Major breakthroughs in cancer research can come from the most unexpected sources. This World Cancer Day, we celebrate the curiosity that drives our scientists to look for answers in unusual places.

A must read! The constant and often irrational renaming of microbes is out of control, and bad for microbiology and microbiologists. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The Microbial Diversity courseis top-notch! Hoping to see you there! www.mbl.edu/education/ad...

No one organization can fill the gaps created by federal funding cuts to research. But as an independent funder, Damon Runyon is committed to ensuring that our scientists can continue their lifesaving work in 2026 and beyond. Until midnight, all gifts will be fully matched: damonrunyon.org/donate

New from AFI researchers Jennifer Gundrum and Drs. Tabita Ramirez-Puebla, Jessica L. Mark Welch, and Gary G. Borisy: Novel FISH method overcomes cell wall barriers, enabling clearer insight into complex microbial communities. Learn more: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The 2025 Agar Art Contest winners have been selected! This year’s theme, “Microbes Make the World Go Round,” inspired 557 global entries—from food fermentation to antibiotic production. See the masterpieces and finalists! asm.org/press-releas... #agarart

@archaeabio.bsky.social can maybe help here?

The latest and most detailed review on a fundamental biochemical pathway: #glycolysis #microbiology #biochemistry onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

In a manuscript on BioRxiv, we describe experiments exploring the culturome of the gut of adults with CF and in health, revealing an interesting redistribution of the microbes in the lumen vs. mucosa. The study is led by Sarvesh Surve a PhD student in my lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Rare Phyla, Such as CPR and DPANN, Shape Ecosystem-Level Microbial Community Structure Dissimilarities link.springer.com/article/10.1... #jcampubs

When life gives you lab electrical shutdowns for maintenance … you make the most of the first bits of east coast snow!

Very excited to share a big part of my dissertation work with the Deutschbauer lab at LBNL and @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social! BarTn7: A method for bacterial lineage tracking at sub-species resolution in population, ecological, and evolutionary experiments. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share new work from Sarvesh Surve examining the gut microbiota of adults with CF using colonoscopy samples and a culturomics approach. We note continued depletion of Bacteroidota (which we noted in kids) & enrichment of aerobes in the mucosa of pwCF. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41256617/

DAY 168 SPECIES 168 - Prevotella intermedia STAGE: Bacteria MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatek & HWC Watercolor. Sakura pen Thanks to @lesliedaymicro.bsky.social for suggesting it! #sciart #watercolor #bacteria #painting #art #paint

Clone-FISH paper out: Manuscript/resource alert #microsky 🦠 We present a collection of 30 E. coli (CloneFISH) cultures, each carrying a plasmid for the heterologous expression of a (near) full-length 16S rRNA gene from one of 30 lineages of archaea, including 17 yet uncultured ones.

Science is awesome ... www.cell.com/trends/biote... #violacein #pigments

Assembly, architecture and functional roles of microbial surface layers #microbiology #archaea #bacteria @natrevmicro.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Increased mutation rates and diversity are dominant features of Geobacter multiheme cytochromes www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs

"Functional CFTR may be required for Prevotella melaninogenica regulation of epithelial cell defense against Staphylococcus aureus" pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41198444/ #microsky

Prevotella is the clear favorite of the 4-member cookie community (not like I’m surprised) @bassamhafi.bsky.social @fabricejpierre.bsky.social

Congratulations to Bassam el Hafi, who successfully defended his PhD thesis yesterday! He did a terrific job! Bassam connected microbial interactions to the complexity of human communication. Thanks also to Sarah Clark of the Anschutz School of Medicine who served at Bassam's outside examiner.

New in JB: A minireview from my team, led by a recently graduated PhD student Kaitlyn Barrack, compares the microbiota and physiology of the CF gut with features of the gut in inflammatory bowel disease - there are many similarities! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org #JBacteriology

We're thrilled to announce SeqHub, an AI-enabled platform for biological sequence analysis. SeqHub brings together sequence search, genome annotation, and data sharing in one place.

