Dr Emma Hodcroft
@firefoxx66.bsky.social
17K followers 180 following 290 posts
Die Virenjägerin! 🏹🧬! Using programming & phylogenetics, I study & track viruses. Co-developer of Nextstrain, based at Swiss TPH & Uni Basel. Founder of the orig SC2 variant-tracking website, CoVariants.org I like 🐈 & 🛫 @[email protected]
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Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
leahmcelrath.bsky.social
“Goebbels Ends Careers of Five ‘Aryan’ Actors Who Made Witticisms About the Nazi Regime”
The New York Times
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1939
Goebbels Ends Careers of Five 'Aryan' Actors Who Made Witticisms About the Nazi Regime
Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES
BERLIN, Feb. 3.
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
lskatz.github.io
🎙️ Just dropped: #MicroBinfie Pathoplexus Part 1!
Join @happykhan.mstdn.science.ap.brid.gy, Lee & guest Clint as they deep-dive with @firefoxx66.bsky.social, Theo Sanderson & Arthur Shem Kasambula into Pathoplexus.
Ready for a journey? 🚀 Listen now: pca.st/episode/c1f8...
144 - micro binfie Pathoplexus part 1
pca.st
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
jaggakatja.bsky.social
Thanks to all the speakers of the great Bioinformatics in Infectious Diseases session at #bc2basel, chaired by EmmaHodcroft @firefoxx66.bsky.social and #JacquesFellay:
Aurelie Cobat, Charlyne Bürki, Andrea Di Gioacchino, KenoStrotjohann, Hesham ElAbd, Lisa Pagani, and Valeriia Timonina
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
altcdc.altgov.info
Ain't no way RFKJ wrote this when he literally called us "troubled" only a few hours ago. Sorry, anon comms person/maybe the AI forced to write this drivel...

We just added a few notes. Anything to be helpful! ✨😊😇
Drivel from RFKJr with some corrections and fact-checking
firefoxx66.bsky.social
We're looking forward to including more details of our current projects, new tools we're working on, and sharing regular updates and musings from the lab members via the blog!

Please do check it - hope it helps you learn a bit about EVE! 💗
eve-lab.org

4/4
A cartoon version of the EVE lab, generated by ChatGPT from a similar photo, showing Nosihle, Emma, Nadia, and Keno
firefoxx66.bsky.social
The EVE lab work & collaborations includes:
🌏 Tracking virus spread globally
🧬 Understanding virus evolution & immunity
📊 Building open tools like @Pathoplexus for transparent data sharing
🤝 Collaborating worldwide to better tackle pathogenic viruses

3/4
firefoxx66.bsky.social
🔍 On our new site you can:

- Meet the EVE team 👥
- Explore our research on viral evolution & spread 🧬
- Explore our phylogenetic @nextstrain.org builds 🌳
- See the tools we build for analysis 🛠️
- Read about our publications & news 📰

2/4
Screenshot of the Collaborations page of the Eve-lab website, showing some of our collaborations: ARTIC2, Center for Pathogen Bioinformatics, ENPEN, ESCAPE, Pathoplexus, & VIM
firefoxx66.bsky.social
🚀 More good news: website lift-off!
The Epidemiology & Virus Evolution (EVE) group at @swisstph.ch has a brand new home on the web:
eve-lab.org
🦠🌍

Check out our research, people, collaborations, & projects all in one place! 👇

1/4
EVE – Epidemiology & Virus Evolution
EVE - Epidemiology and Virus Evolution - the Hodcroft lab
eve-lab.org
firefoxx66.bsky.social
I think if you are a federal institute the 'price' you get for having so much money is not getting a cute nickname 😂
firefoxx66.bsky.social
I guess in conversation maybe it's less common - though I certainly do. In emails and everywhere else in writing - definitely!
firefoxx66.bsky.social
A very special day today, as I look back and remember our trepidation on how this crazy idea of a new pathogen database would go down. Would our work be for naught?

