iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

Oh no, I was so excited thinking this was about the wonder of deep sea life feeding on a whale carcass 😩 Still keen on the popcorn bucket tho 🐳

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Robert Tropek @robtrop.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

New study published in @natecoevo.nature.com ! We assembled the largest global dataset of plant–pollinator networks to ask a simple question: do interactions become more specialised towards the tropics? doi.org/10.1038/s415... Study led by @saileesakhalkar.bsky.social and myself ☺️ 1/8

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Jesse Shapiro @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Our latest, spearheaded by the truly indefatigable @emderrick.bsky.social in which we search for selective sweeps in nature and genetic targets of selection within a species in the context of a diverse background community @isme-microbes.bsky.social doi.org/10.1093/isme... 🧵 1/n

doi.org

Validate User

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

If you missed it last week, we published the largest ever study on emerging infectious diseases. Not really in vogue right now, but the next pandemic will come sooner than you think. Key lessons: nature-based solutions where you can, health system strengthening always. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases

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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Where did bats come from?🦇🌍 After decades of debate, the biggest bat genome + fossil study ever done has an answer - and it’s not where anyone expected! 🤩OUR PHASE 1 FLAGSHIP is out today in nature! doi.org/10.1038/s415... A thread 🧵

doi.org

Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - Nature

An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

What's behind this tidal wave of epidemics? In the largest study ever conducted on emerging infectious diseases, we show that the popular explanation - "our relationship with nature is out of balance" - doesn't hold up. Out now in Nature, after half a decade of work: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

The anthropogenic fingerprint on emerging infectious diseases - Nature

Emerging infectious disease outbreak risks are ubiquitous worldwide, and highest in landscapes where people, livestock and fragmented natural ecosystems coexist, but detection and data ...

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Such a privilege to be a small part of this paper 🦇 and so happy about the data made available to study these fascinating and important animals through genomics!

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Gytis Dudas @evogytis.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

baltic v1.0.0 is live! Get it via pip or clone from Github repo. Now with documentation (baltic.readthedocs.io) & a gallery of tutorials & examples (phylo-baltic.github.io/baltic-gallery, still WIP). Huge thanks to @barney-potter.bsky.social for all the initiative & help along the way. #ViroSky

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Laboratory of Functional Viromics (LETKO) @fviromics.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Our hedgehog coronavirus receptor study is now out in Nature Microbiology! Exciting new data has been added since the pre-print, including structure-guided mutagenesis showing species barriers, TMPRSS2 experiments and more details on the curious temperature adaptation in hedgehogs. (1/4)

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michael catchen @mdcatchen.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

the most interesting thing i worked on during my phd is now out as a preprint. ecoevorxiv.org/repository/v...

ecoevorxiv.org

Designing optimal biodiversity observation networks

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

🚨 NEW: Biodiversity monitoring can guide surveillance for emerging pathogens. In a new PLOS Ecosystems study led by @mdcatchen.bsky.social, we present computational algorithms to select surveillance sites that capture the most actionable data. Out now: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Fig 3. The case study for South Korea.

(A): Bivariate plot of dose (increasing green) and dose uncertainty (increasing blue). (B): Bivariate plot of dose (increasing green) and prevalence uncertainty (increasing orange; measured as the sum of estimated variance from kriging across each host-virus pair). (C): The spatial strata for which occurrence, prevalence, and both forms of sampling should occur (see main text for how these are computed). (D): The priority scores for regions where discovery sampling is a priority (increasingly blue) and prevalence sampling is the priority (increasingly purple) in their respective strata. (E): The total priority map with sites selected using Balanced Acceptance Sampling. The marker shape of each site corresponds to the type of sampling that should occur there, based on the stratum in (C) that each point falls within. Administrative boundaries come from GADM.

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Colin Carlson @colincarlson.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

NEW stuff for Monday morning! Get your new stuff here! Pandemic risk is going up. Can we bring it back down? Probably not - unless we radically reimagine our relationship with nature, food, and each other. First preprint led by the brilliant @torrelavelle.bsky.social: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

A dendrogram showing 64 drivers of pandemic risk

Nine line charts showing future change in pandemic-relevant variables under five scenarios

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Matthew Hahn @3rdreviewer.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Very cool pair of papers demonstrating little link between amount of additive genetic variation and amount of nucleotide variation within species: journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

journals.plos.org

Levels of additive genetic variation vary substantially between species

Adaptive potential determines how populations respond to environmental change. This study compiles evolvability estimates from over 170 multicellular species, revealing substantial variation across th...

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David Simons @davidsimons.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

Really excited to see this peer-reviewed and published and published in epidemiology and infection. This work was motivated by the observation that we do not see #LassaFever outbreaks in sense West African cities despite high predicted biological hazard. doi.org/10.1017/S095...

doi.org

The Socio-economic Shield Limits Lassa Virus Spillover in Urban West Africa | Epidemiology & Infection | Cambridge Core

The Socio-economic Shield Limits Lassa Virus Spillover in Urban West Africa

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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 24/06/2026

Scientists have mobilized against OMB's power grab, but we need to look beyond our own grants and make coalitions with neighbors whose hospitals, schools, broadband, roads and parks are at risk. Go out and talk to your town council and county commission! www.forbes.com/sites/judyst... 🧪

forbes.com

How The OMB Rule Could Hurt You And Your Town

The OMB proposal threatens scientific research and ALL federal funding for states, cities, and nonprofits. It politicizes ALL funding. Call your reps and write an objection.

