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Tom Hitch

@tcahitch.bsky.social
437 followers 207 following 51 posts

Assistant Professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong focused on how we can control the human gut microbiota to improve human health. He/Him/They

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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Alex Crits-Christoph @acritschristoph.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Transferable genetic toolsets for nonmodel gut Clostridia enable in vivo reversible control of metabolite production www.nature.com/articles/s41... A nice update to the Jin et al. 2022 paper from Chun-Jun Guo: now with many promoters for gut clostridiales, screened from native metatranscriptomes:
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · 26/08/2026
Out Now! A roadmap to create FAIR collections of microbial strains #MicroSky
go.nature.com
A roadmap to create FAIR collections of microbial strains
Nature Microbiology, Published online: 26 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02446-9Here the authors propose guidance on the process of establishing a state-of-the-art collection of microorganisms, including project planning, strain deposition and the naming of new taxa.
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Thomas Clavel @tclavel.bsky.social · 26/08/2026
Drawing on the team’s knowledge acquired over the years, we share our thoughts here on how to enhance microbiome research with FAIR collections of microbial strains: 🔥 www.nature.com/articles/s41... @nfdi4microbiota.bsky.social, @spp2474.bsky.social, @dsmz.bsky.social, @natmicrobiol.nature.com.
nature.com
A roadmap to create FAIR collections of microbial strains - Nature Microbiology
Here the authors propose guidance on the process of establishing a state-of-the-art collection of microorganisms, including project planning, strain deposition and the naming of new taxa.
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
André Soares @geomicrosoares.bsky.social · 07/08/2026
Come work with us, we're really cool people to hang out with 😁 You'll get to do interdisciplinary research exploring microbial metabolisms during the Archean Eon by investigating the deep biosphere in high-CO₂ ecosystems hundreds of meters below ground. Please retweet and spread the word! 🧬 💻
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Sean Gibbons 🦠💩 @gibbological.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
Dear microbiome enthusiasts: I'm excited to be moving my lab to New York University this fall (& the NYU Institute for Engineering Health); with joint-appointment @isbscience.org I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980 Please share! 🦠🤓
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
PhD advert for the new lab in Hong Kong! We are hiring a PhD student to merge large-scale metagenomics with 3D structural analysis and immunology. If you have experience in any of these areas and are motivated to learn the others, get in contact; lnkd.in/ggr3T4sQ
CUHK campus in Hong Kong
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 07/07/2026
PhD advert for the new lab in Hong Kong! We are hiring a PhD student to merge large-scale metagenomics with 3D structural analysis and immunology. If you have experience in any of these areas and are motivated to learn the others, get in contact; www.aic.cuhk.edu.hk/web/wp-conte...
The Chinese University of Hong Kong campus along side Sha Tin bay.
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Thomas Clavel @tclavel.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
Excellent work by our one and only #CharliePauvert. We use it in all our high-throughput anaerobic cultivation projects. More to come... 💫
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 19/06/2026
Great talk from Jianbo Zhang on the GuMI system at #INFOGUT2026 @infogut.bsky.social
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
infogut.bsky.social @infogut.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
🚨 #INFOGUT2026 meeting has started! WG leaders welcome you ✨ Andrea Gianotti Stéphanie Blanquet Lorenzo Nissen Clarisse Nobre Lidia Tomas Lucie Etienne Thomas Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social Enrique Carrillo Alice Ponsero Laure-Alix Clerbaux Pilar Acedo @pilaracedo.bsky.social
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Ahhh ok! So the ones I spotted were Firmicutes and Pseudomonadota, which aren't synonyms but are from the older and newer naming systems respectively, which made me wonder if it was accounted for.
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Looking at the graph you showed it seems to use taxonomic names without looking at synonyms (Pseudomonadota Vs Proteobacteria), but I don't know if that impacts it's use?
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
infogut.bsky.social @infogut.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
🚨 INFOGUT FREE webinar 🗓️ 30 March @ 11.00 CET 🗣️ Prof Tom Van de Wiele (Ghent University) will share his cutting-edge expertise on #invitro technologies for mimicking the #human #microbiome in the small #intestine. 👉 Open to everyone on Teams lnkd.in/eHZ6X8iz
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
James McDonald @jamesemcdonald.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Delighted to see our work on the impact of drought on the oak microbiome featured on the cover of @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social Link to the article below this post 👇🏻
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
Anyone know where you can buy acrolein for electron microscopy? Apparently it must be stabilised with either hydrochinon or hydroquinon-monomethylether 🫠
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
I would caution this since GTDB placement isn't enough taxonomic evidence to propose a new species, multiple lines of evidence should be obtained to corroborate the proposed taxonomy.
