the European Higher Education Area (hurdles still in place for PhDs from USA, China, Australia, Canada, etc)

Opportunity for scientists considering moving to Spain as tenured scientists! Happy to see openings in microbiology across the country (including at CNB which has incorporated fantastic micro eco/evo researchers lately) and functional & systems biology at IBFG
www.ciencia.gob.es/en/Convocato...

🆕🎙️ El último podcast de 'Ciencia de Cerca' de 2025 llega con un invitado muy especial 🧑‍💻🦠 Álvaro Sánchez (@asanchezlab.bsky.social) investigador #ERC (@erc.europa.eu) del @ibfg.bsky.social y su novedoso trabajo de "ingeniería" de comunidades microbianas.

Escúchalo en Ivoox👉 go.ivoox.com/rf/164823351

A pleasure and an honour to have received this prestigious grant with my admired colleagues and friends @sanmillan.bsky.social and @asanchezlab.bsky.social . More about AMR under plasmid lens!. My sincere gratitude to @caixaresearch.bsky.social

@microryc.bsky.social @esgem-sg.bsky.social

2/ 🤝 This project is carried out at @cnb-csic.bsky.social is conducted in consortium with @tmcoque.bsky.social (Instituto Ramón y Cajal de Investigación Sanitaria).

1/ Antibiotic resistance causes ➕ than 1 M deaths each year and understanding why this happens is key to stopping it.

With #HealthResearch support, @sanmillan.bsky.social is investigating how different plasmids (DNA fragments) coexist in bacteria and confer resistance.

https://tinyurl.com/3bysv6cr

Directors The Max Planck Society offers Directors a unique platform for groundbreaking research and leadership in diverse scientific fields.

Open Call for Expressions of Interest: become a Max Planck Director & redefine what’s possible in science! We offer scientific independence, long-term stable funding & exceptional infrastructure. Lead your own department & open new frontiers of research. Apply by 31 Oct 2025 → www.mpg.de/directors

Graphic with a blue background and light green dots. The text 'call for applications' appears in green, and 'Ausschreibung' in white. A white arrow on the right points diagonally upward.

Early-career researchers: want to run your own lab? 🌟Max Planck Research Groups offer 6+ years, up to €2.7M in funding, open-topic freedom, team support & tenure-track opportunities. Intrigued? 😃Apply by Oct 14, 2025! www.mpg.de/max-planck-r...

Project - Plasmidlab PLAS-FIGHTER Exploiting plasmid-bacteria interactions to fight

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) could cause 10 million deaths by 2050. At PLAS-FIGHTER, we are working to change this!
🔎 We study how plasmids spread resistance to open up new avenues for future containment and diagnostic strategies.
Find out more 👇
plasmidlab.es/project/

#AntibioticResistance

Plasmids promote bacterial evolution through a copy number-driven increase in mutation rate Plasmids are autonomously replicating DNA molecules that stably coexist with chromosomes in bacterial cells. These genetic elements drive horizontal gene transfer and play a fundamental role in bacter...

New paper alert! 🚨

Plasmids promote bacterial evolution through a copy number-driven increase in mutation rate.

We combine theory, simulations, experimental evolution, and bioinformatics to demonstrate that mutation rates scale with plasmid copy number.

Let's dive in! 🧵👇

Do plasmids evolve faster 🐇, slower 🐢, or just like chromosomes 🧬?

In our new paper, we tackled this question using theory, simulations, bioinformatics, and experiments!

👇 Check out all the details in Paula’s thread!

Hint: 🐇 (most of the time)

Check out my first PhD paper on between-species genetic interactions (intergenomic epistasis) with @cbank.bsky.social 🌿↔️🦠✨ We define intergenomic epistasis mathematically and highlight its potential in understanding co-evolution :)

Non-antibiotics disrupt colonization resistance against enteropathogens - Nature Non-antibiotic drugs from a wide range of therapeutic classes can alter the ability of gut commensals to resist invasion by enteropathogens, a previously underappreciated side effect of such drugs.

Seeing this published is even better than eating sweets! I am so happy and proud of whole @lisamaierlab.bsky.social, especially Lisa and @jdlcz.bsky.social who walked the funny/exciting/rocky road with me until the very end. Check it out!
#science #microbiome #health

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

New paper in @nature.com! With @kiseokmicro.bsky.social , Siqi Liu, Kyle Crocker, Jojo Wang, Mikhail Tikhonov & Madhav Mani — a massive dataset and simple model reveal a few conserved regimes that capture how soil microbiome metabolism responds to perturbations. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This paper by Belda et al makes the case for wine fermentation as a model system in microbial ecology and evolution, one which hits a sweet spot between experimental tractability and rich ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

This paper by Shraddha Karve discusses how evolutionary novelties emerge in microorganisms, focusing on the different types of novel traits and the role played by the environment.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Coexistence Theory for Microbial Ecology, and Vice Versa Classical models from theoretical ecology are seeing increasing uptake in microbial ecology, but there remains rich potential for closer cross-pollination. Here we explore opportunities for stronger ...

This piece by Orr, Armitage & Letten provides a nice & clear introduction to modern coexistence theory for microbiologists, discussing how it can be applied to microbial communities & highlighting its promise, limitations & opportunities.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Assembly Graph as the Rosetta Stone of Ecological Assembly This paper introduces the assembly graph as an integrative lens to unify ecological assembly theories across dynamical, informational, and probabilistic approaches. In addition to theory, it also pre....

This excellent article by @clsong.bsky.social‬ synthesizes research on the Assembly Graph, a useful conceptual & methodological tool to understand the dynamic assembly of microbial communities and multispecies coexistence.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...

This paper by Belda et al makes the case for wine fermentation as a model system in microbial ecology and evolution, one which hits a sweet spot between experimental tractability and rich ecological and evolutionary dynamics.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

This paper by Shraddha Karve discusses how evolutionary novelties emerge in microorganisms, focusing on the different types of novel traits and the role played by the environment.
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...