Why are there so many fitness metrics in microbial ecology? I was confused - with @Michael_Manhart , I developed a framework that unifies existing statistics of relative fitness and shows how they all derive from a few basic principles. Preprint is up! doi.org/10.1101/2024.0…

It looks like I never posted anything (*but see below) on what are probably the most surprising results my lab obtained so far. Anyway, this work—led by an outstanding former PhD student Sarah Ardell in collaboration with Milo Johnson—is now published: science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Check out our new work to read about one of the most surprising (and amazing) results of my career: Plasmids are governed by a universal scaling law that links copy number and size across phylogenetic boundaries. A real tour de force by Paula Ramiro, Nacho de Quinto Cáceres and J_Gamma! 👇

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!

Save the date, next Quantitative Microbial Ecology meeting organized by Matti Gralka in 2025 in Amsterdam 7 March #QME2024 and #QME2025

Glad to be involved in this Nature Microbiology Perspective led by trent northen & Ruben Garrido-Oter Community standards and future opportunities for synthetic communities in plant–microbiota research nature.com/articles/s4156… #MicrobiomeEcology at LeidenBiology #SynCom #PlantMicrobe

Soil microbiomes to the rescue….hope for how we can improve crop stress resilience . | PNAS pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

Working in microbial ecology? We’ve got the perfect tool for you! Check out our user-friendly, open-access cFBA toolbox to predict metabolic optimality in cyclic dynamic conditions. 🔬🚀 Mark van Loosdrecht  Ricardo Hernández Medina Aljoscha Wahl

🚨New preprint!! How do antibiotic-resistant bacteria grow in the human gut microbiome, even without antibiotics? 🤔 We reveal strain-specific ecological interactions that shape their growth within microbial communities. 🧵👇 1/5 biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

New paper from the lab. The brilliant Nora Pyenson led a multi-lab collaboration to investigate the consistent formation of stable phage communities infecting a single clonal host population. She explains the gist of it beautifully in the quoted thread. Congrats Nora et al

Excited to report that Joy Bergelson (bergelsonlab.org) and I will be running a brand new GRC conference on the Function of Evolving Systems in the summer of 2026. The 2028 one will be chaired by Mikhail Tikhonov (physics.wustl.edu/people/mikha...) & Alvaro Sanchez Lab! Stay tuned!

Very excited to share final version of our paper! What forces shape evolution of cross-feeding among planktonic ocean microbes, and how does it in turn drive self-organization of biogeochemical cycles? These are the questions we explore here: science.org/doi/full/10.11…

As of 2025 I am officially a junior PI at IBFG. My lab will focus on building quantitative models of eco-evolutionary dynamics. There is available funding for PhDs and postdocs — formal job announcements will come soon, but feel free to reach out in the meantime!

Our lab is recruiting Postdocs with strong background in Epigenetics, PTM biology and/or Cell Signalling along with experience with bioinformatics 👩‍💻👨‍💻 📢 Apply through the IBFG Postdoc Call 2025! 🔗 Check all the positions here 👇 drive.google.com/file/d/1JxNdAs…

New paper from my group and the group of Kiran Raosaheb Patil: Obligate cross-feeding of metabolites is common in soil microbial communities By Ghada Yousif and Francisco Zorrilla with Swagatika Samir Giri sharvari harshe any many others biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 🧵👇

Reading in journal club Pre-exposure of abundant species to disturbance improves resilience in microbial metacommunities - Nature Ecology & Evolution nature.com/articles/s4155…

On the metabolic basis and predictability of global epistasis. biorxiv.org/content/10.110… #biorxiv_evobio

I hate that it feels weird to post actual science on here now, given how much it feels like the country is sabotaging itself. But, our work on the Evolution of Evolvability is out! Huge congrats to Bhaskar, Alex Lalejini, and Mónica Acosta! pnas.org/doi/abs/10.107…

🚨 Next Friday 21/02 at 15:30 EU time, Rinke van Tatenhove-Pel Rinke van Tatenhove-Pel (TU Delft) will present the talk Population dynamics in spatially structured environments at the Population Dynamics Seminars! To get the zoom link sites.google.com/view/popdyn/

A new paper published in Nature — one of the most respected science journals — finds that the world's wealthiest 10% are responsible for 67% of global warming. The rich are burning our planet.