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Zamin Iqbal

@zaminiqbal.bsky.social
6.7K followers 5.8K following 1.9K posts

Professor of Algorithmic and Microbial Genomics at the University of Bath (UK). Pangenomes, drug resistance (esp TB), data structures for DNA search, plasmid evolution, global microbial surveillance. Open Data, reproducibility. zam-iqbal-lab.org

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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 1h
Any recommendations for reviews or methods papers or criticisms on inference from microbiomes? Or good/bad studies? Outside my expertise, but have a student who is v interested.
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Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 15h
This point regarding AI-produced proofs is of course not new, but is beautifully put here. www.quantamagazine.org/is-ai-the-en... @quantamagazine.org
It’s as if you were teleported to the peak of a tall mountain. Surrounded by fog, you have no idea where you are, or what’s around you. You do not know how your mountain connects to others, and you have no equipment to help you explore, no way to help someone else join you. If you had climbed the mountain yourself, you would have experienced how the human body adapts to altitude and changes in oxygen levels. You might have had to invent tools to navigate, to climb steep cliffs, or to make a shelter. You might have encountered a fellow explorer, gotten lost together in a hidden valley, and found a plant that could be turned into a life-saving medicine.

Instead you’re perched on the peak but in the dark, while the maker of the teleportation machine tells you that it can explore the wilderness better than any human.
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Claus Wilke @clauswilke.com · 18h
Implementing oral exams at scale. The paper describes oral exams for hundreds of students, 5 min. each over zoom, administered by graduate TAs. My thoughts: It's doable but not easy. 5 min. is super short, yet it's tough for the TAs do to ~100 exams. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
tandfonline.com
Implementing Oral Exams at Scale: Experiences from Graduate Student Instructors
This paper describes the implementation of oral exams, a more authentic and potentially more informative form of assessment than written exams, at a large scale (over 600 students), in the context ...
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Mic Wright @brokenbottleboy.bsky.social · 14h
The part of your brain that determines how much bullshit you can tolerate at any given time should be called the fucks capacitor.
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 16h
More archaeal extra-chromosomal elements, following on from the Borg, we have klingons, ferengi, and romulans! They observe a lot of genetic exchange, but I am hoping no star trek sex puns. From Natasha Jablonski, Jillian Banfield and co. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
static.klipy.com
Star Trek Vulkan Nerve Pinch
ALT: Star Trek Vulkan Nerve Pinch
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Anahid (Ana) @anahidam.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Looking for a #postdoc outside the US, focusing on gut microbiome, AMR dynamics & phage-bacteria interactions. Bridging wet lab and computational approaches🦠👩‍💻. Hartmann Lab, Northwestern University, defending late 2026. Boosts appreciated 🙏🧫🧪 #microbiome #metagenomics #MicroSky
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Ben Vezina @bananabenana.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
New #Klebiella pneumoniae #virulence factor just dropped. Interesting that this gene appears to be broadly distributed across Enterobacteriaceae (Fig 5). Likely inherented via common ancestor then I would guess. #KlebClub #MicroSky journals.plos.org/plospathogen...
journals.plos.org
GM000287 is a conserved determinant of serum resistance and virulence in Klebsiella pneumoniae
Author summary Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) is a major human pathogen responsible for severe infections, including pneumonia and bloodstream infections. To establish infection, Kp must withstand multipl...
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Mabi Behruznia @mabi-behruznia.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
I’m excited to share my first metagenomics preprint 🧬 We used Nanopore metagenomics to compare swabs and sputum for community-acquired pneumonia. Sputum provided stronger pathogen-detection support than swabs, highlighting its potential as a non-invasive sample type for respiratory metagenomics.
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Very relaxed fox in our garden today. I stood in the door and told it I had no food, and it just looked at me, then sat down
Fox
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Tom Gauld @tomgauld.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
My latest books cartoon for @theguardian.com
Title: Just announced! Three new Gruffalo books commissioned from bestselling authors!

Lee Chilld:
The Gruffalo just wants a quiet life, but when a crime syndicate moves into the deep dark wood, he must use his terrible claws and the terrible teeth in his terrible jaws to protect the fellow.

Sally Rooney:
The Gruffalo moves to contemporary Dublin. He  
ill ever see past his orange eyes, purple prickles and poisonous wart.

