Asher Leeks
@AsherLeeks
I study social evolution in viruses. Assistant Professor @ZoologyUBC. NB I am inactive here - please follow me on bsky: http://bsky.app/profile/asherleeks.bsky.social
I am absolutely delighted to be joining the University of British Columbia next year as an Assistant Professor @ZoologyUBC. We will study social evolution in viruses.
Really excited to be starting my new role as a Wellcome Trust Early Career Research Fellow in @OxfordBiology soon! Our group will focus on the molecular evolution of emerging human pathogens 🦠🧬🕗 Looking forward to all that lies ahead!
Congratulations to @Mahan_Ghafari who has been awarded a @wellcometrust Early Career Fellowship! His research will focus on developing a systematic framework for reconstructing evolutionary histories of viruses with pandemic potential 👇 bit.ly/4hczmzI
Very happy to have this one published in @Nature today!! 🤩🤩 Can we dig deeper into the intricate and ancient evolutionary history of the flaviviridae by comparing not only genetic sequence but also protein structure? answer is yes!! nature.com/articles/s4158…
We have a job opening for an immunologist in our dept @UBCMicroImmuno! Broad immunology position at the Assistant Prof level in beautiful Vancouver 😊 Apply by Oct 24th! Please repost and spread the word 🙏
The Department of Microbiology and Immunology are hiring 1 Assistant Professor Position! Apply by October 24: academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/28464
A beautiful study showing how cheats emerge easily & then adapt to become better cheats - phage MS2 a fantastic model system for cheating & cooperation. And asking... are point-mutation cheats more common than we think in viruses? #SocialViruses #LoveVirology
Science is solace these days and what could be better than studying cheater viruses?? Proud to share our new work that probes what happens when you evolve a point mutant cheater virus. w/ @ugophna biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
Just realizing @carlzimmer's article on the Social Lives of viruses was syndicated to @WIRED Magazine, one of my favorites for many years! cc: @AsherLeeks #SocialViruses wired.com/story/the-comp…
📣📣So excited to see this Consensus View on a naming system for #Dengue lineages! With prevalence increasing globally and more sequencing being done, this was really needed @viralverity @NathanGrubaugh & lot is colleagues have done an amazing job here ⬇️⬇️
#Dengue virus (DENV) #epidemics are becoming increasingly widespread, making it critical to track the virus using #genomic surveillance. This Consensus View proposes a new DENV nomenclature system to identify and track DENV lineages. plos.io/47C0hR9 #PLOSBiology
Congratulations!
And for the future, I’m excited and honored to announce that I’ve accepted a position as an Assistant Professor @UBC in @ZoologyUBC starting in 2026 to continue to study the effects of fire and climate change on wildlife across western North America! 🔥🦌🌎 More info to come!
🚨New paper!🚨 Excited to have played a small part (alongside @CVRinfo's @michaelajconley and @SwethaVijayakr1) in a study where #AndrewMcMahon and @nicole_robb1 ask 'Why do respiratory viruses form filamentous virions?' sciencedirect.com/science/articl…
Meet #TEDxNE Mind+Life conference speaker @AsherLeeks! Asher is an incoming assistant professor of evolutionary biology at the @UBC who studies social evolution in viruses. Asher will speak during conference session 2: LIFE at our inaugural event on 9/25: bit.ly/3Aw8ABy
I'll be speaking about viral sociality at TEDxNewEngland on Wednesday 25th September, alongside a great lineup of other speakers. List of speakers & tickets here for anyone in the Boston area who might want to come: tedxnewengland.com/speakers #TEDxNE #SocialViruses #LoveVirology
Asher Leeks is pushing the boundaries of biomedical science with his innovative research on sociality in viruses🦠. To hear more about @AsherLeeks' approach to the future of viral research, attend our inaugural MIND+LIFE conference on 9/25. Info in bio. bit.ly/3zhSMSF
Time to announce: I’ve just started a position as an Assistant Professor in Zoology (Animal Behaviour) at Trinity College Dublin @TCD_NatSci ! The lab’s gonna work on integrative studies of social and spatial behaviour and their effects on disease dynamics. Can’t wait.
Excited about the epidemiology of emerging viruses? We're looking for one or more postdocs in - count em - FOUR areas. Join us right as we move into a beautiful office full of brilliant and kind colleagues from across Yale's campus. (1/2) apply.interfolio.com/153039
We're hiring here @ZoologyUBC in comparative physiology! Come be my colleague in a fantastic department! If you have any questions about the department, UBC, or Vancouver, please don't hesitate to ask. academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/28155 Please spread widely.
Viruses aren’t just free-floating saboteurs. A burgeoning field has uncovered complex viral social behaviors including cheating, cooperation and other collective choreography. quantamagazine.org/viruses-finall…
Awesome opportunity to work on influenza reassortment with an exceptionally supportive mentor - as a postdoc or as a research technician.
My lab is hiring! We're looking for a post-doc or lab tech to work on an NIH-funded project studying the basis of strain dependent reassortment potential in flu viruses. DM for more details or *any* questions. Pls RT #newishPI #SocialViruses #ASV2024 #ASM2024 #LoveVirology
Finally, Posdoc @AsherLeeks (Tues, 4:45-5PM, 520D) is discussing his recent theoretical work that explores the dynamics of social cheating during viral infection. His model suggests that viral social interactions may shape human disease outcomes more than previously thought 😷.
Undergrad Liya Miksovsky (Mon, 5:45-8:15PM, 220 DE) will present her work with @AsherLeeks demonstrating the evolution of social cheating in M13, which was underlain by an unexpected genetic cause🧬.