Category: Thoughts

PhD position: Come and work with us!

If you are thinking about doing a PhD and think that bioinformatics and antibiotic resistance is a cool subject, then now is your chance to come and join us for the next four years! There is a PhD position open i Joakim Larsson’s group, which means that if you get the job you will work with me, Joakim Larsson, Erik Kristiansson, Ørjan Samuelsen and Carl-Fredrik Flach on a super-interesting project relating to discovery of novel beta-lactamase genes (NoCURE). The project aims to better understand where, how and under what circumstances these genetic transfer events take place, in order to provide opportunities to limit or delay resistance development and thus increase the functional lifespan of precious antibiotics. The lion’s share of the work will be related to interpreting large-scale sequencing data generated by collaborators within the project; both genome sequencing and metagenomic data.

This is a great opportunity to prove your bioinformatics skills and use them for something urgently important. Full details about the position can be found here.

Happy Taxonomist Appreciation Day

I got informed by a colleague that today is Taxonomist Appreciation Day! This is a very important day; quoting from the original post:

We need active work on taxonomy and systematics if our work is going to progress, and if we are to apply our findings. Without taxonomists, entire fields wouldn’t exist. We’d be working in darkness. (…) Taxonomists and systematists often work in obscurity, and some of the most painstaking projects come to fruition after long years with only a small dose of the recognition that is required.

So, send your favorite taxonomist(s) some love today, and remember they are the foundation for much of what we bioinformaticians do!

Welcome to the world



Sorry for not answering mail the last couple of days. My wife gave birth to this little adorable girl six days ago and we are now utilizing the Swedish rights to child-care days off work as much as we can. I will be back at work in April, and will until then only answer mail sporadically (i.e. when the baby is sleeping and I’m not). Thanks for your understanding, and sorry for having any ITSx or Metaxa support issues wait!

ITSx chimera bugfix

A user informed me of unexpected behavior regarding potentially chimeric sequences in ITSx, and indeed it turned out to contain a bug that over-reported potential chimeras. This bug is totally unrelated to the new version released this week, and exists in all prior ITSx versions. I strongly encourage everyone to update to ITSx 1.0.6.

I would also like to underscore that ITSx is not a chimera-checker. It detects when sequences look unusual, but all such cases should be further investigated. If you follow this practice, you will see that in some cases ITSx might have over-reported chimeras, and in some instances it will have been correct in its suspicions (and thereby you would be largely unaffected by this bug).

PhD position with Erik Kristiansson

If you’re looking for a PhD position in bioinformatics, working with antibiotic resistance, there’s an opening in Erik Krisiansson’s (best bioinformatician in Gothenburg? I think so) group. To apply you need to have a master’s level degree in bioinformatics, mathematical statistics, mathematics, computer science, physics, molecular biology or any equivalent topic, obtained latest June 2014. If you’re a master student and want to join us, this is your chance! You can read more and apply for the position here.

A thought on peer review and responsibility

I read an interesting note today in Nature regarding the willingness to be review papers. The author of the note (Dan Graur) claims that scientists that publish many papers contribute less to peer review, and proposes a system in which “journals should ask senior authors to provide evidence of their contribution to peer review as a condition for considering their manuscripts.” I think that this is a very interesting thought, however I see other problems coming with it. Let us for example assume that a senior author is neglecting peer review not to be evil, but simply due to an already monumental workload. If we force peer review on such a person, what kind of reviews do we expect to get back? Will this person be able to fulfill a proper, high-quality, peer review assignment? I doubt it.

On the other hand, I don’t have a good alternative either. If no one wants to do the peer reviewing, that system will inevitably break down. However, I think that there would be better to encourage peer review with positive bonuses, rather than pressure – maybe faster handling times, and higher priority, of papers with authors who have done their share of peer reviewing the last two years? Maybe cheaper publishing costs? In any case, I welcome that the subject is brought up for debate, since it is immensely important for the way we perform science today. Thanks Dan!

New year – Some updates

A new year has begun, and it brings with it a few updates on the website. I have added a summary of the year 2013 from my perspective, and (as you may recognize) updated my picture on the front page. Briefly, this year will bring lots of exciting stuff. Personally, I am quite excited to finally be able to share the new version of Metaxa – Metaxa2 – which will be released to the public late this Winter (or early Spring). Additionally, I look forward to wrap up some manuscript on metagenomics and antibiotic resistance, which I have been working with for more than 2.5 years now. Also, we look forward to some super-intersting technology developments in DNA sequencing, with PacBio finally finding proper usage scenarios, Nano-pore sequencing around the corner, and super-multiplexing on the Illumina instruments. We’re in for a treat with DNA sequencing in 2014!

Talk tomorrow at Swedish Bioinformatics Workshop

Those of you attending the Swedish Bioinformatics Workshop, this year given in Skövde, will have a chance seeing me talk about how sequencing depth influences the picture we get of the environmental resistance gene diversity. I think the topic is very urgent and interesting, and will likely come back to it in a more thorough blog post later. There are also a few other very interesting talks, for example about metagenomic gene quantification, and en masse sequencing of E. coli and H. pylori isolates. I think all attendants are in for a treat! See you there!

A poor excuse…

I feel very sorry that I have been a little bit unresponsive for the last couple of weeks. I have received several questions regarding the PETKit and ITSx that i have not yet got around to answer. I am very sorry for that inconvenience. The reason (not a good excuse, but still) is that I have been overloaded with grant applications. This will continue through the rest of september, so please be patient until October if I don’t reply e-mails. If you need a quick response, please state so very clearly, and I might be able to squeeze you in before the start of October. Otherwise, see you at the other end of the tunnel! Thanks for the understanding.

Our new home

Last Friday, our research group moved into our new facilities at the Department of Infectious Diseases. I am very happy with my new room and my new view, both depicted below.

Our new affiliation is:

Department of Infectious Diseases, Institute of Biomedicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg

Postal address:
Avd. för Klinisk bakteriologi/Virologi
Guldhedsgatan 10
SE-413 46 Göteborg