Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

Driver is from CT

Me: I have exciting plans for us this weekend! Wife: sounds great, why? Me: it’s our wedding anniversary Wife: oh fuck 😆🤣😆🤣😆😂

Hahaha 😂, love it! So good to see you in our new home town Wendy

Our lab manager search is live! 👇 Please like and re-post #MicroSky www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/re...

Interested in host-pathogen interactions? Want to work in a fun, exciting, and rigorous environment with phenomenal colleagues and world class facilities? Believe it or not, we’re hiring! Please share #MicroSky 👇 womeninscience.com/posting/7315...

4 different NoAs have come in the past 3 weeks! All non-competitive renewals, but each was in doubt! Don’t know what it means bc funds still frozen here, but hats off to the hard working folks at the NIH! Bravo 👏

went through a long practice session with 2 trainees for future conference talks (ie, best part of my job) and I forgot to follow our session with the most important info I had for them, so I thought I’d share what I sent to them in a message bc I think it’s the way all PIs feel… 🧵

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

Another great contribution to the “Cell Regulation” themed issue of Current Opinion in Microbiology www.sciencedirect.com/special-issu...

A moral/encouraging reminder for those that need it… “If you want to sing out, sing out. If you want to be free, be free, bc there’s a million things to be…”

Infection and Immunity is now welcoming nominations for highly promising scientists at the assistant professor level (or equivalent) to submit research to the next New Voices in Microbiology Collection! Please nominate by the August 18 deadline using the below link: app.asm.org/account/logi...

My brain is just waiting for that instance in which changing my mind proves to be a good idea, so it can tell my gut to F-off…

Piperacillin Kills Lyme Bacteria in Mice, Leaves Gut Microbiome Alone. Already FDA-approved for pneumonia, the antibiotic shows promising results for Lyme disease. www.lymedisease.org/members/lyme...

So important! Please contact your Republican senators, especially Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), and Sen. Dave McCormick (R-PA). 🙏 amplify!

By deep characterisation of 186 N-glycan standards, we @thencfg.bsky.social have made the most comprehensive targeted LC-MS glycomic assay to date. Non-reduced native glycan analysis is key. We hope this enables anyone with QqQ and interest in #glycotime to measure specific N-glycan structures.

Had a great time at #ASMicrobe this week. Congrats to @richmarconi.bsky.social for receiving the ASM Applied and Biotechnological Research Award!

Overlap with ICLB (news.mayocliniclabs.com/2025-interna...), but I encourage all non-Lyme bacteriologists to attend this meeting 💪

👏 🙌

New Consensus Statement in Nature Microbiology! Working with low-biomass microbiome samples? From deep subsurface rocks to human lungs, contamination is a major challenge. We offer field-to-data analysis guidelines to help keep your results clean. 📖 doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Remembering the music video we put together for the 2013 AEM GRC - youtu.be/8rkJPnKvRLQ?...

The lab is full of movers and shakers these days! Bravo to recent PhD grad Brittany Hart, who starts her faculty position @batescollege.bsky.social this fall. Congrats to Rebecca Trimble for passing her qualifying exam, and welcome new postdoc Dr. Kyle Rosinke!!! 👏 🎉 🎊

Funding freeze at Northwestern from Emma Mairson at grant-watch.us. Data from USAspending. Normally, ~$70 M per month. Now, bupkis. Northwestern is keeping research moving and must be spending ~$40 M per month. Clearly not sustainable for too long.

How does your favorite species elongate? 🧵 "Phenotypic plasticity in bacterial elongation among closely related species". Happy to see this paper in print @natcomms.nature.com. Nice work by @mariedelaby.bsky.social, Liu Yang et al. See original 🧵, different colours, same data and conclusions.

In our latest Fixations post, we discuss a recently published study characterizing the antibiotic piperacillin as a potentially more effective treatment for Lyme disease, a promising development given that tickborne diseases are on the rise in the US. Read it here: open.substack.com/pub/isabella...

Stoked to share this coverage of @jutraslab.bsky.social and colleagues’ recent work on piperacillin and its ability to treat Lyme disease by our intrepid virologist @jessicaoros.bsky.social. Please check it out! #scicomm 🧪

Research Saves Lives At Hopkins, we just went live with an expansive website showing the extraordinary value of research, the impact of cuts to research, what's at stake, resources for our research community, etc. Check it out: researchsaveslives.jhu.edu

JAMA Forum on the proposed NIH budget… jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Scientists--Share your story! We need the nation to know what is at stake if the NIH is gutted. It's therapeutic and takes just a few minutes

Northwestern has not received any NIH funds since March. No written communication about why or what can be done. Thank you Ben Singer for raising awareness at #ATS2025

Scientists make real discoveries that help real people. An investment in science is an investment in your current and future way of life. While the financial returns more than double the amount put into it, the returns in lives saved are incalculable. We all benefit when science thrives.

Super exciting Ethan, can’t wait to read it

Thanks @science.org! 🙏

From the Center for Lyme Action: Please join us in urging Congress to take strong action in support of Lyme and tick-borne disease programs. Sign our national letter campaign. May 19 deadline. READ MORE www.lymedisease.org/may-19-deadl...

Two new studies led by the @jutraslab.bsky.social have identified an antibiotic that cures #LymeDisease at a fraction of the dosage of the current "gold standard" treatment and discovered what may cause a treated infection to mimic chronic illness in patients. tinyurl.com/3eyknud

Leadership! 💪

Barbara McClintock proposed – over 40 years ago – that transposable element activity could be a response to stress, and I think that we are still only beginning to understand how right she was.

After screening nearly 500 FDA approved compounds, researchers have settled on piperacillin as a good candidate for clearing the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. B. burgdoferi is known for lingering in some patients causing post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome, also called chronic Lyme 👇

Mice overcame a Lyme disease infection after being given an antibiotic that is often used for pneumonia, and its effect on their gut microbiomes was negligible

Love that bevy, but give the ‘last flight’ a shot 😁

Researchers say piperacillin, an antibiotic in the same class as penicillin, cured mice of Lyme disease at a mere fraction of the effective dose of doxycycline. But unlike doxy, this drug has virtually no impact on gut microbes. READ MORE www.lymedisease.org/piperacillan...

Thanks! 🙏

👍

“Despite early antibiotic intervention, up to 20% of Lyme patients report lingering symptoms that severely affect their quality of life — from crippling fatigue and brain fog to joint pain and cognitive impairment.” tickbootcamp.com/new-lyme-res...

I like it, our explanation is a bit different, but we likely arrive in the same place :).

Thanks Frances, happy these are both finally out, and just in time for Lyme disease awareness month!

And by extension... Perhaps PG biosynthesis is somehow uncoupled from OM biogenesis 🤯. Stay tuned on that one 😉

Our set of new prokaryote-optimized fluorescent proteins is now published ! #microbiology #microsky #microscopy 🧫🦠🔬 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"The peptidoglycan of Borrelia burgdorferi can persist in discrete tissues and cause systemic responses consistent with chronic illness" Yet another important publication from @jutraslab.bsky.social, @lochhead.bsky.social, and colleagues. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... #MicroSky 🦠🧫🔬

Identification of a specific, pre-existing beta-lactam antibiotic for treating Lyme disease Borrelia infections. Cool new report from @jutraslab.bsky.social Brandon Jutras & colleagues. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40267215/ #MicroSky 🦠🧫🔬