Really fun collaboration with Roman Melnyk from The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute and Peter Dosa from University of Minnesota, making synthetic bile acids to be gut-restricted prevents C. difficile infection in a preclinical mouse model

#NewResearch A bile acid-bound structure of toxin TcdB revealed the mechanism of inhibition and guided the design of a synthetic bile acid that alleviated C. difficile infection in mice. #MicroSky 🦠💊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really nice work driven by postdocs Dr. Gancz in my lab and Dr. Zhang in Baker @erinbakerims.bsky.social lab at UNC, looking at novel lipids and how they might play a role in restoring colonization resistance against C. difficile in patients with rCDI post FMT. www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7...

Leids ‘superantibioticum’ houdt met lage dosis gevaarlijke darmbacterie in bedwang www.universiteitleiden.nl/nieuws/2025/...

New paper alert! In this work, published in @natcomms.nature.com we show that a new antibiotic is effective against (r)CDI. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Really nice collaboration with the Martin and Smits labs at Leiden University Netherlands, designing and testing novel antimicrobials that target C. difficile but spare members of the microbiota, including Lachnospiraceae. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cool Postdoc opportunity alert! UNC SPIRE (Seeding Postdoctoral Innovators in Research & Education)-it provides scholars with both high quality research training & the opportunity to develop research based teaching skills that will inspire students across the sciences 1/n spire.unc.edu/program-info/

"We became inconvenient".

If you believe that keeping your head down and being quiet will spare you from this fate, you are mistaken. This will be all of us.

Faculty search announcement 2025: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Microbiology at UT Southwestern. We seek candidates working in microbial pathogenesis (some preference may be given to bacterial pathogens). Come join our community! (1/5) www.utsouthwestern.edu/departments/...

The best of both worlds with awesome speakers that will focus on how the microbiome affects ecosystems at a mechanistic level. Can’t wait for this meeting.

A federal agency - which controls an enormous amount of money - is breaking the law to hide its decisions from you and avoid accountability. Hey OMB, see you in court.

I have thought on it and prayed about it, and I have decided: I am running to be the next U.S. Senator from North Carolina.

Thank you Senator Tillis! NC folks drop him an email or make a call and thank him

We’ve known for months now that Vought was illegally impounding funds with the goals of rescissions. Better late than never for GOP Senators to politely ask that he stop breaking the law.

Enterococcus faecalis modulates phase variation in Clostridioides difficile https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.24.666506v1

I am so excited about this meeting. I will cover the discovery of 10,000s new metabolites, including an entirely new class of molecules. Looking forward to hearing and discussing your science on microbiome metabolites and metabolism.

New paper is out from our lab showing that some probiotics can accelerate and prolong the return of colonization resistance to C. difficile after antibiotics. news.ncsu.edu/2025/07/prob...

Join us in Banff, CAN January 19-22 for the Keystone meeting on Microbiome Metabolism and Metabolites! Early scholarship deadline is September 23!

Thanks to WRAL for documenting the tremendous impact of the Trump administration efforts to end important research grants www.wral.com/news/local/u...

We are looking for a new postdoctoral fellow to join our team at NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine, near Research Triangle Park. If you are interested please DM me and or also apply here: jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/219...

The #SCIMaP team announces a major update: an analysis of the economic impacts of the White House's NIH FY26 budget. Bottom-line, we estimate $46B in total economic loss, 202K lost jobs, and impacts in communities nationwide. Interactive map and shareable report: scienceimpacts.org/fy26 a 🧵

We are looking for a new postdoctoral fellow to join our team at NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine, near Research Triangle Park. If you are interested please DM me and or also apply here: jobs.ncsu.edu/postings/219...

Incredible work, JP! #McClintockLetters

If you have ever wondered what might happen to short chain fatty acids made by the microbiome. Here is a large class of metabolites and how they link to biology. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Jay Bhattacharya & Russ Vought are taking $566 million in NIH funding from my state (we are #2 in terminated grants) The impact will be truly horrific, but these 2 men will rejoice 😡 Bhattacharya took $129 million from Duke’s HIV vaccine development efforts: www.dukechronicle.com/article/2025... 🤬

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!

