Thrilled to announce that the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington, School of Medicine is hiring at the Assistant Professor level (tenure-track)! The Pacific Northwest is an awesome place to live and do science 🧪🦠. Join us! apply.interfolio.com/185622 Applications due 8/1.

Review: Tdap during pregnancy is safe, protects newborns from pertussis publications.aap.org/aapnews/news... via @ameracadpeds.bsky.social

Tick– #virus interactions are poorly understood despite their impact on #disease #transmission. This study shows that #ticks hijack the JAK/STAT signaling pathway to drive LRP-mediated #lipophagy, supplying energy that enhances viral replication @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4tVRLWO

Implications of year 1 Trump Administration policies for Americans’ lung health doi.org/10.1093/ajrc... @atscommunity.bsky.social

I'm looking for an enthusiastic student to join my team as a PhD candidate on archaeal genome evolution 🦠💻 Work in beautiful Utrecht, at @binfutrecht.bsky.social, an international group full of caring, amazing scientists, and with frequent cake breaks! www.uu.nl/en/organisat... Please share! 🙏

'We primarily do comparative analysis using human stem cells/organoids and genetically modified mouse models, with some minor use of frog models. We use this approach because, for developmental anomalies, it is impossible to assess true function without in vivo models' @karenjliu.bsky.social

This would be a disaster. It also shows that trying to remain above the political fray, as NASEM leadership has mostly done, is generally not workable — in the end, they’ll come for you if they don’t like what you represent, and probably sooner than later

Our goal is to simply survive this administration and all of the damage they are doing to our country, the present and future of science. I publish with "foreign scientists" all the time. This is going to be a problem if I cannot cite those papers in my progress reports.

Oregon primate center scientists fight proposed sanctuary transition: A group of employees has launched a series of campaigns to advocate for their work and argue against the center’s potential transition to an animal sanctuary. www.thetransmitter.org/nonhuman-pri...

Gotta say this is an all-timer from @maxnesterak.bsky.social, just legendary

There’s a LOT going on as researchers and public health experts race to respond to the Ebola Bundibugyo outbreak in DRC and Uganda before it grows bigger. Some really important questions still open, but also a few answers coming into view🧪 My overview in @science.org is here (and thread coming):

"“It’s possible that we’re starting to see the consequences of severe and sudden cuts to global health programs that have eroded surveillance and allowed deadly viruses to spread undetected...” www.nytimes.com/2026/05/15/w...

Putting the things that actually did make us great into the wood chipper

My new essay in @economist.com Health Dividend Tuberculosis kills on a vast scale, but as foreign aid shrinks, countries with a high burden of TB stand to gain a lot by investing more to curb the disease and its heavy social cost impact.economist.com/health-socie...

Bhattacharya: "I don't see a bottleneck now.... My job is to make sure every single dollar goes out, and it will go out by the end of the year on excellent science. A lot of the concerns, it just seems like political noise to me. It's not reality." Reality... 🧵1/6 www.27unihted.org/jay-fact-che...

A new Lancet study just reported the primary mortality analysis from the RTS,S malaria vaccine implementation programme in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi. The verdict after 46 months is 1 in 8 deaths averted in eligible children, a very important outcome. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Diagnostic and prognostic accuracy of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis host response 3-gene cartridge among #tuberculosis household contacts in Mozambique, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe: a prospective, longitudinal, diagnostic and prognostic accuracy cohort study - The Lancet Infectious Diseases

While BioNtech & Moderna become household names because of their Covid vaccines, those emerged from different projects: finding ways to treat the most challenging cancers. They hypothesized that we could vaccinate patients against their own tumors, & evidence is mounting that they were right! 1/n 🧪

POSTDOC OPPORTUNITY!!! The Rutgers IRACDA program is phenomenal: 70% of postdoctoral fellows land faculty positions. Martha Soto (LinkedIn below) is the amazing director and leader of this program. Please apply or reach out if you have questions. www.linkedin.com/posts/martha...

Host-derived lipids license proliferation of sterol-auxotrophic tick cells and promote flavivirus output https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.11.724467v1

IL33 is linked to allergic asthma but is differentially regulated in mice & humans doi.org/10.1172/jci.... @annesperling1.bsky.social & team employ an elegant genetic tool to identify a neg feedback loop for endothelial IL33 expression in response to allergen or exogenous IL33

Sean Duffy’s reality series is getting slammed for all of the obvious reasons, but don’t look past the fact that his show is being sponsored by companies his department oversees and regulates. In other words, it’s not just a political mess, it’s also an ethical one. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo...

