Lambros Frantzeskakis

Really happy to be in a platform that stimulates scientific discussion. My interests have changed a bit, I am working a lot on microbial pathogens of insects. If you have any good ideas Bayer can work on for insect control, feel free to send me a message!

If you’re a graduate student and interested in fungi please apply, this a great opportunity to experience research in an industry setting jobs.bayer.com/job/Chesterf...

Claude code is going to be the alpha fold moment for bioinformatics. It is really amazing what this tool is enabling!

TIL you can use Claude Code with local/open models on your own machine with Ollama ollama.com/blog/claude

My department at UC Davis is hiring a mycologist, broadly interpreted. Please repost, share, and consider applying. recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF07339

Wow! What an awesome and super interesting finding!

#2025ISMPMI Xin Li shows the exiting finding that sclerotinia is haploid with two nuclei harboring different chromosome sets making together the full set of the genome.

Functional innovation through new genes as a general evolutionary process www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Wow, this is super interesting: techcrunch.com/2025/01/06/n... $3000 for a petaflop of compute in a consumer-grade box. Their main aim is AI but think of all the ONT basecalling you could do with this - lots of opportunity for adaptive sampling at scale!

#PlantScienceClassics #17: The Mildew Resistance Locus O (MLO). 80 years ago Rudolf Freisleben & Alfred Lein created the first powdery mildew resistant #barley plant. 30yrs ago the gene was mapped,&25 yrs ago cloned - yet, it's mode of action remains a mystery. doi.org/10.1007/BF01... #PlantImmunity

I want this: Genome-edited Chardonnay grapes resistant or tolerant to mildew & powdery mildew! Did you know that grapes are grown on only ~5% of European agricultural land, but account for ~2/3 of all fungicide sprayed in Europe? onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.... #plantscience

Our miRNA story is now in @science.org ! We found a microRNA, not a protein, that finally solved a long-standing evolutionary mystery of wing coloration in butterflies and moths. (1/n) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mapping river microbiomes across the U.S.: GROWdb spans 90% of U.S. watersheds, uncovering the microbial communities driving nutrient cycles & breaking down pollutants. Achieved through a major crowdsourcing effort involving >100 sampling teams. Paper (OA): www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Along these lines, @naturebiotech.bsky.social Europe’s first field trial of gene-edited vines has begun in Italy. Chardonnay vines have undergone gene inactivation to better defend themselves against downy mildew, an oomycete disease. doi.org/10.1038/s415...