#NewResearch Nasal colonisation by S. aureus is linked with depression in a human cohort and shown in a mouse model to cause decreased serotonin and dopamine in the brain #MicroSky #Depression www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #microsky #sialic acid STM1128 is a Neu5Ac transporter of the sodium-solute symporter (SSS) superfamily, which @gavinhthomas.bsky.social, Arthur Hosie & I identified 15 years :-)

Really looking forward to sharing our science with Yorkshire Philosophical Society at Tempest Anderson Hall on Oct 14th - thank you to @gavinhthomas.bsky.social for the invite www.ypsyork.org/events/antib...

Julian Davies was a renowned scientist who made crucial strides in the study of antibiotics & antibiotic resistance. Honor his legacy at the Julian Davies Memorial Symposium on Oct. 10, hosted by the University of British Columbia. Register by Sept. 15 to attend via Zoom or in person! asm.social/2Af

Important work by @robfagan.bsky.social

Sometimes you meet absolutely incredible bioinfo-magicians. It was a huge privilege when @shenwei356.bsky.social joined our group for a year on an @embl.org sabbatical. While here, he developed a new way of aligning to millions of bacteria, called LexicMap 1/n www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... #microsky #microbiome #glycotime

✨ Exciting News ✨I am thrilled to share that I have accepted a position as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology (IDM), at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health!

Very excited to share our work on a novel itaconate transporter in P. aeruignosa! A brilliant team effort by the @gavinhthomas.bsky.social lab. 🎉🎉🎉

Delighted with our new paper on a novel itaconate transporter in the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, led by Javeria and Reyme. @ybri-uoy.bsky.social @javeriamehboob.bsky.social @bethkw.bsky.social A duplicated transporter on its way to itaconate selectivity portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...

Very cool, congrats! #microsky

New preprint from us! The latest part of our C. difficile vancomycin resistance story. We identified a new two-component system (VnrRS) that can control expression of the vanG pathway - just needs one amino acid change @buddlejess.bsky.social @brockhurstlab.bsky.social @claireyt.bsky.social

Great work from @kdc509.bsky.social that we had a sneak peak of at the Staph GRC. Coming from a Gram -ve background, its funny that Staph don't use polyamines at all, in fact have to evolve resistance mechanisms to host produced ones....

So much stuff in this paper about gene structure and function. Will need a few hours to digest this...

Honestly, this is just one example of where we can radically discover/unify membrane protein families across biology. Too much for us to do alone...anybody interesting in trying to do/fund a comprehensive study?

A cool use of DALI/FoldSeek building on new human HG-SNAT protein enabled Bethan Kinniment-Williams & co., to structural unify the TmAT superfamily of membrane-bound acyltransferases first proposed by Milton Saier Jnr in TCDB. @jnb-lab.bsky.social www.jbc.org/article/S002...

First paper from Orlagh Anderson PhD project is out. She found a chromid is a distinct & unique feature of Clostridium butyricum. More to come on the virulence related genes.. @yorkshirebiodtp.bsky.social @ybri-uoy.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Please RT 🙏 If you’re an early career researcher working in the fields of structural or synthetic biology wishing to start your lab then come join us at Imperial. We’re looking to support outstanding individuals for external Career Development Awards/Fellowships. www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperi...

How do parasites strategically organise their genomes to influence gene expression? If you’re curious, check our latest review in @cp-trendsparasitol.bsky.social ! @biologyatyork.bsky.social @ybri-uoy.bsky.social @pasteur.fr www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Tour de force paper by Jingren Zhang's group @tsinghuauniversity.bsky.social showing a complex link between peptidoglycan acetylation and phase variation through nutrient sensing #MicroSky journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Absolutely delighted to share the labs latest work. We identify and characterise two pathways for D-ribulose utilisation in pathogenic EHEC and Citrobacter.

Very excited to be co-organizing the next Keystone Symposia on Human Microbiomes, in Jan 2026 in Banff with Ami Bhatt and Harry Sokol. www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/... Speaker list includes Emily Balskus, Don Ingber, Mohamed Abou Donia, Tamia Harris-Tryon, and Julie Segre.

We also show that carbohydrate sulfatases are immune to the effects of arylsulfamate inhibition and that a carbohydrate sulfamate was also ineffective.

We demonstrate that a panel of arylsulfamate sulfatase inhibitors limit the growth of sulfatase containing Bacteroides, but this is through binding a lipid kinase and not S1 carbohydrate sulfatase inhibition. Some of the most severe effects could be reduced through carbon source selection.

Happy to have this work on the effectiveness of sulfamate based inhibitors on carbohydrate sulfatases out in @pnas.org www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas. #glycotime The summary is: Current sulfatase inhibitor technology is not effective on S1 carbohydrate sulfatases of the human colonic microbiota.

