James Gurney

48 2nd row and 96 3rd row

Funnily I was going to talk about this in my advanced genetics course this week. I was also going to mention CC the cat.

Foster success. Jojo was adopted this afternoon. I’ll miss this idiot.

This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is funded by the National Science Foundation to create "points of entry" for students interested in research. Students apply from across the country to spend 10 weeks in Bozeman, Montana this summer (May 26, 2026 - August 1, 2026). Admitted students are paired with a faculty mentor, who serves as an advisor for a student's summer project. Each student receives a stipend ($7000 for 10 wks). Travel compensation, room, and board are also provided. Our program leverages MSU’s unique microbiology expertise, focusing specifically on microbes living with little or no oxygen (like those in the hot springs of nearby Yellowstone). Low oxygen microbes are essential to human and ecosystem health. They influence (or control) such processes as the breakdown of food in the GI tract, removal of toxins from our bodies and the environment, and production of greenhouse gases. They are also models for understanding the origins of life on this planet, and the potential for life on other planets. A key goal of our program is to recruit students from schools with limited research infrastructure. Being in Montana, a state with a vibrant Native American community, we are particularly interested in applications from students at tribal colleges. However, ANYONE with an interest in microbiology - or biology/science in general - can and should apply. If willing and able, please share/tweet/spread the word far and wide. Applications are due February 14, 2026. Full details can be found through our website http://www.montana.edu/mbi/reu/

Friends, please help spread the word about our microbiology REU program at Montana State University.
www.montana.edu/mbi/reu/

Each student receives a stipend ($7000 for 10 wks). Travel compensation, room, and board are also provided.

Details in the attached pic--Feb 14 deadline
🧫🧪🦠#microsky

This is my worry. I think the protocol came out of ppl not wanting to ugrads using phenol in seaphage type programs. But the resin is a bunch of glass bead, I wonder when compressed in a syringe they act like a bead beater. Yields with kit aren’t terrible!

It’s not intended to but lots of folks make use of it for phage dna extraction.

Phage folks who use the wizard DNA clean up kit to extract Phage DNA, I understand how the silica can hold onto DNA, how does the kit open up the phage in the first place? Mechanical stress from the 10µm silica beads in the resin? Or does the guanidinium thiocyanate do the job?

JOB ALERT! 📢 For the scientists who love science communication: we’re hiring at @kurzgesagt.org !🌍 Come join our team, the vibes are impeccable.

✍️ Scriptwriter (Remote) kurzgesagt.org/careers/scri...
🔍 Fact-Checker & Researcher (Munich/Berlin/Remote) kurzgesagt.org/careers/seni...

I’ve been rumbled.

I also didn’t write this book.

Proof that even as a child I had bags under my eyes.

In Wales for Christmas. That means pictures of my parent’s gigantic dog where I try to depict her scale.

So incredibly proud of this work, and thankful to everyone who makes it possible!

I’m looking forward to the episode he first reads an NBER working paper at age 7. I bet that’ll be up an EMMY.

We combined whole tissue clearing with HCR-mRNA FISH imaging to differentiate and visualize different PAO1 variants in mouse lungs infected with mixed populations.

Whole-tissue imaging reveals intrastrain diversity shapes the spatial organization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a murine infection model | mSphere Intrastrain genetic and phenotypic diversity within Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations is common in chronic pulmonary infections. While this intrastrain heterogeneity is a hallmark of chronic infection, its consequences for the spatial organization of P. aeruginosa within the airways remain unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the loss of O-specific antigen in a subpopulation of P. aeruginosa significantly alters the spatial architecture of P. aeruginosa, without changing the total population size or composition. Using a combination of tissue clearing and hybridization chain reaction RNA-FISH in a murine lung infection model, we mapped the localization of genetically distinct P. aeruginosa variants in mixed populations in vivo. These findings reveal that genetic diversification within a strain can reshape the infection landscape at the micron scale, highlighting the overlooked role of intrastrain dynamics in shaping the microbiogeography of infections and influencing host-pathogen interactions.

Recent work from the lab showing how presence of O-antigen deficient Pseudomonas variants change aggregate assembly and microbiogeography of infection

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

French farm has €90,000 worth of escargot snails stolen The break-in was "a real blow", says L'Escargot Des Grands Crus, which was preparing deliveries for the holiday season.

Escargone... I'll see myself out www.bbc.com/news/article...

For example, I've considered setting take home essay questions the require consideration of unethical experimental situations. ChatGTP, it seems, isn't very keen on writing on certain topic. But I've not worked out how to set such work without it potentially causing distress for some students.

Interesting, if anyone has other suggestions on ways to poison AIs to reduce student cheating I'm all ears!

PhD opportunity in my lab: exploring how commensals and pathogens build biofilm communities on endotracheal (ventilator) tubes. Microbial ecology, medical microbiology and fancy imaging! Co-supervised with the fabulous Saskia Bakker and Jeremy Webb warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa... #MicroSky

Interested in doing a PhD in phage biology? See below a super cool project on megaphage ecology and evolution available at the University of Jyväskylä (FIN) in Elina Laanto's lab (Project no. 4). Co-supervision provided by yours truly.

Long contractile tailed bacteriophage in a yellow-gold environment.

I made a phage… I think it’s in LB

Such a Friday, double win at Biology Department with Bio for Breakfast and Research day @jamesgurney.bsky.social @persisterbritt.bsky.social @kswetzel1.bsky.social

dplyr but make it bussin fr fr no cap `genzplyr` is an alternative syntax for `dplyr` that replaces boring old function names with GenZ slang. Your data wrangling is about to hit different.

My lab is gonna make the switch to from dplyr to genzplyr right away.

hadley.github.io/genzplyr/

GURNEY LAB The Gurney lab began in 2022 at Georgia State University. We study how Phage interact with their bacterial hosts and how we might use that knowledge to build better phage therapeutics.

Ohhh, could you add my lab? We have a bunch of immune system stuff brewing www.gurneylab.com

Conda create -n chopchop

Picture of MEME students on the beach

Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu

I was thinking of this graphic just the other day in relation to AI and current gen in education.

273 °C also work at stopping those things.