Vanja Klepac-Ceraj
Assoc. Prof. @Wellesley College | microbial ecologist | gut microbiome -> child development | microbes rock | vkclab.com
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-Ceraj🎉 New paper alert, and it's an editor's pick! Looking at the gut #microbiome #brain axis in infants using metagenomics and EEG 🧪🦠 with @emma-margolis.bsky.social, @laurelgd.bsky.social, @gfahurbottino.bsky.social, done in @mightycrobe.bsky.social 's lab. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... 🧵 1/x
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajThis was a huge effort, but so great to have such amazing collaborators to work with! Way to go @laurelgd.bsky.social @emma-margolis.bsky.social @mightycrobe.bsky.social ! 🧪🦠🔬 #microbesky
- Early gut changes around 4-6 months of age especially relate to the largest number of subsequent brain changes over the next postnatal year! with the incredible @emma-margolis.bsky.social @kevinbonham.com @mightycrobe.bsky.social, Guilherme Bottino, Kirsty Donald, and our Khula study team!
- Our work on codevelopment of the infant gut microbiome and visual circuitry is finally out! Dream team: @kevinbonham.com @gfahurbottino.bsky.social @laurelgd.bsky.social @emma-margolis.bsky.social Kirsty Donald and Khula South Africa study team! Check it out: doi.org/10.1128/mbio...
- Early gut changes around 4-6 months of age especially relate to the largest number of subsequent brain changes over the next postnatal year! with the incredible @emma-margolis.bsky.social @kevinbonham.com @mightycrobe.bsky.social, Guilherme Bottino, Kirsty Donald, and our Khula study team!
- Cool things happen when you partner up w/ @zymoresearch.bsky.social. My undergrad course in microbio’s Adopt-a-microbe assignment resulted in @wellesley.edu student Sophia Shin’s card being selected to go into the 2025 deck of Mighty Microbe cards!!
- Great job @gfahurbottino.bsky.social presenting our lab’s work on the gut microbiome age model at #ASM2025
- @wellesley.edu students Arla & Sara’s work this summer includes setting up and testing the water quality sensors and the weather station! We’ll move the sensors with the buoy to the middle of the lake in a few weeks. Huge thanks to Andrew from Onset and nd Nef from WC for their help!
- Several labs are collaborating on this project - my, @stevenbiller.bsky.social, Rachel Stanley, Alden Griffith, and Dan Brabander’s. Huge thanks to WC Paulson Initiative for funding the equipment!
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-Ceraj‼️I'm looking for a postdoc‼️ Come join effort in using metagenomes to quantify microbial catabolic potential and carbon substrate availability at the ecosystem level. We seek to understand evolutionary forces shaping the carbon cycle. Part of ccomp-stc.org careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...
- Congrats to the four VKC lab graduates, Nina Zhang, Meredith Swanson, Sally Song, and Trisha Rahman (unfortunately not in the photos). I'm so proud of you, I already miss you, and I cannot wait to read and hear about your next big achievements!
- VKC lab party from last April - painting with microbes.
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajThrilled to share our new paper in @science.org describing our discovery that bacteria can switch from competitors to bonafide predators when resources run dry—arming nanoscale “spears” (T6SS) to stab & consume neighbours. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #MicroSKy #Microbiology
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajIn today's WSJ by their editorial board www.wsj.com/opinion/rfk-...
- I am grateful for a lab full of kind, supportive, joyful, smart and hard-working people. These days, I am extra thankful to each and every one of them as they keep things light and fun. This is how they surprised me last week 🥰:
- Vaccines work. Look at the data - lots of great interactive charts: ourworldindata.org/vaccination). Also, if measles is linked to poor diet, why are free, nutritious school lunches for low-income kids going away?
- Kennedy Links Measles Outbreak to Poor Diet and Health, Citing Fringe Theories. Story by @teddyrosenbluth.bsky.social Gift link: nyti.ms/3FvFUej
- My two undergraduate research students, Nina and Sally, presenting their research at the MIT Microbiome Symposium last Friday. Great meeting w great talks and wonderful people! I always learn something new.
