Asher Leeks

YouTube video by TEDx Talks The social lives of viruses | Asher Leeks | TEDxNewEngland

I gave a talk last year at TEDxNewEngland aimed at introducing the idea of viral sociality to a general audience, including implications for evolution & virology. Video now available online below.

#socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪

Population Biology Modeling & Theory (PBMT) is a peer-reviewed journal reporting advances in modeling and theory within population biology. Its scope spans demography, ecology, epidemiology, evolutionary biology, population genetics, and phylogenetics. PBMT will be online soon.

Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404

Thrilled to share our paper that just came out in PNAS!

We asked a deceptively simple question: What happens when S. aureus adapts to vancomycin, a critical first-line antibiotic?

1/5

Ecology and evolution of virulence Silva and King discuss the concept of virulence and the ecological and evolutionary factors that shape it.

Interested in #virulence? Not sure what it is - or how to explain it? Just curious? 🧐🦠🧬🦋

@kayla-king.bsky.social and I just wrote a Primer for @currentbiology.bsky.social on the ecology and evolution of virulence!

Check it below and share :)

#MicroSky #EvoSky #pathogens

Some viruses like to cheat – and that may be good for our health Mutations can result in viruses that infect cells, but can't copy themselves without help from other viruses - now it seems these cheats may outnumber normal viruses in a third of influenza cases, red...

In as much as a third of flu infections, parasitic "cheating" viruses 🦠 come to outnumber normal viruses - which helps limit the severity of infections 🧪

That's what @asherleeks.bsky.social and co have found by analysing sequencing data

www.newscientist.com/article/2496...

This is a great example of LLMs getting better at overcoming our basic fact-checks. I think we assume that LLMs will get better at not making mistakes... they're presumably also going to get better at deceiving us.

The constant barrage of terrible news on bluesky has made me feel weird about promoting papers, but people in the lab have been doing so much amazing work over the past few months that I want to share a few brief teasers/links:

Center for Living Systems -- seeking strong post docs at the interface of physics and biology. Consider applying by Oct. 13! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Welcome Chadi!

I'm super excited to have joined @ubcmath.bsky.social
and @ubcmicroimmuno.bsky.social !! Please get in touch if you might be interested in graduate studies or postdoctoral research opportunities!

Full or Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modeling APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS: CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, a...

🎙️ JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: @ciddpsu.bsky.social Ctr for Infectious Disease Dynamics at PSU is searching for a Full or Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modeling. This is a unique, cross-university search for someone to become a leader in our community!

psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

Professor Kayla King awarded Francis Crick Medal

Congratulations @kayla-king.bsky.social !!

www.biology.ox.ac.uk/article/prof...

Our EEB department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is hiring an assistant professor in evo-devo. See go.illinois.edu/EEBAsstProf for details. Please share!

Come join us in the @biology.ox.ac.uk at @ox.ac.uk! New Associate Professor position in Animal Behaviour, with Merton College:

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Coming December 16!

Hey Bsky, I’m Luís, a 🇵🇹 disease ecologist in Vancouver 🇨🇦

I study the drama between hosts 🪱🦟 and parasites 🦠 - who wins, who loses, and which cards get played - and why it matters for evolution & health.
Always up for collabs, chats & making science fairer ✨

Say hi 👉 luis-m-silva.com
#AcademicSky

I'll be presenting poster 327 at #ESEB2025 today - come have a look if you're interested in the evolution of sex and haploid-diploid life cycles!

Antimutator and Mutational Spectrum Effects Can Combine to Reduce Evolutionary Potential in Escherichia coli ΔnudJ Abstract. The rate of spontaneous mutation is a key factor in determining the capacity of a population to adapt to a novel environment, for example, a bact

@rowancallumg.bsky.social @knightjar.bsky.social @rokkrasovec.bsky.social et al. study the antimutator ΔnudJ to highlight the value of considering mutation rate and mutational spectrum to understand the evolution of mutation rate-modifying alleles.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf182

#evobio #molbio

I'm very excited (and a bit nervous) to talk all about the work I did on Zonotrichia sparrows with @darrenirwin.bsky.social at UBC tomorrow morning at 10:30 am in the JEB Stearns Prize Symposium at #ESEB2025!

Super interesting session on post-phylogenomics this morning at #eseb2025

I have a poster on the new version of Orthofinder - there will be a suggestion box 🎁

P03.076 on Thursday

Going to eseb2025.bsky.social? 🇪🇸
Into heterogeneity in parasite transmission? 🦠
Or just feel like playing a board game? 🎲

Then come say hi and check what @kayla-king.bsky.social and I have been cooking! 🧪✨

Poster P01.365 in session 1 (Monday 18, 5pm)
See u there ✌️ 🌞 🍻

#EvoSky #ESEB2025

You might appreciate this one it generated for me illustrating important Hominid fossil discoveries and their locations…

Oropouche virus: a rapid evidence gap map This rapid evidence gap map identifies and categorises the available evidence on Oropouche virus to inform research prioritisation.

#Oropouche virus news!! @ukhsa.bsky.social has mapped the evidence for Oropouche virus epidemiology, vectors and ecology, virology, pathogenesis, medical countermeasures and public health:
www.gov.uk/government/p...

An incredibly useful resource to guide future research and funding

We are also hiring a 4-year postdoc to study the dynamics and evolution of mobile genetic elements in the C-fixing Icelandic host-spring microbiomes

Join our exciting multidisciplinary team funded by @ukri.org BBSRC sLoLa

www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Faculty Search Alert!
The Division of Microbiology & Immunology at @UUtah is growing! We're hiring at all ranks in the tenure track—join a cutting-edge, collaborative research community in stunning Salt Lake City.
utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/186...
#AcademicJobs #Immunology #ScienceCareers

Please repost and amplify !

We are hiring a faculty position in Evolutionary Genetics in the Biology Department at U of South Carolina!

Check us out and come be our colleague!
sc.edu/study/colleg...

Deadline for applications is Oct 1

#AcademicJobs #EvoBio

The ghost of infections past: Accounting for heterogeneity in individual infection history improves accuracy in epidemic forecasting Variable pathogen exposure history contributes to individual immune differences, complicating epidemic forecasting. This Essay argues that experimental disease ecology can offer powerful tools and app...

Forecasting the effects of #epidemics is complicated by a population’s pathogen exposure history. @pfvale.bsky.social @chadisaadroy.bsky.social & Mike Boots argue for the use of experimental #DiseaseEcology to better understand the consequences of variations in #infection history 🧪
plos.io/4mdDVvW

Sharing this Pitt article about my helping to lead ASM because it shares my hopes for the scientific and societal good we can do.

We are all population biologists, whether or not we know it, and this can enrich us.

www.medschool.pitt.edu/news/pitt-s-...

Very proud of the work from lab members and collaborators that coincidentally came out today www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... and www.nature.com/articles/s41.... A bacterial and viral pathogen associated with mass mortality in seastars and oysters. @kevinzhong2006.bsky.social @rhizalyssa.bsky.social