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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 1d

Congratulations to Drs. Ramsdell, Brunkow, and Sakaguchi! I actually didn’t realize until today that PNRI’s David Galas was a part of the project to identify the genetic basis of the “scurfy” mice that led to Tregs. (@pnrigenetics.bsky.social) David’s legacy has touched more than I can imagine!

WIRED @wired.com · 3d

Fred Ramsdell was on vacation in the Montana wilderness when he and two colleagues received the honor for their breakthroughs in immunology. www.wired.com/story/nobel-...

Scientist Who Was Offline 'Living His Best Life' Stunned by Nobel Prize Win

Fred Ramsdell was on vacation in the Montana wilderness when he and two colleagues received the honor for their breakthroughs in immunology.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Michael Metzger

Daniel Bolnick @danielbolnick.bsky.social · 2d

@sse-evolution.bsky.social just announced the following:

Call for Proposals: Research Synthesis Working Groups
The Society for the Study of Evolution (SSE) invites proposals for sponsored Research Synthesis Working Groups at the 2026 Evolution meeting (up to two in-person and one virtual). ...

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

And we have more to come--understanding disease transmission, identifying new outbreaks of transmissible cancer, and several different strategies to find the genetic mechanisms behind the evolution of resistance to cancer in this unique and exciting system!

(If we still have a lab...)

Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

Each of the 3 first authors were awesome techs who ran the project for over a year, and all 3 are now PhD students! Rachael Giersch (UO), Jordana Sevigny (UCSC), and Sydney Weinandt (UAB). Huge effort from everyone involved and I am excited to see it all come together.

Soft-shell clams in individual tanks in the lab

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

Overall, this was the culmination of a long effort, especially if you count 2020, in which we were conveniently running a year-long experiment to test different clam maintenance conditions, once we realized that we needed to keep clams alive for a lot longer than we had thought initially.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

And because it is BlueSky I have to include the dual axis plot of representative clams from each outcome type comparing cancer fraction over time (lines) with eDNA detection (dots).

Figure 4. Detection of MarBTN-specific eDNA in tank water at late stages of MarBTN progression.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

We also tested the tank water for eDNA to see when cancer cells are released by sick clams. We found 2 phases: an early phase <24% cancer without much transmission and an infectious phase >24% cancer with BTN eDNA detected in water, released in bursts and correlated with disease severity.

Figure 5. Modeling the relationship between cancer level in hemolymph and MarBTN in tank eDNA.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

We also saw the timing of progression could have a long delay and was highly variable, and we even saw progress in a few clams initially diagnosed as negative, showing that there can be a long latent period when the cancer cells engraft into tissues and stay/grow there, before being seen in lymph.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

Progression is clear, and we show it is associated with early death, but the surprising thing was that cancer did not progress in about half of animals, which suggests evolution of resistance in these populations after the earlier severe outbreaks.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

We found a lot of variability, but saw three main outcomes: Progression to Death, Long-Term Non-Progression, and Regression.

Figure 2. Multiple distinct outcomes observed in soft-shell clams (Mya arenaria) after natural infection with MarBTN.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

To determine how transmissible cancers really affect clams in New England now, we maintained clams collected from the wild in individual tanks in the lab and followed the cancer with qPCR of their hemolymph every 2 weeks for up to a year to quantify the fraction of BTN cells at each time.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

It was reported to be lethal and had been reported to cause severe population die-offs in the 80s and 2000s. But there were some older reports of regression, and during other experiments we anecdotally noticed one of the clams in our lab showed a very clear case of cancer growth and then regression.

Figure 1. Anecdotal case of regression in a clam with naturally acquired BTN.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

While the cancer has been seen for decades and we discovered that it was a transmissible cancer during my postdoc 10 years ago now (I am old I guess), there hadn’t been much work following BTN in clams over time to see what the actual outcomes of disease are and how it can progress.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 2d

I am happy to share some good news from the lab! Our paper on the outcomes of Bivalve Transmissible Neoplasia is out this week in PLOS Pathogens!
doi.org/10.1371/jour...

