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We study social evolution in viruses. Assistant Professor @zoology.ubc.ca & @ubcbiodiversity.bsky.social asherleeks.com
Asher Leeks









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Interested in a *staff computational scientist* position? We are looking for an experienced computational biologist (ideally with microbiology experience) to support published packages while also driving new research. Pay range $73k-$111k w excellent benefits. careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
Apply now for the EEB Scholars Program offered by Princeton's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. The EEB Scholars program equips aspiring academics in Ecology and Evolution with the tools they need to successfully apply to grad school programs. Applications open until May 15th!
The Social Lives of Viruses is coming to Vancouver, Canada, from 4th-8th August 2026! This is a free meeting dedicated to all aspects of virus-virus interactions & evolution. To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca @sociovirology.bsky.social #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky
Want to join us for Social Viruses in Vancouver this summer? One week to go until we start looking at applications (May 7th). To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky
We're recruiting! We're looking for two graduate students to join us at UBC in Vancouver. Fully funded and open to global applicants, with flexible start-date. Topics include theory, bioinformatics, and microbiology. More details: asherleeks.com/apply #socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪
1 week left to apply for scholarships ! If you are based at an institution in an ODA recipient country (e.g. Brazil, South Africa, India, Mexico; full list: tinyurl.com/5dv7vvs8), you can get all expenses covered to attend the summer school in Lausanne for a week.
Fantastic collaboration w/ @dbikard.bsky.social @audeber.bsky.social @rayanchikhi.bsky.social labs led by @jmouradesousa.bsky.social : We assessed the rates of variation of anti-phage systems in P4-like satellites and P2 helper phages. Quick conclusion: Huge variation! We focus on 4 key questions/5
Thrilled to have my first PhD paper with @mmdesai.bsky.social out! @science.org Link: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Thread below: #mevosky #evosky #evobio #popgen #evolsky #ecoevo #molevol
Massive and important positive news... #NSF #GRFP awards are out. 2,599 awards! + 1,440 Honorable Mentions. A significant boost from last year. Congratulations to the winners (and HM-s)! & many thanks to the reviewers & program officers who made this possible. www.research.gov/grfp/Awardee...
In the lab, antibiotics can make integrated viruses (prophages) pop out of bacterial genomes. In this (short!) preprint, we asked a simple question: how much does this happen outside the lab, in the human gut? TLDR: Not much overall, in specific bacterial species. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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MIT - Computational Biology Program Scientist - Cambridge MA 02139
careers.peopleclick.com
Computational Biology Program Scientist
Species-specific prophage induction by ciprofloxacin in human gut metagenomes
Antibiotics are known to trigger prophage induction in controlled laboratory settings, but it remains unclear whether this also occurs within microbiomes in nature. Current methods investigating the link between antibiotics and prophage induction within the human gut rely on in vitro culturing of human gut bacterial isolates. Using a metagenomic approach, we aimed to measure prophage induction and whether it is associated with antibiotic exposure. Across two independent human cohorts, we compared prophage to bacterial host read depth ratios (P:H) across known or measured antibiotic exposures. We found that induction is not broadly associated with antibiotic exposures at the level of the overall microbiome, but that ciprofloxacin increases P:H ratios in specific bacterial species. We documented heterogeneous trajectories of P:H ratios over the course of antibiotic exposure, sometimes increasing and remaining high, or returning to baseline. This study complements experimental models by providing in vivo evidence of induction in the human gut. Importance Bacteriophages are viruses that infect a bacterial host. The lytic and lysogenic cycles are the two classic outcomes of phage infection. In the lytic cycle, the phage immediately replicates and lyses its host to release new viral particles. In the lysogenic cycle, the phage, now called a prophage, integrates its genome into that of its host without killing it. Prophages can switch to the lytic cycle in a process called induction, in which the viral genome is replicated, the host cell is lysed, and viral particles are released. The most immediate consequence of induction is host cell death which can impact bacterial populations and communities. Since prophages are mobile genetic elements that can move between bacteria, they are also an important vehicle for horizontal gene transfer. While induction has been well studied in vitro , whether and how induction occurs within the complex microbial ecosystem in humans is less well characterized. Understanding prophage induction in vivo is therefore critical in corroborating in vitro observations. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. NIH Common Fund, https://ror.org/001d55x84 Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
www.biorxiv.org
Tami Lieberman
Asher Leeks
Asher Leeks
Asher Leeks
Ruthvik Pallagatti
Understanding the evolutionary mechanisms that maintain sex despite its direct costs is a long-standing challenge. Previous work has shown that sexual recombination can accelerate adaptation, in part ...
www.science.org
Eduardo Rocha
Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation by purging hitchhiking load
Charles Mullon
Joshua Weitz
Shreyas Pai
The Social Lives of Viruses is coming to Vancouver, Canada, from 4th-8th August 2026! This is a free meeting dedicated to all aspects of virus-virus interactions & evolution. To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca @sociovirology.bsky.social #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky
Jesse Shapiro
Applications now open for the UNIL Summer School on Modelling for Evolutionary Biology (31 Aug–5 Sep 2026, Lausanne)! For PhD & postdocs interested in formal approaches to evolutionary ecology (incl. social evo, life-history, species interactions). Scholarships available, Pls RP! shorturl.at/fo1GA
1mo
➡️ preprint from the lab! Bacteria have loads of antiviral defences in their mobile genetic elements (MGEs). So when MGEs move between bacteria, the defences move with them, generating a fast turnover of defences in bacteria. But what about the antiviral defence turnover in the MGEs themselves? 🤔 🧵👇
1mo
Why is sex so common if it's so costly? Super excited to share our new preprint “Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation”, where we bring a new angle to this age-old evolutionary question. Co-led by Parris Humphrey, in Michael Desai's lab. Short thread here: (1/n)
3mo
Apr 2, 2025
Asher Leeks
www.biorxiv.org
Charles Mullon
Shreyas Pai
Jorge Moura de Sousa
Sex decreases the pleiotropic costs of local adaptation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.28.646016v1