Thrilled to share our new story. While cooperation can evolve from autonomy, can a mutualistic cooperation reversely evolve to autonomy? We observed this reversion in experimental evolution of a microbial consortium, mediated by HGT! Summary thread below doi.org/10.1101/2023.0…

Very proud to see this paper now out in Evolution Letters ! "The evolution of reduced facilitation in a four-species bacterial community" academic.oup.com/evlett/advance… Congratulations again to all co-authors! Check out the thread from the pre-print for details...

New KITP Program! #MICROECO26 Coarse-graining Microbial Ecology: from Genes to Physiological Strategies to Communities across Environments Dates: 5/18/26-6/18/26 kitp.ucsb.edu/activities/mic…

So cute clip. 😂

Can we use machine learning to identify blood-based biomarkers to help predict and prevent suicide? Researchers at UC Irvine School of Medicine believe this might be possible. UC Irvine School of Medicine bit.ly/4e91gdV

As usual Akos T. Kovacs is on top of things! I'm very proud of this work lead by PhD candidate Zahraa Al-Tameemi in my lab. And I'm happy this is published in the great journal mSystems!

New work out in eLife - the journal! Possibly the last one in our series on bacterial aggregation behaviours on polysaccharides. We knew cells were engaging in collective behaviours. But how do they know when to leave and why? We provide potential answers in this work elifesciences.org/articles/93855

I love seeing our own @toby_hammer around town, even on the side of UC Irvine busses! UCI Charlie Dunlop School of Biological Sciences UCI Microbiome

Dunlop School Faculty & Undergrads: Join us for May the Fiber Be with You, the first talk in the Mind, Body, World & You series led by Associate Professor Katrine Whiteson, on November 20 at 4 p.m. Fiber-rich foods will be served after the talk! Register: bit.ly/Healthy_Microb…

The Institute of #ecology and #evolution at Universität Bern is looking for two tenure-track assistant professors (APTT): APTT Mathematical or Computational Ecology 👩‍💻 APTT #Conservation #Biology 👨🏾‍🔬 More info: tinyurl.com/IEEjobs Application deadline: 1 March 2025

Thrilled to share that I'm starting my own lab at UC Irvine in April 2025 and am recruiting at all levels - please spread the word! My lab will study how microbes interact and evolve in complex communities like the human gut microbiome. kxuelab.com 1/2

New: Elizabeth Duan, Olivia Kosterlitz (Olivia Kosterlitz) & Benjamin Kerr (Benjamin Kerr) spotlight the NatureEcoEvo article by Alfonso Santos-Lopez (Alfonso Santos-López), Alvaro San Millan (@AlvSanMillan) & team on mobile elements as agents of rapid adaptive change. tinyurl.com/2u25mynh

The strength of interspecies interaction in a microbial community determines its susceptibility to invasion -in PLOS Biology bsky.app/profile/evolve…

PhD opportunity: Bdelloid rotifers are strange animals with no males and high stress tolerance. 10% of their genes came from bacteria, fungi via HGT, including antimicrobial genes unique in animals. Find out how/why and discover new antimicrobials too! findaphd.com/phds/project/e…

Meetings

The Simons Foundation’s Life Sciences division is now accepting applications for its Simons Collaborations in Ecology and Evolution awards. Deadline is 10/16: simonsfoundation.org/2025/08/04/sim… #science #ecology #evolution