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Davide Ciccarese

@davideciccarese.bsky.social
289 followers 379 following 65 posts

Bridging environmental science and real-world applications | Junior lecturer @ UNIL | Postdoc @ MIT | PhD @ ETH. Climate and bio based solutions. Author of 7 books, winner of two book prize.

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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 29/06/2026
Just for fun. Lately, I’ve been experimenting w/ AI. 👇Turning papers into infographic abstracts in seconds. Heatwaves do not only dry the soil surface. They also disturb the hidden bacterial and fungal communities that keep soils alive. @frantecol.bsky.social & @ Wolfgang Wanek. lnkd.in/ekRgjQ64
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
From an interesting observation to an experimental system on circadian gene expression in B. subtilis, published in @natcomms.nature.com from @microclockerc.bsky.social The Bacillus subtilis circadian clock coordinates intricate spatiotemporal organisation 👉 www.nature.com/articles/s41... [1/n]🧵
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
Pre-AI era
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
How successful is a cell based on its shape? Each line traces a cell back to its parent, from the seed to the colony edge. Colour indicates cell type. The shade indicates the generation.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Travel distance is how far a cell ends up from where it was born as the colony grows. In every interaction, round cocci travel the least and elongated rods and chains travel more, all significant. Cell shape sets how far the front carries a cell. Commensalism shows the largest, most variable travel.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
How mixed two strains stay at a colony's edge has two causes. The interaction sets the level: mutualism stays mixed, the rest sort into clean single-strain wedges. Cell shape sets the sharpness, the same way in every interaction: cocci sharpest, chains most blurred, single rods between.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Cell shape alone changes who reaches the growing edge. Pooled across all six interactions, round cocci reach the front least often and elongated rods and chains reach it most. The shape a cell has matters before any specific interaction is added on top.
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Ever wanted to use metagenomic data to infer oxygen levels (or the oxygen preferences of whole bacterial communities)? We have the tool for you: journals.asm.org/eprint/9GUIR...
journals.asm.org
Predicting oxygen levels in microbial habitats using a metagenome-based approach | mSystems
Oxygen is one of the most important environmental variables affecting microbial activity and composition, but is often difficult to measure in situ. We developed a tool, OxyMetaG, that leverages diffe...
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Here are both views of the same model, the 3D colony and the 2D range expansion. Together they show how cell shape affects the spatial arrangement of the strains and which lineages succeed at the front.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
For each interaction type, every lineage of each cell shape is tracked, so the model shows how the interaction and the cell shape together set which cells reach the expanding front, shown here in three dimensions.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Cell shapes are tested against each other in every possible combination, across these interaction types: Neutralism (0, 0), Commensalism (0, +), Amensalism (0, -) Public good (-, +), Mutualism (+, +), Competition (-, -). Cocci, rods, and chains.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Here the full repository: github.com/davideciccar...
github.com
GitHub - davideciccarese/Cells-Shapes: How cell shape and interaction sign shape clonal sectors in growing bacterial colonies, in a 3D cube model and a 2D range-expansion model.
How cell shape and interaction sign shape clonal sectors in growing bacterial colonies, in a 3D cube model and a 2D range-expansion model. - davideciccarese/Cells-Shapes
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
Just for fun: a model of how cell shape affects a growing biofilm, shown in 3D and as a 2D range expansion. It runs every shape and interaction combination and measures spatial metrics: which shapes reach the front, lineage survival, diversity. Feedback welcome.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Thanks a ton!
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Nice. I’ll try to incorporate this as well. Happy to hear any other suggestions you may have.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
I’m glad you liked it. Thanks a lot for the suggestions I will try modify the model accordingly 😊 Your microscopy work has become truly iconic in the field.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
I thought this might be interesting for you 🙂 I’d be curious to hear if there’s anything you would change. github.com/davideciccar...
github.com
GitHub - davideciccarese/HedgeDogModel: Computational reconstruction of the oral plaque hedgehog biofilm: reaction-diffusion gradients, agent-based coaggregation assembly, and a dynamic 3D oxygen and ...
