iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 02/05/2026

If you’re at #DDW2026, come say hi! Started the meeting strong co-moderating a session with Long Nguyen, a full room came at 8AM to listen to Gautam Dantas, David Underhill & Megan Baldridge sharing exciting unpublished data on gut phages 🦠 fungi 🍄 & eukaryotic RNA viruses 🤩

160 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

It's increasingly clear that commensal viruses play important roles in human health, but how do you study them? Our review "Tools and approaches to study the human gut virome: from the bench to bioinformatics" is out today in mSystems! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @haleybiont.bsky.social

A figure from the paper that provides an overview of available culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches for characterizing the human gut virome. Both culture-dependent and culture-independent approaches should be used to study the gut virome. At the bench, many protocols have been adapted to enrich viruses in a sample and isolate them using a sensitive host. Once a virus is isolated, various assays can be used to characterize how the virus interacts with its bacterial host. On the command line, viral genomes can be predicted and viral taxonomy can be identified within a sample. Once procured, multiple tools can be used to annotate viral genomes for predicted gene content and viral lifestyle and predict bacterial host taxonomy.

32411 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 31/07/2025

Sucralose may interfere with cancer immunotherapy - exciting and important new research from @overacrelab.bsky.social in @theaacr.bsky.social! aacrjournals.org/cancerdiscov... (AI-rendered illustration of the article's title) 1/🧵

AI-rendered illustration of the article's title: Sucralose consumption ablates cancer immunotherapy response through microbiome disruption

193 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Given the limited number of interventional studies on the question, we also considered observational trials and found that non-nutritive sweeteners intake is associated with human gut microbiome alterations, although confounders need to be considered. 🧵7/n

Table from Crakes et al. Immunometabolism 2025 summarizing the evidence for associations between non-nutritive sweeteners consumption and changes in the human gut microbiome in observational trials

100 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

There are considerably fewer interventional studies reporting on the impacts of non-nutritive sweeteners on the HUMAN microbiome. Strikingly, studies that found significant microbiome changes also reported a metabolic effect; No metabolic effects were reported in null microbiome trials 💡‼️ 🧵5/n

Table from Crakes et al., Immunometabolism 2025, summarizing the results of all interventional trials examining the impact of non-nutritive sweeteners on the human microbiome, broken down according to the type of sweetener

100 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

We recently reviewed the evidence for non-nutritive sweeteners' impacts on animal microbiomes & concluded that rodents should probably avoid diet soda: pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... But metabolism research doesn't always translate, so what is the evidence for similar effects in humans? 🧵4/n

100 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

With mounting concerns regarding the safety of non-nutritive sweeteners, understanding the ways they interact with our body can establish a causal link between consumption and health/disease, which is critical for informing public health recommendations for sweetener use 🧵 2/n

Snippet from the New York Times of an article reporting on the World Health Organization's recommendation against using artificial sweeteners

Citation of the World Health Organization's conditional recommendation against using artificial sweeteners as a means of achieving weight control or reducing the risk of noncommunicable diseases. The recommendation is conditional as most evidence is associative, evidence for causality is heterogeneous, and the mechanisms are unclear

100 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 25/04/2025

Do non-nutritive sweeteners alter the human microbiome? And why is this question important? Check out our new review in Immunometabolism, spearheaded by @kcrakes.bsky.social, Lauren Questell & @subah.bsky.social and quick 🧵👇: journals.lww.com/immunometabo...

AI-generated (ChatGPT) cartoon of different gut bacteria munching on different types of sachets containing "fake sugar" as a reference to non-nutritive sweeteners

1116 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 21/03/2025

Super proud of our postdocs @kcrakes.bsky.social & @haleybiont.bsky.social for their outstanding talks at @camri-igs.bsky.social Mid-Atlantic #Microbiome Meeting, featuring exciting science from all over the region + keynotes by Sue Lynch (UCSF) & @benwolfe.bsky.social (Tufts) + phage swag! 😎 🦠

Dr. Haley Hallowell presenting her research at the Suez Lab, Johns Hopkins University, during the Mid-Atlantic Microbiome meeting

Dr. Katti Crakes presenting her research at the Suez Lab, Johns Hopkins University, during the Mid-Atlantic Microbiome meeting

Two-thirds of the Suez Lab and one alumnus holding phage swag. From left: Jason, Yingying, Katti, Chinmay, Justin, Haley, Val, Jotham

Haley (left) and Katti before presenting their talks at the Mid-Atlantic Microbiome Meeting

0112 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 20/12/2024

SuezLab graduate students having fun on the last day of benchwork before their holidays/winter break. 🎉 (Left to right: Joyce, Brianna, Justin, Zhe, Jason).

031 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

...that the evidence does not support the notion that probiotics help recover the microbiome from antibiotics. This is in line with a recent meta-analysis performed by an independent group of researchers (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...) ‼️ This does not mean that probiotics are useless ‼️ 5/🧵

182 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

The discussion was inspired by a work where we (w Eran Elinav @ WIS) showed that probiotics can delay rather than facilitate recovery of the human gut microbiome and transcriptome from antibiotics (tinyurl.com/SzCl18) and increase the number of antibiotic resistance genes (tinyurl.com/EmNm21) 3/🧵

180 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

🚨 New review in @natrevgastrohep.bsky.social: Should you take probiotics with antibiotics? www.nature.com/articles/s41... Bottom line: current evidence does not support the common perception that probiotics can facilitate the gut microbiome's recovery from antibiotics. BUT! 1/🧵

15824 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I was recently told, "You're so excited about the microbiome!". It's true! I'm privileged to work on a topic I ❤️ AND others find valuable. I'm grateful to be named a #HighlyCited2024 researcher for the 3rd time; 🙏 to everyone involved: my team @johnshopkins.bsky.social, collaborators & mentors 🎉🦠

Certificate for Jotham Suez - Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher, Cross-Field, 2024

010 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 08/11/2023

🚨 Please share 🚨 The Suez Lab @JohnsHopkins is recruiting! We're seeking a senior bioinformatician with established (papers/preprints) experience in #microbiome #metagenomics. The position can be local, fully remote, or hybrid. DM me for questions, apply here: jobs.jhu.edu/job/Baltimor...

01824 0

Jotham Suez (SuezLab@JHU) @suez.bsky.social · 21/09/2023

It's National Postdoc Appreciation Week, and our very own Dr. Haley Hallowell is featured in the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health magazine! Haley is not only a brilliant scientist but also a wonderful mentor and colleague 🤩 Learn more about Haley: www.suezlab.org/team

050 0