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Reposted by Darren Obbard

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 1d

Very sad news, John Gurdon has died.

A developmental biologist's developmental biologist, Nobel prize winner

His work is the foundation of much of today's dev & stem cell bio.

An inspiration to many, including me. Always asking questions & wanting the answers

www.magd.cam.ac.uk/news/profess...

Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS (1933-2025) | Magdalene College

Magdalene College is deeply saddened to announce the death of Professor Sir John Gurdon FRS, who served as Master of the College from 1995 to 2002.

www.magd.cam.ac.uk

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

Ben Longdon @blongdon.bsky.social · 1d

Research assistant + postdoc position on a NERC funded project working w @darrenobbard.bsky.social and collaborating with @savebutterflies.bsky.social on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of the virome of UK moths @uniexecec.bsky.social. Descriptions below and links here benlongdon.com/join/

Our local beach - blue waters and white sand

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 2d

xkcd.com/3056/ (seen via @annikabarber.bsky.social )

RNA

xkcd.com

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

Katharine Khamhaengwong @katharinegk.bsky.social · 3d

i'm participating in an inaturalist project where anyone in europe can get their specimens dna tested for free, would be cool to have some more participants in some of the countries w/o little orange square on them (download the app! take photos of mushrooms!)

www.inaturalist.org/projects/myc...

a map of europe showing participants in the uk, netherlands, a few other western european countries, and russia

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

Mia Levine @levine-lab.bsky.social · 4d

Check out this new Levine-Lampson collaboration, led by the talented Hyuk-Joon Jeon.

We explored the consequences of inheriting long telomeres from dad and short telomeres from mom. Or the reciprocal. Turns out, parent-of-origin matters (in mice, at least).

authors.elsevier.com/c/1loW-3QW8S...

authors.elsevier.com

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 4d

My concern is that people reading this will think it's a virus that has lost horizontal transmission, not a TE that (like its relatives) probably transposes using a potentially virus-derived mechanism. But labels are just labels; I suspect I might be fighting a losing battle!

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 4d

Calling copia an 'endogenous retrovirus', but not calling caulimoviruses retroviruses just seems confusing! Are polintons endogenous adintoviruses? Does it matter?

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 4d

Since 'retroviruses' have a very specific and narrow definition and do not even (I think) include all reverse transcribing viruses. (ictv.global/report/chapt...), in my mind, endogenous retroviruses are retroviruses that have lost horizontal (among-individual) transmission.

Family: Retroviridae | ICTV

ictv.global

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 4d

I don't like 'metaviridae' or 'errantivirus'. I think these are all just TEs, at least until we actually know more about relationships and transmission mechanisms.

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 4d

Great story! (Although I think that this is a TE, not an endogenous retrovirus)

Riccardo Pianezza @rpianezza.bsky.social · 4d

We discovered an endogenous retrovirus that's still spreading in natural D. melanogaster populations! It was horizontally transferred from D. erecta in Central Africa, so we named it "Kuruka", which means "jump" in Swahili. Read its cool story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

POPGROUP59 @popgroup2026.bsky.social · 9d

Exciting news!
The next #PopGroup meeting will take place in Lille 🍟, France, 7–9 January 2026 – just 1 hour by train from London, Brussels, and Paris.

This year, PopGroup will also host ALPHY, the annual meeting of Evolutionary Genomics.

More info: populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk

See you there !

Population Genetics group 59

populationgeneticsgroup.org.uk

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

Ben Longdon @blongdon.bsky.social · 13d

2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in
@uniexecec.bsky.social
- Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
- RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...
Pls share!

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eric lai @lucksmith.bsky.social · 13d

i was searching for the fly party on the beach at Alicante, and i found it!! (bruno lemaitre and virginie courtier-orgogozo). 🪰

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 13d

PostDoc job in Cornwall with @blongdon.bsky.social : Many moths, metagenomics, and mixed models. Plus some UK fieldwork in summer 2026 jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr...

Powered by MHR

jobs.exeter.ac.uk

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EDRC2025 @edrc2025.bsky.social · 14d

Only a few hours left before our meeting starts! Are you travelling to #EDRC2025 now? Let us know by using the oficial #EDRC2025 hashtag!