Computational reconstruction of the oral plaque hedgehog biofilm: reaction-diffusion gradients, agent-based coaggregation assembly, and a dynamic 3D oxygen and metabolite solve. - davideciccarese/H...
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Inspired by: @stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social :) smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2016/11/hedgehogs-in-your-garden/
smallthingsconsidered.blog
Hedge­hogs In Your Gar­den
by Christoph — If someone told you that your mouth harbors roughly 700 different bacterial species you might think "that's gross!" but you'd probably just say "Ooh!". Wait! Please, keep your mouth…
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Some data visualization here:
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Dynamic succession with coupled fields: O₂, CO₂, and lactate. The beauty of species succession and microscale self-engineering: microbial communities shape entire ecosystems, one micrometer at a time.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Here is the repository. Any feedback, comments, or suggestions are very welcome: github.com/davideciccar...
github.com
GitHub - davideciccarese/HedgeDogModel: Computational reconstruction of the oral plaque hedgehog biofilm: reaction-diffusion gradients, agent-based coaggregation assembly, and a dynamic 3D oxygen and ...
Computational reconstruction of the oral plaque hedgehog biofilm: reaction-diffusion gradients, agent-based coaggregation assembly, and a dynamic 3D oxygen and metabolite solve. - davideciccarese/H...
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This is the original picture used to create the computational reconstruction. The purpose of these simulations is solely didactic, and they have some limitations.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
These microscopy images are among my favorites ever, and I have used them many times in my talks to explain microscale ecology :)
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
Just for fun. A classic of microscale ecology: Mark Welch et al. 2016. From FISH microscopy to computational reconstruction of the oral plaque hedgehog biofilm: reaction-diffusion gradients, agent-based coaggregation assembly, and a dynamic 3D oxygen and metabolite solver. GitHub repo 👇
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Stefano Donati @stefanodonati.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Happy to share our brand-new toolset for growth data analysis! This includes a python package and two apps for the analysis of data from plate readers (MicroGrowth) and mini-bioreactors (AutoGrowth). Everything is free and open-source. Link to the apps: biosustain.github.io/growthcurves...
biosustain.github.io
Growth Curves App
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Wooow, I love it. This diagram can definitely help. Let’s see if I manage to put it to good use 🤩
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Thanks for the suggestion I will try it 😊
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Thanks 😊 Always kind words. I wanted to share accessible visualizations and simple models that can make microscale ecology easier to understand. Hopefully, they can be useful for teaching, discussion, or sparking curiosity.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Not definitive conclusions but observational: 1/ Growth is local. Nearby cells grow alike, but only over short distances. 2/ Position matters. Surface cells divide, while buried biomass barely grows. 3/ Biofilms are "quiet" inside. A thin active rind wraps a much quieter, starved interior.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
The same five central founders per species, now each clone in its own colour, one cube per species and one row per interaction, so you can watch individual families fill space. The lineage figure asks how deep a family goes, this one asks how a family is shaped.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
For each interaction and each species we take five mother cells nearest the centre of the founding patch and draw their progeny as a spatial tree, every division an edge from parent to daughter, colour-coded by generation on a magma scale, growing over time. Central founders are chosen on purpose.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
Just for fun, I built a small spatially explicit model to explore a cubic cross-section of cells growing in a biofilm, based on the three main interaction types (from a 10 yr. old review). Have a look, feedback is very welcome! github.com/davideciccar...
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
A second rendering colours each cell by its founding lineage, which makes the range-expansion sectors visible as stripes:
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Here the GitHub repo: github.com/davideciccar...
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
Just for fun, I took a review by a former colleague on classical ecological interactions and transformed its conceptual images into a spatially explicit range expansion model. The GitHub repo is open for anyone interested in spatial interactions or ecological modeling. Feedback is very welcome.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
I created a repository and left it untouched on purpose, for anyone to judge: github.com/davideciccar... This is just a test to see reactions.
github.com
GitHub - davideciccarese/rod-colony-model
Contribute to davideciccarese/rod-colony-model development by creating an account on GitHub.
