Guillaume Méric
@gmeric.bsky.social
🇪🇺 🇫🇷 🇦🇺 in 🇬🇧 (he/him) | www.mericlab.com
Microbiome(s) and health, pathogen ecology, human archaeome & host-microbe genomics
Associate Professor @uniofbath.bsky.social
Clinical Affiliate @bakerresearchau.bsky.social @cambridgebaker.bsky.social
📍Bath, UK
Microbiome(s) and health, pathogen ecology, human archaeome & host-microbe genomics
Associate Professor @uniofbath.bsky.social
Clinical Affiliate @bakerresearchau.bsky.social @cambridgebaker.bsky.social
📍Bath, UK
Pinned
The 2026 EMBO course in Computational and Experimental Microbiomics held in @uniofbath.bsky.social has been announced! Come and join us for this course to study host-microbe interactions and co-evolution.
⏰ When: 6-18 July 26
🚨 Registration: 11 May 26
🔗 meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
⏰ When: 6-18 July 26
🚨 Registration: 11 May 26
🔗 meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!
"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
Scientists no Longer Find Twitter Professionally Useful, and have Switched to Bluesky
Synopsis. Social media has become widely used by the scientific community for a variety of professional uses, including networking and public outreach. For
academic.oup.com
February 13, 2026 at 10:08 PM
Bluesky is the new science Twitter, new study by @whysharksmatter.bsky.social and Julia Wester concludes!
"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
"Results show that for every reported professional benefit that scientists once gained from Twitter, scientists can now gain that benefit more effectively on Bluesky than on Twitter."
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
Introduction to building (better) R packages www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Kr... (R/Pharma 2025 #Rstats)
Introduction to building (better) R packages
Introduction to building (better) R packages - Nicola Rennie
Abstract: There are many benefits to turning your R scripts or functions into a package, like making your code easier to re-use, easier…
www.youtube.com
February 13, 2026 at 9:01 PM
Introduction to building (better) R packages www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8Kr... (R/Pharma 2025 #Rstats)
Two in a row! Amazing. Here's the list of noteworthy studies I recently stumbled upon (and mostly shared here on bluesky), in the fields of microbiome science, microbial ecology and other stuff. Hope this will be useful to some!
mericlab.com/2026/02/14/n...
mericlab.com/2026/02/14/n...
Noteworthy from the blue skies — mid-Feb 2026
Two in a row! It’s been a while. I hope this list of interesting recent papers (at least to me!) in the field of microbiome science, microbial ecology and other stuff will be useful to you! A…
mericlab.com
February 13, 2026 at 9:00 PM
Two in a row! Amazing. Here's the list of noteworthy studies I recently stumbled upon (and mostly shared here on bluesky), in the fields of microbiome science, microbial ecology and other stuff. Hope this will be useful to some!
mericlab.com/2026/02/14/n...
mericlab.com/2026/02/14/n...
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
🧪 In two new studies on 28,000 individuals, researchers are able to show how 11 genetic variants affect gut microbiome.
@tovefall.bsky.social (SciLifeLab/@uu.se) led one of the studies.
Learn more in the Uppsala University press release here:
www.mynewsdesk.com/uu/pressrele...
@tovefall.bsky.social (SciLifeLab/@uu.se) led one of the studies.
Learn more in the Uppsala University press release here:
www.mynewsdesk.com/uu/pressrele...
February 13, 2026 at 11:56 AM
🧪 In two new studies on 28,000 individuals, researchers are able to show how 11 genetic variants affect gut microbiome.
@tovefall.bsky.social (SciLifeLab/@uu.se) led one of the studies.
Learn more in the Uppsala University press release here:
www.mynewsdesk.com/uu/pressrele...
@tovefall.bsky.social (SciLifeLab/@uu.se) led one of the studies.
Learn more in the Uppsala University press release here:
www.mynewsdesk.com/uu/pressrele...
