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Noah Fierer

@noahfierer.bsky.social
2.7K followers 209 following 113 posts

Microbial ecologist www.fiererlab.org

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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
It is rare to find a paper that really blows my mind. This is one of those papers: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Self-generated hydrogel ejects bacterial cells for localized biofilm dispersion - Nature Microbiology
Bacillus subtilis biofilms locally disperse by ejecting motile cells through osmotic pressure generated by their poly-γ-glutamic acid hydrogel, a mechanism resembling that through which Cnidaria eject...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
@jeffinerca.bsky.social FYI - you can enter NZ even without your NZETA approved.
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Reposted by Noah Fierer
Louis Schipper @louisschipper.bsky.social · 01/08/2026
Lecturer position in soil science opportunity (equivalent to Assistant Prof. Looking forward to seeing some great applicants. elhs.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...
elhs.fa.ap1.oraclecloud.com
Lecturer in Soil Science
Take the next step in your academic career, conducting original research in soil science and contributing to teaching the next generation of scientists within the Earth and Environmental Sciences Team...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 23/06/2026
This study is amazing: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
A representative of a ubiquitous bacterial lineage parasitically feeds on host RNA
Cellular metabolism is widely understood as an integrated network of redox reactions, energy conservation, and biosynthetic pathways. Here we show that across diverse prokaryotic lineages, loss of red...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
New preprint up: the power of protein language models - using a single gene (adenylate kinase) to predict the temperature optima of bacteria and bacterial communities from genomes or metagenomes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Predicting optimal growth temperatures of bacteria using learned structural information from a single protein
Temperature is a fundamental determinant of bacterial physiology and ecology. Optimal growth temperature (OGT) is highly variable across species, contributing to differences in where and when species ...
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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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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
Really useful paper explaining why richness/diversity metrics are rarely informative when applied to microbial community sequencing data: enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Rethinking Alpha Diversity in Marker‐Gene Microbiome Studies: Dominance Matters More Than Richness
Marker-gene microbiome surveys systematically under-sample rare taxa, causing alpha diversity metrics to reflect dominance rather than true richness. This conceptual mismatch can lead to misleading e...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
The recent NY Times article on Oath (a soil inoculant company) warrants a mini-thread, so here we go: www.nytimes.com/2026/05/01/b... (1/9)
nytimes.com
After Prison, a Financial Titan Plots an Unlikely Comeback
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
New pre-print out - we sought to determine if Antarctic soil bacteria are really endemic to the continent. Would love feedback. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Evidence for endemism and local adaptation in Antarctic soil bacteria
Antarctic soils represent one of the more extreme environments for microbial life on Earth, yet they harbor heterogeneous and diverse microbial communities. Biologists have long hypothesized that Antarctic microorganisms are unique from those found on other continents due to the extreme geographic isolation and the cold, dry, and challenging conditions typical of Antarctica. To test this hypothesis, we focused on a cosmopolitan bacterial genus, Arthrobacter, that is widely distributed across global soils. We first profiled a global metagenomic dataset from both Antarctic and non-Antarctic surface soils to quantify the distributions of Arthrobacter strains. Despite high strain-level diversity, 90% of the strains found in the Antarctic soils were only found on the continent. We then used cultivation-based phenotypic analyses and strain-level genomic comparisons to assess how Antarctic strains and non-Antarctic strains differ in their traits and environmental preferences. Not only did we find evidence of endemism, but Antarctic Arthrobacter also have genomic characteristics and environmental tolerances that suggest they are uniquely adapted to Antarctic conditions. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. U.S. National Science Foundation, NSF 21-567, EAR 1950681 Australian Research Council, FT240100502, DE250101210
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 21/04/2026
I was excited to read this paper until I got to this section describing their Methods. Big claims require better evidence. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
Another day of microbiome scientists jumping the shark
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Looking for a tool to estimate abundances of aerobes versus anaerobes directly from metagenomes? Here you go: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 08/01/2026
New preprint up on airborne fungi across the US with a focus on fungal allergens - would love feedback. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
Spatiotemporal dynamics in airborne fungi and fungal allergens across the United States
A broad diversity of fungi can be found in the near-surface atmosphere, with both the amounts and types of airborne fungi varying across space and time. However, the specific spatiotemporal patterns i...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
New paper up - inspired by the periodic table of the elements, we attempted to organize bacterial diversity in genome-inferred trait space academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
academic.oup.com
Constructing a “periodic table” of bacteria to map diversity in trait space
Abstract. Despite an ever-expanding number of bacterial taxa being discovered, many of these taxa remain uncharacterized with unknown traits and environmen
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
New paper out looking at mycobacterial diversity across soils, premise plumbing, and surface waters to try to figure out the source of environmentally-acquired mycobacterial infections: journals.asm.org/doi/epdf/10....
