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Asher Leeks

@asherleeks.bsky.social

3K followers 1.3K following 70 posts

We study social evolution in viruses. Assistant Professor @zoology.ubc.ca & @ubcbiodiversity.bsky.social asherleeks.com

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

For those not able to make it to #socialviruses this year, Sam is live-tweeting all three days of talks, touching on all aspects of social evolution in viruses! #evosky #virosky 🧪 🦠 🔬

The Social Lives of Viruses conference poster

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 28/04/2026

We're recruiting! We're looking for two graduate students to join us at UBC in Vancouver. Fully funded and open to global applicants, with flexible start-date. Topics include theory, bioinformatics, and microbiology. More details: asherleeks.com/apply #socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪

Leeks Lab is recruiting. We study social evolution in viruses. We're recruiting for two fully funded PhD or MSc positions, starting from September 2026. Evolutionary theory / experimental microbiology / viral bioinformatics. Experience optional / enthusiasm essential. asherleeks.com/apply

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 14/04/2026

The Social Lives of Viruses is coming to Vancouver, Canada, from 4th-8th August 2026! This is a free meeting dedicated to all aspects of virus-virus interactions & evolution. To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca @sociovirology.bsky.social #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 28/11/2025

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

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

@rowancallumg.bsky.social and @liyamiksovsky.bsky.social demonstrating our newest lab tradition - creating virus snowflakes (designed by @socialinfluenza.bsky.social ) out of submitted grants and fellowships. 🧪 #socialviruses

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

You might appreciate this one it generated for me illustrating important Hominid fossil discoveries and their locations…

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Cheat therapy turns out to be highly effective at treating viruses in vivo. The question is no longer 'can it work?', but rather 'how do we do it safely?' We discuss why cheats seem to work better in viruses than in bacteria, and the next steps for bringing cheat therapy to the clinic. 3/3

Table 1 | Many studies have successfully used viral cheats to combat viruses in vivo, observing reduction in clinical severity, or even complete protection from viral challenge

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

Bacteria and viruses often rely on shared molecules, or 'public goods'. Mutants can emerge that do not produce these molecules, but still benefit from them. These 'cheat' mutants can naturally invade populations... but could we also deploy cheats deliberately as a new type of therapeutic? 2/3

Fig. 2 | Successful viral infections require the production of shared gene products. Two common examples include replicase enzymes for replicating the viral genome (here in yellow) or capsid protein subunits required for building the viral capsid (herein blue). These gene products can be exploited by non-producing mutants, called cheats, which benefit from them without contributing. A Cheat mutants often arise spontaneously, when error-prone replication results in shorter viral genomes which lack the regions that encode shared gene products. B In coinfection, these cheat mutants exploit gene pro-ducts encoded by full-length, cooperative viruses.Over the course of a cellular infection, cheats can out-compete full-length viruses by up to 10,000:1, even driving extinction of the viral population.

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 22/01/2024

Announcing the Social Lives of Viruses 2024! Do you study social evolution in viruses? Do you want to? Join us in Puerto Rico this June for a 50-person meeting dedicated to viral sociality. All costs covered. Apply here: forms.gle/sHTEcHJjryDh... #ViroSky #MicroSky #EvoSky #SocialViruses

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Asher Leeks @asherleeks.bsky.social · 30/11/2023

Finally, this review and the resulting conversation emerged from our 2022 meeting on #SocialViruses. We’re very grateful to all who made that meeting so energetic, as well as to ESEB for funding (and @szparalab.bsky.social for remembering to take the only group photo...) (9/n)

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