Iain Johnston
@mitomaths.bsky.social
900 followers 200 following 66 posts
Stochastic Biology Group: using maths, stats, and experiments to learn about biology and disease. We love organelles and oDNA, evolution, noise, and inference. https://org.uib.no/stochasticbiology/
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mitomaths.bsky.social
Understanding evolutionary dynamics lets us form future predictions. We tested these predictions with newly sequenced data from decades of clinical study in Tanzania. Fitted model retrospectively predicted those previously unobserved accumulation dynamics! 4/
mitomaths.bsky.social
Interesting, but very high-dimensional, so we project down to find the principal axes of diversity in evolutionary behaviour -- and what predicts them. They're linked both to public health region and drug use regimens 3/
mitomaths.bsky.social
Following the ideas in journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... about applying evol accumulation modelling (EvAM) to AMR, we use genomics data to infer the orderings of character accumulation behind observed Klebsiella AMR profiles across countries (e.g. Romania here), with global average in D 2/
mitomaths.bsky.social
Great to see this out there! We infer the evolutionary pathways behind patterns of AMR in Klebsiella across 102 states, finding globally consistent principles, state-specific deviations (and covariates), and validating evol predictions with new genomes. biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/
mitomaths.bsky.social
There'll be 2 PhD positions (math / microscopy) on MitoPhyto. But the Norwegian research council is also offering opportunities for non-European postdocs to come to Norway for 3 years associated with FRIPRO projects. Please DM me if interested!
www.forskningsradet.no/en/call-for-...
Recruitment of Talented Researchers to Norway
The Research Council supports the recruitment of talented international researchers to the Research Council's centre calls and for projects funded ...
www.forskningsradet.no
mitomaths.bsky.social
Celebrating grant award with a mountain run! MitoPhyto, a FRIPRO project, will combine modelling and microscopy to explore mitochondrial and mtDNA maintenance across non-bilaterian multicellular eukaryotes. Opportunities to come to Norway: please see next post
mitomaths.bsky.social
Gratulerer med dagen alle sammen!
(non-Norway-based folks, happy Norwegian Constitution Day!)
Reposted by Iain Johnston
kinpanchung.bsky.social
Glad to share this review, which takes a narrative approach to explore mechanisms governing cytoplasmic inheritance. It highlights exciting advances in the field, while also pointing to the many open questions that remain. Have a read here: doi.org/10.1093/plph...
Cytoplasmic Inheritance: The Transmission of Plastid and Mitochondrial Genomes Across Cells and Generations
Abstract. In photosynthetic organisms, genetic material is stored in the nucleus and the two cytoplasmic organelles: plastids and mitochondria. While both
doi.org
mitomaths.bsky.social
Had a brilliant time at the 54th Jírovec’s Protozoological Days in Frymburk. Amazing organisms, amazing science, lots of exciting organelle work. Beautiful setting too! Thanks to all www.chromera.org/konference/5...
mitomaths.bsky.social
May trails on the way to the final Applied Statistics lecture of the semester!
mitomaths.bsky.social
View from the office as summer approaches
Reposted by Iain Johnston
hilaryrosed.bsky.social
Exciting permanent(!) #JobAlert for a #botanist to work in Bergen, Norway 🧪

PhD required, language proficiency required within two years. Apply by 25 April.

#Ecology #Restoration #Botany
ninanatureresearch.bsky.social
NINA is expanding its expertise in vegetation ecology and restoration and is seeking a skilled and dedicated researcher to strengthen our team in Bergen.

nina-english.attract.reachmee.com/jobs/70-rese...
Reposted by Iain Johnston
evanowack.bsky.social
Out today: Exciting intermediate between endosymbiont and organelle identified! Endosymbionts in Angomonas deanei lost nearly all bacterial cell division genes. Instead, we identified a host-encoded protein, ETP9, that became specialized for endosymbiont division. 1/2
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Angomonas deanei with flourescent-labeled nucleus and endosymbiont. ETP9 localizes at the endosymbiont division site.
mitomaths.bsky.social
Projector broke today, so a good old-school blackboard lecture on an intro to GLMs!
Reposted by Iain Johnston
katholt.bsky.social
Watching the US take a wrecking ball to science 💔 🤯

Reminder of the importance of doing science in the open. Put data, software, resources in public domain, where no single govt can erase them. This is our collective knowledge. Distributed data systems are essential.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genomic data sharing: you don’t know what you’ve got (till it’s gone) - Nature Reviews Genetics
Reflecting on the core values of early data sharing agreements, the Bermuda Principles and the Fort Lauderdale Agreement, Kathryn E. Holt and Michael Inouye emphasize the need to reaffirm our commitme...
www.nature.com
mitomaths.bsky.social
Started likelihood-based approaches for model selection in STAT200 today, one of my favourite things (and behind many of our research projects)! Combined with likelihood-free methods, my claim is that this is how we turn modelling (not really falsifiable) into science (testing hypotheses with data)
mitomaths.bsky.social
A classic to celebrate this evening's proposal submission. If you haven't heard this before, I recommend sticking with it, it's somewhat unlikely you've heard a song like this before!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxjE...
Lyrics www.metalkingdom.net/lyrics-song/...
Grace
YouTube video by Devin Townsend Project - Topic
www.youtube.com
mitomaths.bsky.social
Some shots from wintery commutes in 2025!
mitomaths.bsky.social
Nice group meeting today, celebrating exciting new positions and discussing the diverse ways we do science with data! Thanks all
mitomaths.bsky.social
And very new indeed, here's HyperLAU, an approach using tools from linear algebra to capture uncertainty in (phylogenetically embedded) accumulation models that supports flexible model structure and data inputs @jessirenz.bsky.social ! arxiv.org/abs/2502.05872 . Would love to chat about these! 3/3
mitomaths.bsky.social
Here's a "picture guide" (led by Ramon) describing approaches for these models and their inference, from cancer to evol bio and other applications arxiv.org/abs/2312.06824 (also see Ramon and colleagues' great repo of software approaches for EvAM github.com/rdiaz02/EvAM...) 2/
mitomaths.bsky.social
We've been thinking a lot about "accumulation models" lately -- inferring how systems accumulate features over time. May be mutations in a tumor, characters in evol bio, gene losses in oDNA. Here's an instance of the well-known Mk model that captures this picture academic.oup.com/bioinformati... 1/
Reposted by Iain Johnston
cordianriener.bsky.social
This year’s Mørketidens Mattemøte once again brought mathematicians from across Norway and the Nordic countries to @uitnorgesarktiske.bsky.social for two inspiring days of idea exchange and new connections.
Thanks to Tromsø Forskningsstiftelse and Trond Mohn forskningsstiftelse for the support !