journals.asm.org
A cross-environment comparison of nontuberculous mycobacterial diversity
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
New paper out demonstrating how we can use strain-level analyses of soil metagenomes to investigate the biogeographical patterns exhibited by a dominant group of soil bacteria (Bradyrhizobium) academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
academic.oup.com
Validate User
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 06/08/2025
New preprint led by Matt Gebert focused on the environmental reservoirs of nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pathogens. NTM disease is environmentally acquired, but routes of exposure unclear. Our work implicates premise plumbing as the main culprit! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
A cross-environment comparison of nontuberculous mycobacterial diversity
Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are a group of environmental bacteria that encompass nearly 200 described species, some of which can cause chronic pulmonary infection in humans. What makes these inf...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
After 15 years, the authors of the infamous 'arsenic life' paper are still trying to argue that their findings are legit and not just a product of 'major errors'? Unbelievable. The authors' response to the retraction is infuriating. Time to let it go. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
New pre-print from my group - project led by PhD student Michael Hoffert. We set out on a daunting mission to generate a 'periodic table' of bacterial diversity (1/6) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
A periodic table of bacteria?: Mapping bacterial diversity in trait space
Bacterial diversity can be overwhelming. There is an ever-expanding number of bacterial taxa being discovered, but many of these taxa remain uncharacterized with unknown traits and environmental prefe...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Hope this is useful - consensus statement "Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies" rdcu.be/er3Io
rdcu.be
Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies
Nature Microbiology - In this Consensus Statement, the authors outline strategies for processing, analysing and interpreting low-biomass microbiome samples, and provide recommendations to minimize...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 30/05/2025
New study out - we developed a pipeline for targeted assembly of genomes from (complex) soil metagenomes to examine the strain-level diversity and ecology of a dominant soil bacterial genus (Bradyrhizobium). Feedback appreciated. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Continent-wide assessment of the strain-level diversity of Bradyrhizobium, a dominant soil bacterial genus
Global surveys of soil bacteria have identified several taxa that are nearly ubiquitous and often the most abundant members of soil bacterial communities. However, it remains unclear why these taxa ar...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
This is cool - bacteria wrap their flagella to propel themselves through narrow passages www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Bacteria break through one-micrometer-square passages by flagellar wrapping
Confined spaces are omnipresent in the micro-environments, including soil aggregates and intestinal crypts, yet little is known about how bacteria behave under such conditions where movement is challe...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Just your regular reminder that 'sterile' doesn't mean 'DNA-free'! (this rant brought to you by yet another published DNA-based study conducted in a low biomass system where appropriate controls do not appear to have been included)
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 07/05/2025
Dear fellow olds - recognize that the term 'next generation sequencing' is confusing to those that never had experience with the first generation. Also - what 'generation' are we on anyways?
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 20/04/2025
So happy it is still winter here in Colorado
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Reposted by Noah Fierer
Julian Resasco @julianresasco.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
Excited to share PhD student Claire Winfrey’s (w/ @noahfierer.bsky.social & me) new paper in @esajournals.bsky.social Ecology! She examines how edge effects in habitat fragments shape soil microbial communities. Check it out 🦠 🧪 🌎 esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
The figure shows study sites at the Savannah River Site in SC, USA, and the edge transects used in the study.This is a multipanel figure showing bacteria/archaea and fungi turnover across edge transects in different blocks with pH and canopy cover.
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 17/03/2025
New study out from my group showing how the volatile geosmin (the wonderful 'smell of dirt') serves as a cue to influence the behavior of soil protists rdcu.be/edCJj
rdcu.be
Effects of Geosmin on the Behavior of Soil Protists
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 21/02/2025
New paper out that (we hope) will be useful to anyone with an interest in Antarctic soil microbial communities: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
link.springer.com
A comprehensive survey of soil microbial diversity across the Antarctic continent - Polar Biology
Antarctic soils are unique from those found nearly anywhere else on Earth yet can still harbor a broad diversity of microorganisms able to tolerate the challenging conditions typical of the continent....