Delighted to have contributed to this impressive work led by @tovefall.bsky.social & many others👏 (w/ @gazollavolpiano.bsky.social from our side). This novel microbiome GWAS (n=~16k+12k valid) expands knowledge on genetic factors associated w/ gut microbiota variation.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genome-wide association analyses highlight the role of the intestinal molecular environment in human gut microbiota variation - Nature Genetics
Population-based studies from Sweden with replication in Norway identify associations between host genetic variants and gut microbial composition and implicate short-chain fatty acid chemosensors as m...
www.nature.com
February 13, 2026 at 12:49 PM
Delighted to have contributed to this impressive work led by @tovefall.bsky.social & many others👏 (w/ @gazollavolpiano.bsky.social from our side). This novel microbiome GWAS (n=~16k+12k valid) expands knowledge on genetic factors associated w/ gut microbiota variation.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
👶 Curious about infant gut microbiota and 🧬 antimicrobial resistance? Have a look at our recent publication @natcomms.nature.com
#microbiome #infantgut #AMR
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#microbiome #infantgut #AMR
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Temporal dynamics and microbial interactions shaping the gut resistome in early infancy - Nature Communications
Here the authors show that antibiotic resistance genes peak in the gut at the age of 6 months, and that beneficial bifidobacteria produce aromatic lactic acids that actively inhibit antimicrobial resi...
www.nature.com
September 1, 2025 at 2:32 PM
👶 Curious about infant gut microbiota and 🧬 antimicrobial resistance? Have a look at our recent publication @natcomms.nature.com
#microbiome #infantgut #AMR
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#microbiome #infantgut #AMR
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
New work associates Parabacteroides abundance with gut-barrier markers and inflammation in older adults (n=55 >60yo), suggesting a potentially protective host-glycan niche (mucin/sialic acid/Neu5Ac).
🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
February 12, 2026 at 8:24 PM
New work associates Parabacteroides abundance with gut-barrier markers and inflammation in older adults (n=55 >60yo), suggesting a potentially protective host-glycan niche (mucin/sialic acid/Neu5Ac).
🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
🔗 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
Our EMBO workshop is now live. Visit us in Bath this summer for a two week workshop designed to help you study host-microbe interactions in the zebrafish, and develop the bioinformatics skills needed to analyse the complex data sets that arise from microbiomic studies.
Computational and experimental microbiomics
The critical contribution of microbiota to animal, plant and environmental health is now widely accepted. Progress has been driven by two parallel approaches: in silico analyses of large -omics data …
meetings.embo.org
February 6, 2026 at 2:51 PM
Our EMBO workshop is now live. Visit us in Bath this summer for a two week workshop designed to help you study host-microbe interactions in the zebrafish, and develop the bioinformatics skills needed to analyse the complex data sets that arise from microbiomic studies.
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, there was a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Our paper, led by @martibartfast.bsky.social
a) correcting errors in 4.5 million genomes & their phylogeny
b) improving representation of the Global South in public data
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(thread 1/n)
a) correcting errors in 4.5 million genomes & their phylogeny
b) improving representation of the Global South in public data
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(thread 1/n)
Addressing pandemic-wide systematic errors in the SARS-CoV-2 phylogeny - Nature Methods
This Resource paper presents a global SARS-CoV-2 phylogenetic tree of 4,471,579 high-quality genomes consistently constructed by Viridian, an efficient amplicon-aware assembler.
www.nature.com
February 9, 2026 at 3:16 PM
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, there was a SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Our paper, led by @martibartfast.bsky.social
a) correcting errors in 4.5 million genomes & their phylogeny
b) improving representation of the Global South in public data
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(thread 1/n)
a) correcting errors in 4.5 million genomes & their phylogeny
b) improving representation of the Global South in public data
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
(thread 1/n)
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
Happy #DarwinDay 🧬🌿! To celebrate, why not share a story about #evolution with a #FutureScientist? My book, Little Changes, is a fun bedtime story for young readers to explore how small changes shape the living world.
littlestories.co.uk/little-chang...
#ScienceForKids #STEMBooks
littlestories.co.uk/little-chang...
#ScienceForKids #STEMBooks
Little Changes
an introduction to evolution Click on the image below, to read the story. Meet the Rinkidinks. They live together in one large happy family, carefree and untroubled by the rest of the world. Until …
littlestories.co.uk
February 12, 2026 at 11:51 AM
Happy #DarwinDay 🧬🌿! To celebrate, why not share a story about #evolution with a #FutureScientist? My book, Little Changes, is a fun bedtime story for young readers to explore how small changes shape the living world.
littlestories.co.uk/little-chang...
#ScienceForKids #STEMBooks
littlestories.co.uk/little-chang...
#ScienceForKids #STEMBooks
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
Gotta love Nature's opinion pieces
"Science funding needs fixing - but not like that"
"Academic publishing is broken - but publishing less is not the solution"
"AI will kill science - how can researchers use it to be more efficient?"