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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 23/06/2026

Thousands of biomedical studies are stuck in limbo as NIH drags out renewals months after annual budgets expire. Since 2025, the rate of overdue renewals has TRIPLED. This leaves scientists unable to plan, keep staff employed, or maintain long-term research. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #NIH 🧪

grant-witness.us

Overdue Grant Renewals at NIH and AHRQ – Grant Witness

The government’s delays renewing in-progress research are leaving researchers in limbo.

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San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance @sandiegozoo.bsky.social · 21/06/2026

Beak Dad Behavior

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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 16/06/2026

After 7 days, #NSF grants started flowing again yesterday. NSF generally stops during fiscal year turnover, government shutdowns, or funding lapses. Other than that, it had not taken a week off since 1970. Under this administration, it has done so three times. grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... 🧪

grant-witness.us

NSF’s Halts in Grantmaking are Unprecedented – Grant Witness

The National Science Foundation’s pause breaks decades of consistency and continuity.

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Ricardo Rivero H. 💻🧬 @ricardoriveroh.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Beyond excited to share that the preprint for the first chapter of my dissertation is up. So grateful to my co-authors and especially my PI, @stephseifertphd.bsky.social, for their support throughout this ambitious three-year project. Here’s to shaking up evolutionary paradigms 🥂

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Dan Warren @danlwarren.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

New preprint that I helped with! Here we show that understanding ecological context is fundamental to understanding reassortment in orthohantaviruses.

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 16/06/2026

Honestly, honored that someone still thinks I'm punk rock 🥲

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Happy accident, nice to meet a fellow Dr. Steph! 😅

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

This work was supported by @viralemergence.org, enriched by Project-ArHa to synthesize all hantavirus and arenavirus surveillance data, and many collaborators. (3/3) @danjbecker.bsky.social @danlwarren.bsky.social @lambod50.bsky.social @sarahgurev.bsky.social @davidsimons.bsky.social among others 🤩

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Host overlap was the strongest ecological correlate of reassortment, suggesting that opportunities for divergent viral lineages to meet matter more than prevalence alone. Of course, it's not all ecology! Molecular compatibility between genome segments acted as a second filter. (2/3)

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

🚨 Ever wonder why some viral reassortants establish and spread while others disappear? Us too! Led by @ricardoriveroh.bsky.social, we studied drivers of viral reassortment across hantaviruses and found that it varies dramatically among lineages (1/3) Preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202...

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 14/06/2026

“While many of the city’s raccoons are healthy, some are infected with rabies, a deadly virus that attacks the central nervous system… This year [NYC’s health department] has already logged two rabid raccoons in areas of Brooklyn where it has never seen them before: Midwood and Sheepshead Bay”

nytimes.com

Keeping an Eye Out for Rabid Raccoons

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Daniel Becker @danjbecker.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

we're hiring for a new research assistant to join our group at OU to manage field studies on migratory and Neotropical bats! please see the linked application on our website: beckerlab.weebly.com/join.html. applications will be reviewed in early August and the position can start in January.

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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 09/06/2026

NSF seems to have stopped making new awards last week. There have been no new awards from any directorate since Weds, June 3. Even with the slow pace of new awards this year, there's been a consistent trickle. Something stopped the flow. grant-witness.us/funding_curv... #NSF 🧪

A line graph titled "Cumulative Number of Awards" tracking National Science Foundation (NSF) award dates from October through September across multiple fiscal years (FY 2021 to FY 2026). The x-axis shows months, and the y-axis shows the number of awards up to 11,000.

Lines for FY 2021 through FY 2024 cluster closely together, steadily climbing over the year to peak between 10,000 and 11,500 awards. The line for FY 2025 is noticeably lower, peaking under 9,000 awards.

The line for the current year, FY 2026 (shown in red), sits drastically lower than all previous years, tracking below 2,000 awards. A vertical line marks "June 3," where a pop-up box displays data for that date: FY 2021: 4,594; FY 2022: 4,983; FY 2023: 4,606; FY 2024: 4,234; FY 2025: 2,615; and FY 2026: 1,471. Past the June 3 vertical line, the red FY 2026 line completely flattens out, stopping abruptly at a dashed vertical line.

A close-up, cropped view of the bottom right section of the cumulative awards graph, focusing on the May to June timeline for the current fiscal year. The thick red line representing FY 2026 awards climbs at a slight, steady upward slope throughout May, crosses the solid vertical line marking early June, and then immediately goes completely flat, forming a straight horizontal line that terminates at a vertical dashed line.

