Category Archives: Science and Art

March 7, 2016

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Back to our regular program…. Today I’ve included papers on the antibiotic resistome in preterm infants, or in soils, the salt-loving Tamarix, and a critical article about the Microbiome Summit in Forbes.

Pregnancy and birth

Developmental dynamics of the preterm infant gut microbiota and antibiotic resistome – Molly K. Gibson – Nature Microbiology

Human oral microbiome

Microbial Diversity in the Early In Vivo-Formed Dental Biofilm – D. Heller – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Animal models

Effect of dietary protein sources on the small intestine microbiome of weaned piglets based on high-throughput sequencing – Kefei Cao – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Appearance of β-lactam Resistance Genes in Agricultural Soils and Clinical Isolates over the 20th Century – David W. Graham – Scientific Reports

Functional redundancy of linuron degradation in microbial communities of agricultural soil and biopurification systems – Benjamin Horemans – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomic Signatures of Bacterial Adaptation to Life in the Phyllosphere of a Salt-Secreting Desert Tree – Omri M. Finkel – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbial and Functional Diversity within the Phyllosphere of Espeletia Species in an Andean High-Mountain Ecosystem – Carlos A. Ruiz-Pérez – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Prokaryotic Community Structure Driven by Salinity and Ionic Concentrations in Plateau Lakes of the Tibetan Plateau – Zhi-Ping Zhong – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Functional responses of salt marsh microbial communities to long-term nutrient enrichment – Christopher J. Graves – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Waste, pollution, and bioreactor microbiology

Dynamics of size-fractionated bacterial communities during the coastal dispersal of treated municipal effluents – SiGuang Liu – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Biological Nitrogen Removal in a Photosequencing Batch Reactor with an Algal-Nitrifying Bacterial Consortium and Anammox Granules – Nathan D. Manser – Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Microbes in the news (notice 3 articles on antibiotic resistance from EurekAlert)

Preemies’ gut bacteria reveal vast scope of antibiotic resistance – Washington University School of Medicine – EurekAlert

Antibiotics use affects the abundance of resistant bacteria in soil – Aarhus University – EurekAlert

Daily dose of antibiotics helps bacteria develop multi-drug tolerance – KU Leuven – EurekAlert

Microbiome Monday: The Top Three Questions from Visitors – AMNH

Bacteria-laden mosquitoes can control Zika – Zeenews India

Microbes and art

BioArt : What is our True Relationship with the Human Microbiome? – Labiotech
After every 50 handshakes his assistants (white lab coats) would swab his palms, to use for later analysis of the collective microbiome.

Growing fungus and bacteria on textiles for fashion – Yuliasri Perdani – Jakarta Post

Science, publishing, and career

A critical view of the Microbiome Medicine Summit: Keep Calm And Avoid Microbiome Mayhem – Kavin Senapathy – Forbes

Everything Is Crumbling: An influential psychological theory, borne out in hundreds of experiments, may have just been debunked. How can so many scientists have been so wrong? – Daniel Engber – Slate

Not just #creatorgate: Most scandalous retractions in science – SBS

Conferences on Weekends? Good or Bad Idea? Summary of responses to query .. – Jonathan Eisen – Phylogenomics

February 24, 2016

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Women in space, cacti, celiac disease, and traveling dust.

Event

Not endorsing – full of quackery and folks trying to sell their books and food supplements, little science: Microbiome Medicine Summit

Human oral microbiome

Review: Porphyromonas gingivalis: An Overview of Periodontopathic Pathogen below the Gum Line – Kah Yan How – Frontiers in Microbiology

Human reproductive tract microbiome

The potential influence of the microbiota and probiotics on women during long spaceflights – Camilla Urbaniak – Future Medicine

Human gut microbiome

Study of duodenal bacterial communities by 16S rRNA gene analysis in adults with active celiac disease versus non celiac disease controls – Esther Nistal – Journal of Applied Microbiology

High Molecular Weight Barley β-Glucan Alters Gut Microbiota Toward Reduced Cardiovascular Disease Risk – Yanan Wang – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: A glance at … dietary emulsifiers, the human intestinal mucus and microbiome, and dietary fiber – Michael J. Glade – Nutrition

Review: Chemical conversations in the gut microbiota – Jessica A. Thompson – Gut Microbes

Review: Atopic dermatitis and the intestinal microbiota in humans and dogs – J. Mark Craig – Veterinary Medicine and Science

Animal models

Composition of fecal microbiota of laboratory mice derived from Japanese commercial breeders using 16S rRNA gene clone libraries – Ryoko Nozu – Journal of Veterinary Medical Science

Animal microbiome

News in livestock research — use of Omics-technologies to study the microbiota in the gastrointestinal tract of farm animals – Simon Deusch – Computational and Structural Biotechnology Journal

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

The Cacti Microbiome: Interplay between Habitat-Filtering and Host-Specificity – Citlali Fonseca-García – Frontiers in Microbiology

Comparison of Fungal Community in Black Pepper-Vanilla and Vanilla Monoculture Systems Associated with Vanilla Fusarium Wilt Disease –
Wu Xiong – Frontiers in Microbiology

Bacterial-Plant-Interactions: Approaches to Unravel the Biological Function of Bacterial Volatiles in the Rhizosphere – Marco Kai – Frontiers in Microbiology

Short-Term Rhizosphere Effect on Available Carbon Sources, Phenanthrene Degradation, and Active Microbiome in an Aged-Contaminated Industrial Soil – François Thomas – Frontiers in Microbiology

Changes in rhizosphere bacterial gene expression following glyphosate treatment – Molli M. Newman – Science of the Total Environment

Pepino (Solanum muricatum) planting increased diversity and abundance of bacterial communities in karst area – Jinxiang Hu – Scientific Reports

Friend or foe? Biological and ecological traits of the European ash dieback pathogen Hymenoscyphus fraxineus in its native environment – Michelle Cleary – Scientific Report

An interdomain network: the endobacterium of a mycorrhizal fungus promotes antioxidative responses in both fungal and plant hosts – Candida Vannini – New Phytologist