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Josefa González @gonzalezlabbcn.bsky.social · 13d

Welcome! #EDRC2025

eric lai @lucksmith.bsky.social · 14d

excited to attend the european fly meeting! looking forward to share our research, see friends and colleagues from the other side of the pond, and hear what's new with 🪰.

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Teagan Mulford @teaganmulford.bsky.social · 20d

Tired of doom scrolling? Want to help a PhD student out? Check your collection for Promachus (and friends) and I'll be forever indebted! If you need an excuse to get outside and go collecting this weekend, this is it! #Asilidae #Diptera

A poster saying "Wanted: Robber flies, Promachus and Allies. Wanted: freshly caught specimens of Promachus or other large robber flies for DNA extraction. Contact Teagan Mulford at teaganmulford@gmail.com with any questions or leads. Thank you! PC: Steve Collins"

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

Ashleigh Griffin @asgriffin.bsky.social · 22d

Join us in our swanky new pad... @biology.ox.ac.uk www.biology.ox.ac.uk/article/we-a...

We are hiring! Oxford biology has three associate professorships available as we move to new state-of-the-art facilities

www.biology.ox.ac.uk

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 22d

Another preprint from @pankajd.bsky.social !
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Predictors of protein evolution in the drosophilid immune system

The evolutionary dynamics of immune genes are shaped by diverse selective pressures, yet the relative roles of gene-level traits, functional specialization, and pathway context remain poorly understoo...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

Matt Bertone @bertonemyia.bsky.social · 28d

**Attention fly enthusiasts!** We're looking for presenters for the Dipterists Society General Meeting at ESA @entsocamerica.bsky.social in Portland, OR (November 11th)

If you're interested in giving a talk, please DM me for a link to submit a title/abstract. Deadline to submit is October 10th.

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

Chris Jiggins @chrisjiggins.bsky.social · 28d

Looking for a PhD? I am advertising two industry sponsored PhD projects. One on black soldier fly genetics with #betabugs and another on searching insect biodiversity for novel enzymes #Syngenta. Get in touch if you are interested!! bbsrcdtp.lifesci.cam.ac.uk/available-ic...

Available iCASE projects | Cambridge Biosciences DTP PhD Programme

iCASE projects for academic year 2026-2027 line_divider.png Project: Understanding cellulose digestion by cryo-EM structure of cellulose microfibril-enzyme complexes Project reference: ICS-BIO-PD26 S...

bbsrcdtp.lifesci.cam.ac.uk

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Darren Obbard @darrenobbard.bsky.social · 27d

Hope you got some nice drosophila!

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Stotra Chakrabarti, PhD @stotra.bsky.social · 28d

I am recruiting 1-2 postbacs for our NSF-funded Tsavo Simba Research Project, investigating fission-fusion! The position is for recent undergrads who have not yet started grad school. Come be a part of our team and help us track/monitor 🦁🌍🛰️📸🧪 Job ad⬇️

careers-macalester.icims.com/jobs/2221/po...

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Reposted by Darren Obbard

Pedro Vale @pfvale.bsky.social · Sep 8

*Congratulations* to former Darwin Trust-funded PhD student Arun Prakash for being awarded the Alfred Russel Wallace award from @royentsoc.bsky.social for his PhD on #immune regulation of disease #tolerance and immune #priming in #Drosophila!

@edinburghbiology.bsky.social @uoe-eid.bsky.social

Former PhD student wins the Alfred Wallace Award for significant contribution to the science of entomology | Edinburgh Infectious Diseases | Edinburgh Infectious Diseases

September 2025: Dr Arun Prakash, a Darwin Trust PhD student, has been retrospectively awarded the prestigious award from the Royal Entomological Society for his 2021 thesis ''Immune Regulation Of Dise...

edinburgh-infectious-diseases.ed.ac.uk

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UCU Scotland @ucuscotland.bsky.social · Sep 8

Pickets across @edinburghuni.bsky.social campus this morning opposing £140million cuts and up to 1,800 jobs going, including by compulsory redundancies #SaveHE #NoCompulsoryRedundancies #StopTheCuts

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