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 06/06/2026

We're very happy that our study found a home in the EcoHealth journal and we hope the disease ecology community, in particular, find applications of our model!

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Peter Daszak @peterdaszak.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Great new paper by Erin Clancey of @pullman.wsu.edu, Scott Nuismer & @stephseifertphd.bsky.social featured in the press. The authors built a mathematical model that uses commonly-captured serology data to accurately identify peak viral risk for outbreaks. Awesome work! phys.org/news/2026-06...

phys.org

Predictive model could help track deadly viruses back to their source

A new predictive model developed at Washington State University could help scientists more efficiently identify the reservoirs of emerging zoonotic viruses and dangerous pathogens like Ebola that can ...

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Fun fact: Our CREID-ECA renewal proposed generating standardized diagnostic controls and reagents for all known zoonotic filoviruses (including BDBV), with stocks ready to ship from East Africa to partner countries under existing MOUs. Then the entire CREID network program was canceled. 🫠

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Ricardo Rivero H. 💻🧬 @ricardoriveroh.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

For the last three years, we have gathered ALL available Hantavirus and Arenavirus surveillance data. Today, we’re glad to share the largest database ever assembled for these viruses. We hope it helps address questions from the recent ANDV outbreak and guide surveillance.

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

Largest data synthesis effort for hantavirus and arenavirus surveillance ever put together! Proud to have this paper up; while the dataset and analyses on hantaviruses is especially timely, we started this project when @davidsimons.bsky.social received an FIR through @viralemergence.org in 2023. 🐀🦠

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Stephen Turner @stephenturner.us · 02/06/2026

More details soon but just got notice of award on a large grant in the AIxBio / biosecurity space! Will be hiring postdocs soon, and so will a few of my collaborators. Email me if interested!

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Noam Ross @noamross.net · 27/05/2026

The National Science Foundation is terminating and suspending grants again, and at Grant Witness we need you to help to track them! 🧪 We can only identify research being suppressed by under-the-radar suspensions directly from researchers. Please report! grant-witness.us/posts/2026-0... #NSF

grant-witness.us

New Grant Disruptions at NSF - We Need Your Help to Report! – Grant Witness

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

Great opportunity for anyone interested in contributing to important work on disease ecology!

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Timothée Poisot @ctrlalttim.com · 19/05/2026

Are interacting species showing more similar responses to environmental predictors than expected by chance? Is this similarity protecting species pairs from interaction disruption under climate change? If you want to find out, join us for a fully funded Ph.D. with @epic-biodiversity.org 🌎🧪

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Brian Wasik @brianrwasik.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Great new work on the Spike of OC43 clinical isolates (a seasonal coronavirus). In contrast to OC43-Lab strain used to define 9OAc-Sia as the canonical receptor, inserts near the RBD can significantly modulate affinity (likely to avoid decoy receptors). #virology www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Figure 1. Inserts in D1 of S1, OC43 clinical isolates. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-73186-x

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Willem van Schaik @wvschaik.bsky.social · 14/05/2026

Today we are launching the @target-amr.bsky.social flexible funding initiative to pump prime new research across disciplines in the broad field of AMR genomics. Introduction by @ksbakes.bsky.social at #TARGetAMR26 Flexible Funding – TargetAMR share.google/bWYYdQUo8azy...

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Though I prefer to put paper towels down, then spray which further reduces the likelihood of generating aerosols while cleaning up.

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 09/05/2026

Hi! CDC (miraculously) still has helpful guidance on rodent cleanup strategies to minimize generation of aerosols, you can find more information here: www.cdc.gov/healthy-pets...

cdc.gov

How to Clean Up After Rodents

Safe cleanup of rodents and their nesting material and waste is important for preventing illness.

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Perfect time for a typo 😳 first SNV genomes from the northwestern US

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Eric, we are surrounded by wheat, we're outnumbered by deer mice

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Ricardo Rivero H. 💻🧬 @ricardoriveroh.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Our important research on SNV genomes from the PNW is out. It constitutes a timely reminder of Hantavirus circulation in US rodent population and its ability to infect multiple hosts and undergo reassortment to generate expanded genetic diversity.

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

As an ESI, I've been wondering who will be left to rebuild our biomedical and basic research infrastructure in 2.5 - ?? years. Expertise is not a faucet that you flip on and off when it's convenient. Expertise is developed through sustained investment; each delay, each cut, and we lose experts.

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

With that, please go outside and touch grass before sending your hate mail. I am actually a human who happens to spend a lot of time thinking about infectious diseases with the genuine goal of reducing the burden of disease in other humans.

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Steph N. Seifert, PhD @stephseifertphd.bsky.social · 07/05/2026

Coincidentally, our paper on the first SNV genomes is out now in EID led by Grant Rickard and @ricardoriveroh.bsky.social More soon, including a massive synthesis effort on hantavirus and arenavirus surveillance that's been 3-years in the making... wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/...

wwwnc.cdc.gov

Genomic Analysis of Sin Nombre Virus Sequences, Northwestern United States, 2023

Sin Nombre Virus, Northwestern United States, 2023

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