Kevin Bonham

Evolution - it's a hell of a drug Bacteria have immune systems? Even adaptive immune systems? And autoimmunity? Well... sort of

Bacteria have immune systems? And autoimmunity? Well...

In this episode, Kate and @kevinbonham.com discuss a new paper showing that anti-phage defenses of bacteria can provide really broad protection, but pesky selection gets in the way 🦠 🧫 🧪

audiommunity.org/episodes/epi...

I'm imagining a lot of the best therapies for hard-to-drug targets being bespoke cell-based therapies. Will insurance cover those?

1. Depends on the kind of cancer, but probably 90% of cancers within 10 years

2. For the wealthy, already in view. For the rest of us 🤷

"Oh no! You got scammed by someone using genetics?!"

".... Oh, I get it"

This is a great idea. I suspect most Americans don't really know what's going on with the attacks on science. This could help.

Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139) | UiT The Arctic University of Norway Job title: Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139), Employer: UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Deadline: Wednesday, August 27, 2025

Feels surreal to say but: I'm hiring! If you are or know anyone interested in looking at the evolution of phage resistance using A. baumannii and natural transformation, then this might be for you
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Audiommunity.org

I do a podcast with friends from grad school about the immune system @audiommunity.bsky.social audiommunity.org

Also microbe.tv (cc @bioprofbarker.bsky.social ) has a bunch.

We’re growing @arcadiascience.com & are on the lookout for talent to run new pilot projects contributing to our broader goals. Seeking computational + wet lab fluency to iterate independently on new projects. If you’re a creative scientist w/ ambitious ideas, apply!

jobs.lever.co/arcadiascien...

Bactopia v4 - Overview & Help Wanted · Issue #628 · bactopia/bactopia Bactopia v4 Yo! Well, it is about that time! I am planning to release version 4 of Bactopia in the near future. With this version, Bactopia will introduce new and exciting things, but at the same t...

Howdy! I'm currently writing up version 4 of Bactopia!

Similar to previous major versions, I've started an issue on Github to track v4 progress. If you are a user of Bactopia and would like to help with feedback or with code, check out the following link:

github.com/bactopia/bac...

Every reputable expert I know considers mRNA vaccine technology to be one of the most revolutionary advances in medicine in our lifetimes. Its inventors won the Nobel Prize in 2023. Shutting it down now is pointless self-harm to humanity.

Hmm - looks like the website repo I found might be a red herring, the user is jeremymberg (note the M middle initial) but has the website jeremyberg.github.io - the jeremyberg user doesn't have any public repos

Almost certainly a typo. Code to generate these isn't on the website repo though AFAICT, could be just added after the fact.

I especially like the red queen hypothesis, since it explains how these trade-offs get locked in and escalate in cost en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Que...

Transmission bottlenecks as determinants of virulence in rapidly evolving pathogens Transmission bottlenecks occur in pathogen populations when only a few individual pathogens are transmitted from one infected host to another in the initiation of a new infection. Transmission bottlen...

Basically everything in host / pathogen interaction, eg

- virulence vs transmission: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...
- defense vs autoimmunity: www.nature.com/articles/s41... (even in bacteria! www.nature.com/articles/s41...)

I've been listening to the songs from Hamilton again for the first time in ~10 years. It hits a bit differently now.

Bacterial transmission within social groups shapes the underexplored gut microbiome in the lemur Indri indri Abstract. The Indri indri is a critically endangered lemur species that has not successfully been maintained or bred under human care. Investigating this l

🧵 New paper alert!
Our first dive into non-human hosts: the gut microbiome of the critically endangered lemur Indri indri 🐒🌱
Led by talented MSc student Francisca Labisa-Morais!
📄 @isme-microbes.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

If one is not able to follow the logic of the aphorism to reach this conclusion on one's own, one should maybe not be in the business of making models in the first place 🤷

It's at least a little about the money

Group Leader - Genome Biology Unit Are you ready to lead groundbreaking research in Genome Biology? Join us at EMBL! We are seeking a motivated scientist to lead an independent research group addressing exciting and original biological...

To all post-docs: The Genome Biology dept ‪@embl.org
has an Independent faculty position. Fantastic place to set up your lab –great package: core funding, fantastic Ph.D. students, cutting edge core facilities & great colleagues. Closing date Sept 19th
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

Probably quite hard to *become* a billboard in the first place if you have commitments other than "make the most money possible".

I have been VERY lucky with NIH funding, with continuous funding since ~2015. I have never scored anywhere below 10%. Paylines like this mean a lot of labs like mine never launch

Please consider helping us out if you meet the criteria mentioned in the ad! We will pay $10 for ~20 minutes of your valuable time and expertise. Please share widely!

The LISTEN principles for genetic sequence data governance and database engineering - Nature Genetics This Perspective proposes a checklist of six database design considerations, LISTEN: licensed, identified, supervised, transparent, enforced and non-exclusive, aimed at ensuring access and benefit-sha...

🧪 What if we could share genetic sequences in a way that is equitable, and works for the greater good?

Now in @natgenet.nature.com, we establish a framework for the open sharing of digital sequence information 🧬, compatible with FAIR, and designed to support access and benefit-sharing. 🧵

New lenses can be useful, but they can also be deeply misleading. Animal neural architecture and neural nets on silicon are pretty radically different.

There may be certain analogies, but I would guess not that many.

For cool work on bio plasticity, see David Eagleman's work on adding new senses

Perhaps, though again I think this framing is backwards. In a sense, bodies are "enminded" rather than minds being embodied.

Typical subjective experience is that we are minds controlling our bodies, but biology and even deep introspection (eg meditation) suggest that it's the other way around

I'm not entirely certain that it would be. There's a difference between adding a body to a mind that figures out how to manipulate it, and evolving a mind to a body through evolution.

Body precedes mind both in evolution and in animal development.

Opinion | The Elite Panic at the Heart of Liberal Attacks on Mamdani

From @tressiemcphd.bsky.social: "When both sides of the political spectrum share an obsession with interrogating one’s racial purity, maybe it’s time to confront an uncomfortable truth: A lot of us are exactly who Donald Trump believes that we are." [Free link] www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/o...

JuliaCon Global 2025 | Else Room | Day 2 YouTube video by The Julia Programming Language

Another #juliacon in the books! Check out my talk on TidierPlots.jl here: www.youtube.com/live/HMdBi9L... and the State of Tidier.jl (by Daniel Rizk) here: www.youtube.com/live/_Uf2KQX... to see what's been going on with @tidierjl.bsky.social in #julialang

Have a 6.5 year old - age appropriate or is it for kids a bit older?

This is like @caseyjohnston.bsky.social 's bat signal. Also btw @tressiemcphd.bsky.social is a MacArthur genius AND power lifts... It's kinda unfair 😅