Rob Edwards (@linsalrob)

Check out some of the great work by @cynthiasilveira.bsky.social e.g. looking at Hi-C in marine environments pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39657233/

03.03.2026 21:16 👍 3 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

In our latest work, we characterise the Tmn defence system. We reveal plasmolysis as a new way to block phage infection, dramatically reducing secondary infections.

03.03.2026 19:55 👍 27 🔁 19 💬 1 📌 1

I've been using FigTree for ~18 years. Very excited for this new iteration of the best phylogenetic visualisation tool there is.

28.02.2026 22:44 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A virus hiding inside bacteria may help explain colorectal cancer Scientists found an unexpected viral hitchhiker lurking inside a common gut bacterium – and it was twice as prevalent in people with colorectal cancer.

Really enjoyed writing a piece for @uk.theconversation.com - trying to write for a general audience, you suddenly realise how much jargon is deeply embedded in your brain #Phages #Microbiome #SciComm

theconversation.com/a-virus-hidi...

27.02.2026 18:40 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

International Women's Day: Nominate a woman in microbiology! | crm.fems-microbiology.org

Hey #Microsky, time to celebrate your amazing female colleagues, students and mentors for #IWD2026! Nominate an inspiring woman whose research, teaching, innovation, or community leadership deserves recognition! @femsmicro.org crm.fems-microbiology.org/ssp/internat...

27.02.2026 11:45 👍 12 🔁 10 💬 0 📌 0

In case you missed it: our review titled "Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities" is out! 🚨

Let me hit you with some highlights on why spatial structure matters. (and why you should care!)

Sharing is appreciated 🙏 🧵👇

doi.org/10.1093/fems...

25.02.2026 13:06 👍 137 🔁 82 💬 3 📌 2

Deciphering the etiology of the 2024 outbreak of undiagnosed febrile illness in Panzi, Democratic Republic of the Congo - Nature Medicine This multidisciplinary response to investigate the large outbreak of unknown febrile illness in the Panzi Health Zone in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in late 2024 suggests that the outbreak wa...

What happened during a febrile illness outbreak in Panzi, Democratic Republic of the Congo?

Was it something new or something we knew?

Check out the amazing collaboration (inc. @pathogenomenick.bsky.social & @arambaut.bsky.social ) that came together:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

26.02.2026 06:51 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

iVoMs – ISVM

The @isvm-society.bsky.social is organising monthly #virus of #microbes (including #phage). Nominate a speaker and register for the upcoming events at isvm.org/ivom/

17.02.2026 20:24 👍 12 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0

GraphBin Visualise Wasm

Binning genomes from metagenomes? Try @vijinim.bsky.social new graph visualisation tool to understand where your bins go bad!

metagentools.github.io/graphbin-vis...

09.02.2026 04:54 👍 13 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

The mood stabilizer lithium alters behaviour and physiology via the gut brain axis. Lithium, introduced 75 years ago by John Cade1, remains the most effective mood stabilizer for bipolar disorder2. Lithium is proposed to modulate an array of cellular pathways, many ubiquitous to all cells, with pleiotropic roles unlinked to bipolar disorder or lithium responsiveness in genome wide association studies3,4. These mechanisms cannot explain lithium's specific effects on mood and behaviour. We demonstrate that lithium's primary action is in the periphery, not in the brain itself. Lithium acts in the gut to trigger behavioural and physiological changes, akin to those associated with a torpor-like state, that protect individuals from ingested toxins. Lithium activates gastrointestinal enterochromaffin (EC) cells via their Trpm2 cation channels to modulate afferent vagal and area postrema inputs to the brain. Eliminating these inputs by focal brain lesions eliminates lithium's effects, as does ablation of EC cells or their Trpm2 expression. Lithium's Trpm2-dependent activation of EC cells also occurs in human gut tissue, providing translational relevance for our discovery. These findings challenge the prevailing perception that lithium acts directly on the brain. Via a previously unsuspected gut-brain pathway, lithium engages brain circuitry that reduces arousal and interaction with the external world, therapeutic goals in the manic phase of bipolar disorder. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. National Health and Medical Research Council, https://ror.org/011kf5r70 Baszucki Brain Research Fund

#Lithium doesn’t act directly on the brain. Instead, it signals via the gut–brain axis, acts on EC cells, engages TRPM2 and vagal pathways. Our team found a mechanism with major implications for #psychiatry and #bipolar disorder

@flindersuniversity.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

28.01.2026 00:10 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Registration form for iVoM4 After submitting this form, you will receive the instructions to join our webinars at the email address you provide.

New 2026 iVoM series coming up!

Each session includes SCR and 3 ECRs, & plenty of opportunities to interact with the speakers and ask questions.

Sign up for links/updates: docs.google.com/forms/d/1hAB...

First up: Viral Biotechnologies Wed, 28 th January at 17:00 CET / 11:00 EST / 08:00 PST

22.01.2026 02:42 👍 8 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1

Phold's manuscript is now available @narjournal.bsky.social thanks to @susiegriggo.bsky.social @npbhavya.bsky.social @vijinim.bsky.social @linsalrob.bsky.social @martinsteinegger.bsky.social @milot.bsky.social @eunbelivable.bsky.social & others not on bsky #phagesky academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

14.01.2026 05:10 👍 82 🔁 44 💬 1 📌 1

Mirdita Lab - Laboratory for Computational Biology & Molecular Machine Learning Mirdita Lab builds scalable bioinformatics methods.

