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Anat Belasen, PhD

@anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social

410 followers 530 following 39 posts

Research Associate at UT Austin Incoming Asst Prof @ OU Wildlife disease, immunogenetics, and conservation genomics in herps she/her #MENA and #BiInSci intersectional STEMinist fan of frogs, dogs, cats, bikes, books, and flowers anatbelasen.com

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Jun 3

I'm beyond excited to announce that I will be joining the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Oklahoma as an Assistant Professor in January 2026!

Belasen Lab @ou.edu coming soon 🐸 ❤️

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · 13d

Pretty cool to have this right on campus at UT Austin. And to think I only got this view because all the closer parking garages were full

A rocky creek runs alongside a light colored bank where a large cypress tree grows

Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

Emma Mitchell @silverpebble2.bsky.social · 21d

My new small museums for mental health w'shop is on Sat 4 Oct
Recent compelling research shows that collecting & arranging collections neatly alleviates anxiety & lifts mood.
Includes:
🌿2 hr zoom-we'll make & photograph small museums
🗝️30% off my Etsy shop:
workshops.emmamitchell.uk/courses/smal...

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

amy brown @amybrown.xyz · Aug 22

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me?
Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

spookie @okie.gay · Aug 21

if you wanna throw a little money at an Austin institution and certified cool queer spot, they have a kofi 💖 (linked in their insta bio if you want to verify)

ko-fi.com/cheerupcharl...

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

Stevie @stevievalhalla.bsky.social · Aug 20

There is more information about the invasive pentastome species in Florida here if you’re interested: slamconservation.weebly.com

SNAKE LUNGWORM ALLIANCE AND MONITORING

The invasive lung parasite, Raillietiella orientalis , was first introduced in South Florida with Burmese pythons. It is now found in 34 counties and 18 native snake species, with infections...

slamconservation.weebly.com

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

Robin Hayward 🌳 🏳️‍⚧️ @canopyrobin.com · Aug 20

If you'd like to follow some other trans people who work with nature too, I made a helpful starter pack! It's not exclusively scientists and it's opt-in so let me know if you'd like to be added.

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Aug 20

Hi! I'm Anat, soon to be assistant professor (!) who studies disease and conservation with a focus on herps. I study immunogenetics and responses to pathogens (mostly Bd/chytrid) through time, disease x global change interactions, and other conservation-relevant questions.

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

John Burns @burnsajohn.bsky.social · Aug 17

New #symbiosky paper from Cory Bishop and collaborators (including me 😊) on the remarkable specificity of the symbiosis between spotted salamanders and the alga in their eggs. Cory organized colleagues to get egg fluid from NC USA to NS Canada. He found extremely low...

tinyurl.com/2jmwce2s

Frontiers | High partner specificity in an algal-salamander mutualism at continental scale

The mutualism between the green alga Oophila amblystomatis (“Oophila”) and egg masses of the spotted salamander Ambystoma maculatum involves acquisition of a...

www.frontiersin.org

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Aug 13

omg i love it

Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Aug 13

heck yeah

Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Aug 13

Amazing weekend herping in the desert! Thanks @alexvguzmann.bsky.social for the invite 🦎❤️

Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Aug 13

And one more - a beautiful Masticophus taeniatus (striped whipsnake) - we love a pink belly

Anat takes a selfie with a striped whipsnake - long thin snake that is mostly black with thin white strips along its sides. The end of the belly toward the tail transitions from cream to pink

Striped whipsnake being held. Its face is positioned straight on to the camera, giving a view of the pink belly as well as its round eyes and seemingly frowning mouth

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Aug 13

And some extra herps just cuz

Hyla arenicolor (canyon tree frog) - very round adult and very squishy metamorph

Anaxyrus punctatus - (red-spotted toad) - also a metamorph. Lots of tads and metamorphs of both species in this stream 🥲

Crotalus lepidus - rock rattlesnake ✨

A very round and relatively cryptic adult canyon tree frog sitting on a well matched rock. Both frog and rock are mottled gray, tan, and black.

A recently metamorphosed canyon tree frog sitting on a greenish algae covered rock in a stream. The little frog is tan with dark markings on its face, back, and legs

A recently metamorphosed red-spotted toad sitting on a rock in a stream. Lots of bright green algae on the rock and in the water.

A purplish gray rock rattlesnake sits on a lichen covered rock, with leaf litter in the background.

