Join us this Sept 30 for a #HispanicHeritageMonth celebration with trainees + faculty + industry pros for an enriching discussion + happy hour! Co-hosted by @Penn_SACNAS @PennCDB + our partners @wistar.org @inspirecommunity.bsky.social

One of the things that makes @unbreaking.org such a wildly different project is that we update our pages continuously. Our goal is to help you maintain a current handle on where things stand. Here's this week's 🧵 on the food safety front:

🚨Job alert!🚨 We are looking for a new lab manager to join our group at the University of Oregon! Applicants with experience in microbiology, evolutionary genetics, or protein biochemistry are especially encouraged to apply. See the link below for more information: barberlab.org/contact/

Congrats to Lucy Shapiro, a pioneering microbiologist, for winning the 2025 Lasker-Koshland Award. So deserving! laskerfoundation.org/winners/pion...

Pleased to share and briefly highlight our new manuscript just published 𝘑𝘊𝘐 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 (a short🧵) "A STING-adjuvanted outer membrane vesicle nanoparticle vaccine protects against lethal 𝘗𝘴𝘦𝘶𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘦𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘴𝘢 pneumonia" 🔗 doi.org/10.1172/jci....

💥 #ImmunometabolismPower! Excited to have this officially out @cp-immunity.bsky.social 💥 We show that pathogens induce the host to produce oxidized lipids which rewire the #metabolism of #macrophages, causing #epigenetic modifications which dampen anti-inflammatory IL-10, exacerbating #inflammation!

Each Friday, I summarize what is happening to American science & higher ed. 🧪 This was Week 33: - launch of West Coast Health Alliance (WA, OR, CA, HI) - RFK must resign - Harvard wins case! - new threat of mandatory detention for millions of immigrants & much more buttondown.com/liminalcreat...

Honored to have received the 2026 ASM Award for Early Career Basic Research. This award is also a recognition of my phenomenal trainees and their hard work. Thank you to the mentors that have supported my career and those who have nominated me for this award. asm.org/press-releas...

As national medical, scientific, public health and patient organizations, we call for the resignation of HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to ensure the health of the American people. Read our statement: asm.org/press-releas...

Finally officially out in the latest issue of @cp-cell.bsky.social as a #free #featured #LeadingEdge paper: everything you wanted to know about #InterferonPower! ❤️ @danielboehmer.bsky.social @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @harvardmed.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

This is a HUGE win for American higher education! #DefendHigherEd www.nytimes.com/2025/09/03/u...

To sum up the judge's ruling: - The Trump administration's freezing of Harvard funds on or after 4/14 is arbitrary and capricious, and is set aside. It also violated the First Amendment. - The administration is also forbidden from implementing any freeze or termination of Harvard federal funding

Excited to share our new publication, out today in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... @kanchanj.bsky.social led this fascinating fungal-bacterial interaction project. We are grateful for our wonderful collaborators Brian Peters and David Underhill.

"We’re currently at about 54% of last year’s total [of funded R01s]...Another way to look at this is that we’re missing 1,809 new R01s."

These letters of resignation from CDC officials are VERY MUCH worth your time. PLEASE READ AND PROPAGATE.

'Here, we identify the immunometabolic crosstalk that generates homocysitaconate, a metabolite formed by homocysteine & itaconate adduction catalyzed by S-adenosyl-L-homocysteine hydrolase. Homocysitaconate increases 152-fold during #inflammation and exhibits anti-inflammatory effects.' #Immunology

Following this month’s cuts of nearly $500 million in funding for mRNA vaccine research, we're revisiting a conversation from February about the ongoing development of an mRNA vaccine for pancreatic cancer.

#InterferonPower! Thrilled for our latest work @cp-cell.bsky.social! With @danielboehmer.bsky.social, we dug into tons of papers & created what we hope will be a go-to resource for immunologists & non-immunologist about type I, II, III (& IV😉) #interferons! Free👉 authors.elsevier.com/a/1leKGL7PXu...

We are hiring! The Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics is looking for faculty at the Assistant or Associate professor level (tenure track). Please consider joining our vibrant microbiology and immunology community at the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine

1/ Excited to share the first preprint from my lab! 🎉 My postdoc Paz asked how cholera toxin (CT) helps Vibrio cholerae thrive in the gut. Turns out, CT rewires epithelial metabolism toward L-lactate production—fueling pathogen growth in the small intestine during disease

Faculty search announcement 2025: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Microbiology at UT Southwestern. We seek candidates working in microbial pathogenesis (some preference may be given to bacterial pathogens). Come join our community! (1/5) www.utsouthwestern.edu/departments/...

‘In national security terms, mRNA is the equivalent of a missile defense system for biology. The ability to rapidly design, produce and deploy medical countermeasures is as vital to our defense as any military capability.’ www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/o...

The paper highlights actionable steps to help improve these double standards, including more RESEARCH RELATED LANGUAGE in P &T letters for Black, Hispanic and Indigenous women to improve their outcomes.

