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Postdoc in evolution of microbes. I study protists losing mitochondria, algae stealing plastids, and bacteria living on nothing but sulfur. IUEM, Plouzané, BZH, FR. https://lukasnovak.eu/ https://scholar.social/@animalculum he/him

Lukas VF Novak

Tiny marine #protist shells reveal clues for how ice ages start phys.org/news/2025-08... Progressively greater biological #CarbonStorage in the deep Atlantic during glacial inception: Monica Garity et al. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #Protists #Microbes #Foraminifera #Climate #DeepSea #IceAge

9mo

Understanding the relationship between #foraminifera & their #symbionts can help corals phys.org/news/2025-09... Specific host - #algae relationship, yet flexible bacterial #microbiome, in diatom-bearing foraminifera: Elsa Girard et al. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #Protists #Microbes #Diatoms

New #ISEPpapers! Nucleomorph phylogenomics suggests a deep and ancient origin of cryptophyte plastids within Rhodophyta nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... by @animalculum.bsky.social, @deemteam.bsky.social #Protist #Algae #Microbes #Evolution #Nucleomorph #Genomics #Rhodophyta #Plastids

Our collaboration with @mbonhivers.bsky.social is now out in @plosbiology.org! 🎉Using U-ExM, we mapped the formation of the flagellar pocket collar in T. brucei. Huge thanks to everyone involved — one step closer to #PhDone! #ExM #oneringtorulethemall #Bilbo1 #trypanosoma #protistsonsky

6mo

How a parasite gave up sex to find more hosts—and why its victory won't last phys.org/news/2026-01... Host range expansion of asexual parasite can be explained by loss of adaptions in Muller’s Ratchet www.nature.com/articles/s41... #Protists #Microbes #Parasites #Giardia #Evolution

New paper from my 2nd PostDoc is now published in The ISME Journal by @isme-microbes.bsky.social! #Sulfur disproportionation occurs globally across anoxic habitats & has multiple mechanisms of independent evolutionary origin academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc... #Bacteria #Microbes #Evolution #DeepSea

How #diatoms thrive in—and light up—the Southern Ocean phys.org/news/2025-08... agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/... #protists #algae "An area of the #SouthernOcean that's long confused satellites by reflecting large amounts of turquoise light appears to be full of silica-rich diatoms"

Shelled #amoeba crawls like an octopus, shifting tactics on the go phys.org/news/2026-01... Statistical and mechanical analysis of multi-pseudopodial locomotion in a testate amoeba, #Arcella sp. www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab... #Protists #Microbes #Amoebae

Partnership between #algae & #bacteria reveals secrets of evolution phys.org/news/2025-08... Stepwise genome #evolution from a facultative symbiont to an endosymbiont in the N2-fixing symbioses www.cell.com/current-biol... #protists by @vesnagrujcic.bsky.social, @mehrshmali.bsky.social, et al.

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8mo

Lukas VF Novak

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9mo

Lukas VF Novak

ISEP

Marie Zelená

8mo

The flagellar pocket collar (FPC) is a cytoskeletal structure essential for nutrient uptake & immune evasion in #Trypanosome. @mbonhivers.bsky.social &co use U-ExM to provide novel insights into FPC biogenesis, and reveal 2 unknown cytoskeletal structures @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4n3bWi6

PLOS Biology

#Arctic #algae aren't immobile or entombed. They're not just surviving either—they're gliding into record books phys.org/news/2025-09... Ice gliding #diatoms establish record-low temperature limits for motility in a eukaryotic cell www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #protists #microbes #extremophiles

9mo

Lukas VF Novak