Water and extremophile microbiome

The effect of temperature change on the microbial diversity and community structure along the chronosequence of the sub-arctic glacier forefield of Styggedalsbreen (Norway) – Alejandro Mateos-Rivera – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Water level changes affect carbon turnover and microbial community composition in lake sediments – Lukas Weise – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Evaluation of the treatment performance and microbial communities of a combined constructed wetland used to treat industrial park wastewater – Ming Xu – Environmental Science and Pollution Research

Bacterial Composition and Survival on Sahara Dust Particles Transported to the European Alps – Marco Meola – Frontiers in Microbiology

Review: Bridging the divide: a model-data approach to Polar and Alpine microbiology – James A. Bradley – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

ghost-tree: creating hybrid-gene phylogenetic trees for diversity analyses – Jennifer Fouquier – Microbiome

More microbiology

Peracetic Acid Treatment Generates Potent Inactivated Oral Vaccines from a Broad Range of Culturable Bacterial Species – Kathrin Moor – Frontiers in Immunology

Microbes in the news

Bacteria From the Sahara Desert Found on Swiss Glaciers – Nellie Van Driska – GlacierHub

Wolbachia Bacteria Could Be Answer To Malaria, Dengue: Bill Gates – NDTV

Student Research Focus: Drew Gukeisen discovers and visualizes new virus – Indiana University SouthEast

Bacteria swabbing trend for newborns medically in doubt – Carina Storrs – CNN

Microbes and art

Navel gazing: portraits of the bacteria in our belly buttons – in pictures by Joana Ricou – The Guardian

Science, publishing, and career

Activism: Frustrated postdocs rise up – Paul Smaglik – Nature

Don’t trust an image in a scientific paper? Manipulation detective’s company wants to help – Retraction Watch
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February 20, 2016

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Effects of ocean acidification, structural proteins in viral dark matter, and microbiome art. Also check out my new post at MicroBE.net with new papers on microbiome of the built environment.

Human respiratory tract microbiome

Review: How Recent Advances in Molecular Tests Could Impact the Diagnosis of Pneumonia – David Murdoch – Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics

Microbiome models

In vitro fermentation of alginate and its derivatives by human gut microbiota – Miaomiao Li – Anaerobe

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Changes of soil prokaryotic communities after clear cutting in a karst forest: evidences for cutting-based disturbance promoting deterministic processes – Xiao Zhang – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Use of mulberry–soybean intercropping in salt–alkali soil impacts the diversity of the soil bacterial community – Xin Li – Microbial Biotechnology

Distinct Habitats Select Particular Bacterial Communities in Mangrove Sediments – Lidianne L. Rocha – International Journal of Microbiology

Water and ice microbiome

Quantification of the effects of ocean acidification on sediment microbial communities in the environment: the importance of ecosystem approaches – Christiane Hassenrück – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Bacterial communities from Arctic seasonal sea ice are more compositionally variable than those from multi-year sea ice – Ido Hatam – The ISME Journal

Bioreactor and waste microbiology

Biodegradation of different petroleum hydrocarbons by free and immobilized microbial consortia – Tiantian Shen – Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Recent Developments in Using Advanced Sequencing Technologies for the Genomic Studies of Lignin and Cellulose Degrading Microorganisms – Ayyappa kumar Sista Kameshwar – International Journal of Biological Sciences

DUDE-Seq: Fast, flexible, and robust denoising of nucleotide sequences – Byunghan Lee – Bioinformatics

HTSFinder: Powerful Pipeline of DNA Signature Discovery by Parallel and Distributed Computing – Ramin Karimi – Evolutionary Bioinformatics

FLDS: A Comprehensive dsRNA Sequencing Method for Intracellular RNA Virus Surveillance – Syun-ichi Urayama – Microbes and Environments

Based on my old discovery of the mycobacterial CRISPR: SpoTyping: fast and accurate in silico Mycobacterium spoligotyping from sequence reads – Eryu Xia – Genome Medicine

Microbial ecology

A tradeoff between the ecological and evolutionary stabilities of public goods genes in microbial populations – Joseph Rauch – BioRxiv

Agent Based Modeling of Human Gut Microbiome Interactions and Perturbations – Tatiana Shashkova – PLOS ONE

Proteomics

Illuminating structural proteins in viral “dark matter” with metaproteomics – Jennifer R. Brum – PNAS

Microbes in the news

‘Unhealthy’ Microbiomes Could Promote Metabolic Disease. UCSF Symposium Explores Vulnerability and Malleability of Microbes in Human Gut – Nicholas Weiler – University of California San Francisco

Unusual sugar in leafy greens may help gut bacteria protect health – Catharine Paddock – Medical News Today

One startup’s plan to grow more crops: put the germs back in. Indigo claims it can dramatically boost yields by restoring plant’s microbiome – Ben Popper – The Verge

The intestinal microbiota—a new ally for optimum growth – Medical Xpress

Bacteria In Contact Lenses May Cause Inflammatory Response Leading To Microbial Keratitis / Gross Science Video with Anna Rothschild – Lizette Borreli – Medical Daily

Bacteria Hysteria

Tea crawling with harmful bacteria and food trays covered in faeces: The horror health threats facing airline passengers – The Sun

Microbes and art

Faces of BioArt: Sonja Bäumel’s Microbiome Portraits and Bacterial Clothing – Labiotech

Science, publishing, and career

Put the “Ph” Back in PhD. We need big thinkers, but the current system teaches students to think small – Arturo Casadevall

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February 17, 2016

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Microbial biomarkers for diabetes, gut sialidases,  pathogens in stranded sea turtles, microbial biodeterioration of an ancient staircase, and how bacterial stay in shape.

Events

‘Microbiome-based Foods for Health and Sustainability’ workshop, 23 February, Brussels – APC Microbiome Institute

Call for Entries! ASM’s 2016 Agar Art Contest. Deadline: May 6.