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Aug 13

Helped out with some Urosaurus ornatus (ornate tree lizard) fieldwork in West Texas 😍

@allyboville.bsky.social lassoing a lizard in photo 3!

Anat (me) dressed in blue field clothes, a red bandana, and a green leopard frog hat, holding a blue-bellied and blue-throated male lizard

A yellow-throated female lizard held in a hand. Researchers in field clothes are in the background

Researcher using a fishing pole to catch a lizard. She stands on a pinkish rocky ridge with green shrubs in the foreground and trees in the background

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

Emily V Griffith @e-v-griffith.bsky.social · Aug 12

Bird are not just birds - they are also whole communities of microbes, viruses, and parasites. Marcella Biaz shows differences in microbial and viral compositions between two warbler species and their hybrid. This info can help us understand the evolution of diseases and life histories. #AOS25

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

Martin A. Nuñez @martin-nunez.bsky.social · Aug 1

Pro tip for writers:

A very bad first draft is not a failure—it’s a great start, Congratulations!

You can’t revise a blank page, but you can shape a bad one into something really great

🌟Editing is easier than Creating🌟

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Jul 30

In case it’s helpful, here is a baby lizard from my front porch

A gray and white patterned lizard held between thumb and pointer fingers in front of a porch plant. The lizard’s body is about the size of a thumb nail.

A view of the baby lizard in my hand showing its throat and face from the front. Its head is turned up and it is looking down at the thumb securing it.

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Jul 23

Fig 4 is very interesting 👀

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

Dr. Solomon David @solomonrdavid.bsky.social · Jul 21

Gar “Friends” teaser 😅👍
@garlab.bsky.social

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Jul 21

Me to my mentees (and also me to me) at least once a week:

Failure is part of the process

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take

(yes the second is a Wayne Gretzky quote)

Adrian Liston @labliston.bsky.social · Jul 21

I like this take. Science is inherently failure, because the minute we succeed we shift the goal-posts and get back into that failure zone. If you only have successes you are not doing creative science.

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

Erin Sauer @sauerscientist.bsky.social · Jul 21

New paper out modelling how the nutritional content of wild bird foods could affect disease transmission - a nice follow-up application of our Molecular Ecology study showing that food quality can affect immune function and disease tolerance.
doi.org/10.1093/icb/... @durantlab.bsky.social

The nutritional content of anthropogenic resources affects wildlife disease dynamics

Synopsis. Wildlife have become increasingly reliant on human-supplemented food, affecting interactions between individuals and subsequently pathogen transm

doi.org

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Anat Belasen, PhD @anatlovesfrogs.bsky.social · Jul 21

Can you please add me to both PIs recruiting PhD students and the PIs recruiting postdocs?

Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

psychodroma @feathertrail.net · Jul 17

broad-tailed hummingbirds built a nest atop a tea light on a friend's front porch. one bird fledged yesterday, and one kiddo (who I saw flying, too) was hanging around for more food from mom #birds

tiny hummingbird nest made of detritus atop the bulb of a tea light. a juvenile broad-winged hummingbird is hunkered down in it

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · Jul 10

Short summary of Senate Appropriations hearing:
Bipartisan agreement to keep funding at FY '24 levels for NASA/NSF passes 21-6
Van Hollen adds an amendment on FBI HQ which passes thanks to Murkowski
Republican members change votes to no, threatening the bill.
Now in... indefinite recess 🤷‍♂️

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · Jul 10

Senate committee on appropriations markup meeting is starting now. They'll be discussing a lot of stuff, but in particular, science agencies like NSF & NASA.

Yesterday Sen. Moran indicated funding would be 33.9 billion, preserving FY '24 numbers.
www.appropriations.senate.gov/hearings/ful...

Full Committee Markup of Commerce, Justice, Science; Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA; and Legislative Branch Appropriations Acts | United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

United States Senate Committee on Appropriations

www.appropriations.senate.gov

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Reposted by Anat Belasen, PhD

SK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️‍⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · Jul 8

Don’t let elected officials lie to you and say this was a freak accident that wasn’t preventable.

County officials knew automatic river gauges and sirens could protect people. They asked the state for them at least three times. The state refused to fund it:

www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investi...

Inside Kerr County’s quest for a new flood warning system on the Guadalupe River

Kerr County and the Upper Guadalupe River Authority have tried several times to get funding to upgrade flood alerts on the river, dating back to 2016.

www.houstonchronicle.com

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