elliecat.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab

submitted 2 days ago • 138 comments

Our work looking at the effects of using autosomal assumptions for calling variation on X and Y. We used simulated data to compare to a ground truth. Tldr: Accurate ploidy is important for reducing false positives; appropriate alignment reduces false negatives. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

submitted 8 days ago • 0 comments

Last call—hiring for my lab moving to UCLA!

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

I'm hiring! Postdoc available in my lab in Ecological Genomics. northeastern.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/careers/job/... I will start reviewing applications mid-July. 🧪🧑‍🔬🖥️🧬🦑. Please share widely, thanks!

submitted 7 days ago • 0 comments

Exclusive: National Science Foundation staff were told today that the agency’s 37 divisions—across all eight directorates—are being abolished and the number of programs within those divisions will be drastically reduced.

submitted 7 days ago • 162 comments

Had a great time at #PacBioPRISM chatting to the community about the utility of reference genomes and the potential of long-read sequencing in conservation 🦊🐆🐺🐻 ! Some very inspirational talks and lots of potential applications to think about in the future!

submitted 7 days ago • 1 comment

SaveNSF is a coalition of concerned scientists and allies who are working to save funding for scientific grants through the NSF. The mission is to support and advocate for the continuation of vital research and innovation. Join: www.savensf.com

submitted 13 days ago • 2 comments

Looking ahead to an unpaid summer that I planned to write 3 NSF grants (2 pending) as my lab runs out of startup funding. Hearing about other dramatic cuts at NIH where I have a grant pending. USDA barely has any grant instructions up. And struggling to not just say “what’s the point” 😞 #NewPI

submitted 14 days ago • 5 comments

Hey if your NSF grant has suddenly been frozen and want to chat about what that means, Signal is davelevitan.26 and you can remain anonymous

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

I talked to Nature about the latest development at NSF, which is a five-alarm fire for American science. The scale of immediate impact is massive. We narrowly escaped this affecting @viralemergence.org for now, but will have to shut down in a few months if this stays. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

submitted 14 days ago • 3 comments

Excited to share the first manuscript from my PhD in which we leveraged ultra-long Nanopore sequencing, D. melanogaster inbred lines, and a ton of manual validation to investigate the effects of long-read length on population-level structural variant (SV) calling accuracy! doi.org/10.1101/2025...

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

As I might have said 27 years ago if there was social media: ANNOUNCING GCUA: General Codon Usage Analysis. I published first version in 1999 & I wrote it in C. The current version is written in python and has a few more bells and whistles, particularly plotly visualizations github.com/mol-evol/gcua

submitted 17 days ago • 3 comments

ATTENTION: NSF GRANT RECIPIENTS We received a heads up from a trusted source that you should proactively download/print/screen shot any documentation on research.gov pertaining to your NSF awards, both those that are current and any that have closed in the last 5-6 years. 1/n

submitted 21 days ago • 25 comments

Our manuscript describing the evolutionary history, rhizoshpere microbial & fungal community differences, and viral resistance of domesticated hops (Humulus lupulus L.) is out today in Molecular Ecology! doi.org/10.1111/mec....

submitted 21 days ago • 1 comment

USGS does some of the most important fish and wildlife research in the US. Shutting it down w would be it et another massive loss.

submitted 21 days ago • 0 comments

About 15-20 yrs ago, a bunch of reviews (inc. 1 by me) made predictions about the future of genomics in conservation. 1 yr ago at ICISB, Robin Waples assessed which of those predictions had been fulfilled. Sam May & Sam Rosenbaum now led the effort to turn this into a review: doi.org/10.1111/mec....

submitted 24 days ago • 2 comments

My colleague, Rulon Clark, and I are starting a community science project to study urban snake pop genetics across SD county ! We've sent out scale clipping kits but many aren't comfortable clipping scales... If you know of a reliable way to get DNA easily and noninvasively from squamates pls lmk! 🧪

submitted 26 days ago • 2 comments

A dear friend from the animal rescue center I work with lost everything in a house fire. Please consider donating so that she can rebuild. gofund.me/c4b12d13

submitted 26 days ago • 0 comments

This is bad. Read the updates. www.nsf.gov/updates-on-p...

submitted 27 days ago • 4 comments

Excited to share our new paper on genetic differentiation in Atlantic silversides! We investigated how genome structure influences adaptation under varying levels of gene flow using a species-specific reference genome and multiple recombination maps. Read on for insights! doi.org/10.1093/molb... 1/7

submitted 27 days ago • 2 comments

check out this new paper from the fabulous @akopyan.bsky.social !

submitted 27 days ago • 0 comments

My paper about type I error rates in Qst/Fst comparisons is now published in @genetics-gsa.bsky.social. Check it out here: academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

submitted 28 days ago • 0 comments

🧪 #consgen I’m leaving NOAA on April 28. I never anticipated resigning at any time when I joined the agency 5 yrs ago to help modernize fisheries management and conservation with genomics. Making the work more effective and efficient was the central objective. I loved working at NOAA because… 1/x

submitted 31 days ago • 21 comments

US students. Looking to apply to graduate school? Had an offer rescinded recently? The University of British Columbia in Canada will re-open the application portal in some departments for US students from April 14-18. Details: www.grad.ubc.ca/us-applicant... #ubc #AcademicSky #PhDSky #ScienceSky

submitted 34 days ago • 14 comments

#consgen authority Fred Allendorf laments the death of American science in the Missoulian newspaper. It’s terrifying to watch all of this unfold. My heart goes out to all my American friends and collagues.