My time in @martinsteinegger.bsky.social's group is ending, but I’m staying in Korea to build a lab at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine. If you or someone you know is interested in molecular machine learning and open-source bioinformatics, please reach out. I am hiring!
mirdita.org

20.01.2026 11:07 👍 104 🔁 55 💬 7 📌 1

Research Associate / Postdoctoral Fellow - Honeybee Bacteriophages and Advanced Biotechnology - University of Canterbury | Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha

🚨 New postdoc opportunity in Aotearoa 🇳🇿 with @drhhnz.bsky.social

RA / Postdoctoral Fellow in honeybee bacteriophages, microbial genetics & molecular evolution at the University of Canterbury (Christchurch).

3-year position, starts March 2026.
🔗 jobs.canterbury.ac.nz/jobdetails/a...

12.01.2026 03:38 👍 11 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Research seeks solutions to mine site waste, from the ground up Thousands of open cut mines lie abandoned worldwide, while more stringent mine site rehabilitation laws in Australia are paving the way for improved long-term restoration efforts.

Abandoned mines are ticking time bombs! @flindersuniversity.bsky.social researchers in #FAME are using geochemistry, mineralogy and #microbiome science to design sustainable, microbiology-driven solutions to stop it at the source.

phys.org/news/2025-12...

11.12.2025 07:05 👍 6 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Made a site comparing the sizes of living things :)

The great Julius Csotonyi spent 5 months painting over 60 illustrations for the site, no ai used

> neal.fun/size-of-life/

10.12.2025 16:03 👍 2641 🔁 913 💬 78 📌 87

And also a fantastic keynote at #ABACBS2025 on this story!

26.11.2025 21:56 👍 13 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

Long-read metagenomics reveals phage dynamics in the human gut microbiome - Nature Complex prophage integration dynamics, including low-level induction, cross-family host range and transposase-mediated mobilization, challenge existing paradigms and deepen our understanding of phage–...

Long read Metagenomics, #phage and #prophage in the gut by Ami Bhatt's group. Beautiful data showing changes in phages over two years

#phagesky

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

26.11.2025 21:55 👍 70 🔁 35 💬 0 📌 1

8.1% success= 91.9% of applicants will hear bad news this arvo 😱

26.11.2025 05:40 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1

🧬 Come check out my poster on agtools, an open-source Python framework for analysing and manipulating assembly graphs at #ABACBS2025 Poster #106
•
💻 Github: github.com/Vini2/agtools
📄 Preprint: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

25.11.2025 23:21 👍 27 🔁 15 💬 1 📌 0

Perl reference may or may not be on #confBingo but @torstenseemann.bsky.social was the first thing I though of when that language was mentioned. Congratulations? #abacbs2025

26.11.2025 03:53 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Targeted sequencing and iterative assembly of near-complete genomes - Nature Communications Long-read sequencing enables high-quality genome assemblies, but challenges remain. Here, the authors introduce Cornetto, a method that improves assembly quality, enables genome sequencing from saliva...

Our cornetto work is now published at www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It can do near-T2T assembly using @nanoporetech.com adaptive sampling
- with less 💸
- reference agnostic, so works for non-humans
- not just blood, even saliva

Just presented at #abacbs2025 yesterday.

26.11.2025 04:12 👍 34 🔁 13 💬 1 📌 2

Congratulations Hiruna Samarakoon (yet to be on bluesky) for winning the #abacbs2025 “Torsten Seemann” Outstanding Bioinformatics Software Developer Award!!! 🎉🎉🎉

26.11.2025 05:01 👍 19 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Perfecting bacterial genome assembly with Autocycler - from the one and only Ryan Wick #ABACBS2025

26.11.2025 00:36 👍 10 🔁 3 💬 1 📌 0

@rrwick.bsky.social solving all of our problems in long-read bacterial genome assembly with Autocycler. 😃🧬🦠 #ABACBS2025

26.11.2025 00:52 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 1 📌 0

Loved hearing Dr. Ryan Wick’s talk on genome assemblies with Autocycler. Really amazing hearing from him as I use a lot of his tools in my every day work!

#ABACBS2025
⚫️🔴
🔵⚪️

26.11.2025 00:53 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

iplotx by Fabio Zanini supports visualising any network or tree analysis library. Can’t wait to visualise assembly graphs with iplotx! 🤩💻 #ABACBS2025 @abacbs.bsky.social

26.11.2025 01:09 👍 7 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

It was great to present TRECA at ABACBS 2025 as a lightening talk.

Come find my poster #21.

#ABACBS2025 @abacbs.bsky.social

26.11.2025 01:26 👍 9 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0

With Slorado, now you have more choices for GPUs when basecalling @nanoporetech.com sequencing data. This is a work we collaborated on with AMD, led by
PhD candidate @bonson-wong.bsky.social (poster at #abacbs2025) and great to see being highlighted in the AMD blog: www.amd.com/en/blogs/202...

26.11.2025 01:43 👍 11 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Keeping the naming convention - PholdAPhage - great work Renee github.com/reneegreen81... #ABACBS2025

24.11.2025 23:56 👍 19 🔁 5 💬 0 📌 0

Rob Edwards

Latest posts by Rob Edwards @linsalrob