Please join us for the Cold Spring Harbor Asia @cshlnews.bsky.social meeting on Bacterial Infection & Host Defense this May 11-15 in Suzhou, China! We have a fantastic lineup of speakers. Abstract deadline is March 6. Hope to see you there!

I'm excited to share that the Auditory Systems Gordon Research Seminar is accepting abstracts! This year's GRS will be July 18-19 in Easton, MA. The GRS is an amazing opportunity for trainees to share their work and network with other colleagues in the field. Apply here: www.grc.org/auditory-sys...

NHLBI has not funded a single new R01 in FY2026 which began almost 5 months ago

PAPER ALERT! I am excited to share that our study describing the molecular mechanism of caspase-4 activation has just been published in Immunity. www.cell.com/immunity/ful... I would like to thank all the co-authors for their valuable contributions. Well done guys! Link for short summary below👇

Online now: Caspase-4 binds to LPS membranes with positive curvature for non-canonical inflammasome activation

#WeekendRead! #ImmunometabolismPower! #InflammasomePower! Liu, Yin &co show @cp-cellchembiol that lactate downstream of aerobic glycolysis is used to directly lactylates NLRP3 increasing ASC recruitment and inflammasome activation, which exacerbates lethality in sepsis! www.cell.com/cell-chemica...

My nonprofit @your.neighborhoodscientist.org is looking for scientists to share their stories with us in 2026! Is your New Year's resolution to communicate & interface more with your community as a scientist? Send us a pitch at [email protected] ! 🧪🧠🇺🇸

Congratulations to my & @brodskyigorlab.bsky.social’s joint postdoc Suhas Bobba on receiving the @asm.org Infection & Immunity Poster Award for his work on innate immune control of intestinal Yersinia infection at the Midwinter Conference of Immunologists @midwinter-immun.bsky.social!

I had a wonderful time at Midwinter Immunology & was honored to receive the Ray Owen Poster Award after an awesome presentation by @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social! 2026 was my first time attending — definitely won’t be my last! Thank you to @brodskyigorlab.bsky.social & co. for an amazing meeting! 🙏

Excited to share our new pre-print on the control of NLRP3 inflammasome assembly and ASC translation dynamics by environmental amino acids. A true team science effort: our phenomenal partners @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social & @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social working with Brian Goldspiel 🙏

@biorxivpreprint.bsky.social Environmental Amino Acid Sensing Regulates the Rate of ASC Translation and NLRP3 Inflammasome Assembly @briangoldspiel.bsky.social @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social @pennmicro.bsky.social @metabailism.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Congrats @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social and colleagues on this super cool and intriguing story on the role of dietary amino acids in regulating NLRP3 inflammasome activation by controlling translation of the ASC adapter! 🤯🙌🏼

Congrats @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social on this beautiful work. So excited to see the preprint out!

Thrilled to share our new preprint showing that dietary amino acids license the NLRP3 inflammasome via mTOR-dependent mRNA translation! Congrats to co-1st authors @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social, Brian Goldspiel, co-senior author @metabailism.bsky.social & collaborators! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Why is obesity often associated with dysregulated, low-grade chronic inflammation? In our new paper in @science.org we show that obesity rewires nucleotide metabolism in immune cells, making inflammatory responses much easier to trigger. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

I’m stoked to share my postdoc work with @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social, a collaborative effort with @metabailism.bsky.social & Brian Goldspiel, aided by many valued collaborators: Environmental Amino Acid Sensing Regulates the Rate of ASC Translation and NLRP3 Inflammasome Assembly. Some big takeaways:

Powerful piece in STAT this morning from some NIH staff members who have resigned www.statnews.com/2026/01/10/n... 1/3

Which amino acid is most required for T cell leukemia? Did you guess...histidine? excited to see this out, congrats to Komal and @herranzlab.bsky.social and coauthors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Happy to see the final piece of my PhD research out in the world: www.frontiersin.org/journals/imm... Here, we provide more evidence that the homeostatic biology of alveolar macrophages is highly sensitive to glucose metabolism, this time in the context of non-small cell lung cancer. 🫁 🧫

Funding for science is significantly challenged right now and this is particularly devastating to our young scientists. If you have the means to support science on this Giving Tuesday, our trainees would be so grateful! maizeraise.umich.edu/schools/Univ...

This week’s neighborhood scientist is Charity Robbins! Check out the link below to read Charity’s rules on how to build the perfect scientist (yes, really!!) neighborhoodscientist.org/posts/2025/l...

💥 #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!

If you want to support the work we do, you can donate to my nonprofit @your.neighborhoodscientist.org here: neighborhoodscientist.org

Excited to be featured in today’s @nature.com article about scientists standing up to Trump. I’ve never been one to sit on the sidelines, especially when something I believe so deeply in—science funding that saves lives—is under attack. Read more here: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Very stoked for and proud of my dear grad school pal, @jazib.bsky.social. No one pushes themselves harder than this guy! 💪 A beautiful body of work!

Very excited to share the latest work from the Artis lab! Now out in @natimmunol.nature.com Your gut’s neurons aren’t just for digestion; they help heal it too! nature.com/articles/s41...

