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Jake McKinlay

@jakemckinlay.bsky.social

Professor, Biology, Indiana University Bacterial physiology and cross-feeding interactions Artist: https://bit.ly/3oy86jf Sheltering under solar panels. Posts are my own.

232 Followers  |  256 Following  |  33 Posts  |  Joined: 17.10.2023  |  1.9606

Latest posts by jakemckinlay.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Sign the IMPEACH RFK Citizens' Petition to Congress β€” STAND UP FOR SCIENCE Join with us to sign our Citizens' Petition to the US Congress to choose the people over Trump and Impeach RFK Jr Now!

www.standupforscience.net/rfk-impeachm...
IMPEACH AND REMOVE RFK JR. SIGN HERE. SHARE WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW.

15.08.2025 18:54 β€” πŸ‘ 128    πŸ” 52    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 3
116 FB 5 Research Assistant (m/f/d) field of Theoretical Ecology and Evolution or Computational Biology: Uni OsnabrΓΌck

I am excited to announce that the position of a senior postdoc (3 +3 years) in the field of theoretical biology is available in my group.

The position provides the opportunity to closely interact with experimentalists and develop own research projects.

Please RT.

Details πŸ‘‡:
shorturl.at/iiiOv

08.08.2025 10:09 β€” πŸ‘ 88    πŸ” 104    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 4
Kenyon College - Details - Assistant Professor of Biology (Tenure-Track)

Kenyon is hiring a TT microbiologist! Please share widely. I’m the search chair & am happy to answer any questions. careers.pageuppeople.com/695/cw/en-us...

25.07.2025 14:18 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 58    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions | John Innes Centre An exciting opportunity for an Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions has arisen at the John Innes Centre. To read the full job description for this role…

New Independent Fellowship position in Microbiology to launch your lab in our department @johninnescentre.bsky.social (UK). We are conducting a broad search in the area of plant-associated microbial interactions. Message me if you have any questions.

Apply here: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/in...

10.07.2025 06:28 β€” πŸ‘ 76    πŸ” 94    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 4

🌟 Exciting news! We’re launching three fully-funded postdoc positions for "New Horizons for Synthetic Phages”

Join us in tackling antimicrobial resistance with cutting-edge synthetic biology + AI bioinformatics. Based at Flinders Uni in vibrant Adelaide.

πŸ‘‡ Read on for details!
#Phage

25.07.2025 08:15 β€” πŸ‘ 46    πŸ” 41    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

There is also a version for early career scientists who are seeking postdoc positions: go.bsky.app/8zZNEGV

18.07.2025 18:33 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 11    πŸ“Œ 0
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New faculty member studies how to leverage microbial forces to combat climate change - News The air we breathe is a direct result of the dirt under our feet. Trillions upon trillions of soil bacteria break down organic matter, releasing carbon dioxide and other potent greenhouse gases; photo...

This #EarthDay we are highlighting Rockefeller's Avi Flamholz, who is dedicated to leveraging microbial forces to combat climate change. Understanding how communities of microbes release and absorb carbon will help lead to more accurate climate models. www.rockefeller.edu/news/36919-n...

22.04.2025 16:07 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

As Requested - A Starter Pack of PIs in Biology (or adjacent) fields who are recruiting POSTDOCS! Please don't hesitate to reach out if you wish to be added! go.bsky.app/4gbXXR3

18.07.2025 18:33 β€” πŸ‘ 122    πŸ” 79    πŸ’¬ 15    πŸ“Œ 3
A blue poster describing opportunities to join the Bernhardt Lab -- for more information please see https://www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us

A blue poster describing opportunities to join the Bernhardt Lab -- for more information please see https://www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us

✨ The Bernhardt Lab at the University of Guelph is recruiting graduate students for 2026! Join us! We have several fully funded grad positions available ✨

Please spread the word!

www.bernhardtlab.org/join-us

#CSEE2025

07.07.2025 23:21 β€” πŸ‘ 101    πŸ” 102    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
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Indiana public colleges cut almost 20% of degrees Public Indiana colleges and universities have eliminated 19 percent of their degree programs to meet requirements added to the state’s budget, according to the Commission for Higher Education.