Human oral microbiome

Intracerebral hemorrhage and deep microbleeds associated with cnm-positive Streptococcus mutans; a hospital cohort study – Shuichi Tonomura – Scientific Reports

Review: Oral Microbiome: Contributions to Local and Systemic Infections – Kerri T. Simpson – Current Oral Health Reports

Human gut microbiome

Sub-clinical detection of gut microbial biomarkers of obesity and type 2 diabetes – Moran Yassour – Genome Medicine

Postoperative changes in fecal bacterial communities and fermentation products in obese patients undergoing bilio-intestinal bypass – Vania Patrone – Frontiers in Microbiology

The Effects of Bowel Preparation on Microbiota-Related Metrics Differ in Health and in Inflammatory Bowel Disease and for the Mucosal and Luminal Microbiota Compartments – Rima M Shobar – Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology

Registered report: Fusobacterium nucleatum infection is prevalent in human colorectal carcinoma – John Repass – eLIFE

Review: Sialidases from gut bacteria: a mini-review – Nathalie Juge – Biochemical Society Transactions

Review: Akkermansia muciniphila and its role in regulating host functions – Muriel Derrien – Microbial Pathogenesis

Models of microbiome research

Probiotics modulated gut microbiota suppresses hepatocellular carcinoma growth in mice – Jun Li – PNAS

The bacterial microbiome of Dermacentor andersoni ticks influences pathogen susceptibility – Cory A Gall – ISME Journal

Have clay will lay: Chicken: Dietary supplementation with the clay mineral palygorskite affects performance and beneficially modulates caecal microbiota in laying pullets – S. Chalvatzi – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Animal microbiome

Bacterial agents in 248 ticks removed from people from 2002 to 2013 – Camille Aubry – Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases

Bacterial and viral pathogens detected in sea turtles stranded along the coast of Tuscany, Italy – G. Fichi – Veterinary Microbiology

Poor English (but US lab): Identification of Host-Specific Genetic Markers within 16S rDNA Intervening Sequences of 73 Genera of Fecal Bacteria – Zhenyu Shen – Omics’ Journal of Data Mining in Genomics & Proteomics

Editorial: Developmental biology: Females have a lot of guts – Justin Fear – Nature

The sexual identity of adult intestinal stem cells controls organ size and plasticity – Bruno Hudry – Nature

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Bacterial predator–prey dynamics in microscale patchy landscapes – Felix J. H. Hol – Proceedings of the Royal Society B

Variation in soil microbial communities associated with critically endangered Wollemi pine affects fungal, but not bacterial, assembly within seedling roots – J.L. Rigg – Pedobiologia

The Effects of Nitrogen Fertilizer on Soil Microbial Communities Under Conventional and Conservation Agricultural Managements in a Tropical Clay-Rich Ultisol – Miura, Toshiko – Soil Science

Cover Crop and Irrigation Effects on Soil Microbial Communities and Enzymes in Semiarid Agroecosystems of the Central Great Plains of North America – Francisco J. Calderón – Pedosphere

Effect of soil disinfection with chemical and biological methods on bacterial communities – Md Rokunuzzaman – Egyptian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences

Water and extremophile microbiome

Metagenomic insights into the uncultured diversity and physiology of microbes in four hypersaline soda lake brines – Charlotte D. Vavourakis – Frontiers in Microbiology

Characterization of bacterial communities in wetland mesocosms receiving pharmaceutical-enriched wastewater – Dongqing Zhang – Ecological Engineering

Microbial Community Profile and Water Quality in a Protected Area of the Caatinga Biome – Fabyano Alvares Cardoso Lopes – PLOS ONE

Thesis: Tightly-coupled sulfur-cycling microbial mats of the White Point hydrothermal vent field, CA: An analog for deep-sea vents – Priscilla J Miranda – California State University Long Beach

Thesis: The microbial diversity and function of Arctic supraglacial biomes – Stefanie Lutz – University of Leeds

Built environment microbiome

Biodeterioration Risk Threatens the 3100 Year Old Staircase of Hallstatt (Austria): Possible Involvement of Halophilic Microorganisms – Guadalupe Piñar – PLOS ONE

The Black Yeast Exophiala dermatitidis and Other Selected Opportunistic Human Fungal Pathogens Spread from Dishwashers to Kitchens – Jerneja Zupančič – PLOS ONE

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

IMP: a pipeline for reproducible integrated metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analyses – Shaman Narayanasamy – BioRxiv

Colib’read on galaxy: a tools suite dedicated to biological information extraction from raw NGS reads – Yvan Le Bras – GigaScience

Shannon: An Information-Optimal de NovoRNA-Seq Assembler – Sreeram Kannan – BioRxiv

RECKONER: Read Error Corrector Based on KMC – Maciej Długosz – ArXiv

A benchmark study on error-correction by read-pairing and tag-clustering in amplicon-based deep sequencing – Tian-Hao Zhang – BMC Genomics

More microbiology

HT: Liz Costello: Universal resilience patterns in complex networks – Jianxi Gao – Nature

Microbially assisted recording of the Earth’s magnetic field in sediment – Xiangyu Zhao – Nature Communications

High coverage metabolomics analysis reveals phage-specific alterations to Pseudomonas aeruginosa physiology during infection – Jeroen De Smet – The ISME Journal

Discovery of cahuitamycins as biofilm inhibitors derived from a convergent biosynthetic pathway – Sung Ryeol Park – Nature Communications

Review: Staying in Shape: the Impact of Cell Shape on Bacterial Survival in Diverse Environments – Desirée C. Yang – Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews

Microbes in the news

Oral bacteria linked to risk of stroke – Betty Coffman – University of Louisville

Opportunistic Fungal Pathogens in Dishwashers and Kitchens – Alex Alexiev – MicroBEnet

UVA: Bacteria Overgrowth Could Be Major Cause of Stunting in Children – University of Virginia Health System – NBC29

A new method to dramatically improve the sequencing of metagenomes – EurekAlert

What your gut bacteria can tell you about type 2 diabetes – MedicalXpress

New anti-biofilm compounds show promise against drug-resistant bacteria linked to hospital infections – Ian Demsky – University of Michigan