submitted 35 days ago • 0 comments

Sadly received a notice that NOAA’s Office of Oceanic & Atmospheric Research (OAR) websites are expected to go down at midnight tonight. If you currently or plan to use publicly-available NOAA datasets, reports, resources, etc, download them now if you can!

submitted 41 days ago • 0 comments

THANK YOU EVERYONE for another INCREDIBLE MARCH MAMMAL MADNESS! #2025MMM Please help defend the Arctic and protect Polar Bears! www.defendthearctic.org

submitted 43 days ago • 13 comments

I’m in this fight for an America that isn’t run by a handful of billionaires. Where we invest in medical research. Where every kid can go to a great public school. Where—instead of giving tax breaks to the rich—we make sure families can afford housing, health care, and groceries.

submitted 48 days ago • 19 comments

Working with an interdisciplinary team, we have developed a website to communicate how the White House's proposed cuts to health research would cause losses of $16B and 68,500 jobs. Find out how your community may be impacted. Explore more at SCIMaP: scienceimpacts.org a 🧵

submitted 49 days ago • 207 comments

#Consgen postdoc position for 2-3 years on Vancouver Island to work on saving a fluffy endemic marmot. and its in Canada! engage.iucn.org/group/iucn-s...

submitted 51 days ago • 0 comments

My review of computational methods for anthropological genetics with @kwittadna.bsky.social is out for the Yearbook issue of AJBA. We talk about all sorts of cool methods that YOU could use too! Also check out this great figure we commissioned from @janey1216.bsky.social doi.org/10.1002/ajpa...

submitted 56 days ago • 0 comments

We are looking to contract a technician for work on our historic bear project. Unfortunately, we are restricted to US citizens or permanent residents for this position. Please share and see further details here: evol.mcmaster.ca/brian/evoldi...

submitted 56 days ago • 1 comment

University of California announced a systemwide hiring freeze. This affects not 1 but 10 campuses (including UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC San Francisco, UC San Diego among others) plus 3 national labs with impact on medical and scientific research and local economies. www.reuters.com/world/us/uni...

submitted 57 days ago • 4 comments

🧬Interested in #Museomics? Join us to learn how to generate & analyse genomic data from natural history collections with hands-on bioinformatics workflows @hernmoral.bsky.social @jazminrm.bsky.social @claudiafontsere.bsky.social @hologenomics.bsky.social 👉 www.physalia-courses.org/courses-work...

submitted 63 days ago • 0 comments

My lab at NYU is hiring a postdoc in microbial ecology and evolution! We are looking for someone interested in both wet and dry lab techniques, including experimental evolution, genome editing, bioinformatics, and some modeling. Apply here: apply.interfolio.com/164683

submitted 58 days ago • 4 comments

This is devastating. We’ve stopped training the next generation of scientists. PhD student mentoring is the most rewarding part of being a professor. You get to be part of building the future. And now we aren’t able to admit a new class next year. Heartbreaking is exactly the right word.

submitted 63 days ago • 3 comments

🧪 The NSF director is lying to you. Let’s fact check 7 claims from yesterday’s letter to the community, while pointing out 3 critical omissions. 🧵

submitted 64 days ago • 11 comments

I’m thrilled to share my first ever publication, now published in PNAS! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... With mentorship from the amazing @ksxue.bsky.social, I looked at how the outcomes of species introductions to microbial communities are influenced by the number of introduced microbes.

submitted 65 days ago • 1 comment

We need to organize--let’s help each other. NIH is cancelling grants, but it's not clear exactly what they're cancelling and why. Without this information, we can't respond. I've started a Google Sheet to track grant cancellations. Please add any canceled grants you know of and spread the word!

submitted 69 days ago • 9 comments

NEW: Black-footed ferrets were saved by a federal breeding program centered around Colorado. It was led by Tina Jackson — a USFWS biologist fired by DOGE last month. She's now worried staff and funding cuts could drag the species back to the brink of extinction. www.cpr.org/2025/03/05/t...

submitted 71 days ago • 2 comments

I feel intermittent waves of grief for this reason. I know people will think it is trite, but I have to keep reminding myself of that exchange between Gandalf and Frodo about living in difficult times.

submitted 75 days ago • 2 comments

Cal untenured faculty invited to meet with the Vice Provost to discuss current state of federal funding, questions submitted in advance… apply pressure 😊

submitted 72 days ago • 1 comment

President Roosevelt's lions reveal a century of population fragmentation in Africa's largest carnivore https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.26.640359v1

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments

Friendly reminder: if you are waiting on something from a US-based scientist/reviewer/editor, please realize that we're barely making it through each day putting out non-stop fires and trying not to collapse into tears. We're trying our best, but things will take longer right now. Give grace.

submitted 73 days ago • 214 comments

I am not going to call this a Bluetorial, because I do not want to sully that term (which, at least I, find joyful). Let’s call it a Orwellial.

submitted 74 days ago • 14 comments

First of a few publications on lions for this year and one which relied heavily on federally funded collections and federal-academic partnership. The folks who know these collections and populations intimately were instrumental in this work and we are delighted to share it. Feedback welcome.

submitted 74 days ago • 0 comments

If you have experienced direct harm to your work/lab/job due to recent changes at US NSF, & are willing to share this on behalf of the Am. Society of Naturalists and NSF, please DM/ email me ASAP (this is time-sensitive) or submit story here sites.google.com/view/scienti... Please share widely

submitted 74 days ago • 3 comments