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-Ceraj#medsky#pedsky#idsky#immunosky 🧪 In the midst of all of the scary headlines recently, I thought I could take a moment to share a bit of good news: for the first time in history, a malaria vaccine with >90% efficacy seems to be within reach! Here’s why that’s a really big deal for EVERYONE 🧵
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajMultiple faculty positions in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in association with the Center for Immunology, and the Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Cornell University
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-Cerajit’s not widely publicized but the minions were designed to represent various medically important protozoan parasites 🦠 🧫 🧪
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajNew paper alert: Our 20-year study of viral ecology and evolution reveals viral roles in microbial dynamics, phage genome evolution over time, and key interactions with hosts. A big thank you to our awesome collaborators @quendi.bsky.social @archaeal.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajYou’ll need to update your tshirt design with “vegan for… my microbiome” and I’ll be the first to buy it, @marlasrose.bsky.social
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajHow a WHO Staff Member Turned the US Withdrawal into an Act of Solidarity who.foundation/blogs-post/h...
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-Ceraja 90-day pause on pepfar will kill so many people it will probably take years of research to document it. abhorrent www.npr.org/sections/goa...
- Two seniors from the VKC lab standing next to the ancient autoclave after presenting their senior research at the Biochemistry Winter Session Retreat (right before the semester started)! Both did a great job explaining their work to other thesising seniors.
- 1st week is done! I’m teaching two microbio courses this semester & super excited about both - students are kind & chatty (in a good way!) & thoughtful. One thought I shared w/ them was this one 👇 students do better when intellectually challenged & stimulated but supported by all. Happy teaching!
- @kevbonham.bsky.social - sad to see you leave the VKC lab but excited for your new lab at Tufts MC! Our last mtg at Wellesley - plotting out new projects together w @gfahurbottino.bsky.social! And an appropriate parting gift for a new professor! Looking fwd to testing them out in your new office!
- Congrats! And peeps looking to do some exciting and cool microbiome work, apply to work w/ @kevbonham.bsky.social!
- Very excited to announce that the Bonham Lab will be starting next month at Tufts (TMC GI division)! I'll be recruiting at multiple levels - if you are interested in the intersection between computing and medicine, esp multi-'omics, microbio and immuno, reach out! #academicsky 🧪🧫🦠
- Huge congrats to the first author @gfahurbottino.bsky.social on - www.nature.com/articles/s41... Grateful to work with you and @kevbonham.bsky.social at @wellesleycollege.bsky.social ! And @gfahurbottino.bsky.social -- welcome to 🦋! #InfantGutMicrobiome #MicrobiomeAge
- An incredibly talented undergraduate biochemistry student, Gabriel Bazan, made this illustration ❤️ to accompany our research rdcu.be/d6cCw just published with @naturecomms.bsky.social
- Super proud of this paper on infant gut microbiome age coming from my lab. The paper has just been published with @springernature.bsky.social in @naturecomms.bsky.social. Read about it here: rdcu.be/d6cCw.
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajThe good idea comes when one person feels comfortable enough to say something that might make them look stupid and their friend is open enough to recognize its potential.
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajDelighted to publish my new molecular animation: DNA Break Repair by Homologous Recombination youtu.be/Xe-83tBcxhs
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-Ceraj@kellygoldlust.bsky.social glad to see you here, kelly 😊 you might have noticed that we featured your paper in STC > schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2...
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajNon-native English speakers need 50% more time to write a paper When they do, they face a 2.5 times higher chance of being rejected because of language journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajCrazy stuff in PNAS dental plaque bacterium 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘯𝘦𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘮 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘪 can divide into an unprecedented 14 daughter cells at once—then each daughter cell starts growing immediately in a rare process called multiple fission, achieving 0.5 mm per day of expansion www.snexplores.org/article/bact...
- I finally made the switch. And sooo happy about it -- this looks so geek-y and science-y and simply an amazing place without ads and random stuff sprinkled in. (totally digging this)
- Reposted by Vanja Klepac-CerajToo often we spend only two weeks choosing a problem and then many years trying solving it, but this limits our potential impact. A must read for PhD students: Problem choice and decision trees in science and engineering. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38608651/
