iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

No talk summaries at the Fungal GRS/C, but the GRS attendees do have a mascot we’ve adopted: Behold, the Lobfather! #FungalGRC

055

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Communication continues! Baoye He shares how cross-kingdom 🍄🌱 communication happens with extracellular vesicles 🫧 and RNA trafficking 🚛🧬 #fungal26

041

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Travis Seamons invites us to 👂 listen into some microbial conversations using RNA Addressable Modification 🧬 and barcoding. (Read more here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...) #fungal26

151

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

No RNAi, big problems 🧬➡️🛑 Mycoviruses 🦠 interfering with RNAi can make fungal pathogen Cryptococcus neoformans more virulent in mouse models. 🐁😷 Fascinating talk from Jun Huang. #fungal26

051

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

Jasmine Ono (@jtono.bsky.social) discussing some matchmaking mechanisms gone wrong 😱 💔 Saccharomyces paradoxus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae F1 hybrids are sterile largely due to recombination rejection 🛑✋🏻 due to mis-segregation of chromosomes 🧬➡️❔🤷‍♀️ #fungal26

141

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 21/03/2026

María Angélica Bravo Núñez uses natural isolates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae 🌳🧫 to understand how aneuploidy and structural variation 🧬🧱 changes over time. Take home message (with some of my own soapboxing): don’t just rely on lab strains - look for natural variation in the wild! 🏕️🍇 #fungal26

121

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Hanne Griem-Krey discussing ✨🚀 Starship-mediated horizontal gene transfer 🧬➡️🧬 of transposable elements in the insect pathogen 🐜😷 Metarhizum anisoplaie. #fungal26

182

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Emile Gluck-Thaler elucidating the mysteries 🔎 🫆 of fungal variation and phenotype using 🚀✨ Starship transposon framework. How do these 🔗 link to and impact fungal evolution? #fungal26

1286

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Really, really fascinating talk from the Tsai lab (@ishengtsai.bsky.social) about the fungi Acrodontium living in the mucilage of the carnivorous plant 🪰🪴 ☀️ Drosera - and how it promotes prey digestion! 🍴#fungal26

141

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

@evelinesnelders.bsky.social shares work utilizing citizen science 👥🥼🧪 to sample for airborne fungal resistance with Schimmelradar (fungal radar) program 🍄📡 - and some really cool results showing land use is a better predictor for azole resistance! 💪🏻 #fungal26

1124

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

@lablabella.bsky.social labmate Caroline West sharing some collaborative work with the @morgancarterphd.bsky.social lab exploring 👀💻 codon usage patterns in R. microsporus, its bacterial endosymbiont, and the phages within the bacteria! 🦠🧬🧪 #fungal26

191

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Marie-Claire Harrison tells us how machine learning algorithms 💻 can be used to predict and link ⛓️ phenotype-genotype relationships (like antifungal resistance) across clinical and environmental fungi. #fungal26

0162

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

CNV 1️⃣2️⃣3️⃣🧬 has a big influence on drug resistance - Rebecca Shapiro’s group has developed a CRISPR activation system for C. albicans and C. glabrata to overexpress genes and ID those genes associated with resistance. 💪💊 #fungal26

151

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Powerful opening by Aleeza Gerstein to Javier San Juan Galan’s work calling the scientific community to think about how we can include peers who are unable to attend meetings due to visa issues. 🌐🫶 Also - really fascinating work on the variation within clinical populations of C. albicans! #fungal26

1153

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Marion Perrier work using graph pangenomics in Aspergillus fumigatus 🫁🧫 to reveal genes missing from the reference genome. 🧩🧬 #fungal26

131

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Could the rapid multiple drug resistance seen in Candida auris be due to hypermutation? 😷💊 David Firer looks into clinical isolates to investigate. 🔎 #fungal26

161

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Absolutely fantastic inaugural Fungal Spore Award talk 🏆 from Matthew Fisher. The Anthropocene is an ongoing fungal evolution experiment - like a game of Spore with real world consequences. 🕹️🦠🧬 How does human activity impose selection parameters within fungal evolution? #fungal26

182

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Wheat tandem-kinases 🌾 👯‍♀️ mediate resistance and immunity to fungal pathogens - using a rice 🍚 model to utilize accessible genetic tools. Great talk on some fascinating work by @yichangsung.bsky.social! #fungal26 (Read more here: par.nsf.gov/servlets/pur...)

1103

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

@lablabella.bsky.social shares how we can utilize machine learning to understand patterns of codon usage bias across phenotypes in Saccharomycotina. #fungal26

295

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

GenAI for a fun-gi 💻🧫 - Carson Andorf and his team at USDA are working to develop deep learning and generative AI models for fungal species, including predicting host-pathogen protein interactions! #fungAI #fungal26

171

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Can filamentous and budding yeasts be friends? More than that - filamentation can be induced (and predicted!) in Saccharomycotina. Awesome talk by Christina Chavez at #fungal26 - read more here: academic.oup.com/femsyr/artic...

193

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

Olivia Riedling in the @rokaslab.bsky.social found that Aspergillus species distributions show higher richness in temperate forests and that human influence creates microhabitats. Really cool global perspective on fungal habitats and climate shifts!! 🧫🌐 #fungal26

163

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

So excited to have successfully defended my PhD - thank you to @dbensasson.bsky.social for your mentorship and encouragement over the years!!

040

Audrey K Ward @audreykward.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

i wish i could write individual scripts for multiple strains listed in this text file all at once! the humble while loop:

Small grey kitten on a blue and grey quilted bedspread staring at a laptop screen.

020