So, here it is. Thanks to a new state law that was NEVER DEBATED, Indiana University has committed itself to abolishing majors in African-American/African Diaspora Studies: American Studies; Art History; French; Italian; Religious Studies etc. DOZENS of majors. www.ipm.org/news-section...

30.06.2025 21:12 β€” πŸ‘ 2074    πŸ” 1289    πŸ’¬ 186    πŸ“Œ 447

This project always needed the right person: Congrats to Dr. @ofsheff.bsky.social for taking it on and seeing it through. Thanks also to our excellent collaborator and co-corresponding author Prof. Sima Setayeshgar.

27.06.2025 22:53 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
An empty booth at ASM that should have housed the NSF

An empty booth at ASM that should have housed the NSF

Well this is f’in sad #ASMicrobe

21.06.2025 20:40 β€” πŸ‘ 201    πŸ” 41    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 5
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Postdoctoral Associate MIT - Postdoctoral Associate - Cambridge MA 02139

‼️I'm looking for a postdoc‼️ Come join effort in using metagenomes to quantify microbial catabolic potential and carbon substrate availability at the ecosystem level. We seek to understand evolutionary forces shaping the carbon cycle. Part of ccomp-stc.org

careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

18.06.2025 14:39 β€” πŸ‘ 64    πŸ” 58    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
Image of stack of four copies of the book "When Trees Testify" by Beronda Montgomery with text above that reads "#WhenTreesTestify Coming Jan. 2026'"

Image of stack of four copies of the book "When Trees Testify" by Beronda Montgomery with text above that reads "#WhenTreesTestify Coming Jan. 2026'"

Some advance copies of my next book "When Trees Testify" have gone out into the world.

Release date: January 20, 2026

What a journey it has been thus far, and looking forward to the continuing journey ahead.

#WhenTreesTestify
#WhenTreesTestifyTheBook

18.06.2025 00:45 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 1

This is a great opportunity to pursue a PhD in marine virology, at a wonderful location, and terrific supervisors. Not to mention that it includes opportunities to do part of the work at UBC.

18.06.2025 03:39 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
A screen shot of an email reading: 

Dear Dr. Gill, Jacquelyn,
 
I am writing to let you know that given the current budgetary projections and recent adjustment of NSF’s over-arching priorities, NSF/BIO will not be making any new awards through the Biology Integration Institutes Program. Therefore, the solicitation has been archived, and NSF has returned your proposal without review so you can re-submit it, or portions of it, to appropriate BIO programs that currently are receiving new proposals, if you wish.
 
Sincerely,
 
Jim Deshler
Division Director (Acting)
Division of Biological Infrastructure

A screen shot of an email reading: Dear Dr. Gill, Jacquelyn, I am writing to let you know that given the current budgetary projections and recent adjustment of NSF’s over-arching priorities, NSF/BIO will not be making any new awards through the Biology Integration Institutes Program. Therefore, the solicitation has been archived, and NSF has returned your proposal without review so you can re-submit it, or portions of it, to appropriate BIO programs that currently are receiving new proposals, if you wish. Sincerely, Jim Deshler Division Director (Acting) Division of Biological Infrastructure

Last February, I led a proposal submission that encompassed six months, hundreds of hours, four institutions, a massive team, and and 256 pages. NSF just informed us that the entire Biology Integration Institute program was archived and our proposal would not even be reviewed.

With a form email.

16.06.2025 22:27 β€” πŸ‘ 1277    πŸ” 462    πŸ’¬ 98    πŸ“Œ 28
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Inactive β€œGhost” Cells Do Not Affect Motility and Long‐Range Electron Transport in Filamentous Cable Bacteria Mechanisms for the creation of individual ghost cells within a cable bacterium filament. (A) Schematic overview of different stressors that can lead to cell lysis or cell death. (i) Viral particles i...

Do ghosts exist? They do for cable bacteria: enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

13.06.2025 10:24 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Our paper in @science.org πŸ‘‰πŸ½ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

is accompanied by an especially thoughtful perspective by Carey Nadell and Chris Marx πŸ‘‰πŸ½
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

13.06.2025 06:11 β€” πŸ‘ 78    πŸ” 36    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 3
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PBEEE/Quebec Merit Scholarship for Foreign Postdocs and Visiting Research Student and Visiting Researchers **Note that the FRQ is in the process of revamping their webpages. We will update links soon as we can with the current 2025 year's information. Be sure to check back to see if any eligibility or docu...

