Northwestern Microbiology-Immunology Annual Faculty Dinner. Good times, good colleagues.

It is absolutely wild that the guy who won’t stop yelling about law and order is now personally stepping in to keep January 6 documents hidden from the police officers who were attacked that day. He knows exactly what’s in those files and he is terrified the country will see it.

stevens.house.gov/media/press-... @haleyformi.bsky.social @rephaleystevens.bsky.social @standupforscience.bsky.social

Publicly Available Neisseria Gonorrhoeae Genomes Predominantly Represent In Vitro-Derived Nonpiliated Variants url: academic.oup.com/jid/article/... @iboiko.bsky.social and Selma Metanne

Iryna Boiko and Selma Mettane show that most gonococcal genomic sequences are from nonpiliated bacteria, even though clinical isolates are piliated. Publicly Available Neisseria Gonorrhoeae Genomes Predominantly Represent In Vitro-Derived Nonpiliated Variants: academic.oup.com/jid/article/...

What you get if you stay in academics a long time and volunteer to participate in the important things.

The right-wing think tank which wrote the entire platform for the current president of the US is defending neo-Nazis, and meanwhile a substantial portion of American rabbis think the Muslim candidate for NYC mayor who has denounced antisemitism is the biggest threat to me as an American Jew.

We're just 6 months away from @keystoneSymposia.bsky.social Beyond #Antibiotics : Emerging Strategies Combating #BacterialInfection, May 2026 in Breckenridge! 👉Scholarship and short talk abstract deadlines are Jan 7! 🧐 keysym.us/KSBeyondAntibiotics26 #KSBeyondAntibiotics26

A new article by @husonfirst.bsky.social about Neisseria Flavin pathways and pilus phenotypes : dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

If one of the appliances in your home, say your cooker or fridge, ran using ten times the power of a normal one, you‘d replace it as fast as possible and never go near that manufacturer again, because you’d think they were catastrophically bad at making stuff. But it’d be cool if it talked, right?

Mark your calendars! #mmpc2026 The 2026 Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference will be take place September 25-27, 2026 at the University of Minnesota! We are excited to welcome keynote speaker Dr. Andy Camilli. Give us a follow and watch for important information here ➡️ mmpc2026.umn.edu

Microbiology Postdoctoral Position (Please re-post) A funded postdoctoral position in Chicago will open in 2026 to study aspects of Neisseria gonorrhoeae pathogenesis, antigenic variation, genetics, or physiology. If interested, please get in touch with Hank Seifert [email protected]

Reposting, submit soon!

We're hiring! Check out our ad and please re-post or forward to interested #Microbiology parties: apply.interfolio.com/174783

UChicago Microbiology is searching for tenured or tenure-track faculty working in host-pathogens interactions, viral and bacterial pathogenesis, and emerging infectious diseases. Come join our vibrant Department! microbiology.uchicago.edu Apply here apply.interfolio.com/174404

Important piece from Sarah Stanley at Berkeley on new NIH definitions that can be construed to arbitrarily halt research that is both safe and important to public health and future cures www.statnews.com/2025/10/06/g... via @statnews.com

Opening session for the 2025 Midwest Microbial Pathogenesis Conference.Going on with Year 31 of this great get together. @ #mmpcconference

🎙️ Job Announcement: Penn State is seeking an ASSISTANT PROFESSOR in MICROBIOLOGY (any subdiscipline) in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Learn more and Join the Microbiome Jubilee: psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Ac...

Postdoc position (please re-post) A funded postdoctoral position, will open in 2026 to study aspects of Neisseria gonorrhoeae pathogenesis, antigenic variation, genetics, or physiology. If interested in more information, please contact Hank Seifert [email protected] #MicroSky

Together with @soreklab.bsky.social, our labs discovered that the human cGAS-STING pathway evolved from ancient bacterial proteins in CBASS anti-phage defense www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Postdoctoral Position (Please re-post) A funded postdoctoral position, will open in 2026 to study aspects of Neisseria gonorrhoeae pathogenesis, antigenic variation, genetics, or physiology. If interested in more information, please contact Hank Seifert [email protected]

Our latest efforts to understand Enterococcal wound infection. In long-term collaboration with @gthibault.bsky.social, we discovered how E. faecalis makes extracellular ROS - via EET!⚡️Which in turn dysregulates host UPR to delay wound healing. Led by @aarontan.bsky.social - his videos below are 🤩!

