Behind the Paper
The real stories behind the latest research papers, from conception to publication, the highs and the lows
Filtered by: Microbiology
A glimpse on Mycoplasma species circulating in wild and captive bird communities in Egypt: prevalence and phylogenetic analyses
Wild and captive birds are well known as possible carriers of numerous pathogens, and they have recently received scientific attention concerning human health. Mycoplasma spp. Infections have been detected in a variety of wild and captive bird species worldwide.
Unmasking Cancer’s Microbial Allies: A Mega-Analysis of the Vaginal Microbiome in Cervical Cancer
Cervical cancer is almost always linked to HPV, but not all infections become cancer. Our mega-analysis reveals how shifts in the vaginal microbiome may influence this trajectory, uncovering microbial biomarkers and functional pathways with diagnostic potential (link to paper: https://rdcu.be/eAuwO)
The South American Microbiome Archive
South America hosts some of the world’s most biodiverse gut microbiomes, yet remains largely understudied. We built the largest collection of South American gut microbiomes to better understand this diversity and guide future sampling efforts. See what we found and why it matters.
Largest SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance study in Pakistan reveals critical variant dynamics and regional evolution patterns
We conducted the largest single SARS-CoV-2 sequencing effort in Pakistan to date, analyzing 1,052 samples from March-October 2021 using Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Our study reveals unprecedented insights into variant evolution, identifies Pakistan as harboring 34% of global AY.108 lineage cases.
Unearthing the Resilience: How Desert Rhizospheres Tell Two Microbial Tales
This study was inspired by the extreme arid deserts of northwestern China—landscapes where the boundary between earth and sky blurs, and life persists through remarkable adaptations.
Fixing the Broken Promise: FDR-Controlled Framework for Microbial Biomarker Detection
Advances in DNA sequencing have boosted microbiome research, but identifying meaningful microbial changes remains tough due to sparse, compositional, and repeated-measures data. Existing tools either miss true signals or report too many false positives, limiting reliability
