Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Evan Brenner

ISB @isbscience.org · Jun 18

New @isbscience.org research shows how microbial teamwork behind denitrification can collapse in polluted environments, threatening ecosystem balance and resilience. isbscience.org/news/environ...

Microbes That Keep Ecosystems in Balance Can Fall Apart Easily, New Study Finds

Microbial teamwork behind denitrification can collapse in polluted environments, threatening ecosystem balance and resilience.

isbscience.org

7 11

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · Jun 16

🚨 BREAKING: Nearly 4 months the NIH cut its first grants, a judge has ruled that the directives and process that led to cuts are arbitrary and capricious.

"The explanations are bereft of reasoning — virtually in their entirety... unsupported by [facts]."

Each of them are VOID and ILLEGAL, he says.

11 310 1.2K

Reposted by Evan Brenner

MM @phdeez.bsky.social · Jun 13

the reissued NOFO for the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (Parent F31) is finally published! grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

PA-25-422: Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (Parent F31)

NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (NRSA) Individual Predoctoral Fellowship (Parent F31) PA-25-422. NI...

grants.nih.gov

2 28 34

Reposted by Evan Brenner

InterPro @interprodb.bsky.social · Jun 3

🦠🧬Exciting news! BFVD predicted viral protein structures are now available in @InterProDB!
For the first time, explore InterPro functional annotations directly on 3D structures of viral proteins not covered by AlphaFold DB. This bridges a critical gap in structural virology research.

CATH-Gene3D annotation visualised on BFVD structure prediction of UniProt A0A075FDU7

2 9 29

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Sebastian Schmidt @tsbschm.bsky.social · Jun 3

The Koonin Law of Computatoinal Biology:

Whenever you think you have a great idea in computational or evolutionary biology, it will already have been published by Eugene Koonin in the mid 90ies.

3 10 69

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Kristian G. Andersen @kgandersen.bsky.social · May 22

The spread of Mpox in Sierra Leone is unlike anything we have ever seen - and we have been keeping an eye on this bug in the region for >15 years.

Given geographical spread, 50/50 men vs women, this is no "sexual network".

This could be the next one.

clt.npha.gov.sl/outbreak.aspx

31 210 430

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · May 21

Who's calling the shots at NIH?

Sworn testimonies and internal e-mails reveal for the first time the breadth of DOGE's control over the world's largest public biomedical funder.

DOGE has provided lists of hundreds of grants to cut, and DOGE is now reviewing ALL NIH awards before they're released

NIH killed grants on orders from Elon Musk’s DOGE

Court documents and internal correspondence show the cost-cutting force has broad control over the world’s largest public biomedical funder.

www.nature.com

13 220 310

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Gemma C. Atkinson @gemmaatkinson.bsky.social · May 19

Really excited to share our resource and analysis of AlphaFold-predicted monomers and homodimers across viruses and phages. Project driven by fab PhD student @rodai.bsky.social and with our great collaborators Joana Pereira @joanampereira.bsky.social and @ninjani.bsky.social

bioRxiv Molecular Biology @biorxiv-molbio.bsky.social · May 17

The Viral AlphaFold Database of monomers and homodimers reveals conserved protein folds in viruses of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.653371v1

33 67

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · May 19

Delighted to see this paper from danderson123.bsky.social 's PhD out. We have been building tools for AMR gene detection for over a decade now, but multicopy genes remain challenging. Dan shows that with a gene-space de Bruijn graph and long reads, you can do well
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

4 50 89

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Petra Korlević @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · May 13

an old redraw of one of my fav microbe memes, by @prokaryota.bsky.social

"eAT The DiRT bRöTHer" 🦠

#SciArt #microbes

screenshot of a twitter post, the poster is Elisa Granato @Prokaryota
the picture is the swole and weak shiba meme, the swole shiba on the left says
BACTERIA IN NATURE
eating literal dirt
defying the physical limits of life
this is my third eukaryotic extinction event in a row (raised hands emoji)

the right weak shibe text is
BACTERIA IN THE LAB
not my favourite sugar (three sad smiley emojis)
the pH is off by 0.001
is this tap water? I'm allergic

my redraw of Elisa Granato's bacteria meme
left has a buff orange bacteria with massive flagellas and a 10 pack, text says
BACTERIA IN NATURE
eating literal dirt
defying the physical limits of life
this is my third eukaryotic extinction event in a row (raised hands emoji)

the right has a weakly pink brown blobby bacteria with tiny hairs, text says
BACTERIA IN THE LAB
not my favourite sugar (three sad smiley emojis)
the pH is off by 0.001
is this tap water? I'm allergic

1 6 30

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Chiara Masnovo @chiaramasnovophd.bsky.social · May 16

Having a hard time processing this. HHMI is pausing all competitions. Very demoralizing for early career scientists like me @hhmi.org

7 74 190

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Daniel Tamarit @danieltamarit.bsky.social · May 14

New vacancy in my team!

PhD student position on microbial genome evolution, focusing on the evolutionary principles underlying bacterial genome architecture.

Please repost and share with talented MSc students in #evobio, bioinformatics or related :)

www.uu.nl/en/organisat...

