Asher Leeks

Fantastic collaboration w/ @dbikard.bsky.social @audeber.bsky.social @rayanchikhi.bsky.social labs led by @jmouradesousa.bsky.social : We assessed the rates of variation of anti-phage systems in P4-like satellites and P2 helper phages. Quick conclusion: Huge variation! We focus on 4 key questions/5

Many organisms, including humans, reshape their environments in ways that influence the conditions faced by future generations. We ask whether this can favour biological variation with @irisprigent.bsky.social in our new paper. Thanks to @dee-unil.bsky.social @snsf.ch
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

Integrating the Microbiome Into Infection Ecology and Evolution in Wild Animals Parasites are a ubiquitous force in nature threatening wildlife populations and ecosystems. Interactions between hosts and their parasites are impacted by host-associated microbiomes, which are essen...

A nice collaboration from post-docs in my lab 😊 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... @jingdi.bsky.social @luismsilva.bsky.social @paradyseb.bsky.social @molecularecolup.bsky.social

Screening, sorting, and the feedback cycles that imperil peer review The process of peer review is vital to contemporary science, but is also under enormous strain. This study uses mathematical models to dissect the threats to the long-term viability of peer review, su...

1. Kevin Gross and I have a new paper out today PLOS Biology.

We used economic models based around screening games and the market for unpaid labor to highlight a meltdown cycle threatening peer review.

Excited to share a preprint of work from my postdoc with @paulturnerlab.bsky.social exploring how prophages can impact host thermal ecology and evolution. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Assistant Professor-Department of Biology (Zoologist) Assistant Professor-Department of Biology (Zoologist)

New Faculty Positions opening up at Wilfrid Laurier University!
Integrative Organismal Zoologist:
careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo...

Microbial Systems:
careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo...

Computational Ecology/Modelling Biologist:
careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo...

Biochemistry:
careers.wlu.ca/job/Waterloo...

SFI External Professor Santiago Elena elected to the American Academy of Microbiology SFI External Professor Santiago Elena has been elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, joining 62 other fellows in the class of 2026, each selected for their contributions in the ...

SFI’s Santiago Elena has been elected a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology.

He joins 62 fellows in the 2026 class. His work explores how RNA viruses adapt to hosts and manipulate cellular resources. Since joining SFI in 2008, he has organized several working groups on virus evolution.

How specific are heritable symbioses?

And what can we learn from swapping obligate symbionts across host species?

We address this in our latest, led by @inespons.bsky.social & in our collaboration w/ @microbiome.bsky.social 🦠🪲 Out today in @natcomms.nature.com!

1/n
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Co-occurrence is associated with horizontal gene transfer across marine bacteria independent of phylogeny Abstract. Understanding the drivers and consequences of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a key goal of microbial evolution research. Although co-occurring

Now out & nicely formatted in @isme-microbes.bsky.social

A big analysis of ocean genomes & metagenomes co-led by former postdocs, now PIs, @gmdouglas.bsky.social & @cyanophage.bsky.social along with co-PIs @lbobay.bsky.social & Samuel Chaffron.

A few highlights... 🧵 (1/n)

doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Very excited for the upcoming seminars of the of the Internal Conflicts and Organismal Adaptation STN @eseb.bsky.social!

Featuring @manishamuna.bsky.social, @mobilepurin.bsky.social, @joealcock.bsky.social, @asherleeks.bsky.social

Join the email list here:
internalconflictsstn.wordpress.com

How does population density affect evolutionary trajectory?

Microbes construct their own niche which in turn reshapes their evolution.

Preprint drop from grad student @noahhoupt.bsky.social whose evolution experiments featured blue/white colonies, 1000 generations, a lab move, and much more!

If you can only visit one place at Harvard, make it the glass flower exhibit at the Museum of Natural History.

4000 models, 847 species.

Commissioned by the university for teaching botany and created by the Czech father and son Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka 1887 through 1936.

Mutations in filamentous bacteriophages spark eco-evolutionary feedbacks in Pseudomonas aeruginosa https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.21.699487v1

Check out our new print that combines dense sequencing and phylodynamics to uncover a bunch of 😎 things about an understudied virus.

- Doesn't evolve for 10 months a year ✅
- Uses some mossies for maintenance, others for spread ✅
- Established in Northeast for ~300 years ✅

Agrawal lab logo. A fly in the UBC colors, with dots framing its body.

The Agrawal lab is moving! This January we will be setting up shop at #UBC in Vancouver, in the department of #Zoology! We are actively recruiting at all levels, especially masters and PhD students. These position are #funded! Please send anyone interested my way!