Kazuo Ishiguro:
After a long absence, the gruffalo returns to the forest and attempts to make sense of his past. Encounters with a mouse, a fox, an owl and a snake uncover long-buried memories, regrets and revelations.
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Things you learn in an elevator: In Switzerland, it is illegal to own a single guinea pig because these animals need social interaction.
An elevator screen with a black frame displays trivia in French about guinea pig ownership. The blue screen shows a clock in the top-left corner set to 13:52 and a date of 03/10/2026. Next to this is French text that reads "En Suisse, il est illégal de posséder un seul cochon d'Inde car ces animaux ont besoin d'interaction sociale." (which translates to: "In Switzerland, it is illegal to own a single guinea pig because these animals need social interaction."). Below the time is a large blue panel with white text, "RC," which means "Rez-de-Chaussée" or ground floor, with a downward-pointing arrow and a small circle with a line through it. An illustration below the French text depicts three reddish-brown, white, and black guinea pigs grouped together over a bowl against an orange background, with a dark branch with leaves on the right.
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Charlotte Houldcroft @virologyhouldcroft.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
Does anyone know the current Biorxiv screening time?
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Sarah Andersen @sarahseeandersen.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
The image is of a four panel comic. The title reads "Poltergeist".
In the first panel we see a woman with a worried expression on her face. She says, "stuff keeps moving around my house."
In the second panel the same woman says "I'm terrified. I can't sleep."
In the third panel we see a ghost holding a candle and a pillow that reads "live laugh love". The ghost is zooming through the house.
In the fourth panel we see the same ghost hanging up a frame and thinking, "home decor is my passion".
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 03/10/2026
I have absolutely wondered about this. Amazing.
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Tim Marchman @timmarchman.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
NEW: Partially unsealed court filings show that ICE has been putting photos of people observing their activities into a Palantir-built database as well as tracking and intimidating them. @regret.bsky.social and @dmehro.bsky.social have the details:
wired.com
ICE Has Been Dumping Protester Photos Into a Palantir Database
DHS agents not only tracked and intimidated people observing ICE activity in Maine, but stored information about them in a Palantir-built database, newly unsealed court filings say.
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Rachel Cunliffe @rmcunliffe.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
History is complicated. Last year, I learnt my grandmother's story. She was smuggled out of Berlin in 1936 as an unaccompanied teenager, to British Palestine. There was nowhere else for her to go. Six years later, both her parents were killed by the Nazis www.newstatesman.com/world/europe...
newstatesman.com
Berlin’s dark past and me
In retracing my family’s steps in the city, I realised becoming German wasn’t as simple as it seemed.
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Rosamundi @rosamundi.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
I had no idea this was an option.
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Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · 30/09/2026
Out Now! A generalized lineage nomenclature for viral genomic epidemiology #MicroSky
go.nature.com
A generalized lineage nomenclature for viral genomic epidemiology
Nature Microbiology, Published online: 30 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02468-3This study extends the Pango lineage nomenclature system beyond SARS-CoV-2, introducing a dynamic framework for tracking and communicating viral diversity, demonstrated through its application to CHIKV.
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
I love this
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Thread!
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
A country that will not fix its mistakes is a country that has given up on the future. And Brexit was, it’s now clear, a terrible, terrible mistake inews.co.uk/opinion/brex...
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Ian Dunt @iandunt.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This is testament to No.10's frankly astonishing degree of political competence. A policy which was branded electoral suicide 48 hours ago now showing signs of robust popularity.
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glastomichelle.bsky.social @glastomichelle.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Golden Wednesday. That was quite an unexpected end to my morning walk. After going up Glastonbury Tor in torrential rain, I was on my way home and the sky cleared in seconds!
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Am I going mad - I can't think of good/recent review articles on genotypic prediction of AMR
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Freya Harrison @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
This will be a brilliant post with a super team #MicroSky
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Gaby Hinsliff @gabyhinsliff.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
such a good eg of why political argument matters - polling previously showed over 60% support for keeping triple lock. Argue to unlock it *for something people also want* & numbers can change. (Obv can change back again if someone makes a good argument against, but either way, politics=argument)
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Struggling to play half a bar of boogie woogie. Posting this so I can check back in a year
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Pleuni Pennings @pleunipennings.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
I am hiring a postdoc! Are you interested to work on population genetics/ drug resistance/ data? Want to work in Montpellier, France? Fastq files don't scare you? PhD required, start date hopefully Nov 1! (end date Sep 30 2028) Please share! abetterscientist.wordpress.com/2026/09/29/p...
abetterscientist.wordpress.com
Postdoc position on drug resistance evolution in Montpellier, France
I have some exciting news (again!). I got money from the region (Occitanie) to hire a postdoc (and later an engineer / technician) to work on drug resistance evolution in malaria (P. faciparum) and…
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Jonathan Slater @jonathanslater.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
These are stunning
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Anna O. Law @unlawfulentries.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Painting at the Guggenheim aka my department meeting
Painting of four men sitting looking completely forlorn and depressed
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Marwa @marwaalawi.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If you're looking for an AMR conference + an excuse to visit Ireland, I have good news for you! (Link below) Psst... registration costs only EUR50 #antimicrobialresistance www.maynoothuniversity.ie/news-events/...
maynoothuniversity.ie
Maynooth University Antimicrobial Resistance Conference 2026