"Science funding needs fixing - but not like that"
"Academic publishing is broken - but publishing less is not the solution"
"AI will kill science - how can researchers use it to be more efficient?"
February 12, 2026 at 10:58 AM
Gotta love Nature's opinion pieces
"Science funding needs fixing - but not like that"
"Academic publishing is broken - but publishing less is not the solution"
"AI will kill science - how can researchers use it to be more efficient?"
"Science funding needs fixing - but not like that"
"Academic publishing is broken - but publishing less is not the solution"
"AI will kill science - how can researchers use it to be more efficient?"
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
For example, this 2020 paper estimated that more than 4600 species of bacteria reside in human guts. Yet about 3000 of these we haven't grown in a lab or even named. We know them only from spotting their genomes in metagenomic studies of all the residents of the gut.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A unified catalog of 204,938 reference genomes from the human gut microbiome - Nature Biotechnology
More than 200,000 gut prokaryotic reference genomes and the proteins they encode are collated, providing comprehensive resources for microbiome researchers.
www.nature.com
February 9, 2026 at 8:13 PM
For example, this 2020 paper estimated that more than 4600 species of bacteria reside in human guts. Yet about 3000 of these we haven't grown in a lab or even named. We know them only from spotting their genomes in metagenomic studies of all the residents of the gut.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
A great initiative supporting women in microbiology! #microsky
On International Day of Women and Girls in Science 🔬👩🔬
We’re launching the Women Microbiologists Network: a member-led networking and discussions event for women in microbiology by Dr. Enas Newire.
Read the news story and join:
🔗 https://microb.io/4ax5M5I
We’re launching the Women Microbiologists Network: a member-led networking and discussions event for women in microbiology by Dr. Enas Newire.
Read the news story and join:
🔗 https://microb.io/4ax5M5I
February 11, 2026 at 11:33 AM
A great initiative supporting women in microbiology! #microsky
Check out this new & very promising method for differential analysis in microbiomes from @antagomir.bsky.social et al.
A Bayesian approach to differential prevalence analysis with applications in microbiome studies ("DiPPER") arxiv.org/abs/2602.05938
A Bayesian approach to differential prevalence analysis with applications in microbiome studies
Recent evidence suggests that analyzing the presence/absence of taxonomic features can offer a compelling alternative to differential abundance analysis in microbiome studies. However, standard approa...
arxiv.org
February 11, 2026 at 10:17 AM
Check out this new & very promising method for differential analysis in microbiomes from @antagomir.bsky.social et al.
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
Applications are now open for our EMBO Practical Course in Computational and Experimental Microbiomics! 🧫🔬🖥️
meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
Come learn a mix of computational and experimental microbiome techniques from 6-8th July in beautiful Bath, UK!
Registration Deadline: 11 May 2026
meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
Come learn a mix of computational and experimental microbiome techniques from 6-8th July in beautiful Bath, UK!
Registration Deadline: 11 May 2026
Computational and experimental microbiomics
The critical contribution of microbiota to animal, plant and environmental health is now widely accepted. Progress has been driven by two parallel approaches: in silico analyses of large -omics data …
meetings.embo.org
February 11, 2026 at 9:53 AM
Applications are now open for our EMBO Practical Course in Computational and Experimental Microbiomics! 🧫🔬🖥️
meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
Come learn a mix of computational and experimental microbiome techniques from 6-8th July in beautiful Bath, UK!
Registration Deadline: 11 May 2026
meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
Come learn a mix of computational and experimental microbiome techniques from 6-8th July in beautiful Bath, UK!
Registration Deadline: 11 May 2026
Gut E. coli (esp. pks+/colibactin+) have been thought to be a link between CRC & liver metastasis, possibly by translocating via the portal vein. This work explores in-depth causal mol. mechanisms of liver metastasis promotion by E. coli strains enriched in CRC cases
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Escherichia coli promotes colorectal cancer metastasis by maintaining enhancer-promoter loops through releasing neutrophil extracellular traps - Nature Communications
Intestinal flora is known to play a role in colorectal cancer metastasis via disruption of the intestinal barrier. Here, the authors discover that Escherichia coli promotes colorectal cancer liver met...
