DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 05/09/2026Virus phylogenetics get much harder when they start recombining (which I assume they do out of spite). Here's an mpox genome in 17 blocks from 2 strains 🦠🧪 Which means this 1 virus has 2 evolutionary histories🧬🖥️ 140
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Apparently biotech 🧪 has been the best performing industry in the US stock market over the last 12 months. What do you think that means for job security and opportunities? 🧬🖥️ 032
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 25/08/2026The US Measels elimination status is under review, and rests on whether the current cases are a single outbreak lasting over 12 months 🧪🦠 For the first time this question is being answered using viral genomics 🧬🖥️ 161
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 22/08/2026Viruses looked at double stranded DNA, and decided it was too basic #Baltimore 🧬🧪 #ViroSky #VirEvol 120
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 19/08/2026Mycobacterium immunogenum 🦠 is often found in metal working fluids and can cause lung disease in machinists. Interestingly it's not an infection, it just causes the immune system to flare up and that damages the lungs 🧪 121
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 05/08/2026A mutation in a strain of measles allowed it to go undetected by common targeted sequencing surveillance 🧬. The assay has now been updated to detect the mutant 🖥️. Targeted sequencing is incredibly sensitive but it must be supported by genomic surveillance to keep the targets up to date 🧪🦠 1158
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 04/08/2026During London tube strikes, commuters had to change their underground route 🚇. 5% preferred their new route and kept using it after the strikes were over. What changes have you kept after forced exploration? 000
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 03/08/2026Slow growing bacterial infections are not just a challenge for id and culture. Their slow growth also makes treatment slower. Mycobacterium malmoense 🦠 takes 2 months to grow on a plate and 2 years of antibiotics to treat. 🧪 171
Reposted by DAWellsTed Pavlic (he/him/his) @tedpavlic.bsky.social · 23/07/2026For students who look to LLMs for help with their code but run into usage limits, running an open-weight LLM locally doesn't use up that much storage space and may have similar latency as cloud solutions -- and easy to connect to Positron, VSCode, and others. www.xda-developers.com/self-hosting...xda-developers.comI started self-hosting an LLM, and it became my favorite productivity toolI installed a local LLM for privacy, but the biggest surprise was how much faster it made my daily workflow. 051
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 22/07/2026New Zealand has become the last place to detect 2.3.4.4b bird flu (high pathogenicity H5N1). After even Antarctica (2023). 🧪 It's a worry for their native birds, but they've been proactively preparing by vaccinating endangered birds. 💉🦜 1182
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 15/07/2026Just an incredible achievement to get a new vaccine to clinical trial in just 8 weeks. Obviously still lots to do, but this shows what pandemic preparedness is capable of. 🧪💉 www.ox.ac.uk/news/2026-07-13-worlds-first-phase-i-bundibugyo-ebolavirus-vaccine-trial-launched-byox.ac.ukWorld’s first Phase I Bundibugyo ebolavirus vaccine trial launched by Oxford Vaccine GroupThe trial will assess the safety and immune response of the ChAdOx1 BDBV vaccine in 50 healthy adults aged 18–55 years. 043
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 14/07/2026Is there mould on the international space station 🚀🦠? I analyzed DNA from the ISS dinner table 🧬🖥️, my favorite find was lots of kimchi bacteria. Kimchi went to space, but the bacteria was killed first. 🧪 Why do you think kimchi bacteria doing so well in space? towardsdatascience.com/space-mould/towardsdatascience.comIdentifying Microbes in Space | Towards Data ScienceWhat's living on the International Space Station? 1156
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 08/07/2026What's living on the international space station dinner table? I used metagenomics to investigate and found a tasty surprise! 🧪🧬🖥️This blog walks through the code, what microbes I found, and how kraken2 works towardsdatascience.com/space-mould/towardsdatascience.comIdentifying Microbes in Space | Towards Data ScienceWhat's living on the International Space Station? 020
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 23/06/2026Find this mouth in the garden recently. Can anybody help me to ID? Plants 🌱🇬🇧 #bugsky 200
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 22/06/2026My new favorite website map.blitzortung.org 🌩️⚡ not just for awesome live data vis but for the collaboration of weather nerds building lightning detectors and sharing the datamap.blitzortung.orgBlitzortung.org - Live Lightning MapSee lightning strikes in realtime nearby your area. Get free online access to maps of former and current thunderstorms. A contribution by Blitzortung.org and contributors. 000
Reposted by DAWellsMichael Le Page @mjflepage.bsky.social · 17/06/2026Delighted to share some good news 🧪 “This hugely encouraging news shows the life-saving impact of the HPV vaccine, and it’s incredibly exciting to be able to say to this whole generation: cervical cancer shouldn’t be a risk for you,” says Caroline Temmink www.newscientist.com/article/2530...newscientist.comNo young women have died of cervical cancer in England for yearsWe already know the vaccine against human papillomavirus, or HPV, greatly reduces infections and cases of cervical cancer, and now we have the first evidence it prevents deaths too 5695226
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 19/06/2026Hantaviruses use "cap snatching" to start reading instructions from their genome. They cut up host mRNA and use that as primers for their own transcription. You can see this in their transcripts because they start with unrelated fragments of host sequence 🧪🧬🦠 030
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 10/06/2026New flu study shows that when you feel worse, you're probably spreading more virus particles. 🧪In particular, coughing, runny nose, and feeling bleh were correlated with virus particles expelled into the air. #flu www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(26)00232-1cell.comControlled human influenza infection reveals heterogeneous expulsion of infectious virus into airA platform called MIST enables quantification and genotyping of infectious influenza in expelled respiratory particles, revealing diverse, individual-specific viral loads and aerosolized variants that... 0104