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
We are trying to recruit folks from across the US that might be willing to be involved in a beta test of a new project to quantify airborne allergen loads in their homes. If interested (no cost), sign up here: boulderblue.com
boulderblue.com
Air Quality Testing Services – Allergen Detection with Boulder Blue
Ensure a healthier space with cutting-edge air quality testing services from Boulder Blue. Our genomic tests help detect indoor allergens.
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
Both the porcupine and I enjoyed the powder today
Porcupine
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 24/01/2025
For years I've heard it said by univ admins that 'research is a net cost to the univ'. I guess we are about to find out if that is really true....
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Reposted by Noah Fierer
Neal Henderson @nealahenderson.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
Lovely day to get out and XC ski in North Boulder Park. I recognized three Olympians out there during my 1 hour ski…one gold medalist, and one other medalist. There were probably other Olympians out there I didn’t recognize. Thanks to Boulder Nordic Club for grooming! bouldernordic.org #Boulder
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 15/01/2025
Yet another reminder that RNA levels are not necessarily predictive of growth rate in mixed microbial communities (from this paper: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...)
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Lucky to be able to spend the morning skiing in Rocky Mt Natl Park
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Another day with a SciEnCV-induced headache. Who thought just preparing a biosketch should be turned into a major time sink and source of frustration?
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Cool work by @mattolm.bsky.social identifying the specific bacteria targeted by gut antibodies www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing reveals IgA coating of microbial strains in the healthy human gut - Nature Microbiology
Metagenomic immunoglobulin sequencing (MIg-seq) uncovered patterns of IgA antibody binding of bacterial strains in the healthy human gut microbiome.
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 24/12/2024
Damn - these cookies slap cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1023...
cooking.nytimes.com
Gochujang Caramel Cookies Recipe
Gochujang, the fermented Korean chile paste, offers intrigue in this otherwise classic chewy sugar cookie A gentle amount of ground cinnamon lends snickerdoodle vibes, and the dough is raked through w...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Yikes - large earthquake in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Wonderful people and beautiful place (spent 2 weeks there in 2023). Hoping for the best...
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
Basically every ecology paper: "We found a strong link between X and Y at this site, so this is how the world works." The plot.
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Why are Punnett squares still a thing? (asks the guy currently helping his daughter with 9th grade biology homework)
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 12/12/2024
Dear microbial ecologists - I don't care how many MAGs you generated - what matters is what new insights you can glean from all those genomes (rant over)
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
In recognition of World Soils Day, here are 3 kitties snuggling together on a Namibian soil
Lions sleeping
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Friendly welcoming party in Namibia
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Cool to see that pH is not only an important determinant of microbiome structure in soil and freshwater environments, but also the human gut! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Gut physiology and environment explain variations in human gut microbiome composition and metabolism - Nature Microbiology
An observational longitudinal clinical trial, incorporating a SmartPill and metabolomics, reveals the role of host factors in shaping the gut microbiome in healthy human adults.
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Phytophthora takes down an indoor farming company: pitchbook.com/news/article...
pitchbook.com
Wilted greens: How a leaf-eating pathogen, failed deals brought down Bowery Farming - PitchBook
A pathogen decimated crop yields at both of Bowery's farms, former employees said. They never fully recovered.
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Anyone have an alternate protocol suitable for ONT genomic/metagenomic library preps? The 'official' ONT protocol is kind of a pain in the ass....
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
With the recent improvements in ONT sequencing, I don't think we'll ever go back to Illumina for most of our sequencing work
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
Summary of our recent paper using Twitter data (primarily) to track seasonal allergies across the US: cires.colorado.edu/news/social-...
cires.colorado.edu
Social media posts reveal regional patterns in seasonal allergies
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 12/11/2024
New paper out - social media (namely Twitter) is good for something - tracking spatial/temporal patterns in seasonal allergies across the US: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
academic.oup.com
Internet-based surveillance to track trends in seasonal allergies across the United States
Abstract. Over a quarter of adults in the United States suffer from seasonal allergies, yet the broader spatiotemporal patterns in seasonal allergy trends
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 10/11/2024
Yesterday vs today - gotta love Colorado
Snow!Desert biking
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