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Hmmm I would probably go with "many are proposed species in GTDB, represented by only MAGs and for which no cultured representative exists". Although GTDB also contains SAGs so genomes instead of MAGs might be better
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
We do GENUS sp. as Paul suggests, it highlights it's an unknown species and gives the taxonomic assignment
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Patrick R. Secor @prsecor.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Friends, please help spread the word about our microbiology REU program at Montana State University. www.montana.edu/mbi/reu/ Each student receives a stipend ($7000 for 10 wks). Travel compensation, room, and board are also provided. Details in the attached pic--Feb 14 deadline 🧫🧪🦠#microsky
This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program is funded by the National Science Foundation to create "points of entry" for students interested in research. Students apply from across the country to spend 10 weeks in Bozeman, Montana this summer (May 26, 2026 - August 1, 2026). Admitted students are paired with a faculty mentor, who serves as an advisor for a student's summer project. Each student receives a stipend ($7000 for 10 wks). Travel compensation, room, and board are also provided.

Our program leverages MSU’s unique microbiology expertise, focusing specifically on microbes living with little or no oxygen (like those in the hot springs of nearby Yellowstone). Low oxygen microbes are essential to human and ecosystem health. They influence (or control) such processes as the breakdown of food in the GI tract, removal of toxins from our bodies and the environment, and production of greenhouse gases. They are also models for understanding the origins of life on this planet, and the potential for life on other planets.

A key goal of our program is to recruit students from schools with limited research infrastructure. Being in Montana, a state with a vibrant Native American community, we are particularly interested in applications from students at tribal colleges. However, ANYONE with an interest in microbiology - or biology/science in general - can and should apply.

If willing and able, please share/tweet/spread the word far and wide. Applications are due February 14, 2026. Full details can be found through our website http://www.montana.edu/mbi/reu/
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Ok, then I think BacDive is probably your best bet. I think they have an API and also link to alternative strain IDs that have been used along with genomes for the strains. Lorenz who heads it is also super helpful 😁 good luck!
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 28/01/2026
Microbes in total or just bacteria? DSMZ have done the best job I know off for creating resources like BacDive or StrainInfo, but I'm pretty sure they are bacteria specific and might lack strains that weren't ever deposited in a culture collection
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Pascal Falter-Braun @interactome.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
Very happy and proud that our paper “Effector–host interactome map links type III secretion systems in healthy gut microbiomes to immune modulation” is out today in #NatureMicrobiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com Paper 👉 t1p.de/v42xb #microbiome #commensal #pathomechanism #T3SS #immune #health #IBD
t1p.de
Effector–host interactome map links type III secretion systems in healthy gut microbiomes to immune modulation - Nature Microbiology
Large-scale computational and in vitro analyses identify commensal type III secretion systems and substrates in the human gut microbiome that can interact with human proteins to modulate immune pathwa...
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
Last chance to apply for our funded PhD opportunity. w. Prof. Fredric Coulon @ Cranfield University. This will investigate expansion of ML models for AMR phenotype detection to agriculture settings to create a sensor-ready hit list. Detail here: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
findaphd.com
From Genomic Context to Sensor Design: Computational Identification of AMR Biomarkers in Agriculture (project at Queen's University Belfast) at University of Reading on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - From Genomic Context to Sensor Design: Computational Identification of AMR Biomarkers in Agriculture (project at Queen's University Belfast) at University of Reading, listed on FindAPhD....
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Christoph Kaleta @kaletalab.bsky.social · 04/12/2025
(1/7) Excited that the Virtual Colon, an extension of BacArena for modeling the spatiostructural environment of the colon, is now out at mSystems. Kudos to @maringos.bsky.social and for leading this work! @crc1182.bsky.social @uni-kiel.de iel.de Link: journals.asm.org/doi/full/10....
journals.asm.org
Virtual Colon: spatiotemporal modeling of metabolic interactions in a computational colonic environment | mSystems
Interactions between the human body and gut microbes are crucial for health and disease. We present the Virtual Colon, an extension of the individual-based microbiome modeling approach BacArena that m...
