Megan Behringer

Assistant Professor @VanderbiltU BioSci ⚓️| #FirstGen | Experimental microbial evolution in stressful and structured environments 🧫🧪 🧬| she/her

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

This is a huge honor & we’re so excited to get started on this new direction for our group stemming from Ph.D. Candidate William McLaughlin’s work in our lab!

Many thanks to our scout, Paul Turner & @hypothesisfund for seeing the potential in this project! Time to get to work!

[Hypothesis Fund @Hypothesisfund]

2/ Awardee @megbehri will study how chaotic dynamics arise in microbial🦠 populations. Her research could transform how we predict and prevent microbiome dysbiosis across human health and the environment.

🥳 Congrats Dr. Behringer! @vuartsci

🙏 #HFScout Paul Turner

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

Turns out the @CelsiusOfficial I drink while teaching Microbiology at 9 AM has become such a defining trait to my class that they joked about me being sponsored.

So just manifesting that to the universe….

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

Excited to share this new Preprint from our lab led by PhD Candidate @StarlCone (defending Tues).

Here we present a framework for longitudinal rbTn-Seq & apply it to the Microbial growth curve to resolve the fitness seascape through growth, death, & Long-term stationary phase.

[bioRxiv Evobio @biorxiv_evobio]

Bayesian analysis of longitudinal RB-TnSeq resolves the fitness seascape in fluctuating environments https://t.co/CngvJYTs7w #biorxiv_evobio

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

When your dream is to be eaten but Protein Strawberry isn’t having any of it. #PopTartsBowl

[CAIRIBU @CAIRIBU1]

IN ONE WEEK: The next URIG Research Hour on Friday, December 19 at 3:00 PM ET (2 PM CT | 12 PM PT) will feature mentor/mentee duo Megan Behringer, PhD and Owen Hale (both at Vanderbilt University).

More information: https://t.co/Mgf70z83fa

@megbehri
@owenmicro

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

Great work by @owenmicro, now out in mBio!!

[mBio @mbiojournal]

Lactic acid bacteria have high mutation rates! Hale et al report the mutation rates of 3 anaerobically cultured lactic acid bacteria & discuss how domestication may contribute to #Lactobacillus acidophilus having one of the highest recorded mutation rates. https://t.co/QKM1tQ7IEn

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

We suspect that the very elevated mut. rate of L. acidophilus is influenced by its domestication status - we found many losses of DNA repair genes across the species. Mut. rates of L. acidophilus may be actively evolving and an ideal species for studying mutation rate evolution.

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

Excited to share our latest paper led by Ph.D. Candidate, Owen Hale, titled Elevated rates and Biased Spectra of Mutations in Anaerobically Cultured Lactic Acid Bacteria out now in @mbiojournal !

https://t.co/bWLFnkt0Le

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

We found that LAB, and L. Acidophilus in particular, have very high mutation rates.
Mutations are quite biased towards G:C ➡️ A:T and A:T➡️G:C; and this is very apparent in L. acidophilus near the ori.

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

Our lab is hiring!!
We are looking for a research assistant who will be involved with our experimental evolution studies on how stress affects population dynamics in E. coli.
Great opportunity for recent grads!
E-mail for more info and apply here:
https://t.co/LV33pVc2rk

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

Always a great night when we can get dressed up, wear goofy flamingo hats, and raise money for an amazing cause! Another great Mad Hatter in the books for @NashvilleSAC ! (Yes, we did win best couple hats!)

[bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv_micrbio]

An Anaerobic Pathogen Rewires Host Metabolism to Fuel Oxidative Growth in the Inflamed Gut https://t.co/Myg7QcSDwe #biorxiv_micrbio

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

@KostChristian Biotek Epoch2 or Synergy H1. We’ve been using the Epoch2 for a recent experimental evolution, but if you are tagging the lines with some fluorescence you are gonna want to use the Synergy H1

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

Rage bait, but I’m very thankful to the NIH. They funded large portions of my predoctoral & postdoctoral training, as well as my current lab with our R35.
My career as a biologist would not be possible in its current form without the opportunities provided by the NIH.

[derek guy @dieworkwear]

I can think of two examples, both men who happen to be brothers. The first is Dr. André L. Churchwell, Professor of Medicine at Vanderbilt University; the second is Dr. Keith Churchwell, President of the American Heart Association.

[Michael Neugent PhD @MikeNeug]

What an amazing conference! #chsmicrobiome is one of my fav meetings bc the basic science creativity is so strong. I always leave with new ideas and a new colleagues! @cshlmeetings

I have a goal for the next meeting! Have a super strong #WomensHealth representation! I’ll be encouraging our community to show up in force :)

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

@vsbuffalo @Nature This is one of a long line of studies by this group looking at this approach. We discuss the first paper from 2020 in my microbiomes course. https://t.co/a8dBzjY59n

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

In today’s publishing landscape, it’s pivotal that grant reviewers to pay close attention to the authorship footnotes.
Co-firsts are increasingly common & dinging people because their name comes second will hurt many women and URMs, who are more prone to offer to share credit.

[MurawalaLab @PMurawala]

Dear Reviewer, You have one job and that is to read grant properly. In case you are on X, here is my first author publication during my postdoc. https://t.co/2U0yZrrL3i

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

@vsbuffalo Oh no, cluster user shop. 😭

[Megan Behringer @megbehri]

Introducing our lab’s newest Ph.D candidate William McLaughlin. William is doing an awesome microbial systems ecology project that’s already turning out some cool results. Keep an eye out for this rising star.