Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Benjamin Coltman @bcoltman.bsky.social · 10d

Looks interesting @nmjgeerlings.bsky.social

Mann Lab @mannlab.bsky.social · 15d

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Tomorrow’s large scale cross-modality models will further unlock biology, but they need standardized inputs. With @sophia-maedler.bsky.social & @nik-as.bsky.social, we built #scPortrait, @scverse.bsky.social package to turn microscopy images into single-cell image datasets for multimodal modeling

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

European Medicines Agency @ema.europa.eu · 16d

Paracetamol remains an important option to treat pain or fever in pregnant women.

Following rigorous assessment of the available scientific data, we find no evidence that taking paracetamol during pregnancy causes autism in children.

Read more 👉 www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/use-...

Use of paracetamol during pregnancy unchanged in the EU | European Medicines Agency (EMA)

Paracetamol medicines can be used in pregnancy, in accordance with official recommendations

www.ema.europa.eu

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Benjamin Coltman @bcoltman.bsky.social · 15d

It’s also timely to present about SynCom design considering the recent work from @tcahitch.bsky.social @tclavel.bsky.social. I highly recommend reading!

academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Function-Based Selection of Synthetic Communities Enables Mechanistic Microbiome Studies

Abstract. Understanding the complex interactions between microbes and their environment requires robust model systems such as synthetic communities (SynCom

academic.oup.com

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Benjamin Coltman @bcoltman.bsky.social · 15d

It’s great to be at #mbkceesme2025 so far, hearing about all things microbial! It’s always rewarding to present one’s work and hear the community’s feedback. Thanks for the support @isme-microbes.bsky.social

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Thomas Clavel @tclavel.bsky.social · 20d

Interested in the design of defined microbial communities for fundamental research and applications? Hope this work & tool will help you 👇 As always @tcahitch.bsky.social has been a driving factor ⭐⭐⭐! github.com/ClavelLab/Mi...; academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Validate User

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · 28d

Branched-chain amino acid assimilation promotes mixotrophy of ammonia-oxidizing archaeal sponge symbionts www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Tristan Caro @tacaro.bsky.social · 27d

Holy cow - hyperspectral detection of bacteria at long distance.... "The bacteria were detectable outdoors under ambient light from up to 90 m in a single 4,000-m2 hyperspectral image taken using fixed and unmanned aerial vehicle-mounted cameras." 🤯
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hyperspectral reporters for long-distance and wide-area detection of gene expression in living bacteria - Nature Biotechnology

Hyperspectral reporter genes allow imaging of ground bacteria from aerial vehicles

www.nature.com

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Benjamin Coltman @bcoltman.bsky.social · 27d

Jan Erisman closed the 28th European Nitrogen Cycle Meeting with a raw reminder: the nitrogen cycle is out of sync!

Still, the meeting was full of inspiring research on all things N and some promising paths to reduce our impact!

Big questions remain… #ENC28

univie.eventsair.com/enc2025/

Jan Erisman presenting a slide at the European Nitrogen Cycle meeting. The slide demonstrates that less Nitrogen is lost from plant-based diets than meat-based diets - but regardless, nitrogen is still lost

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Charlotte Lydia Riley @lottelydia.bsky.social · Sep 1

“I don’t want asylum seekers to live on my street” is genuinely a wild thing to say as a notionally progressive politician

Alasdair Mackenzie @alasdairmackenzie.bsky.social · Sep 1

Oh nothing, just the actual Prime Minister telling people they’re entirely correct to drive asylum seekers out of their communities

From BBC news website:

I 'completely get' concern over asylum hotels - Starmer

Starmer is asked how he would feel if a hotel housing asylum seekers was at the end of his street.
"I completely get it," Starmer says, adding: "Local people by and large do not want these hotels in their towns, in their place, and nor do I. I'm completely at one with them on that."
Starmer says he understands why people want the hotels closed and he wants that too "as quickly as possible".
Asked to put a date on it, Starmer reiterates his commitment to do so by the end of this Parliament.
When it's put to him that is four years away, he says he would like to bring that date forward, but does not commit to another date.

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · Aug 27

The microbial composition of metagenomes is identified in seconds by profiling against large databases go.nature.com/3BBVqDC
rdcu.be/eCbj4

Rapid species-level metagenome profiling and containment estimation with sylph - Nature Biotechnology

The microbial composition of metagenomes is identified in seconds by profiling against large databases.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

bioRxiv Synthetic Biology @biorxiv-synthbio.bsky.social · Aug 24

Engineering non-exponential proliferation in Escherichia coli using functionalized protein aggregates https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.23.671898v1

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Aug 18

Out now!

🍫🦠A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour #chocolate fermentation

By Gabriel Castrillo, David Salt & co

#microsky #microbiomesky 🧪

Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour chocolate fermentation - Nature Microbiology

An in-depth microbiological and metagenomic analysis of Colombian farm and fermentation facilities resulted in the design of a defined microbial community that can reproduce the flavour of fine chocol...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Kathi Kitzinger @kathikitzinger.bsky.social · Aug 4

🚨4yr Technical Assistant Position on #Microbial Activities in #Marine #N-Cycling🦠🧪👩‍🎓🔬

Join me @univie.ac.at @dome-vienna.bsky.social
Part of our ERC Synergy #RECLESS looking at microbes in marine oxygen minimum zones

Apply by Oct 15, start March 2026!