But no! I'm so grateful that we've been able to make a big impact on sequence sharing! Here's to year 2! 🥂
pathoplexus.org
🗓 Pathoplexus turns ONE! 🎂🎉

In the past year we’ve grown from 4 pathogens to a truly global, community-driven platform for transparent, equitable & impactful pathogen sequence sharing.
📰 Read the full update: pathoplexus.org/news/2025-08...

1/10
An image of a birthday cake with scientific doodles around it, 9 colourful candles, and the Pathoplexus logo in the middle, with the words 'Happy 1 year'
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
pathoplexus.org
🗓 Pathoplexus turns ONE! 🎂🎉

In the past year we’ve grown from 4 pathogens to a truly global, community-driven platform for transparent, equitable & impactful pathogen sequence sharing.
📰 Read the full update: pathoplexus.org/news/2025-08...

1/10
An image of a birthday cake with scientific doodles around it, 9 colourful candles, and the Pathoplexus logo in the middle, with the words 'Happy 1 year'
firefoxx66.bsky.social
(Also 10 stars for the fact that the Bluesky social names 100% back me up on this right there in the tweet 😂)
firefoxx66.bsky.social
One thing I find endlessly endearing in Switzerland is that the Unis have little nicknames:
UniBas (University of Basel) @unibas.ch
UniBe (University of Bern) @unibe.ch
UNIL (University of Lausanne) @unil.bsky.social

Do the other Unis have little nicknames too?
firefoxx66.bsky.social
Keep and eye 👁️ (and an ear! 👂) out for a new Binfie podcast all about Pathoplexus 1 year in!
lskatz.github.io
@happykhan.mstdn.science.ap.brid.gy and I had a great time recording last week with @firefoxx66.bsky.social @theo.io and Arthur Shem, with the help of Clint. Episodes set to be released starting September 11.

#microbinfie
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
neher.io
It was a great pleasure to contribute to this work by Jemma Fendley, @mmolari.bsky.social, and Boris Shraiman on pan-genomes, linkage, and recombination in phage genomes.

We analyzed data collected by the fantastic SEA-PHAGES program in phagesdb.org.

[1/6]

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
The Actinobacteriophage Database | Home
phagesdb.org
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
needhibhalla.bsky.social
Insisting on expertise over ideology is not “politicizing” science. The ideologues installing scientific and governmental policy that is contradicted by evidence and data are.

By emphasizing ideology over expertise, THEY have made arguing for expertise and evidence-based decision making partisan.
Scientists Are Caught in a Political Trap
Fighting back against the Trump administration means they start to look more like activists.
www.theatlantic.com
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
sib.swiss
“Loculus is remarkable for enabling efficient and secure sharing of pathogen genomic data, which is crucial for public health responses to infectious diseases."
🥁That’s what the committee said about this #SIBRemarkableOutputs 2024
👉Discover the output: tinyurl.com/53arz2rz
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
lastpositivist.bsky.social
Never ask postdocs what they'll be doing next year, that's considered terribly offensive in their culture.
Reposted by Dr Emma Hodcroft
volts.wtf
It's really key to understand this: ***they don't need actual backlash of any substance or scale to run this cycle***. All they need is a few random comments, which they can always find, which means that you can basically run this cycle at will. You don't need libs to play along at all!
firefoxx66.bsky.social
Interested to learn about how to run your own Loculus (the database code behind @pathoplexus.org)? 🤔🖥️

Sign up for the Loculus Tutorial on Mon 8 Sept at BC2 Conference (@sib.swiss‬) in Basel, run by @chaoranchen.de & Anya Parker! 🧬

Register: www.bc2.ch/registration...

#bioinformatics #openScience
Image showing information on the BC2 (Basel Computational Biology Conference) from 8-10 Sept 2025. Says: "Tutorial: build a microbial genomic sequence database with Loculus - Register now. 8 Sept 2025 - Biozentrum, Basel. Early bird until 30 June 2025"
firefoxx66.bsky.social
Right! I forgot that bit - and the money :)
firefoxx66.bsky.social
I'm definitely not AI-doomsayer (it's been incredible in helping me create a Jekyll website) - but I do feel like we're rapidly heading to a place where we'll have AI-written papers assessed by AI-reviewers (citing AI papers), at which point is it... doing anything real?