Crowdfunding project: How Insects and Bacteria Can Solve Murder Mysteries: estimate the time since death (TSD) at a crime scene – Experiment

Crowdfunding project: E pluribus unum: how honey bee bacteria coordinate behaviors – Irene Newton – Experiment

uBiome Named One of World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Healthcare by Fast Company – PR Web

MIT Spinout Synlogic Grabs $40M To Program Microbes Into Living Drugs – Luke Timmerman – Forbes

Science, publishing, and career

Biologists urged to hug a preprint: ASAPbio meeting discusses the ins and outs of posting work online before peer review – Ewen Callaway – Nature

Accelerating Science with Preprints – Peter Binfield – PeerJ Blog

XY Bias: How Male Biology Students See Their Female Peers. In three large classes, men overrated the abilities of male students above equally talented and outspoken women – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

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February 12, 2016

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Infant gut microbiota development and family foods, a paper on the “blood microbiome” that caused some discussion on Twitter, Penicillinum and pears, and community types in the human microbiome.

Jobs and events

Mothur and programming in R workshop, May 23-25, Detroit

Postdoctoral Research Assistant – Microbiome – University of Oxford – Department of Plant Sciences

Pregnancy and birth

Infant Gut Microbiota Development Is Driven by Transition to Family Foods Independent of Maternal Obesity – Martin Frederik Laursen – mSphere

Human gut

A Novel Microbiome Therapeutic Increases Gut Microbial Diversity and Prevents Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection – Sahil Khanna – The Journal of Infectious Diseases

Microbiome of blood

No carefully designed controls, no deposit of sequence reads, misleading Y-axis in Figure S1. I don’t endorse this study: Comprehensive description of blood microbiome from healthy donors assessed by 16S targeted metagenomic sequencing – Sandrine Païssé – Transfusion

Animal models

Rearing room affects the non-dominant chicken caecum microbiota, while diet affects the dominant microbiota – Jane Ludvigsen – Frontiers in Veterinary Science

Extremophiles and water microbiome

Artificial electron acceptors decouple archaeal methane oxidation from sulfate reduction – Silvan Scheller – Science

Perspective: A new diet for methane oxidizers – Amelia-Elena Rotaru – Science

The role of particle associated microbes in remineralization of fecal pellets in the upper mesopelagic of the Scotia Sea, Antarctica – Anna Belcher – Limnology and Oceanography

Growth dynamics of a laminated microbial mat in response to variable irradiance in an Antarctic lake – Ian Hawes – Freshwater Biology

Food microbiology

Profile of Penicillium species in the pear supply chain – I. Scholtz – Plant Pathology

More microbes

Survival games at the dinner table: regulation of Enterobacterial virulence through nutrient sensing and acquisition – Gaëlle Porcheron – Current Opinion in Microbiology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

On the Origins and Control of Community Types in the Human Microbiome – Travis E. Gibson – PLOS Computational Biology

Microbes in the news

Forget chocolates. Give your sweetheart mushrooms this Valentine’s Day, says Stanford scientist – Rosemary Mena-Werth – Stanford News

Infant gut microbiome development not driven by maternal weight – Stephen Feller – UPI

Solid foods take over shaping of gut microbiota by 9 months – Yvette Brazier – Medical News Today

Why we might need to kill Australia’s koalas: Chlamydia infection is running rampant through their population, and a controlled cull might be their best hope- Katie Silver – BBC

Researchers Believe That Socialization Helps Spread Beneficial Gut Bacteria – Shariqua Ahmed – DogoNews

Novel microbiome therapy appears to prevent recurrent C. difficile infection – Healio

AbbVie Launches IBD Collaboration with Synlogic – GenEngNews

Bik’s Picks

Thursday’s massive gravitational wave news was broken by a sheet cake (really) – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

Science and art

An Artist Asks: Whose Business Is Our DNA? – Short film on artwork by Heather Dewey-Hagborg who created masks of strangers based on genetic material left behind – The Atlantic

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January 20, 2016

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Virome of children with diarrhea, bacterial communities in black truffles, arsenic biogeochemistry in an acid vapor-formed spring, distribution of microbes in microenvironments, and retraction of a PLOS ONE air microbiome paper.

Jobs and events

New job openings at Whole Biome: develops therapeutics and diagnostics targeting human microbiome, casual culture, and artisanal coffee

Human oral microbiome

Exploration of Human Salivary Microbiomes—Insights into the Novel Characteristics of Microbial Community Structure in Caries and Caries-Free Subjects – Jianye Zhou – PLOS ONE

Human respiratory microbiome

COPD is characterized by increased detection of Haemophilus influenzae, Streptococcus pneumoniae and a deficiency of Bacillus species – Jodie L. Simpson – Respirology

Human gut microbiome

The fecal virome of South and Central American children with diarrhea includes small circular DNA viral genomes of unknown origin – Tung Gia Phan – Archives of Virology

Perspective: Gut microbiota and aging – Paul W. O’Toole – Science

Review: Studies on Modulation of Gut Microbiota by Wine Polyphenols: From Isolated Cultures to Omic Approaches – Montserrat Dueñas – MDPI Antioxidants

Animal models

Postnatal Hematopoiesis and Gut Microbiota in NOD Mice Deviate from C57BL/6 Mice – Dina Silke Malling Damlund – Journal of Diabetes Research

Bacterial profile and bone healing in rats receiving cancer therapeutic doses of bisphosphonates and corticosteroids: a pilot study – Z. Jabbour – International Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery

Interaction between dietary lipids and gut microbiota regulates hepatic cholesterol metabolism – Robert Caesar – Journal of Lipid Research

Gut Microbiota Regulates K/BxN Autoimmune Arthritis through Follicular Helper T but Not Th17 Cells – Katharine E. Block – The Journal of Immunology

Editorial: Of Bugs and Drugs: How the Microbiome Controls Responsiveness to Antitumor Immunotherapy – Mandy L. Ford – American Journal of Transplantation

