This month, my lab celebrated our 5 year anniversary! On October 16, 2020, I rode the L train to start my lab at UIC, as the only lab member during COVID. In 2025, we celebrated together! It’s been such an honor that all these incredible people and more have chosen to do science with me!

Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404

There is still some time left to apply for these two Group Leader positions in Plant Biology and Microbe-Plant Interactions. Spread the word, apply & become our colleague @johninnescentre.bsky.social

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

And congratulations to @cp-cell.bsky.social Poster Award Winners Rachel Washburn (USF) and Jessica Aycock (Clemson) at 2025 GRC MAST!!! 🥳🎉👏🏼

Congratulations to 2025 GRC Microbial Adhesion and Signal Transduction Poster Award Winners!! 🎆🥂🙌 Thank you @cp-cell.bsky.social and @femsmicro.org for sponsoring! From, Your secret judges 🤫

1/3 It’s official 🙌🏽 The Reyes Ruiz Lab is opening in 2026 at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in the Department of Pathobiological Sciences. My lab will focus on host antibacterial effectors and adaptation of bacteria to host-imposed stress during S. aureus infections.

Join the Blokesch lab (@EPFL) as a postdoc in Molecular Microbiology 🤩 Study Vibrio cholerae defense systems (phage/plasmid) in a dynamic, collaborative environment in Lausanne close to Lake Geneva in 🇨🇭! Please visit my lab's webpage for details about the position and how to formally apply.

ACTION ITEM-----ACTION ITEM Implementation of Schedule F This is what a lot of us have been worried about. This allows for many civil service positions to replaced with political appointees. This could include NIH institute directors and even POs. BUT THERE IS A COMMENT PERIOD... 1/n

How did life go from solo cells to many coordinating ones? Perhaps a bit of pressure. That story and more of the best from @science.org and science in this edition of #ScienceAdviser: www.science.org/content/arti... 🧪

I'm delighted to share a useful FREE web-based app portal of powerful bioinformatics tools for microbial genomes and shotgun microbiome sequences! It's called Micromics and is built by Middle Author Bioinformatics, led by co-founder @ironark.bsky.social omix.midauthorbio.com

So much joy to see everyone today coming together to celebrate 20 years of the Skaar Lab. Thank you to Eric for the leadership and mentorship over the years! 🥰

I'm hoping to hire a full-time research technician to help with launching my research program here at Rutgers - if you know someone interested in gaining additional expertise in molecular microbiology, please send them my way! jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/247...

🚨 The Department of Microbiology & Cell Biology at Montana State University invites applications for an Assistant Professor tenure-track faculty position in the field of environmental microbiology. Happy to answer any questions! 🧫🧪🧬 #microsky jobs.montana.edu/postings/45680

"’NIH staff internally are very worried that the mRNA grants will follow the outcome of the vaccine hesitancy grants and be terminated’” It would be devastating to end this promising research that will save lives from infections and cancer www.npr.org/2025/03/12/n...

Excited to share our work with @pjplanet.bsky.social and @ahmedmicrobes.bsky.social tracking Staph aureus transmission across the NICU using genomics!! This study was co-led by the amazing @qianxuan.bsky.social and Lakshmi Srinivasan, and made possible by the @centermicrobialmed.bsky.social

I have an exciting opportunity to join my research team in Singapore @scelse.bsky.social as a PhD student to explore programmed cell death in biofilms. See below for more information and please share widely!

The hits keep coming. Huge loss for my home state of West Virginia. WV-INBRE opened my eyes to a science career and changed my life.

I'm just going to reiterate what many people are saying: if you are concerned about the state of science / NIH funding, etc, NOW IS THE MOMENT to pick up the phone and call your senators and reps The federal govt continuing resolution budget expires in a month. They are deciding funding right now.

Join us! Science Homecoming helps scientists reconnect with communities by writing about the importance of science funding in their hometown newspapers. We’ve mapped every small newspaper in the U.S. and provide resources to get you started. Help science get back home 🧪🔬🧬 🏠 sciencehomecoming.com

Rutgers peeps: Wednesday noon in my building

No new NIH study sections have been announced in the Federal Register since Jan 21. But I hear that colleagues have been asked to serve. Does your meeting appear in these announcements? If this applies to you, please check and reply here with info! www.federalregister.gov/documents/se...