I’m very honored to receive the inaugural Penn Postdoctoral Association Mentorship Award for my work with the Class of 2027 PennFERBS undergraduate scholars. My students mean the absolute world and continue to amaze me with their drive, passion, and eagerness to grow as leaders in STEM. 🙏

🚨 AAI is proud to announce the launch of the AAI RESTORE Grants Program, an $8M emergency funding initiative to support scientists whose immunology-focused federal research grants were abruptly terminated or frozen in 2025. 🔗 ow.ly/rwMU50Wy3Mp #AAIRESTORE

📣The @aai.org allocated $8M RESTORE Grants Program, an initiative that will focus on providing financial support to researchers whose grants were abruptly terminated or frozen in 2025 for reasons unrelated to their scientific merit! 👏 Check the details 👇 #SupportResearch #Immunology

Macrophages kind of look like gastly (the Pokémon) Macrophage photo credit: Cell Wiki

1/ If you are in the Midwest and ❤️ metabolism, take note! This year’s Midwest Metabolism meeting will be held jointly with the Translational Research in Mitochondrial Metabolism in Aging and Disease (TRiMAD) conference. www.vai.org/event/2025-m...

Regulation of inflammatory responses by pH-dependent transcriptional condensates @cellcellpress.bsky.social @xuzhoulab.bsky.social @rmedzhitov.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

#EpigeneticPower! 💥 #NewPaperAlert! We show @cp-immunity.bsky.social that endogenous oxidized lipids decide whether host survives or dies during #sepsis, #ARDS, or Staph infection! Ox lipids bind & inhibit #AKT, boosting inhibitory H3K27 methylation via EZH2 & blocking #IL10!

Honored to contribute a chapter with co-1st authors @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social, Brian Goldspiel & co-senior author @metabailism.bsky.social. Many thanks & congrats to co-editors @tristramryan.bsky.social, @lukeanthonyoneill.bsky.social, & Zbigniew Zaslona on an excellent immunometabolism resource!

Honored to contribute a chapter for this awesome immunometabolism resource!

Are you interested in #immunometabolism but not sure where to start? Introducing our new book “Metabolites as Signals in Immunity and Inflammation”, co-edited with Zbigniew Zasłona and @lukeanthonyoneill.bsky.social (@tcddublin.bsky.social), available now. shop.elsevier.com/books/metabo... (1/n)

Super excited to share my final postdoc paper from Rabinowitz lab- on how whole-body and tissue metabolism changes in viral infection! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40581045/

Happy July 4th! Here at Your Neighborhood Scientist, we’re excited to highlight American patriotism in a way you might not always think about: scientific research. neighborhoodscientist.org/posts/2025/j...

We’re doing a July 4 feature all week highlighting how funding science is patriotic (and the incredible researchers doing life changing, tax payer funded research!) Give us a follow!

Share why doing and supporting science is patriotic at the poll below! 🇺🇸

Structural basis of BAX pore formation @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited to share that our paper examining how GM-CSF potentiates cytokine responses in human monocytes during bacterial infection is now online at the @asm.org journal Infection & Immunity! Congrats to @vvazquez.bsky.social, @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social, & co-authors! journals.asm.org/doi/full/10....

I had SO much fun speaking about how amazing hearing is at Philly’s @pintofscience.us last night!! Thank you to my amazing lab @geffenlab.bsky.social & @mikelhaggadone.bsky.social for coming out to support! 🧠 🍺

Philadelphia friends! We SO NEED to celebrate science. Let's raise a glass to brains. Join us Wed, 5/21 for Pint of Science. I'll be opening for headliners Dimitris Boufidis, @audreydrotos.bsky.social, & Jacqui Barker. 😊 Tickets (to support the org, $2): pintofscience.us/events/phila...

I remember in 1989 when our basketball coach announced he was leaving after the NCAAs and was told “Nope. You’re out now.” It’s time for Ono to be told that. Let’s have someone as interim who is reflecting Michigan values, fighting for us, and advocating for higher ed. We don’t need to wait.

The best start to a week: Brian Goldspiel’s phenomenal thesis defense today. For the last 5 years, it’s been a true joy getting to know the brilliant, multi-talented person Brian is. His infectious passion has transformed the lab and he’ll be deeply missed. Could not be prouder🥲

Excited to be en route to Honolulu for the @aai.org Annual Meeting, #IMMUNOLOGY2025. I’ll be giving a talk tomorrow morning (Sunday) at 7 am in room 312. Come hear more about my postdoctoral research at the intersection of environmental nutrient sensing and regulation of the NLRP3 inflammasome.

Scientists work together with others across all sectors of our communities, including public health. This week, we’re bringing you an article from Alyssa Maturen, who leads a vaccine coalition & discusses how vaccines build strong, healthy communities for everyone. You can read & subscribe below:

Tissue-resident memory T cells have high levels of mRNA of proinflammatory cytokines but produce the proteins only upon stimulation. 🧪⑂ The integrated stress response inhibits mRNA translation in these cells, having these cells poised for rapid responses in 🐭 and 🧓. 1/2

Join members of the University of Michigan community to march in support of reinstating DEI work on Tuesday, April 22nd, at 5 pm at the U-M Diag. Hope to see you there! #WeareDEI