Author Archives: Laetitia Wilkins

Happy Thanksgiving: COVID-19 style

It was the Ides of March in 2020 when I moved from California to Europe. Thanksgiving marks March 271st. I was still a postdoc in Jonathan Eisen’s lab at UC Davis and my contract would have ended in the end … Continue reading

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The last Last Dance

A faculty job application trilogy! Have you also been reading Katie’s recent blog posts on the costs of applying for a faculty job? One is about the workload of applying, the second one about the financial cost, and the last … Continue reading

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FISHing for molecules, a link between form and function in animal–bacteria symbioses

I am posting a blog post that was written by Benedikt Geier, a Ph.D. candidate who just handed in his Ph.D. thesis at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany. In my eyes, these last couple of … Continue reading

Posted in Coevolution, community ecology, ecology, evolution, genomics, methods, microbiology, natural history, Symbiosis, transcriptomics | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

It's all because of the holobiont

It’s conference season at the Molecular Ecologist. I went for the first time to a Gordon Research Conference (GRC). GRCs @GordonConf are well known for their efforts to foster an informal and inclusive atmosphere where frontier research in the biological, … Continue reading

Posted in Coevolution, community ecology, conferences, conservation, ecology, evolution, Symbiosis, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Where credit is due

I am trying to keep this short. You might remember my recent blog post on data sharing. I basically wanted to point out that data acquisition can be an art on its own. It can take months of planning, applying … Continue reading

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Towards unrestricted use of public genomic data

Last week, a friend sent me this policy forum article published in Science. Fifty co-authors, mostly tenured and from prestigious universities, some of them among my dearest idols, have written this piece to call for publicly available genome data. What … Continue reading

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Symbiotic organs shaped by distinct modes of genome evolution in cephalopods

Last week I was whining about gaps in our understanding of evolutionary processes in the ocean. The universe heard me, and today I am satisfied to write about the published genome of Euprymna scolopes – the Hawaiian bobtail squid and … Continue reading

Posted in Coevolution, evolution, genomics, microbiology, next generation sequencing, Symbiosis | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Do we need to get to Mars first before we start understanding change in our oceans?

The current American administration is excited about its space program on extraterrestrial exploration and discovery. A mission to the moon, several ones to Mars, and perhaps others someday to other planets are part of the current funding plan. NASA has … Continue reading

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Microbiomes of a small conference

The conference season is almost over. There are still a few gems out there worth attending before school starts. I just came back from the Lake Arrowhead Microbial Genomics Conference which took place at a UCLA resort in the mountains. … Continue reading

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Not my problem

Do American scientists know that doing research in America is a necessary step for many scientists from other parts of the world in order to get a permanent job in academia in their home country? Once in the US, these … Continue reading

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