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...

Happy to see that this fantastic work is in press now! Congrats to the Palmer lab and lead authors @xiaomeiren.bsky.social and @rmasonclark.bsky.social.

Please contact Congress ASAP to raise awareness of this accounting plan.

Cools story about bacterial crosstalk influencing disease relevant traits! 🧪

Northwestern Micro representing at the 2025GRC MAST conference in beautiful Newport. Great science, collegial people but there’s a cloud hanging over us all. ☁️

Here's our new broad review on the extended mobility of plasmids, about all mechanisms driving and limiting their transfer. From conjugation to conduction, phage-plasmids to hitchers, molecular to evolutionary dynamics, ecology to biotech. The state of affairs. 1/9 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Many exciting initiatives led by EIC @abaumler.bsky.social on including New Voices in Microbiology and special topics issues - check it out! journals.asm.org/journal/iai

New preprint! We characterise the small, regulatory RNA Arp which controls DNA uptake and twitching motilty in A. baumannii. Led by our Dr Fergal Hamrock @hamrockfergal.bsky.social and in collaboration with @westermannlab.bsky.social and Mike Gebhardt's lab!

New @nejm.org report shows a rapid rise in tetM-carrying Neisseria gonorrhoeae strains in the U.S. jumping from <10% in 2020 to >30% by early 2024. Why? Likely linked to our increased use of doxycycline both for STI treatment and DoxyPEP. #MedSky #IDSky www.nejm.org/doi/full/10....

Goodbye and good luck in graduate school, Kabita Kunwar!

🍂 👿 Brown University has not Received NIH Grant Payments Since April 🧪 "Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also told NIH to not communicate with the schools about 'whether or why the funds are frozen' " fiercebiotech.com/

Important story about OMB's plans with regard to appropriated funds. This is a big deal, both practically and constitutionally. [Gift article] www.nytimes.com/2025/06/17/u...

NEW at grant-watch.us: Emma Mairson and Marian Jarlenski report on funding freezes at Brown, Columbia, Cornell, and Northwestern, that have received zero payments for #NIH grants since the start of April: grant-watch.us/posts/trends...

This is more than just lost grant dollars...this is patients in experimental treatments for incurable cancers having to stop their course of treatment. It's patients with medical devices going unmonitored. It's entire lines of groundbreaking science coming to a hard stop. #DownWithDOGE

👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

Comprehensive reporting of issues with US science funding. unbreaking.org/issues/medic...

#AcademicSky #EduSky

All of NIH funding to Northwestern University is frozen. This pause includes noncompeting approved funding, new and competing grants with fundable scores. No reimbursements for money already spent have been received since March. This situation is rarely reported so please Please get the word out!

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

Nice final pub from Dr. Wendy Geslewitz to finish her dissertation work. CRISPRi-mediated repression of three cI repressors induces the expression of three related Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteriophages | Journal of Bacteriology journals.asm.org/eprint/6C2IM...

Congratulations to Eric Skaar and all of the new National Academy Members. www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...

Check out the back to back cool papers from @jutraslab.bsky.social #MicroSky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Taking a break from the news in Bsky. Happy to share amazing study by student Jiexi Chen on Vibrio vulnificus MARTX toxin engagement of N-glycans and receptor L1CAM. First study on this toxin binding to cell surfaces. #vibrio #microsky #toxins www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congratulations to Wendy Geslewitz for defending her PhD work.

In a new National Postdoctoral Association report, 43% of postdocs said Trump administration policies have threatened their positions, while more than one-third…

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/08/s... This article is not even on the first page - let’s try to give the @standupforscience.bsky.social rallies some visibility!