www.nature.com
February 10, 2026 at 3:08 PM
Gut E. coli (esp. pks+/colibactin+) have been thought to be a link between CRC & liver metastasis, possibly by translocating via the portal vein. This work explores in-depth causal mol. mechanisms of liver metastasis promotion by E. coli strains enriched in CRC cases
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Randomized study (n=1,298) tested LLMs as medical assistants -> users didn’t make better care-seeking decisions and got worse at naming likely conditions vs. control group that could use any resources. Bottleneck was not medical knowledge but the interaction itself
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reliability of LLMs as medical assistants for the general public: a randomized preregistered study - Nature Medicine
In a randomized controlled study involving 1,298 participants from a general sample, performance of humans when assisted by a large language model (LLM) was sensibly inferior to that of the LLM alone ...
www.nature.com
February 10, 2026 at 2:24 PM
Randomized study (n=1,298) tested LLMs as medical assistants -> users didn’t make better care-seeking decisions and got worse at naming likely conditions vs. control group that could use any resources. Bottleneck was not medical knowledge but the interaction itself
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Great work again from @alexmsalmeida.bsky.social et al highlights uncultured genus CAG-170 (Oscillospiraceae) to be central node in healthy co-abundance networks in >11k gut metagenomes, with predicted B12 biosynthesis/cross-feeding functions possibly involved.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Meta-analysis of the uncultured gut microbiome across 11,115 global metagenomes reveals a candidate signature of health
The human gut microbiome is important for host health, yet over 60% of gut species remain uncultured and inaccessible to experimental manipulation. He…
www.sciencedirect.com
February 10, 2026 at 2:10 PM
Great work again from @alexmsalmeida.bsky.social et al highlights uncultured genus CAG-170 (Oscillospiraceae) to be central node in healthy co-abundance networks in >11k gut metagenomes, with predicted B12 biosynthesis/cross-feeding functions possibly involved.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
UKRI's chief executive said recently that the UK "may wish to explore" paring back its association to the EU's research programme, to make it partial.
That would be a "profound strategic error", critics now warn.
By @clanicholson.bsky.social
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...
That would be a "profound strategic error", critics now warn.
By @clanicholson.bsky.social
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...
Any UK plan for partial Horizon association ‘a profound error’ - Research Professional News
Academic leaders warn against UK abandoning participation in collaborative part of EU R&I programme
www.researchprofessionalnews.com
February 9, 2026 at 1:39 PM
UKRI's chief executive said recently that the UK "may wish to explore" paring back its association to the EU's research programme, to make it partial.
That would be a "profound strategic error", critics now warn.
By @clanicholson.bsky.social
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...
That would be a "profound strategic error", critics now warn.
By @clanicholson.bsky.social
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-euro...
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
🚨 Calling all ECR's #MicrobialGenomics & #Microbiome symposium in Nottingham (5th June)- present/chair/posters
Abstract submission is 5 pm TODAY!!!
Keynotes @halllab.bsky.social & @alexmsalmeida.bsky.social
#MNGPopUp #MicroSky
please share
Abstract submission is 5 pm TODAY!!!
Keynotes @halllab.bsky.social & @alexmsalmeida.bsky.social
#MNGPopUp #MicroSky
please share
Only a few days left to register for our free ECR POPUP event covering all things metagenomics and genomics.
Don't forget to submit an abstract if you want to present your work (poster or talk).
Don't forget to submit an abstract if you want to present your work (poster or talk).
🚨 Get your abstract in NOW for POPUP Nottingham with @bugsinyourguts.bsky.social & Microbiome-Net deadline 9th Feb 👉 linktr.ee/microbesng
#MicrobialGenomics & #Microbiome symposium 5th Jun
Focus on #ECRs present/chair
Keynotes @halllab.bsky.social & @alexmsalmeida.bsky.social
#MNGPopUp #MicroSky
#MicrobialGenomics & #Microbiome symposium 5th Jun
Focus on #ECRs present/chair
Keynotes @halllab.bsky.social & @alexmsalmeida.bsky.social
#MNGPopUp #MicroSky
February 9, 2026 at 11:15 AM
🚨 Calling all ECR's #MicrobialGenomics & #Microbiome symposium in Nottingham (5th June)- present/chair/posters
Abstract submission is 5 pm TODAY!!!
Keynotes @halllab.bsky.social & @alexmsalmeida.bsky.social
#MNGPopUp #MicroSky
please share
Abstract submission is 5 pm TODAY!!!
Keynotes @halllab.bsky.social & @alexmsalmeida.bsky.social
#MNGPopUp #MicroSky
please share
Reposted by Guillaume Méric
Excited to announce that I am organizing a symposium on "Microbiomes in Conservation" at #ISME20 in Auckland, New Zealand together with Madeleine van Oppen.