Are you a recent PhD (or soon to be PhD) from outside Canada looking to do a postdoc in Quebec?

Get in touch if you are excited about microbes, evolution, ecology, genomics (or all of the above!) and I'd be happy to help develop a project together!

www.mcgill.ca/gps/funding/...

11.06.2025 19:00 β€” πŸ‘ 50    πŸ” 67    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 4

TODAY is the LAST DAY to comment on 'a plan to reclassify tens of thousands of government jobs as β€œpolicymaking positions” and therefore subject to presidential appointment and removal of NSF and NIH leaders who occupy these positions.'

23.05.2025 15:08 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Thrilled to share our collaborative work with the Kearns Lab at Indiana University. Dan Foust quantified patterning and mobility of flagella on the bacterial surface!

Caroline Dunn et al. "Nascent flagellar basal bodies are immobilized by rod assembly in Bacillus subtilis"
doi.org/10.1128/mbio...

21.05.2025 15:07 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Starvation drives co-existence in cross-feeding bacterial populations Cross-feeding is a universal feature of natural microbial communities that extends even into subpopulation structures, generating cooperative ecotypes. However, we still lack an understanding of the e...

Very cool new work by @megbehri.bsky.social and William F. McLaughlin:

Starvation drives co-existence in cross-feeding bacterial populations

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

24.04.2025 10:39 β€” πŸ‘ 21    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Linear dicentric chromosomes in bacterial natural isolates reveal common constraints for replicon fusion | mBio Most bacterial genomes are monopartite with a single, circular chromosome. However, some species, like Agrobacterium tumefaciens, carry multiple chromosomes. Emergence of multipartite genomes is often...

Happy to share a new publication on a collaboration with Xindan Wang and @fuquaclay.bsky.social labs. We identified and characterized naturally occurring Agrobacterium strains with fused chromosomes. Did mobile genetic elements play a role in fusion? journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

20.05.2025 14:37 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 5    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Exclusive: NSF faces radical shake-up as officials abolish its 37 divisions Changes seen as a response to presidential directives on what research to fund

More horrifying news from @policyhound.bsky.social @science.org
www.science.org/content/arti...

08.05.2025 23:34 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 2
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Biofilm architecture determines the dissemination of conjugative plasmids | PNAS Plasmid conjugation is a contact-dependent horizontal gene transfer mechanism that significantly contributes to the dissemination of antibiotic res...

Biofilm architecture determines the dissemination of conjugative plasmids: We measured the spatiotemporal spread of plasmids in biofilms and found that plasmids only spread in some biofilm regions!

Collab with lab of @sbigot.bsky.social & Christian Lesterlin
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

28.04.2025 07:03 β€” πŸ‘ 44    πŸ” 16    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Join the Blokesch lab (@EPFL) as a postdoc in Molecular Microbiology 🀩
Study Vibrio cholerae defense systems (phage/plasmid) in a dynamic, collaborative environment in Lausanne close to Lake Geneva in πŸ‡¨πŸ‡­!
Please visit my lab's webpage for details about the position and how to formally apply.

25.04.2025 16:15 β€” πŸ‘ 66    πŸ” 104    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 3

Thanks Rogier!

07.05.2025 13:03 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Our preprint on evolved formate assimilation by recent-grad Dr. Brittany Mazny. How is the CO2 intermediate retained to prime the Calvin cycle? The answer includes pigment production as an overlooked CO2 concentrating mechanism. w @blasarre.bsky.social + A Govindaraju www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

07.05.2025 12:52 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
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Congrats to Dr. Brittany Mazny who successfully defended her PhD (last Friday)!

30.04.2025 14:56 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

We have openings for motivated and curious individuals to join our team @arizonastateuni.bsky.social microbialeco.systems

#MicroSky

21.04.2025 17:00 β€” πŸ‘ 19    πŸ” 15    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

@jakemckinlay is following 20 prominent accounts