#MEvoSky #MicroSky

3 110 84

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Michael Baym @baym.lol · May 13

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

A screenshot of the termination notice showing "Outstanding Investigator Grants"

A screenshot of the termination notice with "This award is terminated effective the date of this award, due to unsafe antisemitic actions that suggest the institution lacks concern for the safety and wellbeing of Jewish students." highlighted

140 580 880

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Dr. Stephanie @punkrockscience.bsky.social · May 13

Optometrist: you should really probably spend less time on screens

Me, a computational biologist: I’ll… just take that under advisement, shall I?

4 5 93

Reposted by Evan Brenner

BEACON @beaconbio.bsky.social · May 13

Nine cases of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) have been reported in Saudi Arabia including two fatalities and a cluster of seven cases linked to healthcare associated transmission.
http://spr.ly/63329Nk0yX

2 4

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Jeremy Berg @jeremymberg.bsky.social · May 7

New Notice on No Cost Extensions (or lack thereof)

grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

NOT-OD-25-110: Updated NIH Processes for No-Cost Extensions

NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices in the NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts: Updated NIH Processes for No-Cost Extensions NOT-OD-25-110. NIH

grants.nih.gov

3 39 34

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Dr. Suzanne Le Menestrel @drsl.bsky.social · May 2

The Spencer Foundation is offering rapid response bridge funding for those who lost NSF research grants.

www.spencer.org/grant_types/...

Rapid Response Bridge Funding Program

In the face of recent abrupt shifts in federal funding for education research, including large-scale terminations of National Science Foundation (NSF) research grant awards, we have developed a rap...

www.spencer.org

4 510 620

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Max Kozlov @maxkozlov.bsky.social · May 2

BREAKING: Reports that Trump would try to cut NIH's budget by 40% have come true.

The request released moments ago would:
- Cut $18 BILLION to NIH's $47b budget
- Eliminate NIMHD, NCCIH, FIC
- Collapse ICs into five 'focus areas'

There's also a long screed about NIH's deficiencies.

10 120 150

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · May 2

NEW: Starting May 5, NSF will implement an across-the-board 15% indirect cost rate (mirroring policies at DOE, NIH)

Also, NSF staff expect 341 additional terminations today, bringing the total number of terminations to ~1,380.

Effective May 5, 2025, NSF will apply a standard indirect cost rate not to exceed 15% to all
grants and cooperative agreements awarded to IHEs for which indirect costs are allowable.1 The
awardee is authorized to determine the appropriate rate up to this limit.

12 210 280

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Dan Garisto @dangaristo.bsky.social · May 1

BREAKING: NSF has frozen all grant funding, as of yesterday. It's unclear when they will resume funding awards, or why the pause has been put in place. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones

US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.

www.nature.com

39 980 1.3K

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · Apr 30

🦟🦠 NEW! We looked at every experiment going back to the 1960s, and found that mosquitoes are almost certainly not primary or secondary vectors of Oropouche virus - a common claim in both the scientific literature and public health communication. #EpiSky #IDSky 😷🧪

journals.plos.org/plosntds/art...

Vector competence for Oropouche virus: A systematic review of pre-2024 experiments

Oropouche virus has recently become an urgent threat to public health in Central and South America. OROV is mainly transmitted by biting midges; however, some public health agencies and scientific sou...

journals.plos.org

7 39 110

Evan Brenner @evanbrenner.bsky.social · Apr 28

Congrats Kevin on a well-earned and well-timed career advancement. Best of luck!

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Ian Holmes @ianholmes.org · Apr 27

This is a lovely thread of self-introductions from members of the compbio/genomics crowd on BlueSky. It feels a bit more friendly and warm than a starter pack

Casey Greene @casey.greenelab.com · Nov 12

There are so many people moving over that I'm sure I'm missing folks. Can we make a #compbio / #genomics intro thread to get reacquainted?

I'm at the University of Colorado. I often say that if you pick two of three from #transcriptome, #ML, and #publicdata, my lab is probably interested.

4 12

Reposted by Evan Brenner

Physghoul 👻 @physgal.bsky.social · Apr 18

Calling all US and Canadian students thinking about graduate studies! Come study science at #SFU in beautiful British Columbia, Canada. Graduate admissions have been reopened. Apply by April 25th. ⚛️ 🧪👩‍🔬🎢 🇨🇦

SFU Faculty of Science @sfuscience.bsky.social · Apr 16

Applications are open for select graduate studies programs at #SFU, including biomedical physiology, chemistry, molecular biology and @sfuphysics.bsky.social. Canadian and US students encouraged to apply by April 25. www.sfu.ca/gradstudies/...

Lead the Way: Graduate Studies at SFU in Canada for Fall 2025 & Spring 2026

Select SFU graduate programs are opening their applications particularly for Canadian students choosing to remain and study in Canada as well as US students looking to study outside the US. Applicatio...

www.sfu.ca

3 68 140

Reposted by Evan Brenner

ace-gtdb.bsky.social @ace-gtdb.bsky.social · Apr 18

GTDB release 10 based on RefSeq 226 (R10-RS226) is live at gtdb.ecogenomic.org. This release covers 732,475 genomes (22% increase) and has 143,6141 species clusters (37% increase). Release notes at: forum.gtdb.ecogenomic.org/t/announcing.... Release statistics at: gtdb.ecogenomic.org/stats/r226.

GTDB - Genome Taxonomy Database

The Genome Taxonomy Database (GTDB) is an initiative to establish a standardised microbial taxonomy based on genome phylogeny.

gtdb.ecogenomic.org

17 26