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Reposted by Michael Metzger

David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 2d

Hey US scientists, the NY Times wants to hear from you if you've had your funding cut. 🌊🧪

Has Your Scientific Work Been Cut? We Want to Hear.

www.nytimes.com

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 3d

Before there was the Matrix doorknob shot…

Image from Nightmare Before Christmas with a shot of Jack reaching for the Christmas Town doorknob and seeing his reflection in it.

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Reposted by Michael Metzger

Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 3d

Today my @nytimes.com colleagues and I are launching a new series called Lost Science. We interview US scientists who can no longer discover something new about our world, thanks to this year‘s cuts. Here is my first interview with a scientist who studied bees and fires. Gift link: nyti.ms/3IWXbiE

nyti.ms

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Reposted by Michael Metzger

The Oatmeal @theoatmeal.bsky.social · 4d

Let’s talk about AI art.

theoatmeal.com/comics/ai_art

A cartoonist's review of AI art - The Oatmeal

This is a comic about AI art.

theoatmeal.com

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Reposted by Michael Metzger

Paul Rainey @paulbrainey.bsky.social · 6d

Two new positions are available at the MPI for Evolutionary Biology to support development of our genomics facility. Both stand to become permanent. Both offer a ton of opportunity to engage in a wide range of creative science.

Pls repost 🙏

www.evolbio.mpg.de/3838377/job_...

Two full-time positions | Bioinformatician (m/f/d) + Applications Specialist (m/f/d) - Molecular Biology

The Genome Facility at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön is seeking to fill two positions (full time) to support and expand our core facility services.

www.evolbio.mpg.de

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 7d

I need to know more!

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 8d

*from someone trained in molecular biology and infectious disease

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 8d

Naive question for someone trained in molecular biology and infectious disease: What makes a question or a study ecology v. evolution or vice versa?

I find myself following interesting infectious disease questions into evolution and ecology and stepping on field boundaries without realizing it.

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Reposted by Michael Metzger

Tiffany Lowe-Power 🌱🦠 @tlowepower.bsky.social · 11d

Advice: download PDFs of any documents you might need from government websites. The NIFA website went offline during the government shutdown during my PhD

Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · 11d

In that vein, NSF's shutdown plans just went public: nsf-gov-resources.nsf.gov/files/nsf-sh...

Already-funded projects can continue. And proposals can be submitted. But don't expect a response from a program officer during the shutdown.

Brief Summary of significant agency activities that will continue during a lapse:
National Science Foundation (NSF) will use available carryover balances to continue daily operations.
Once those balances are exhausted, electronic systems for proposal preparation and submission
will remain available for use during a lapse in appropriations, (i.e., Research.gov, and Grants.gov).
The Awards Cash Management Service (ACM$) and the Invoice Processing Platform (IPP) will remain
available for the submission and processing of valid payments for recipients and contractors.
Recipients may continue performance under their NSF awards during a lapse in appropriations, to
the extent funds are available, and the period of performance of the grant or cooperative
agreement has not expired. In the event of a lapse, more detailed information on NSF operations for
recipients, panelists, and employees will be posted at www.NSF.gov, and will be updated as
necessary during a lapse.
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Brief Summary of significant agency activities that will cease during a lapse:
In general, no new grants, continuing grant increments, cooperative agreements, or contracts will be
awarded. No new funding opportunities (program descriptions, announcements, solicitations or
Dear Colleague Letters) will be issued. Responses to any inquiries received regarding upcoming
deadlines will be deferred until normal operations resume. All panels (including virtual panels)
scheduled to occur during a lapse in appropriations will be cancelled and will likely be rescheduled
to a later date.

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Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 15d

Michael Metzger @metzgerm.bsky.social · 15d

I don’t mean to shame anyone’s artistic chooses when making children’s book illustrations, but I just looked closely at this T. Rex on the Dino book my toddler loves…

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