Benjamin Minch

Ph.D. student at UMiami Rosenstiel studying ocean viruses.

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

Are you interested in finding giant viruses, virophages, and PLVs inside your metagenomes? Struggling to figure out an easy way to do so? Look no further than BEREN, a one-stop-shop tool for recovery, taxonomy, and annotation of these viruses.
https://t.co/OMCDlAGXcT

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

We also explore how these islands can shape strain-level hypervariability in similar giant viruses.

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

Giant viruses aren't just big, they are modular. Go check out our latest #preprint where we highlight widespread genomic islands driving genome plasticity and mosaicism in giant viruses! https://t.co/nMHnELo1Zy

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

We found many of these islands to be enriched in host interaction genes and surface adhesion proteins, demonstrating that they could be a mechanism for host adaptation.

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

Our lab's most recent paper is out now! Go learn about all the integrated giant viruses inside the genomes of polar algae and how they are shaping their stress responses.

https://t.co/GIBgzwWulD

[M Moniruzzaman @giant_virus]

Our work in collaboration with Jed Furhman lab at the USC on the temporal dynamics of marine giant viruses published in ISME communications. PhD student @Benjamin_Minch a co-first author. Please take a look!

https://t.co/p3Zps001gj

[Bioinformatics Advances @BioinfoAdv]

🦠 Now published in Bioinformatics Advances: “BEREN: A bioinformatic tool for recovering giant viruses, polinton-like viruses, and virophages in metagenomic data.” 

Full article available: https://t.co/oImIhEPgui 

Authors include: @Benjamin_Minch

[M Moniruzzaman @giant_virus]

Excited to share our new paper introducing BEREN, a tool for identifying giant and other dsDNA viruses from metagenomic data — now online! Let BEREN help with your discovery-based reseach in viral metagenomics!

https://t.co/H3DqmZBO0y

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

Created a fun phytoplankton-themed Oregon trail style game you can play on your terminal. Check it out

https://t.co/i57B6nCnmt

[M Moniruzzaman @giant_virus]

We’re recruiting a PhD student (Fall 2026) to study the ecology & evolution of aquatic giant viruses! Research spans lab experiment, field sampling, & bioinformatics. Background in microbiology/bioinforamtics encouraged. More information:
https://t.co/bshyrMLtiW

Please retweet!

[ScienceAlert @ScienceAlert]

Scientists used bespoke computer software to identify the genomes of microbes in seawater samples – including 230 giant viruses previously unknown to science. @univmiami @Benjamin_Minch
https://t.co/L9oBdVcBt9

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

New paper out where we highlight many newly recovered giant viruses and find new functional potential encoded in their genomes!
#giantvirus #Bioinformatics
https://t.co/lEK95lBUcc

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

Just put together a super easy-to-use and comprehensive pipeline for calculating various genome statistics in bulk (GC, length, codon bias, TNF, complexity, N50, num genes).
https://t.co/VO6FSLzFGp
#bioinformatics #genomics

[Anthony Bonacolta @AMBonacolta]

🚨New @delCampoLab Preprint: A Single-cell Atlas of Coral Bleaching! 🪸🦠🔥. We show the microbial ecology of coral bleaching from the gene expression of host and symbiont cells to the shifts in the bacterial and protist communities within the holobiont! https://t.co/sCa12V9q2q

[Alaina Weinheimer @[email protected] @SCUBAlaina]

What if we could put all tailed phages in a single, evolutionarily meaningful phylogeny? Check out the latest from the Aylward Lab (twitterless) and myself - we present a phylogenomic framework toward unifying phage diversity! 🧬🤝 https://t.co/rIlF8nS1St

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

BEREN is available on my gitlab https://t.co/rHvr0DgVAX

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

Are you interested in finding giant viruses, virophages, and PLVs inside your metagenomes? Struggling to figure out an easy way to do so? Look no further than BEREN, a one-stop-shop tool for recovery, taxonomy, and annotation of these viruses.
https://t.co/OMCDlAGXcT

[Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash]

BEREN: A bioinformatic tool for recovering Giant viruses, Polinton-like Viruses, and Virophages in metagenomic data https://t.co/9V7o4sdtOO

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

@kycl4rk I have heard of it... Doesn't quite address the problem I had but a great tool for querying databases for known genes.

[Benjamin Minch @Benjamin_Minch]

Couldn't find a file to easily convert from PDB (protein data bank) IDs to actual protein information so I decided to make one. Hope someone finds it useful. https://t.co/9YjnFZL9SW

[Mark O. Martin @markowenmartin]

It's Thursday!  Time for a new episode of #MattersMicrobial to be released!  This time, the #QualityQuorum will hear from @giant_virus about giant viruses and how they interact with their hosts.  Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord. @ASMicrobiology

https://t.co/wOQCluAZQ0