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Virtual Colon: spatiotemporal modeling of metabolic interactions in a computational colonic environment #mSystems from @kaletalab.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org
Virtual Colon: spatiotemporal modeling of metabolic interactions in a computational colonic environment | mSystems
Interactions between the human body and gut microbes are crucial for health and disease. We present the Virtual Colon, an extension of the individual-based microbiome modeling approach BacArena that m...
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Alejandra Ordonez @alejandra1909.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
The pre print of my PhD research is out! 📣 Check it out for some cool results on high-throuhput microbial isolation, #SynComs and #Tree #Microbiome 🌳🧫 doi.org/10.1101/2025... #PhDone 💯
doi.org
Large-scale culturing of the tree microbiome enables targeted disease suppression
The tree microbiome is essential for host health and pathogen suppression. Synthetic microbial communities (SynComs) are emerging as important tools to understand microbiome dynamics and engineer micr...
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Francis M. Martin @fmartin54.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
We are delighted to let you know that your Plants, People, Planet article 'Demystifying Fungal Systematics: A Gateway to Fungal Literacy and Societal/Ecological Relevance Through Familiar Species' has been published on Early View. nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Demystifying fungal systematics: A gateway to fungal literacy and societal/ecological relevance through familiar species
Fungal systematics can feel overwhelming given the vast species diversity within this kingdom, with numerous subgroups at every taxonomic rank. This often creates a disconnect between the undertsnidn...
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Want to delineate genera? We have been optimising POCP, and propose POCPu, which stops the 'double counting' of proteins in POCP by only allowing unique matches. We also speed up, and benchmarked, the analysis using DIAMOND; peerj.com/articles/202... (now implemented in Protologger)
peerj.com
Fast and robust estimate of bacterial genus novelty using the percentage of conserved proteins with unique matches (POCPu)
Accurate taxonomic assignment of bacterial genomes is essential for identifying novel taxa and for stable classification to enable robust comparison between studies. Bacterial genus delineation relies...
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Martin Fenk @mfenk.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Is the human microbiome a source for hospital-associated infections (HAI) and are any genetic changes associated with HAI? In our new preprint, we longitudinally reconstruct the evolutionary processes within the human microbiome leading up to HAI: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
doi.org
Colonization, translocation, and evolution of opportunistic pathogens during hospital-associated infections
Many commensal bacteria that peacefully reside in the human microbiome are also able to cause acute opportunistic infections. Emerging evidence suggests that within-host evolution contributes to infec...
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
starchlab.bsky.social @starchlab.bsky.social · 14/10/2025
Come and do a PhD with me! Are you looking for a PhD project at the intersection of #microbiome and #food science? This project, in collaboration with ADM milling, will explore novel microbiome targeted food ingredients
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
Bakta generally, but not tried with funkier genomes
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
Thanks for the mention 😁 The paper is out now in ISME Journal: academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
academic.oup.com
Function-Based Selection of Synthetic Communities Enables Mechanistic Microbiome Studies
Abstract. Understanding the complex interactions between microbes and their environment requires robust model systems such as synthetic communities (SynCom
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Mizrahi Lab @mizrahilab.bsky.social · 28/09/2025
How to design new synthetic microbial communities? It's a huge question we're still deeply exploring 🦠 Check out this new preprint by @tcahitch.bsky.social & @tclavel.bsky.social! They developed an function-directed approach using metagenomic to build better SynComs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Function-Based Selection of Synthetic Communities Enables Mechanistic Microbiome Studies
Understanding the complex interactions between microbes and their environment requires robust model systems such as synthetic communities (SynComs). We developed a functionally directed approach to ge...
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Alex Probst @alexjprobst.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
New article on equitable reuse of public sequencing data, published in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! Led by the Data reuse core team @lhug.bsky.social @environmicrobio.bsky.social Cristina Moraru, @geomicrosoares.bsky.social, @folker.bsky.social and with Anke Heyer and The Data Reuse Consotrium!
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
MiMiC2 is available on GitHub and there are premade functional profiles for multiple collections of publicly accessible isolates: github.com/thh32/MiMiC2 7/7
github.com
GitHub - thh32/MiMiC2: A workflow for the creation of synthetic communities that are functionally representative of an ecosystem.