Testifying tomorrow at a Senate hearing showcasing damage done to HHS by (personnel) terminations 3:00-4:30 convened by Senators Welch and Baldwin. With former leaders from CDC, SAMSHA< AHRQ, ACL (Admin. for Community Living) www.cbsnews.com/news/rfk-jr-...

It's worth commenting on the proposed plan to take away COVID boosters for people under 65. It takes 2 minutes. That said, I am really tired of having to comment on every dumb-ass thing every day. Could we just not destroy our society?

I can’t recommend this enough. UNBREAKING, a new project from @lizneeley.bsky.social & co, documents & explains our many concurrent institutional collapses. It’s beautifully executed work, full of intellectual & moral clarity. 3 pages are live, more will come. It’s SO GOOD, & I learned so much.

Excited to share our new work in @aga-gastro.bsky.social! We show that dietary fiber alters the window of susceptibility to C. difficile following antibiotic exposure. This really fantastic study was co-led by an amazing team @rinniehewlett.bsky.social @alhecht.bsky.social and Amanda PeBenito.

Hey do you guys remember the promises @SecKennedy made to @SenBillCassidy? I do. youtu.be/QrJcBtkfwvo?si…

Important: if a bug does not make the WHO's priority list, this does not mean it is not relevant. We present arguments why investment in R&D for surveillance, control and treatment of C. difficile (CDI) is of critical importance: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Delighted to announce the @keystonesymposia.bsky.social meeting: Beyond #Antibiotics: Emerging Strategies Combating #BacterialInfection. Join us in Breckenridge in May 2026!! You can check out the program and amazing lineup of speakers below: keysym.us/KSAntibiotics26 #KSAntibiotics26

“No amount of data showing that RFK Jr. is wrong will change his mind,” vaccine advocate Paul Offit writes in an open letter to Sen. Bill Cassidy. www.statnews.com/2025/05/07/r...

It doesn't even matter if you are on the list when everyone is on the list. Impoundment in process, which needs more attention and policy-level responses given local impacts. NSF - stopped paying. www.nature.com/articles/d41... NIH - stopped awarding. bsky.app/profile/jere...

This report of interview with new NIH Director Jayanta Bhattacharya from @jocelynkaiser.bsky.social reveals a real $hit show... www.science.org/content/arti... 1/n

Step up--great action plan here!!

Front page @nytimes.com today 1 of 6 charts of the 1st 100 days www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am extremely pleased to share this feature articulating why I have lost my sanity lately. www.science.org/content/arti...

NEW: We (mostly @noamross.net) launched a website to shine a brighter light on terminated NIH and NSF grants. grant-watch.us It links to our NIH & NSF trackers, grant info submission forms, and other info. We'll also add new analyses soon. Check it out and let us know what else you'd like to see.

The witnesses for this hearing tomorrow are now posted

Keep calling and emailing and faxing the FDA every day to get Novavax full BLA approval, under 12 access, extend shelf life Keep calling the FDA 800-402-8010 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

NIH DOGE'd..... Scientists fear Trump administration cuts to NIH could impact the health of Americans for generations 60 Minutes @cbsnews.com w/transcript www.cbsnews.com/news/nih-lay...

Here is a link to 60 Minutes NIH segment... www.cbsnews.com/news/scienti...

I received this letter, sent to 11 Republican members of Congress this weekend from anonymous NIHers. 1/n .

RFK Jr wanted to edit the vaccine safety database www.medpagetoday.com/publichealth...

NIH PostBac program is open again! And I will be hiring! #JobPostComing www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

🚨 JOB OFFER in our lab at Institut Pasteur 🚨 We are looking for a postdoc! Please repost 🙏

The Raleigh protest is slam packed! Every parking lot within a mile is full and the overflow crowds are pouring into the streets!! #fiftyfiftyone #handsoff