The event features international keynote speakers working at an interdisciplinary interface, contributing to a deeper understanding of how antimicrobial resistance mechanisms develop and spread, as
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rOpenSci @ropensci.org · 29/09/2026
Coworking and Office Hours next week! Theme: Writing Tests & Testing in R Tuesday October 6th 09:00 Americas Pacific (16:00 UTC) Join Olivier Leroy and @yabellini.bsky.social - Coworking - Add some tests to your work or packages - Chat and discuss our theme! ropensci.org/events/cowor...
ropensci.org
Social Coworking and Office Hours - Writing Tests & Testing in R
Try your hand at testing in R, come to socialize, or work on anything you need to get done!
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Margot Finn @eicathomefinn.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
'The Westminster government’s contribution to funding domestic undergraduates studying in England fell in real terms from £8.9 billion in 2012-13 to just £3.3bn in 2024-25, a drop of more than 60 per cent, an analysis has found.'
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Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Times this morning. Me in December last year. It was pretty damn obvious this would happen to anyone who did the maths. samf.substack.com/p/the-oversh...
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froggleston @froggleston.carpentries.org · 28/09/2026
Don't tell me - the industry based on the largest wholesale theft in history... stole stuff you gave to it?
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c0nc0rdance @c0nc0rdance.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I'll save you the click-through: A lab at University of Copenhagen had been feeding draft manuscripts & data into "Claude Science" & then Anthropic announces a discovery that this lab made a year ago but hasn't published yet. It's plausible that Claude found the same signatures independently...
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Carl Zimmer @carlzimmer.com · 27/09/2026
Four days ago, a scientist was surprised by the news that Anthropic discovered new virus genes for making DNA. He says he’s been studying them for years—and feeding his data to Anthropic’s AI as part of his own research. Coincidence? Here’s my story. nyti.ms/3VSWayc
nyti.ms
Did Anthropic’s A.I. Really Make a Scientific Discovery on Its Own? (Gift Article)
An expert at the University of Copenhagen said his team had been sharing its research with the company’s A.I. model, Claude, and that its new finding matched their work.
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Dan O’Sullivan @osullyville.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
Today I saw the new 4 hour documentary Musk, directed by Alex Gibney. There were too many times to count that a sold out theater burst out laughing at Elon Musk, something he said or did, even sometimes just how he looked. I believe that is his worst nightmare come to life.
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Lisa Guerrero @lisaguerrero.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
I can’t get enough of my 88 year old dad‘s stunning photography. Here is one of his latest masterpieces from this past week. Enjoy!
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glastomichelle.bsky.social @glastomichelle.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A colourful end to the day here in Glastonbury. It was worth the walk I think. Now it is time for a glass of wine 🍷
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Radley Balko @radleybalko.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
I feel you, Daniel L
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Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Guardian reports Rayner's continued defence of migrants care workers from in Cabinet. Seems to have won that argument for care workers with No 10 + Home Office Big unknown: will anyone protect 250k non-care workers (chefs, vets, architects) from being thrown out www.theguardian.com/politics/202...
theguardian.com
Angela Rayner stands by attack on care worker visa reforms ahead of Labour conference
Housing secretary says Home Office moved goalposts with ‘disruptive’ change to permanent residence rules
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Petra Korlević @petrathepostdoc.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
they are on ~vacation~ 🏝️
silly #SciArt digital doodle of a little sand mound with little plants growing from it and small grey rocks around it, on top if are two cartoony red ants sunbathing, one is on a pink towel the other on a white reclining chair
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Bart van Zwieten @bvzw.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
A remarkable Mexica gold serpent labret (lip jewelry), cast by the lost-wax method and fitted with a movable, bifurcated tongue. From Central Mexico, though its exact state of origin is unknown, 1325–1521 CE, it likely marked elite status and powerful speech.
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John Scalzi @scalzi.com · 26/09/2026
Whatever you do, don't smoke an entire brisket at a job interview, it's a lot of equipment to bring in, it takes a really long time to do it right and those conference rooms have notoriously poor ventilation
Someone smoking a brisket and poking it with a meat thermometer to see what the internal temperature is
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Robert Reich @rbreich.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
DoorDash spent $1.4M trying to stop Zohran Mamdani from becoming mayor. This week's historic $131.5M enforcement action against DoorDash for underpaying NYC delivery workers shows why. Yet another reminder that the only thing that can beat organized money is organized people.
theintercept.com
DoorDash Spent $1.4 Million Trying to Stop Mamdani From Becoming Mayor. Now We Know Why.
In a wage-theft settlement, DoorDash now has to pay its workers around 100 times what it spent trying to beat Zohran Mam
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Bex Luther @superbreeze.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
They should merge Manchester City and Manchester United. They could call the new club Manchester United
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Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
It's the weekend. All the best everyone!
Sunset
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Jamie Smart @jamiesmart.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Can’t eat a sandwich until you subscribe to sandwiches. Can’t eat today’s sandwich until it has applied daily sandwich updates. Sandwich now has adverts even though you paid for ad-free sandwich. Can pay again to have less sandwich adverts. Now you can eat the sandwich, but it’s smaller.
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Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · 25/09/2026
Voyager Instruments xkcd.com/3302/
 3-panel comic. (1) [Person with shoulder-length hair gestures at diagrams on wall in front of table with three people.] PERSON 1: As the radioactive power source on *Voyager 1* weakens, we’ve been turning instruments off to conserve power. (2) PERSON 1: Only two instruments remain. Do we want to lose the plasma wave subsystem or the magnetometer? (3) PERSON 2 with ponytail: You know, if we just turned off Greg’s LED underlighting– PERSON 4 with short hair: Absolutely not. PERSON 3: Dammit, Greg. PERSON 4: I will *not* allow us to look uncool in front of aliens.
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