A workflow for the creation of synthetic communities that are functionally representative of an ecosystem. - thh32/MiMiC2
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Next we wanted to create SynComs that allow mechanistic studies of a disease, so we chose IBD. By comparing healthy and IBD metaGs we selected a SynCom for each. In germ-free mice we showed the IBD SynCom caused increased inflammation. 6/7
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
Using MiMiC2 we were able to create SynComs for a range of ecosystems, including the rumen of cows! We wondered our function-based approach would select a methanogen, since they are sub-dominant, but critical members. It did, along with diverse other members! 5/7
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
This comparison is done against ALL input metaGs, not a single metaG, allowing the SynComs to capture the variability within an ecosystem. Strains are also selected together, reducing functional redundancy between each other. 4/7
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
MiMiC2 addresses this by reducing both metaGs and isolate genomes down to the protein families they encode. Next, we can select strains that functional match our metaGs of interest. 3/7
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
SynComs are usually put together based on expert curation, but microbiota are functionally complex, and capturing that complexity in only a few strains is hard. Hence the idea "what if we used metagenomes (metaGs) to select the correct strains?" 2/7
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
The main work from my time in Aachen is now out 🎉 if you have wanted to make a SynCom that captures the functional-landscape of microbiota, MiMiC2 makes that possible based on metagenomic data! 1/7 doi.org/10.1093/isme...
doi.org
Function-Based Selection of Synthetic Communities Enables Mechanistic Microbiome Studies
Abstract. Understanding the complex interactions between microbes and their environment requires robust model systems such as synthetic communities (SynCom
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Benjamin Coltman @bcoltman.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
It’s also timely to present about SynCom design considering the recent work from @tcahitch.bsky.social @tclavel.bsky.social. I highly recommend reading! academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...
academic.oup.com
Function-Based Selection of Synthetic Communities Enables Mechanistic Microbiome Studies
Abstract. Understanding the complex interactions between microbes and their environment requires robust model systems such as synthetic communities (SynCom
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Tom Hitch @tcahitch.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
Thanks for the shout-out 😁
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Christoph Kaleta @kaletalab.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
Excellent article on quantitative production of fermentation products by the microbiota. Key takeaway: microbial fermentation products may be more important in mice than humans, amplifying microbiome effects in mice. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
cell.com
Quantifying the varying harvest of fermentation products from the human gut microbiota
Fermentation products are the most abundant gut microbial metabolites absorbed by the host, with important dose-dependent consequences for health. In this study, we present a systems-level analysis in...
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Reposted by Tom Hitch
Rayan Chikhi @rayanchikhi.bsky.social · 03/09/2025
🌎👩‍🔬 For 15+ years biology has accumulated petabytes (million gigabytes) of🧬DNA sequencing data🧬 from the far reaches of our planet.🦠🍄🌵 Logan now democratizes efficient access to the world’s most comprehensive genetics dataset. Free and open. doi.org/10.1101/2024...
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Hall Lab @halllab.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
Really pleased to see this study led by @raymondkiu.bsky.social now published in @natcomms.nature.com! We show that probiotics help modulate the preterm infant 👶#microbiome - to reduce ARGs, lower MDR bacteria 🦠 & increase beneficial Bifido ✨ Huge team effort! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Impact of early life antibiotic and probiotic treatment on gut microbiome and resistome of very-low-birth-weight preterm infants - Nature Communications
Here, the authors show that giving probiotics to very low birth weight preterm babies can help reduce harmful antibiotic-resistant bacteria in the gut and support the development of a healthier microb...
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Marine C. Cambon @marccamb.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
Go and check out the pre-print of the landscape-scale tree microbiome study from the Future Oak project. Huge amounts of efforts and talent went into this work, with a pinch of "this is crazy, but we can do it". Well done @jamesemcdonald.bsky.social @cenococcum.bsky.social et al. Thread below 👇
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James McDonald @jamesemcdonald.bsky.social · 16/08/2025
🧵 New preprint alert! From the Future Oak project, led by @cenococcum.bsky.social Landscape-scale impacts of environment and disease on the tree microbiome 🌳🦠 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Environment and disease have tissue-specific effects on the tree microbiome
Trees are essential for ecosystem function, but due to their long lifespan, are disproportionately impacted by climate change and disease. Tree-associated microbiota are critical for tree health and r...
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