Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · 20d

What a fantastic #EESMicrobiome conference this week!
It was really inspiring to hear so many excellent presentations, and meet many former colleagues, collaborators, and friends in beautiful Heidelberg.
A big thank you to the organizers for putting this together!

5

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Aug 1

TLDR:
🧬 Unknown microbes
🦠 Social transmission
🌳 Potential conservation relevance

Shoutout to all co-authors!

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Aug 1

We didn’t find evidence for microbiome acquisition through geophagy, but following the approach we developed for humans, we were excited to see very clear strain sharing patterns within social groups, which mirrored territory occupancy and interaction networks!

1

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Aug 1

Consistent with their diet, the indri microbiome is enriched in fiber degradation pathways, and social group emerged as the main driver.

1

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Aug 1

Indeed, Indris have a proportionally large core microbiome, and their microbiomes cluster far from any other primate. But after incorporating the assembled MAGs into release Jan23 of ChocoPhlAN and profiling with MetaPhlAn 4, we highly improved the mappability.

1

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Aug 1

Our collaborators collected fecal samples from indris in 6 different social groups, together with soil samples (as indris engage in geophagy, i.e. they eat soil). We did metagenomic sequencing and found their microbiomes are virtually uncharacterised: E. coli is the only one cultivated member!

1

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Aug 1

The Indri indri is Madagascar’s largest living lemur. It’s critically endangered, with no successful captive breeding to date. Could its gut microbiome hold clues for conservation?

1

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Aug 1

🧵 New paper alert!
Our first dive into non-human hosts: the gut microbiome of the critically endangered lemur Indri indri 🐒🌱
Led by talented MSc student Francisca Labisa-Morais!
📄 @isme-microbes.bsky.social
academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

Bacterial transmission within social groups shapes the underexplored gut microbiome in the lemur Indri indri

Abstract. The Indri indri is a critically endangered lemur species that has not successfully been maintained or bred under human care. Investigating this l

academic.oup.com

1 6 12

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Jul 4

Highly recommended!

Francesco Asnicar @fasnicar.bsky.social · Jul 4

🧬🖥️ Postdoc positions available SOON!!
Looking for researchers with strong computational skills (programming essential) to work on microbiome & phylogenetics projects.
📅 Start on Nov 1, 2025 (flexible)
📍 Trento, Italy
DM me for details or share!
#postdocjobs #microbiome #metagenomics #phylogenetics

1 1

Reposted by Mireia Valles-Colomer

Francesco Asnicar @fasnicar.bsky.social · Jun 27

Now @mireiavallesc.bsky.social presenting microbiome transmission at the #BCNmicrobiome

1 8

Reposted by Mireia Valles-Colomer

ScienHub @scienhub-org.bsky.social · Jun 27

Session 5 at #BCNMicrobiome offered fascinating insights into the #microbiome at the population level. 👏 Thanks to @sashazhernakova.bsky.social for the Dutch Microbiome Project highlights and @mireiavallesc.bsky.social for a brilliant talk on microbiome epidemiology.

2 1 4

Reposted by Mireia Valles-Colomer

Nicolae Morar @nmorar.bsky.social · Jun 27

A masterclass in human microbiome studies (about the Dutch microbiome and microbiome transmission) with Sasha Zhernakova & @mireiavallesc.bsky.social ! #BCNMicrobiome

1 1 1

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Jun 27

It was a pleasure having you there, Nicolae! Thanks for your sharing your insightful questions

1

Reposted by Mireia Valles-Colomer

Ricky Wolff @rwolff.bsky.social · May 12

Nice review article on a fascinating problem—the coexistence of strains in microbial communities. @akshitg.bsky.social & @gchure.bsky.social

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Paradox of the Sub‐Plankton: Plausible Mechanisms and Open Problems Underlying Strain‐Level Diversity in Microbial Communities

“Paradox of the sub-plankton: Plausible mechanisms and open problems underlying strain-level diversity in microbial communities” by Akshit Goyal* and Griffin Chure*. This work highlights the limitati...

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

1 3 12

Reposted by Mireia Valles-Colomer

Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · May 1

Do people in the same household share strains when they have the same species?

How many cells transmit when a strain is shared?
Can strain composition be dynamic when species composition is stable?

We answer these and related questions for the facial skin microbiome in our latest paper.

🧵[1/10]

4 67 140

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · May 5

Congratulations @seandreu.bsky.social! 🎉
It was truly a pleasure to exchange ideas and dive into methods and findings during your time in Trento

Sergio Andreu-Sanchez @seandreu.bsky.social · Apr 30

Thrilled to share that our manuscript on strain-level gut microbiome variation across diverse populations and human phenotypes is out today in @cellpress.bsky.social
Curious about how strain diversity relates to human traits? Follow this thread! 🌍 (1/n)
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Global genetic structure of human gut microbiome species is related to geographic location and host health

The human gut harbors thousands of microbial species, each exhibiting significant inter-individual genetic variability. Although many studies have ass…

www.sciencedirect.com

1

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Mar 21

Our review on the acquisition and transmission of the human microbiome, now out @naturerevmicro.bsky.social 🦠 🔄

This was a fun writing process with @vheidrich.bsky.social and Nicola Segata! See Vitor's summary thread below:

Vitor Heidrich @vheidrich.bsky.social · Mar 21

Thrilled to share our review (with @mireiavallesc.bsky.social and Nicola Segata) on "Human microbiome acquisition and transmission" just published @naturerevmicro.bsky.social

6 18

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Feb 27

On my way to @cnb-csic.bsky.social to present our work as part of the Women in Microbiology conference series. Looking forward!

4

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Feb 24

Do you want to work with us?
The Microbiome Research Group @upf.edu is looking for a project manager/research technician.

Details at: www.upf.edu/web/biomed/j... (ref. MELIS-PSR-INDF-2025-12)
Application deadline: 03/03/3025
Feel free to get in touch for more info!

1 4

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Feb 20

1

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Feb 20

Discussing the social transmission of the human microbiome and its impact in health and disease with MCarmen Collado @rutgerwalls.bsky.social Francisco Guarner at the @SEMIPYP meeting in Barcelona - always interesting to discuss the steps to bring our work to specific applications 🦠

1 1 6

Reposted by Mireia Valles-Colomer

Julia en la Onda @juliaenlaonda.bsky.social · Feb 18

🦠🧫👩‍⚕️ "Sin la microbiota no podríamos vivir, es esencial para nuestra salud". Puedes recuperar la charla completa con la investigadora y microbióloga @mireiavallesc.bsky.social, y la cirujana Lola de la Puerta en 👉 www.ondacero.es/programas/ju...

1 13 52

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Feb 16

Exciting day! Right after seeing the half marathon world record being smashed together with the women's course record @mitjabarcelona, discussing the influence of the microbiome on our health at the radio studio of @ondacero.bsky.social with @juliaoteroradio.bsky.social-inspiring conversation! ✨

6

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Feb 16

Así es un placer hacer divulgación de nuestro trabajo! 🦠🧠💻

Julia en la Onda @juliaenlaonda.bsky.social · Feb 16

Hoy hablamos de microbiota con la microbióloga Mireia Vallés Colomer, investigadora de la @upf.edu, y la médico y divulgadora Lola de la Puerta
www.ondacero.es/directo

2

Mireia Valles-Colomer @mireiavallesc.bsky.social · Feb 13

Also nice to see all the attention the poster from PhD student Albert Garcia-Valiente @upf.edu received!

4