🎉Congratulations to @maribyndloss.bsky.social @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social and Kim Orth—three HHMI scientists recently honored by The American Society for Microbiology @asm.org asm.org/press-releas...

The short summary and behind-the-scenes of our paper in this Research Briefing article out today: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Nature research paper: Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence go.nature.com/4mTnRzG

I am really excited to see this article on basic experimental design principles published. Definitely will be mandatory reading for incoming graduate students in my lab. Maggie Wagner who led this article did an amazing job with the illustrations of basic principles www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Commensal Yeast Boosts Salmonella Typhimurium Virulence In an unexpected twist to our understanding of host-pathogen interactions, recent research reveals that a common fungal commensal, Candida albicans, significantly shapes the virulence of the intestinal pathogen Salmonella Typhimurium. This…

This project was a true whole-lab effort. It was driven by @kanchanj.bsky.social (now on the job market for Assistant Professor positions) with substantial contributions by second author @oliviatodd.bsky.social. So proud of the whole lab!

My postdoc work is now online at Nature. Grateful to @judith-behnsen.bsky.social for her support and all the collaborators. #TeamBehnsenLab

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

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.

Thrilled to share that I’ve been awarded the NIH K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award! Grateful to my mentor @judith-behnsen.bsky.social for her support. Can’t wait for the road ahead!

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

NIH doesn’t just support infectious disease research—it drives breakthroughs in cancer, childhood diseases, heart disease, diabetes & more. Thanks to NIH, we have: 💉 Cancer immunotherapy ❤️ Cholesterol-lowering statins 🩸 Insulin for diabetes Investing in NIH = investing in life-saving discoveries.