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 05/06/2026In humans, sub unit vaccines are often designed around predicted t cell epitopes. What you would focus on in species without an adaptive immune response is such an interesting question! 🧬🖥️🧪 043
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 05/06/2026Using open source resources viralrecon and pathoplexus, it only took 3 days from declaring an outbreak to reporting the viral genomes as district from previous Bundinugyo outbreaks. 🖥️🧬 virological.org/t/initial-ge...virological.orgInitial genomes from May 2026 Bundibugyo Virus Disease Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and UgandaInitial genomes from May 2026 Bundibugyo Virus Disease Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, reveal a new spillover event Context On 15 May 2026, the Ministry of Public Health, ... 000
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 02/06/2026The Indian muntjac deer only has 6 or 7 chromosomes, less than any other mammal 🦌 because in the last 5 million years their chromosomes have fused together 26 times! 🧬 🖥️ #chromosome #deer 000
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 01/06/2026I recently learnt that muntjac deer are native to South East Asia. At the start of the 1900s a handful escaped from a private collection at Woburn Abbey. Despite this population bottleneck, there are now over 100,000 in the UK 000
Reposted by DAWellsRajarshi Sanyal @rajarshisanyal.bsky.social · 06/05/2026India’s genomic map reveals ~130M variants—many previously unknown. Strong population structure + rare, population-specific variants expose limits of Eurocentric datasets. Precision medicine needs diversity, not assumptions. #Genomics #PrecisionMedicine #HumanDiversity tinyurl.com/3mverx3ptinyurl.comIndia’s DNA map uncovers millions of missing genetic variantsA vast study reveals deep diversity, hidden disease risks and exposes the limits of Eurocentric medicine. 022
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 05/05/2026Very happy to say that the 🧬 🖥️ tool HLAfreq is now published doi.org/10.21105/joss.10122 Use it to combine HLA allele frequency datasets. I made it to help vaccine design but love seeing it put to other uses. Let me know if it's useful to you! 🧪 #hlafreqdoi.orgHLAfreq: Download and combine HLA allele frequency dataWells et al., (2026). HLAfreq: Download and combine HLA allele frequency data. Journal of Open Source Software, 11(121), 10122, https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.10122 110
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 26/04/2026The USDA pomological watercolors are a beautiful catalog of fruit in America. I made this figure to show which fruit are in that collection. The bigger the fruit the more times it features in the collection. It is full of apples 🍎🍏! Made with #figtreemap #sciart #apples 030
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 24/04/2026The USDA phonological watercolors are a collection of beautiful botanical illustrations I've been admiring. Exploring then was made much easier thanks to pomological.art/. Are there any similar collections of animal scientific illustrations you'd recommend? #sciartpomological.artUSDA Pomological Watercolor CollectionExplore over 7,500 historical watercolor paintings of fruits and vegetables from the USDA Pomological Collection, featuring rare varieties from 1886-1942. 120
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 21/04/2026Exploring cancer types with neo4j, a guide to identifying clusters in knowledge graphs 🧬🖥️🧪 @neo4j.com medium.com/data-science...medium.comExploring cancer types with neo4jHow to identify and visualise clusters in knowledge graphs 020
Reposted by DAWellsHealthcare Infection Society @hisinfection.bsky.social · 21/04/2026📢Introducing GENOTIPE, HIS Special Interest Group. 🧬GENOTIPE brings together the expertise needed to turn genomic innovation into practical and sustainable use within healthcare settings, aligned with NHS and public health priorities. 🔗More info: ow.ly/JMWY50YNm7k #Genomics #IPC #🧪 011
Reposted by DAWellsNature @nature.com · 20/04/2026Computer scientists share their advice for ensuring that your scientific software does what it’s supposed to do go.nature.com/48wyHXpgo.nature.comGot bugs? Here’s how to catch the errors in your scientific softwareComputer scientists share their advice for ensuring that your scientific software does what it’s supposed to do. 0213
Reposted by DAWellsKristina Killgrove @killgrove.bsky.social · 18/04/2026Scientists have confirmed that group A strep can be identified in ancient remains. They found pathogen DNA in a prehispanic mummy from Bolivia — raising the question: Where did strep (and diseases like scarlet fever) originate? 🧪🏺livescience.com700-year-old mummy from Bolivia contains earliest confirmed evidence of strep throat bacteria in the AmericasA DNA analysis of pathogens from a pre-Hispanic mummy revealed that the bacterium that causes scarlet fever and strep throat was present in the Americas prior to European colonization. 29040
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 18/04/2026The number of spaces missions per animal species 🐕🚀. Inspired by [animals in space](www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/gra...) made with [figtreemap](quantitative-omics-research.github.io/figtreemap/) #space 110
DAWells @sciencewells.bsky.social · 17/04/2026Gorgeous! Reminds me of ggpomological garrickadenbuie.com/project/ggpomological/#color-palette a beautiful colour palette and ggplot theme 🍎🍏garrickadenbuie.com🍑 ggpomological: A Pomological ggplot2 Theme – Garrick Aden-BuieA ggplot2 theme based on the USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection 010
Reposted by DAWellsSK Winnicki, PhD 🏳️⚧️ @skwinnicki.bsky.social · 15/04/2026Of course, that's great because I love White-throated Sparrows so much. Did you know that their two color morphs aren't actually the male and female plumages (as some old field guides say)? Thanks to a genetic quirk, they've basically got 4 sexes! www.sciencehistory.org/stories/disa...sciencehistory.orgThe Bird with Four SexesFind out what a strange little sparrow can teach us about love, sex, and human biology. 35512