🔊 Job Opportunity: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Bacterial Evolution.

Looking to recruit a postdoc to join a UKRI FLF-funded project on antibiotic resistance evolution in the microbiome 🦠

3 years funding, deadline 26th Jan, please share!
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

An incredible ICTP initiative is our Postgraduate Diploma Programme. Rigorous one-year pre-PhD training for students from the Global South. I have personally seen this program transform the lives of those in the quant life sciences.

Due Feb. 28 2026. Please share widely.
www.ictp.it/news/2025/11...

Congratulations to @alexrob.bsky.social , @alisonfeder.bsky.social , and Ben Kerr on this beautiful study, using evolutionary theory to study antiviral resistance dynamics when resistance is social...

#socialviruses #evosky 🧪

UF Biology is searching for an Asst Prof in Evolution, Ecology of Infectious Disease - spread the word! @ufresearch.bsky.social @ufgeog.bsky.social @sse-evolution.bsky.social

explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...

Excited to see it!

I want to selfishly plug that there's more to this story that we hope to share soon! (Wildtype phage has a way to "fight back" cheater miniphage invasion.) We're currently working on the paper so stay tuned 😎

Phage–bacteria dynamics: The tragedy of the commons at hyperspeed A recent study found that apparently stable coexistence between a clinically important pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and its integrated prophages can break down, setting off an evolutionary cycle ...

It was great to write a brief commentary with @sociovirology.bsky.social on @nanamikubota.bsky.social and @vscooper.micropopbio.org's recent discovery of cheat-driven cycles in Pseudomonas (www.cell.com/current-biol... - amazing example of the tragedy of the commons!

🧪 #socialviruses #evosky

Testing the redox theory of aging under parasitism The redox theory of aging proposes that an oxidative imbalance, possibly amplified by infection, drives senescence. We experimentally evolved mosquitoes under early or late reproduction with or withou...

Thrilled to share my first preprint in my 2nd evo-passion: senescence and aging.

Here, we used experimental evolution to test the #redox theory of #aging under #parasitism.

Guess what: it is considerably different from what is expected 🤓 a thread 1/5 👇

#EvoSky #MicroSky #Aedes

Rowan standing in front of a title slide reading “defective viral genomes in natural infections”

Lavish standing in front of a title slide reading “trade-offs in bacterial evolution in the context of temperate phage infection”

We had two fantastic visiting speakers today

MERMan alumnus @rowancallumg.bsky.social spoke about his current work with viral cheating in influenza with @asherleeks.bsky.social

And @lavishaparab.bsky.social talked about phage infection trade-offs

Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for our snacks!

Employment - Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

EEB Postdoctoral Fellowship @ U.Toronto app deadline Jan 15 2026. Opportunity for independent research, encourages collab across labs/disciplines. Lots of great folks to interact with, Come join us!
eeb.utoronto.ca/employment-2/

Great opportunity for those interested in fundamental questions in evolutionary biology and mathematical models: postdoc opening in Laurent Lehmann’s group @unil.bsky.social. We have a lively community of theorists here in Lausanne with good interactions across groups. Join us ! Please RP

A poster with branding for the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre fo Virus Research, labelled 'Virus Snowflakes.' The poster shows snowflake-like virus designs and song lyrics reading: On the twelfth day of Christmas, a virus gave to me, Twelve fights worth winning, Eleven Christmas dinners, Ten lunar landers, Nine childhood vaccines, Eight tools for teaching, Seven dogs a-barking, Six wasps a-laying, FIIIIVE TIIINY RIIIIIIINGS, Four vaccine platforms, Three genome segments, Two twinned capsids, and A world that is too small to see

Feeling festive?
Why not deck the halls with @cvrinfo.bsky.social's papercraft #VirusSnowflakes and celebrate the science of viruses and the fight against viral diseases.
Download for free: cvr-engagement.co.uk/virus-snowfl...
#scicomm #sciart #decorations

Amazing example of influenza cheat/cooperator cycles in this recent paper - the repeatability of the oscillatory cycles is so striking

Congrats to @alnajifg.bsky.social , @christopherbrooke.bsky.social , @vignuzzilab.bsky.social & friends

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧪 #socialviruses

Open faculty position (Assistant or Associate) in UW Medical Genetics. As you might expect, faculty often end up also interacting with Genome Sciences, so we're hoping for some great prospects! Note the clinical requirements for the position. apply.interfolio.com/176466

Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...