Animal microbiome

Most Low-Abundance “Background” Symbiodinium spp. Are Transitory and Have Minimal Functional Significance for Symbiotic Corals – Moo Joon Lee – Microbial Ecology

Isolation and assessment of gut bacteria from the Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae), for paratransgenesis research and application – Chinmay V. Tikhe – Insect Science

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Black truffle: Temporal changes of bacterial communities in the Tuber melanosporum ectomycorrhizosphere during ascocarp development – Aurélie Deveau – Mycorrhiza

Isolation of N2-fixing rhizobacteria from Lolium perenne and evaluating their plant growth promoting traits – Antonio Castellano-Hinojosa – Journal of Basic Microbiology

Host associations and beta diversity of fungal endophyte communities in New Guinea rainforest trees – J. B. Vincent – Molecular Ecology

Water, waste, and extremophile microbiome

Metagenome-scale analysis yields insights into the structure and function of microbial communities in a copper bioleaching heap – Xian Zhang – BMC Genetics

Microbial Community Structure and Arsenic Biogeochemistry in an Acid Vapor-Formed Spring in Tengchong Geothermal Area, China – Zhou Jiang – PLOS ONE

Phylogenetic conservation of freshwater lake habitat preference varies between abundant bacterioplankton phyla – Marian L. Schmidt – Environmental Microbiology

Food and cigarette microbiome

Characterization of Bacterial Communities in Selected Smokeless Tobacco Products Using 16S rDNA Analysis – Robert E. Tyx – PLOS ONE

More microbes

Divorcing strain classification from species names – David Baltrus

Distributions of Virus-Like Particles and Prokaryotes within Microenvironments – Lisa M. Dann – PLOS ONE

Parallel Mapping of Antibiotic Resistance Alleles in Escherichia coli –
Sophie J. Weiss – PLOS ONE

Microbes in the news

Satire: Dung Beetle A Bit Fed Up With Diet – The Allium

How Climate Change Endangers Microbes–And Why That’s Not a Good Thing – Aspen T. Reese – Scientific American

CDC issues guidance to help monitor pregnant women for Zika virus – Helen Branswell – STATnews

Microbes and art

These Close-Up Shots Of Kitchen Mold Are Oddly Appealing: Nikita Teryoshin, Max Slobodda / Küchendienst – FastCoDesign

Science, publishing, and career

Here are the 10 — yes, 10 — reasons PLOS ONE retracted this paper (“Metagenomic Human Repiratory Air in a Hospital Environment”) – Shannon Palus – Retraction Watch

Ten easy ways you can support diversity in academia in 2016 – Jacquelyn Gyll – The Contemplative Mammoth

Bik’s Picks

When chickens go wild. The feral chickens of Kauai provide a unique opportunity to study what happens when domesticated animals escape and evolve – Ewen Callaway – Nature
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January 19, 2016

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Microbiota manipulation during stem cell transplants, meh-crobial diversity in digestive tract of two sheep breeds, eukaryotes within pitcher plants,  South Atlantic Ocean, and soil affected by the 2011 Japan Tsunami.

Events

ISME16, Montreal, Canada, 21 – 26 August 2016. Registration and Submissions now open. The deadline for submitting your abstract is 18 March.

ASM Career Development Grants for Postdoctoral Women – up to 4 awards of $1,500 each. Deadline for Nominations: February 1, 2016.

Fellowships by L’Oréal USA For Women In Science. Deadline Feb 5, 2016. Program awards five women postdoctoral scientists annually with grants of $60,000 each, in any specialty.

Human oral microbiome

Salivary bacterial fingerprints of established oral disease revealed by the Human Oral Microbe Identification using Next Generation Sequencing (HOMINGS) technique – Daniel Belstrøm – Journal of Oral Microbiology

Human gut microbiome

Sleep quality and the treatment of intestinal microbiota imbalance in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A pilot study – Melinda L. Jackson – Sleep Science

Fecal microbiota transplantation: A ‘How-To’ guide for nurses – Sharyn Leis – Collegian Journal

Review: Microbiota Manipulation With Prebiotics and Probiotics in Patients Undergoing Stem Cell Transplantation – Tessa M. Andermann – Current Hematologic Malignancy Reports

Review: Epigenetic Regulation of Enteric Neurotransmission by Gut Bacteria – Tor C. Savidge – Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience

Bioreactor and animal models

Microbial Metabolism Shifts Towards an Adverse Profile with Supplementary Iron in the TIM-2 In vitro Model of the Human Colon – Guus A. M. Kortman – Frontiers in Microbiology

Video: A Novel Bioreactor for High Density Cultivation of Diverse Microbial Communities – Jacob R. Price – JOVE

Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar L.) Gastrointestinal Microbial Community Dynamics in Relation to Digesta Properties and Diet – Kamarul Zaman Zarkasi – Microbial Ecology

Animal microbiome

Microbial diversity in the digestive tract of two different breeds of sheep – J.-L. Douglas – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Dynamics of Bacterial Community Composition in the Malaria Mosquito’s Epithelia – Majoline T. Tchioffo – Frontiers in Microbiology

Microbiota Plays a Role in Oral Immune Priming in Tribolium castaneum – Momir Futo – Frontiers in Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Dynamics of Viral Abundance and Diversity in a Sphagnum-Dominated Peatland: Temporal Fluctuations Prevail Over Habitat – Flore Ballaud – Frontiers in Microbiology

Biogeographic barriers drive co-diversification within associated eukaryotes of the Sarracenia alata pitcher plant system – Jordan D. Satler – PeerJ

Expanding our Understanding of the Seaweed Holobiont: RNA Viruses of the Red Alga Delisea pulchra – Tim Lachnit – Frontiers in Microbiology

New Methods To Unravel Rhizosphere Processes – Eva Oburger – Trends in Plant Science

Soil microbial responses to forest floor litter manipulation and nitrogen addition in a mixed-wood forest of northern China – Xiao-Lu Sun – Scientific Reports