Multiple faculty positions in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in association with the Center for Immunology, and the Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Cornell University

Our lab is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral research associate to study zinc metallochaperones from the COG0523 superfamily of small GTPases. Apply here: shorturl.at/UmQYM or send application materials to Prof. Giedroc directly at [email protected]. Looking for strong biochemists; please share!

In New Jersey — NIH Funding: $404M Jobs Supported: 5,136 Economic Activity Supported: $1.32B @kim.senate.gov @corybooker.com

Executive wants to frame the NIH indirects cut as $4B in savings. But given that NIH returns $2.5 on every $1 investment, this would actually cost US economy a net $6 BILLION (per year!). Not to mention the human costs of wrecking education and research sectors and the communities they serve.

On changes to #NIH indirect rates, there is a law in place that prohibits NIH from making such changes without the approval of Congress. See Division D, Title II Section 224 of The Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024 (Public Law No: 118-47) grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

"Pursuant to this Supplemental Guidance, there will be a standard indirect rate of 15% across all NIH grants for indirect costs in lieu of a separately negotiated rate for indirect costs in every grant." grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Excited to share! @yeshapatel.bsky.social and I report... Mutations in RNAP confer antibiotic resistance via transcriptome remodeling. Repression of branched chain amino acid and Pyr pathways increases β-lactam resistance in B. subtilis. #MicroSky #AMR #antibiotics www.cell.com/cell-reports...

And the funding announcement for diversity supplements now has been updated to expire today. Supplements are so important to the careers of junior scientists. This is crushing for post docs and early career faculty grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Excited to share that we are hiring a Bridge to Faculty Postdoc in Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Illinois Chicago. Please reach out if you have any questions about the program. And please share broadly. uic.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Wow - bluesky! 📈 🦠 Please help me amplify a special faculty search. We're looking for someone in "Microbial Systems Biology" to join me and @kreynoldslab.bsky.social at UTSW Sys Bio / Bioinformatics. There is an empty lab space right next to us waiting for you! apply.interfolio.com/154339 1/4

How do secreted and membrane-localized enzymes get appropriately metalated? ... Bixi He and I tackled this question, with a focus on the cell envelope... Metalation of Extracytoplasmic Proteins and Bacterial Cell Envelope Homeostasis | Annual Reviews - go.shr.lc/3V0lM92

Just added several new people to volume 2 of the Pathogen Bacteria starter pack. Great to see all the new faces on here. go.bsky.app/NSpWU9W

🚨Travel awards for Early Career Researchers to attend ASM Microbe🧫 1. Awarded through ASM Branches 2. $1650 per award, 3 per branch 3. Apps open now! 4. Named for Peggy Cotter, ASM past president & advocate 5. A proud accomplishment when I was COMS Chair 6. Apply / share! asm.org/Travel-Award...

Rutgers published a very nice story on our recent work! www.rutgers.edu/news/researc...

Such a great visit yesterday at West Virginia University and a full-circle moment to be invited by my undergrad research mentor extraordinaire Jen Gallagher! It’s the people in science that keep me going.

Excited to see many in the bacterial pathogenesis community joining here in the last few weeks, so here's a Starter Pack to help make connections. Reply/DM to be added to this or future Packs. #Microsky go.bsky.app/VH64BaY

Publication Alert! Happy to share our new work published in CellReports of a collaboration with the Zychlinsky Lab (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology). "Histone H1 kills MRSA". cell.com/cell-reports.... Enjoy!

SO EXCITED to share our recent work on dietary zinc deficiency worsening Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia, out today with @natureportfolio.bsky.social!! Surprisingly, this is due at least in part to the allergic-type cytokine IL-13. SharedIt link: rdcu.be/d0h4h Eat your zinc rich foods! 🦪🫘🧀🥩🥜

Happy to be here!