A little gem here from Martin Schwartz, PhD the Robert W. Berliner Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Professor of Biomedical Engineering and of Cell Biology at Yale University Felt good to read and share and I predict you just might have the same experience

#WeekendRead! #MomIsAlwaysMom! Koch, Shenoy et al show @science.org that, in the first 7 days of life, breast milk IgGs (not IgAs!) recognize microbiota & limit, via Fc receptors, Tfh cell and B cell intestinal expansion, protecting against #colitis & #allergy during weaning!

Scientists’ role in defending democracy www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Let's all support this vital need: the ability to tell the truth. 💪 "Those in the science community who are willing & able to be more visible can step up. Acting together will be more impactful than going it alone."

Here is the Science story on the "priorities" memo... www.science.org/content/arti...

Happy to be able to finally share our NLR pangenome paper, out now in CHM. "Pangenomic context reveals the extent of intraspecific plant NLR evolution" www.cell.com/cell-host-mi... #plantscience #plantimmunity #pangenomes #science #nlr

For those recalling the awesome session on ecology and evolution of zoonoses at GRC MPB 2023, or those who wish they were there, these authors and topic were on Rosie's and my wish list. Ancient pathogen genomes have much to say. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

The MAHA Mantra: Embrace natural foods and natural medicines. Want to know the most natural medicine? mRNA. It is in every cell in every organism in nature. And it has the potential to cure cancer. See commentary below. #MAHA #cancer www.biospace.com/drug-develop...

A human inborn error of immunity guided discovery and development of a prophylactic, mRNA-based antiviral www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The recent cuts to federal mRNA research funding are killing our best chance to cure cancer. Read my OP-ED on this topic in BioSpace, linked below. www.biospace.com/drug-develop...

Faculty Search Alert! The Division of Microbiology & Immunology at @UUtah is growing! We're hiring at all ranks in the tenure track—join a cutting-edge, collaborative research community in stunning Salt Lake City. utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/186... #AcademicJobs #Immunology #ScienceCareers

www.washingtonpost.com/business/202... Basic research “is almost like the starter when you bake sourdough bread. You can’t make the bread without it.”

Such a fun project & massive team effort. We sampled tree cores my 1st yr of grad school then took a year to figure out how to grind wood… ! But we were amazed to find such a complex & unexpected ecosystem inside trees. And we’ve just scratched the surface! We explored 150 trees— 3 trillion to go!

Not just endangering US public health but global health www.thetimes.com/us/news-toda...

That concludes GRC Salmonella 2025. What a fantastic meeting it was - topnotch science, great discussions and a wonderful spirit. I am proud to be part of this amazing scientific community.

A Salmonella T3SS-2 mutant grows fine in spleen macrophages, contradicting tissue culture dogma (PMID: 23236281). This observation was largely ignored, but adding certain carbon sources rescues growth in cultured macrophages, hinting that T3SS-2 may be doing something entirely different in vivo.

This 🧵 shows the stark reality for one of the 27 institutes & centers that make up the NIH. The National Center for Complementary & Integrative Health (NCCIH) had a team of 35 employees managing operations & communication work. Now there are 3. THREE. An actual decimation. Its staggering.

New Notice about No-Cost Extensions... grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

STAT story about the Executive Order Lots here. I will pick a few sections for comment. www.statnews.com/2025/08/08/t... 1/7

Congratulations to my postdoc @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social on receiving the inaugural Penn Postdoctoral Association Mentorship Award! Truly well-deserved recognition of his dedication to mentoring a cohort of Penn undergraduates in the First Exposure to Research in the Biological Sciences program!

Please share my 1 min video on the importance of maintaining NIH funding of infectious diseases and drug discovery research vs rising antibiotic resistance Drastic budget cuts harm our health and imperil the next generation of scientists More @UCSanDiego “Behind Every Breakthrough” bit.ly/3FlXQs3

Why does RNA undergo glycosylation? Excited to have our paper out. We in collab w/ Ryan Flynn @raflynn5.bsky.social show N-glycans on glycoRNA hide self-RNA from endosomal TLRs promoting silent removal of dead cells. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @uconnresearch.bsky.social @uconnhealth.bsky.social

I'm excited to announce our new biorxiv preprint, wherein we investigate the evolution of the weirdest genetic locus I've ever seen! Behold the tgr genes of the social amoeba, which mediate self/non-self discrimination during facultative multicellularity 🐅 🧵 1/ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

“A second person has now died and more than 50 people have fallen ill as part of a growing Legionnaires' cluster in Harlem, city health officials reported… The cases from the cluster have been found in five Harlem ZIP codes: 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037 and 10039, along with the bordering communities”

Super excited to share our paper online 🚨today🚨 in Cell Host & Microbe‬! Xiaomei Ren @xiaomeiren.bsky.social and Mason Clark @rmasonclark.bsky.social‬ co-led discovery of ecological factors for Acinetobacter baumannii carriage in the gut, a reservoir for pathogen spread. 🎉 tinyurl.com/443kfefk

apnews.com/article/texa... researcher faces deportation after being held for week at San Francisco airport

The Trump administration is launching a new wave of attacks on universities, and UCLA is the latest target. My reporting on how the university has been hit and how some of its scientists are responding: www.science.org/content/arti...

For who still thinks this can’t happen here… it’s already happening. www.theatlantic.com/science/arch...