Unraveling the Functions of the Macroalgal Microbiome – Ravindra Pal Singh – Frontiers in Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Diversity and bioprospection of fungal community present in oligotrophic soil of continental Antarctica – Valéria M. Godinho – Extremophiles

Novel Barite Chimneys at the Loki’s Castle Vent Field Shed Light on Key Factors Shaping Microbial Communities and Functions in Hydrothermal Systems – Ida H. Steen – Frontiers in Microbiology

High Diversity of Anaerobic Alkane-Degrading Microbial Communities in Marine Seep Sediments Based on (1-methylalkyl)succinate Synthase Genes – Marion H. Stagars – Frontiers in Microbiology

Nutrient limitation of microbial phototrophs on a debris-covered glacier – J.L. Darcy – Soil Biology and Biochemistry

Large-scale distribution of microbial and viral populations in the South Atlantic Ocean – Daniele De Corte – Environmental Microbiology Reports

Selective Pressure of Temperature on Competition and Cross-Feeding within Denitrifying and Fermentative Microbial Communities – Anna Hanke – Frontiers in Microbiology

A Lipid-Accumulating Alga Maintains Growth in Outdoor, Alkaliphilic Raceway Pond with Mixed Microbial Communities – Tisza A. S. Bell – Frontiers in Microbiology

Genomic Reconstruction of an Uncultured Hydrothermal Vent Gammaproteobacterial Methanotroph (Family Methylothermaceae) Indicates Multiple Adaptations to Oxygen Limitation – Connor T. Skennerton – Frontiers in Microbiology

Genomic and metagenomic analysis of microbes in a soil environment affected by the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake tsunami – Satoshi Hiraoka – BMC Genomics

Oil reservoir microbiome

Genome-Resolved Metagenomic Analysis Reveals Roles for Candidate Phyla and Other Microbial Community Members in Biogeochemical Transformations in Oil Reservoirs – Ping Hu – mBio

Food microbiology

Dynamic changes in microbiota and mycobiota during spontaneous ‘Vino Santo Trentino’ fermentation – Irene Stefanini – Microbial Biotechnology

Other microbiology and techniques

Perspective: Adapting Koch’s postulates – Allyson L. Byrd, Julia Segre – Science

Depletion of human DNA in spiked clinical specimens to improve the sensitivity of pathogen detection by next generation sequencing – Mohammad R. Hasan – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Evaluation of a new device to simplify and standardize stool sample preparation for viral molecular testing with limited hands-on-time – Linda Feghoul – Journal of Clinical Microbiology

Review: Polymicrobial Biofilm Studies: from Basic Science to Biofilm Control – Hubertine ME Willems – Current Oral Health Reports

Review: Laser microdissection: A promising tool for exploring microorganisms and their interactions with hosts – Oleg V. Podgorny – Journal of Microbiological Methods

Book: Applications of Mass Spectrometry in Microbiology – Plamen Demirev, Todd R Sandrin – Springer

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Searching more genomic sequence with less memory for fast and accurate metagenomic profiling – Shea N Gardner – bioRxiv

An evaluation of the accuracy and speed of metagenome analysis tools – Stinus Lindgreen – Scientific Reports

Motif-based text mining of microbial metagenome redundancy profiling data for disease classification – Yin Wang – BioMed Research International

Metabolic pathways

Metabolic traits of an uncultured archaeal lineage -MSBL1- from brine pools of the Red Sea – Romano Mwirichia – Scientific Reports

Microbes in the news

Looking at the Microbiota to Improve Intestinal Transplantation Results – Jeannette Y. Wick – HCP Live

Why do I have to share my body with so many bugs? – Michael Mosley – BBC

How Bitter Taste Receptors Defend the Body against Bacteria – Robert J Lee – Scientific American

White Paper: The Future of Microbiome Research: Out of the Lab and Into the Clinic – Global Engage

How chicory may help fight plague bacteria – Jason Tetro – Popular Science

Lethal bacteria in Christmas Island feral cats sparks warning (Leptospira) – Nicolas Perpitch – ABC Australia

Microbes and art

Subvisual Subway: The Art of New York City’s Bacterial World – Emily Driscoll – Science Friday

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January 14, 2016

Posted on by

Sorry for a late post today – I had a lot of meetings. Here is what I found:

Gut microbiota shaped via fecal microRNA, the microgenderome, dysbiosis in Vitiligo skin lesions, metatranscriptomics, and an 18th century Yersinia pestis.

General microbiome

Perspective: Taking it Personally: Personalized Utilization of the Human Microbiome in Health and Disease – Niv Zmora – Cell Host & Microbe

The Human Microbiome: Opportunities for Dynamics, Systems, and Control
(based on the IFAC blog post Translate or Die) – Travis E. Gibson – Submitted to ACC 2016

Human skin microbiome

Microbial community profiling shows dysbiosis in the lesional skin of Vitiligo subjects – Parul Ganju – Scientific Reports

Human oral microbiome

Diversity and homogeneity of oral microbiota in healthy Korean pre-school children using pyrosequencing – Soo Eon Lee – Acta Odontologica Scandinavica

Short-term effects of povidone iodine and sodium fluoride therapy on plaque levels and microbiome diversity – C Reilly – Oral Diseases

Commentary: A new association for the oral metagenome – Nicholas S Jakubovics – Oral Diseases

Human vaginal microbiome

Review: Vaginal microbiota and microbiome:- Role in health and disease – Dr Amit A. Rangari – Indian Journal of Basic and Applied Medical Research;

Human gut microbiome

Support for the Microgenderome: Associations in a Human Clinical Population – Amy Wallis – Scientific Reports

Impact of increasing fruit and vegetables and flavonoid intake on the human gut microbiota – Annett Klinder – Food & Function

Colonization potential to reconstitute a microbe community in patients detected early after fecal microbe transplant for recurrent C. difficile – Ranjit Kumar – BMC Microbiology

Review: The microbiome and its implications in intestinal transplantation – Kroemer, Alexander – Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation

Animal models

Genetic and Metabolic Signals during Acute Enteric Bacterial Infection Alter the Microbiota and Drive Progression to Chronic Inflammatory Disease – Karishma Kamdar – Cell Host & Microbe

The Host Shapes the Gut Microbiota via Fecal MicroRNA – Shirong Liu – Cell Host & Microbe

Animal microbiome

The gastrointestinal tract microbiota of the Japanese quail, Coturnix japonica – Ngare Wilkinson – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Culturable endophytic bacterial communities associated with field grown soybean – Karla Bianca de Almeida Lopes – Journal of Applied Microbiology

Historical precipitation predictably alters the shape and magnitude of microbial functional response to soil moisture – Colin Averill – Global Change Biology

Water and waste microbiome

Development of new host-specific Bacteroides qPCRs for the identification of fecal contamination sources in water – Marta Gómez-Doñate – Microbiology Open

Bacterial diversity in oil-polluted marine coastal sediments – Alejandro Acosta-González – Current Opinion in Biotechnology

Spatial and temporal variability of bacterial communities in high alpine water spring sediments – Alfonso Esposito – Research in Microbiology

Biogeochemical, Isotopic and Bacterial Distributions Trace Oceanic Abyssal Circulation – Angelo Rubino – PLOS ONE

Metagenomics, metatranscriptomics, and bioinformatics

Eighteenth century Yersinia pestis genomes reveal the long-term persistence of an historical plague focus – Kirsten I Bos – BioRxiv

Metatranscriptomic analysis of diverse microbial communities reveals core metabolic pathways and microbiome-specific functionality – Yue Jiang – BMC Microbiome Journal

Viral metagenomics and blood safety – V. Sauvage – Transfusion Clinique et Biologique

Microbes in the news

Does our Microbiome Control Us or Do We Control It? – Dina Fine Maron – Scientific American

Your gut’s trick for controlling the bacteria that live in it – New Scientist

Mammals shape their microbiome to prevent disease – Science Codex

Low-Fiber Diets Cause Waves of Extinction in the Gut – Ed Yong – The Atlantic

Bad diets today can alter our great-great-grandkids’ biology – Katherine Ellen Foley – Quartz

Thoughtful and balanced comparison: mothur and QIIME – Pat Schloss – Mothur blog

Modifying the structure of wood alters plant microbiome – Science Daily

Gut Microbiome Similar in Formula- and Combination-Fed Babies – Troy Brown – MedScape

Eglin medical group first to find bacteria unseen in humans: Borrelia turicatae – Ilka Cole – US Air Force

Protecting the infant microbiome – Kathryn Kos – Examiner

Microbiology and art

Sunshine and microbiology inspire Reading artist’s work – Francesca Perryman – Get Reading

Science, publishing, and career

Re: Your Recent Email to Your Professor: Students who use emojis in their emails and write “heeeeelp!” in the subject line don’t necessarily know better.  – Paul T. Corrigan and Cameron Hunt McNabb – Inside Higher Education

ORCID: Publishers embrace scheme to end name confusion – John Bohannon – Science

Give teachers a physics test from a woman and they’ll give her worse grades – John Timmer – Ars Technica

Astronomy’s snowballing sexual harassment scandal picks up even more cases – Rachel Feltman – Washington Post

Bik’s Picks

Inside the Eye: Nature’s Most Exquisite Creation – Ed Yong – National Geographic
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January 11, 2016

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Bacteriome of bat flies, phyllosphere of Espeletia plants, microbial eukaryotes in a fjord, and decomposing human bodies.

Human gut microbiome

Editorial: Gut microbiota cool-down burning fat! The immune hypothesis – Remy Burcelin – Trends in Endocrinology & Metabolism

Animal models

The programming effects of nutrition-induced catch-up growth on gut microbiota and metabolic diseases in adult mice – Jia Zheng – Microbiology Open

Animal microbiome

The bacteriome of bat flies (Nycteribiidae) from the Malagasy region: a community shaped by host ecology, bacterial transmission mode, and host-vector specificity – David A Wilkinson – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Microbial and Functional Diversity within the Phyllosphere of Espeletia sp. in an Andean High Mountain Ecosystem – Carlos A. Ruiz-Pérez – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Strong seasonality of marine microbial eukaryotes in a high-Arctic fjord (Isfjorden, West Spitsbergen) – Miriam Marquardt – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbiome of death

Microbial Signatures of Cadaver Gravesoil During Decomposition – Sheree J. Finley – Microbial Ecology

Bioinformatics and metagenomics

Microvirga massiliensis sp. nov., the human commensal with the largest genome – Aurélia Caputo – Microbiology Open

Microbes in the news

Newborn Gut Bacteria Differs If Infants Breastfed Or Formula-Fed, Vaginal Or Cesarean Birthed – Tara Haelle – Forbes

Good Bacteria May Inhibit Growth Of Pathogen Causing Ear Infection And Pneumonia: Examples Of Food High In Good Bacteria – Katrina Pascual – Tech Times

College Town: WPI students literally get the dirt on bacteria-fighting viruses – Bonnie Russell – Telegram

Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook post on vaccines sparks huge response – Ashley Welch – CBS News

Gates-backed NYC startup plumbs soil bacteria for tuberculosis therapy – Meghana Keshavan – MedCityNews

Living Bacteria Are Riding Earth’s Air Currents – Jim Morrison – Smithsonian

QIAGEN completed the acquisition of MO BIO Laboratories Inc – PR Newswire

Dirty Work: The Magic of Microbes with Sandor Katz – Matthew Zuras – Munchies

Why The Microbiome Is So Vital To Your Health – Josh Axe – Conscious Life News

What have the Romans ever done for us? Parasites in Europe and the Middle East during Roman Rule – Elisabeth Bik – microBEnet

Microbes and art

Microbial muses: Michele Banks talks about her microbial art – Nature Microbiology

Science, publishing, and career

Student Evaluations of Teaching (Mostly) Do Not Measure Teaching Effectiveness – Anne Boring – Science Open
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December 23, 2015

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Dental plaque microbiota shifts during mechanic ventilation, different antibiotics have different effects in mice gut, the Tasmanian devil microbiome, supraglacial communities, and FISH visualization of bacteria.