Excellent paper in #MGen by Theo Ross, Kristin Hegstad and collaborators 'Enterococcus lactis is ecologically and genetically distinct from the major opportunistic pathogen Enterococcus faecium' www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Super proud of lab members Reyme, Orlagh, Javeria and Daniel who did presentations at @BiologyatYork Graduate conference & Dan for doing his poster. Great job everyone :-)

Astonishing evidence at the Covid Inquiry. The Government repeatedly ignored offers from the Crick Institute to provide mass testing on a national scale. Instead, the Government paid Deloitte consultants to project manage, not yet established, privately run labs. 1/2

A big shout-out to Plasmidsaurus @plasmidsaurus.bsky.social for their service, supersonic speed and fantastic customer service! Thank you, Kane!!! 🌸

Got any great final year students who love the bench but don't (yet) want to do a PhD? I'm looking for a research technician to join our amazing AVERT team for the last 2 years of the project - a great chance to develop lab skills while supporting our team in York. jobs.york.ac.uk/vacancy/rese...

Read our latest blog to find out how @DrRebeccaJHall and colleagues are trying to understand more about the effects of glucose in the urinary tract on the treatment of urinary tract infections caused by uropathogenic E.coli .

Our paper is finally out: Molecular basis of pyruvate transport and inhibition of the human mitochondrial pyruvate carrier | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #mitochondria #cryo-EM

New from the lab of @gavinhthomas.bsky.social : TRAP transporters are always fun and Pseudomonas is a super cool bug. And well done Javeria (who may not be over here yet?)!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Couldn't be happier to announce I'm officially PhDone! Huge shout-out to Gavin and Marjan for their encouragement and all their support over the years :)

Many congratulations to @imrsankhan.bsky.social on his successful PhD viva this week and to his new PDRA with Ruth Massay at Cork. Thanks to his examiners Joan Geoghegan and Alan Cartmell and to the Burgess family for their amazing support.

Nice little write up on MORF delivering a browser-based solution for Luke Mackinder's lab to deliver the results of their awesome CyanoTag project - have a play with the data! Let us know if you want us to help you get more from your data. www.york.ac.uk/biology/abou...

Entries for JK 2025 are closing on Friday 28 March. That means that the countdown to the UK's biggest Orienteering Festival commences, and we are just over a month away! Secure your spot today: www.britishorienteering.org.uk/news/6576/en... 📷 Rob Lines and Wendy Carlyle.

Applications are open for the 2025 GRS/GRC on Staphylococcal Diseases! Make sure to get your abstracts submitted for the potential to present your work in beautiful Barcelona! www.grc.org/staphylococc...

Never EVER be guest editor... Your reputation and work used for the journal/publisher to make money. The Frontiers/MDPI scam.

Our first TB preprint with @jnb-lab.bsky.social is out! Using spectroscopic techniques from our lab, we resolve the exact mode of action of everyone's favourite TB drug, bedaquiline. I'd like to add a few comments about the microbiology part of the picture! #TBsky #MicroSky (1/7)

Yorkies - created new list to keep abreast of who has made the switch...(let me know if you want adding) bsky.app/profile/gavi...

Transportome remodeling of a symbiotic microalga inside a planktonic host https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.06.01.596945v1

Congrats Dr. Speedman! And thank you Simon and @gavinhthomas.bsky.social for serving as examiners!

Preprint alert! Peptides are everywhere in biological environments, and these molecules serve as a rich source of nutrients for bacteria. Here, we uncover how one transporter protein allows S. aureus to utilise 100+ peptides for growth www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Another preprint, and this time the excellent work of @imrsankhan.bsky.social from his PhD & our first full experimental Staph aureus paper - on transporters of course! Imran found a cool link to glutathione and infection too. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The Thomas & Parkin labs are looking for a motivated PhD student to work across the biology/chemistry interface to help UK biotech company HydRegen improve biocatalyst production. The project is to understand & engineer increased nickel uptake in bacteria as part of BBSRC Yorkshire Bioscience DTP.

Vienna is my favorite city and this conference location is inspirational! Take a look at the ceiling. I was there last year for a meeting on membrane transport protein research hosted by the RESOLUTE consortium.

Last day for @imrsankhan.bsky.social on L1 as he heads back home to finish his PhD write up before heading to Uni of Cork in the Spring. We are certainly going to miss him in the group with his infectious enthusiasm for science and Staph in particular. First preprint should be dropping very soon...

We identified a #VHH antibody that allosterically inhibits sialic acid binding by the #TRAP transporter #SBP VcSiaP. Thanks to the team including: @philipphendricks.bsky.social @scbinder.bsky.social @gavinhthomas.bsky.social @gha14.bsky.social Read the full story here: doi.org/10.1038/s420...

Very excited to announce I'll be moving over to Cork next year to join Prof Ruth Massey as a Postdoc at @ucc.bsky.social :) Working with some very clever people to unravel the secrets of Staphylococcal blood infections 🦠 Can't wait for loads of exciting science! See you there 🇮🇪