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
(It’s been a while since I posted here). I did a test today. 2 prompts and Claude Opus 4.8 made code, GitHub repo, docs and a GIF. Link 👇. Work that could take a PhD student days. Are LLMs ending heavy work and letting us ask wild questions, or more “meh, I could code it better”?
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Microbiome Virtual International Forum @microbiomevif.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
#MVIF 45 is starting! 👇 You can still register 👇 cassyni.com/s/mvif-45
cassyni.com
Cassyni | Science starts with a seminar
Seamlessly organise, run and publish academic research talks. Get started in minutes.
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Microbiome Virtual International Forum @microbiomevif.bsky.social · 06/10/2025
💫 #MVIF Season 5 💫 Feel free to join the keynotes by presenting your work–abstract submission is open: www.microbiome-vif.org/en-US/how-to... #MVIF is proudly supported by #illumina @corundumsb.bsky.social and our non-commercial co-organizing partners Seerave Foundation @cunysph.bsky.social
MVIF Season 5 program
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 15/12/2025
Unifying Theories in High-Dimensional Biology: Approaches, Challenges and Opportunities arxiv.org/pdf/2512.10111
arxiv.org
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Snorre Sulheim @sulheim.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Do you think transporters in E. coli contribute to metabolite release? No? Explore the effect of 66 different transporter knockout mutations on the exometabolome dynamics of ~300 metabolites yourself: keio.unil.ch Teaser: Increased proline in ΔputP #microsky #MEvoSky
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Sean Gibbons 🦠💩 @gibbological.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
Don't miss out on our free virtual symposium (Dec. 12th) focused on microbial metabolites and their effects on the host. Sponsors: @amiposts.bsky.social, Pendulum, & Liv (@zymoresearch.bsky.social) Registrants will receive free memberships to Applied Microbiology International. Details below 👇
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 07/11/2025
Wonderful review! Thanks for sharing! ☺️
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Christian Kost @kostchristian.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
#microsky #mevosky @spp2389.bsky.social A PhD position is available in my lab to work on: Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria. Please RT Deadline: 12.11.25 More infos 👇 shorturl.at/rAKAT
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
EMBO @embo.org · 25/10/2025
Learn more about recent advances in anaerobic #microbiology at EMBO Practical Course "Breathless Microbes: Life With No Oxygen" in Nijmegen, Netherlands, 6–10 July 2026. 🧪 Deadline: 15 April 2026 meetings.embo.org/event/26-bre... #EMBObreathless #EMBOevents #MicroSky #biotechnology #biochemistry
meetings.embo.org
Breathless Microbes: Life With No Oxygen
Recent advances in anaerobic microbiology have driven significant progress in biotechnology, environmental microbiology, and biochemistry. Anaerobes play key roles in sustainable biotechnological pro…
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
James Bradley @drbradbrad.bsky.social · 21/10/2025
Postdoc vacancy: Microbial dormancy in the cryosphere @erc.europa.eu #ERC_SIESTA 📢 PLEASE RT 🧬 Single cell microbial activity measurements, flow cytometry, cell sorting, omics, ecological interpretation ☀️ Marseille, France ‼️ Apply ASAP & before 7 Nov Link: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
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Reposted by Davide Ciccarese
Alvaro San Millan @sanmillan.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
New paper with my (amazing) friend and mentor @jrpenades.bsky.social Really looking forward to see what plasmid aficionados think of this one!! With @asantoslopez.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social Akshay Sabins and others www.cell.com/cell-reports...
cell.com
Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature
Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...
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Davide Ciccarese @davideciccarese.bsky.social · 25/10/2025
Excellent work by Estelle Pignon and @yschaerli.bsky.social! A great overview of how synthetic bacterial communities can be used to uncover the rules governing spatial organization.
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