Microbial detection from almost sterile sites

Absence of Bacteria on Coronary Angioplasty Balloons from Unselected Patients: Results with Use of a High Sensitivity Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay – Gorm Mørk Hansen – PLOS ONE

Pregnancy and birth microbiome

Editorial: Is there a link between viruses and necrotising enterocolitis? – Masako Shimamura – Acta Paediatrica

Human oral microbiome

Microbial profiling of dental plaque from mechanically ventilated patients – Kirsty M Sands – Journal of Medical Microbiology

Discovery and validation of potential bacterial biomarkers for lung cancer – Xinmin Yan – American Journal of Cancer Research

Human gut microbiome

Gut Microbiota Alterations can predict Hospitalizations in Cirrhosis Independent of Diabetes Mellitus – Jasmohan S. Bajaj – Scientific Reports

Editorial: Diarrhoea risk study underlines the difficulties in carrying out research in day care centre settings – Margareta Söderström – Acta Paediatrica

Review: Micromanagement in the gut: microenvironmental factors govern colon mucosal biofilm structure and functionality – Rosemarie De Weirdt – NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes

Microbiome models

Antibiotic Treatment Affects Intestinal Permeability and Gut Microbial Composition in Wistar Rats Dependent on Antibiotic Class – Monica Vera-Lise Tulstrup – PLOS ONE

Spatial disturbances in altered mucosal and luminal gut viromes of diet-induced obese mice – Min-Soo Kim – Environmental Microbiology

Interaction of mouse splenocytes and macrophages with bacterial strains in vitro: the effect of age in the immune response – A.A. Van Beek – Beneficial Microbes

DGGE: Oral administration of kefiran exerts a bifidogenic effect on BALB/c mice intestinal microbiota – M.F. Hamet – Beneficial Microbes

A Spatially Continuous Model of Carbohydrate Digestion and Transport Processes in the Colon – Arun S. Moorthy – PLOS ONE

Beneficial metabolic effects of selected probiotics on diet-induced obesity and insulin resistance in mice are associated with improvement of dysbiotic gut microbiota – Jeanne Alard – Environmental Microbiology

Editorial: Gutsy Microbes Fly High in the Antiviral War – Javier Robalino – Trends in Microbiology

Animal microbiome

The Tasmanian devil microbiome—implications for conservation and management – Yuanyuan Cheng – Microbiome

Plant, root, and soil microbiome

Rock geochemistry induces stress and starvation responses in the bacterial proteome – Casey C. Bryce – Environmental Microbiology

Isolation, selection and evaluation of antagonistic yeasts and lactic acid bacteria against ochratoxigenic fungus Aspergillus westerdijkiae on coffee beans – G.V. de Melo Pereira – Letters in Applied Microbiology

Low multifunctional redundancy of soil fungal diversity at multiple scales – Akira S. Mori – Ecology Letters

Phosphorus depletion in forest soils shapes bacterial communities towards phosphorus recycling systems – Fabian Bergkemper – Environmental Microbiology

Comparison of bacterial and archaeal communities in depth-resolved zones in an LNAPL body – Maria Irianni-Renno – Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology

Water and extremophile microbiome

Supraglacial bacterial community structures vary across the Greenland ice sheet –
Karen A. Cameron – FEMS Microbiology Ecology

Identification of subannual patterns in microbial community signatures from individual sedimentary laminae using a freeze-coring approach – B. K. Harrison – Limnology and Oceanography

Respiratory quinones in Archaea: phylogenetic distribution and application as biomarkers in the marine environment – Felix J. Elling – Environmental Microbiology

Built environment microbiome

Review: Sources of airborne microorganisms in the built environment – Aaron J. Prussin II – Microbiome

Food microbiology

Abiotic Stress and Phyllosphere Bacteria Influence the Survival of Human Norovirus and Its Surrogates on Preharvest Leafy Greens – Malak A. Esseili – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbiome of death

Microbial ecology of the salmon necrobiome: Evidence salmon carrion decomposition influences aquatic and terrestrial insect microbiomes – Jennifer L. Pechal – Environmental Microbiology

Metagenomics and bioinformatics

Identification and Resolution of Microdiversity through Metagenomic Sequencing of Parallel Consortia – William C. Nelson – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbial Community Analysis with Ribosomal Gene Fragments from Shotgun Metagenomes – Jiarong Guo – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Techniques

MiL-FISH: Multilabeled Oligonucleotides for Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization Improve Visualization of Bacterial Cells – Mario P. Schimak – Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Microbes in the news

Salmonella traced to pet turtles is spreading once again – Helen Branswell – STAT news

Bacteria resistant to a “last resort” antibiotic have been found in the UK – Frida Garza – Quartz

Gene behavior distinguishes viral from bacterial infections – Laura Sanders – Science News

Near perfect balance in a microbiome paper – hopeful yet no hype – Jonathan Eisen – MicroBEnet

Beneficial bacteria in Hawaiian squid attracted to fatty acids – Phys.org

Conference update: Advances in Human Microbiome Science: Intestinal Diseases – The New York Academy of Sciences

Microbiology and art

Microbiology and Creative Extra Credit – Mark O. Martin – Microbes Rule
Science, publishing, and career

Diversity in Clinical and Biomedical Research: A Promise Yet to Be Fulfilled – Sam S. Oh – PLOS Medicine

Genome-editing revolution: My whirlwind year with CRISPR – Jennifer Doudna – Nature

Science and gender: Scientists must work harder on equality – Meg Urry – Nature

End of year lists

365 days: The science events that shaped 2015. Gene-editing, climate change and Pluto are among the year’s top stories – Monya Baker – Nature

The Coolest Science Stories You May Have Missed in 2015 – Jennifer Ouellette – Gizmodo
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