-> ucloud.univie.ac.at/index.php/s/...

RECLESS_TA_molecular_UniVie.pdf

u:cloud - Ihre Daten, auf Wolken gebettet.

ucloud.univie.ac.at

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Kathi Kitzinger @kathikitzinger.bsky.social · Aug 4

🚨3-yr Postdoc Position on #SingleCell Activities in #Marine #N-Cycling🦠🧪👩‍🎓🔬

Join me @univie.ac.at @dome-vienna.bsky.social
Part of our ERC Synergy #RECLESS looking at microbes in marine oxygen minimum zones

Apply by Oct 15, start March 2026!

-> ucloud.univie.ac.at/index.php/s/...

RECLESS_Postdoc_single_cell_UniVie.pdf

u:cloud - Ihre Daten, auf Wolken gebettet.

ucloud.univie.ac.at

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Mark O. Martin @markowenmartin.bsky.social · Jul 18

Great podcast recording with Nicole Geerlings for #MattersMicrobial about weird and wonderful cable bacteria! I truly enjoyed the session. Releasing next week. @nmjgeerlings.bsky.social

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Benjamin Coltman @bcoltman.bsky.social · Jul 29

Followed up with a keynote on a subject close to my heart! Great to see @dmattanovich.bsky.social again and nice to see the work of my PhD colleagues and friends presented as part of the broader story of harnessing K. phaffii for the C1 bioeconomy

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Benjamin Coltman @bcoltman.bsky.social · Jul 29

@juergenzanghellini.bsky.social kicked off the 10th Metabolic Pathway Analysis conference yesterday, hosted @univie.ac.at. A nice use of EFMs but despite Jürgen’s years of attempts, I’m still not convinced that the best ice cream is found at Schwedenplatz

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Diana Széliová @diana-sz.bsky.social · Jul 26

Today wrapped up our 4th summer school on Economic Principles in Cell Biology organized by @economic-cell.bsky.social at the beautiful @univie.ac.at 🤩
Huge thanks to all the students, teachers and @cecamevents.bsky.social for the support! ✨️
See you next year!

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Ben J Woodcroft @benjwoodcroft.bsky.social · Jul 16

Out in @natbiotech.nature.com: Metagenome taxonomy profilers usually ignore unknown species. SingleM is an accurate profiler which doesn't, even detecting phyla with no MAGs. Profiles of 700,000 metagenomes at sandpiper.qut.edu.au. A 🧵

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Benjamin Coltman @bcoltman.bsky.social · Jul 16

An awesome resource for probing who, where and how often specific microbes are found!

Nature Biotechnology @natbiotech.nature.com · Jul 16

Comprehensive taxonomic identification of microbial species in metagenomic data using SingleM and Sandpiper - @benjwoodcroft.bsky.social go.nature.com/3IwOxHh

Comprehensive taxonomic identification of microbial species in metagenomic data using SingleM and Sandpiper - Nature Biotechnology

Novel microbial species in metagenomes are identified using conserved regions within universal marker genes.

go.nature.com

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Daan Speth @daanspeth.bsky.social · Jun 10

I'm happy to announce the latest release of the GlobDB, available at globdb.org.

The GlobDB is a database of "species dereplicated" microbial genomes, and as of release 226 contains twice the number of species-representative genomes (306,260) than the latest GTDB release.

home | GlobDB

globdb.org

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Kathi Kitzinger @kathikitzinger.bsky.social · Jun 4

Job vacancy as senior scientist on #fluorescent #microscopy (incl confocal and high resolution) open at University of Vienna!
Apply until June 15: jobs.univie.ac.at/job/Senior-S...

Senior Scientist

jobs.univie.ac.at

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Sean Eddy @cryptogenomicon.bsky.social · May 22

NIH funding supporting the HMMER and Infernal software projects has been terminated. NIH states that our work, as well as all other federally funded research at Harvard, is of no benefit to the US.

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Cluster of Excellence 'MicroPlanet' @microbesplanet.bsky.social · May 15

We are launching the Austrian Microbiome Research Awards 2025! 🇦🇹🔬
Calling all Austrian microbiome researchers to submit your best MSc/PhD thesis or research paper by June 7, more info: microplanet.at
@fwf-at.bsky.social @univie.ac.at

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Reposted by Benjamin Coltman

Daan Speth @daanspeth.bsky.social · May 5

We are hosting the 28th European Nitrogen Cycle meeting at @univie.ac.at in Vienna from Sept 8-11.

Join us for a varied program featuring many aspects of the microbial N-cycle.

Deadline for abstract submission (and early bird registration):
June 15th!

More info:
univie.eventsair.com/enc2025/

Welcome - 28th European Nitrogen Cycle Meeting (CeMESS Nitro 2025) - UBB

univie.eventsair.com

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