Benjamin Kerr

evolutionary biologist, microbe enthusiast, math junkie, dog lover, caffeine repository

Professor of Biology, University of Washington
(he/him)

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

After a truly amazing presentation on “Evolution of Plasmid Transfer Genes in Bacterial Communities”, a huge congratulations to @livkosterlitz for earning the prestigious Plasmid Biology Prize at the 2024 @PlasmidSociety meeting in Hamamatsu Japan!

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

@MRebolleda So kind of you @MRebolleda !

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

@PaulHoskisson @livkosterlitz Thanks so much @PaulHoskisson!

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

This work was spearheaded by @livkosterlitz in collaboration with @nate_grassi, @baileymwerner, @RS_McGee, and @EvaTop3. We are thrilled to see it appear in @MolBioEvol!

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

How does exposure to different hosts affect evolution of bacterial genes on mobile elements? In @MolBioEvol, @livkosterlitz et al use barcode methods to compare adaptive landscapes across species & show alignment enables a form of adaptive “crowdsourcing”🧵https://t.co/oTISNGQjuZ

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

Horizontal gene transfer is commonplace in bacterial communities. Here we see that if landscapes align adequately, vehicles of HGT (e.g. conjugative plasmids) may enable a distributed form of genetic evolution among community members, allowing species to adaptively “crowdsource.”

[María Rebolleda @MRebolleda]

🔴 New preprint 🔴 This one is the first with someone from my lab as an author! We used previously identified metabolic rules to predict microbial community assembly along a temperature gradient (1/12). https://t.co/mmQ43gJTxr

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

Exciting new resource for math bio folks!

[Alex Best @DrAlexBest]

🚨🚨New textbook alert!!🚨🚨

Introducing Mathematical Biology: An Open Education Resource

https://t.co/StHMYGIyhd

Key points:
* It's FREE
* It's interactive
* It's accessible
* It's...standard math-bio content for undergrads but did I mention it's FREE?

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

@vscooper @RosieRedfield Really looking forward to the meeting in a few weeks! Thank you both so much for all of your hard work!!

[María Rebolleda @MRebolleda]

I am so excited to read this! I love how each of these authors thinks!

[Benjamin Kerr @evokerr]

@MRebolleda Thanks so much María!

[SSE @sse_evolution]

Congratulations to Dr. Sally Otto, recipient of the 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award! Don't miss her award talk on Friday, June 2 at virtual #Evol2023!

https://t.co/rEV33mNiEq

@sarperotto @Evol_mtg

[María Rebolleda @MRebolleda]

I have some preliminary good news, the short of it is that I will be hiring a postdoc soon to work on a collaborative project with Dr. Seunghyun Sim (an amazing chemist) to evaluate the role of spatial structure in community function using bio-printing and directed evolution.