Excited to be part of this collaboration with the Burrows lab exploring twitching and surface surface sensing by P. aeruginosa. This work further delineates a role for the T4P motor proteins and pili for surface sensing. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org

Earlier this month, we proudly welcomed the newest cohort of Damon Runyon Fellows! These 16 brilliant postdocs will receive four years of independent funding to advance their investigation of causes, treatments, and prevention strategies for all types of cancer. Read more: https://bit.ly/4nc25Hq

In #mBio, dive into story behind the 1989 discovery of Helicobacter pylori CagA, the first tumorigenic bacterial protein. This article recounts the early steps in the investigative process and relates some of the unexpected discoveries that ensued. asm.social/2C1

Happy to finally see this out! Bassam El Halfi (@bassamhafi.bsky.social - my first rotation student when I started my post-doc in @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social) did an amazing job investigating mechanisms of interspecies metabolic interactions. Check it out! #microsky journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Excited to share our latest work, driven by my recently graduated PhD student Kaitlyn Barrack, exploring the mechanisms of bacterial dysbiosis in the CF gut - including a role for a colorectal cancer-associated genotoxin in this competition. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... @kbarrack.bsky.social

Excited about our most recent collaboration with the Wong lab, lead by William Schmidt, describing a T4P and CdrA-mediated mechanism of sensing surface EPS. Fun stuff and great work William and team. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The latest and greatest from an amazing team of authors. See what you think: A Comprehensive Framework for Assessing Terrestrial Analogue Field Sites for Ocean Worlds - Stern - 2025 - Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets - Wiley Online Library agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/...

Incredibly honored to be a Damon Runyon Fellow! @damonrunyon.org

Our newest manuscript on the gut-lung axis in CF, lead by Rebecca Valls, explores sex and intestinal regional differences in response to Bacteroides. Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We had the O'Toole Lab Reunion on Sat here at Dartmouth, celebrating 26 amazing years - science is all about the people, and I have been fortunate to have a great bunch of folks in the lab over the years! And THANKS to all the lab members who did all the organizing!

Microbes rarely exist alone; instead, they live in dynamic communities. In #IAIJournal, researchers discuss the interplay between the host environment & microbiome metabolism & the impacts on disease progression in host-associated polymicrobial communities. asm.social/2yf

Excited about our most recent paper lead by Kaitlyn Barrack, a minireview in JB comparing the CF and IBD guts - from microbiomes to physiologies. There are many similarities... journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org #JBacteriology @kbarrack.bsky.social

✨Our annual #BiofilmCreate Competition is open for 2025! 🎨 📷 Showcase your talent in #photography / #art whilst highlighting the impact of #biofilms 🏆Gift cards will be awarded in both categories 🗳️biofilms.ac.uk/create #science #scicomm #AMR #MicroSky

Microbial Diversity 💜

JB Editor's Choice: Our latest in the Microbial Model Systems series (journals.asm.org/topic/sss-ta...) is "Milestones in the development of Myxococcus xanthus as a model multicellular bacterium" - from many contributors! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org #JBacteriology

@amnh.org pleaaaseeeeee let me help update this! Everything else about the biodiversity room is amazing but this hurt my archaea loving soul.

"Respiratory viral infection is associated with increased Pseudomonas abundance in cystic fibrosis airways" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Always a blast getting to lead a bunch of great scientists into a swamp to light methane on fire! #volta

Last night at Microbial Diversity, we all went out for a MD tradition- the Volta experiment! A dirty but happy crew! @mblscience.bsky.social

Heading to one of my favorite places! Excited to share my anaerobe/genetics love & learn from the incredible people at the @mblscience.bsky.social and Microbial Diversity Course!

#NewResearch 🚨Out now! Structural analyses of the extracellular flagellum shows mechanism for flagellin incorporation #MicroSky 🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#NewResearch 🚨Out now In situ sub-nanometre structure of the Campylobacter jejuni flagellar motor revealing the periplasmic scaffold and basis for torque generation @beebylab.bsky.social #MicroSky🦠🧫 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We had a last minute cancellation for STAMPS -- a phenomenal course on microbiome data analysis. Woods Hole, MA, July 14-24 2025. If you or *anyone* you know is interested to attend, please email Titus &/or me... and we'll do what we can!!! Thx for sharing widely! 🤞❤️

Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...