Consider submitting an abstract; it will be a fab conference! Deadline Feb 15!
isme-microbes.org/isme20-sessi...
@isme-microbes.bsky.social
Consider submitting an abstract; it will be a fab conference! Deadline Feb 15!
isme-microbes.org/isme20-sessi...
@isme-microbes.bsky.social
Invisible allies: the role of microbes in biodiversity conservation – ISME
Convened by Madeleine van Oppen, Australia, and Elin Videvall, Sweden
isme-microbes.org
February 9, 2026 at 1:16 PM
Excited to announce that I am organizing a symposium on "Microbiomes in Conservation" at #ISME20 in Auckland, New Zealand together with Madeleine van Oppen.
Consider submitting an abstract; it will be a fab conference! Deadline Feb 15!
isme-microbes.org/isme20-sessi...
@isme-microbes.bsky.social
Consider submitting an abstract; it will be a fab conference! Deadline Feb 15!
isme-microbes.org/isme20-sessi...
@isme-microbes.bsky.social
New study combines MPRAs+RNAseq to functionally validate 94 rare nc variants from blood trait GWAS -> identification of 22 w/ direct regulatory effects. Great example of what can be done from association work to functional validation!
🔗 www.cell.com/cell-reports...
(ft @mikeinouye.bsky.social et al)
🔗 www.cell.com/cell-reports...
(ft @mikeinouye.bsky.social et al)
February 9, 2026 at 11:56 AM
New study combines MPRAs+RNAseq to functionally validate 94 rare nc variants from blood trait GWAS -> identification of 22 w/ direct regulatory effects. Great example of what can be done from association work to functional validation!
🔗 www.cell.com/cell-reports...
(ft @mikeinouye.bsky.social et al)
🔗 www.cell.com/cell-reports...
(ft @mikeinouye.bsky.social et al)
New GWAS on stool frequency (n=268K) highlights vitamin B1 (thiamine) metabolism as a new modulator of gut motility via SLC35F3/XPR1. In ~98K UKB participants, dietary thiamine intake correlates with stool frequency too w/ these loci + MR predicts causal effects with IBS.
gut.bmj.com/content/earl...
gut.bmj.com/content/earl...
Genetic dissection of stool frequency implicates vitamin B1 metabolism and other actionable pathways in the modulation of gut motility
Background Genetic studies of stool frequency (SF), an indirect proxy for gastrointestinal transit, may reveal therapeutically tractable pathways relevant to IBS and other dysmotility disorders.
Obje...
gut.bmj.com
February 9, 2026 at 11:31 AM
New GWAS on stool frequency (n=268K) highlights vitamin B1 (thiamine) metabolism as a new modulator of gut motility via SLC35F3/XPR1. In ~98K UKB participants, dietary thiamine intake correlates with stool frequency too w/ these loci + MR predicts causal effects with IBS.
gut.bmj.com/content/earl...
gut.bmj.com/content/earl...
The 2026 EMBO course in Computational and Experimental Microbiomics held in @uniofbath.bsky.social has been announced! Come and join us for this course to study host-microbe interactions and co-evolution.
⏰ When: 6-18 July 26
🚨 Registration: 11 May 26
🔗 meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
⏰ When: 6-18 July 26
🚨 Registration: 11 May 26
🔗 meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
February 9, 2026 at 8:58 AM
The 2026 EMBO course in Computational and Experimental Microbiomics held in @uniofbath.bsky.social has been announced! Come and join us for this course to study host-microbe interactions and co-evolution.
⏰ When: 6-18 July 26
🚨 Registration: 11 May 26
🔗 meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
⏰ When: 6-18 July 26
🚨 Registration: 11 May 26
🔗 meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...
3 recent trials in Nature Medicine test FMT as an ICI add-on (renal+lung cancers). Early efficacy signals + mechanistic hints that taxa/function shifts may matter more than donor similarity + toxicity effects mixed.
Promising, but prob need larger trials and more standardisation. Links to studies 👇
Promising, but prob need larger trials and more standardisation. Links to studies 👇
February 7, 2026 at 11:49 AM
3 recent trials in Nature Medicine test FMT as an ICI add-on (renal+lung cancers). Early efficacy signals + mechanistic hints that taxa/function shifts may matter more than donor similarity + toxicity effects mixed.
Promising, but prob need larger trials and more standardisation. Links to studies 👇
Promising, but prob need larger trials and more standardisation. Links to studies 👇