Cat to Human H5N1 transmission. Next time someone tells me I discourage raw food because I’m getting paid off by big pet food I’ll drop this one on them. The veterinarian seroconverted but never had symptoms. None of the symptomatic contacts of the cats tested positive by either PCR or serology.

the most anti free speech administration in this country’s history

While not a virus with pandemic potential, hantavirus is a warning sign. It reveals how cuts to US capacity have severely limited the ability of scientists to track and understand pathogens like these, with troubling implications for for pandemic preparedness. www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

CD1a-Mediated Presentation of Canonical Microbial Peptides to T Cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.05.723095v1

Quenching mitochondrial reactive oxygen species in monocyte-derived macrophages, but not in microglia, ameliorates neuroinflammation www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @sciimmunology.bsky.social @villarvesga.bsky.social

Now online! AI-predicted spatial transcriptomics unlocks breast cancer biomarkers from pathology

Your perennial reminder that Rollins indefinitely cancelled the study that measures hunger in America shortly after these cuts were enacted

The Trump administration has slashed funding for infectious disease research and has far fewer employees, including disease detectives, to respond to outbreaks. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/07/h...

Data highlight the unique role of Lyn in limiting proinflammatory signaling and shed light on a mechanism by which macrophages selectively respond to high-valency particulate ligands that override a basal inhibitory program. Read about it here: https://ow.ly/FzqZ50YNChC.

The single most defining thing Elon Musk has ever done is killing untold numbers of people by having DOGE illegally raid and disband USAID. Not rickets, not cars, not even the CSAMbot on X. It’s this, and so many media pundits just choose to unsee it.

Hantavirus, a rare disease often caused by contact with droppings from infected rodents, is suspected in the deaths of three people who were aboard a cruise ship sailing the Atlantic Ocean. Here's what to know about hantavirus.

Super excited to launch POCAxOMAP with @dschweppe.bsky.social and @oligopain.bsky.social and led by Eli Biletch, Conor Herlihy and Lidan Li. If you’ve ever wanted to do proximity labeling on DNA, RNA, or protein without genetic engineering, look no further. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

You are an ambitious young scientist, on the verge to independence, in a research field related to our Cluster of Excellence @cmfi.bsky.social “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections”? Join our vibrant, interactive scientific community in Tubingen. Repost and apply! www.nature.com/naturecareer...

If all such acid runoff in the U. S. were essentially being refined for rare earths and producing water as a sort of environmentally-friendly waste product, the U. S. could be self-sufficient in rare earths.

New CDC MMWR shows 50 large TB outbreaks in the US, 2017–2023. 1,092 cases. 23 states. 79% of outbreak cases were US-born. TB is doing what TB does, exploiting the cracks that inequality created through homelessness, substance use, incarceration, poverty. www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

Doctors & researchers close to UCSF are circulating a petition to block Vinay Prasad's return to the university. They cite: -suppression of scientific findings -allegations of abuse -harmful rhetoric attacking public health -conflicts of interest form.jotform.com/260836126659...

New deep dive from me into the anti-science movement, it's structure, tactics, and impact on science and society. Some data analysis, unique testimonies, new infographics and also a first attempt at outlining broadly-agreed upon actions how to fight back. 1/ open.substack.com/pub/protagon...

The Barrick & Lenski Labs in Dept of Microbiology, Genetics, & Immunology at Michigan State Univ seek a Research Assistant II to manage their research operations and participate in projects related to microbial evolution and synthetic biology. See details below. careers.msu.edu/jobs/researc...

New work from Dan Barber's Lab! IFNγ blockade in Mycobacterium tuberculosis infected macaques alters the granuloma environment but not bacterial control www.nature.com/articles/s41...

the u.s. is shooting itself in the foot with a tactical nuke american universities are *so* good and it's a virtuous cycle: smart and ambitious people attend, elevating the whole enterprise. if we alienate the world, it becomes a vicious cycle headed in the opposite direction

What a striking and justified quote at this moment in time: “It might be one of the areas where Europe in general, and France in particular, has an asset, which is to guarantee the freedom of thought,” Mr. Vassy said.”

“Applications from the United States to Sciences Po’s bachelor’s program surged 52% this academic year, while the number of Sciences Po students applying to study for a year in the United States has plunged by 50%. For the first time ever, America is not the first choice for its undergraduates”

Like the weak SPLC and Comey cases, the best way to think about this is an attempt to sync up law enforcement with the right-wing media narrative machine.

Lovely primer on bacterial metabolism from @overtonlab.bsky.social #microsky www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

End of universal birth-dose hep B vaccination will drive up infections, deaths, costs, researchers say www.cidrap.umn.edu/hepatitis/en...

A majestic grove of 1,000-year-old redwoods in Northern California is facing an imminent threat — and it needs your help. Please take a moment to uge California Governor @governor.ca.gov to save Richardson Grove.⬇️

Big opportunities for researchers 🌍 We are investing nearly €400 million to help researchers share their work and collaborate with the best scientific teams across the EU. The 2026 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowships are now open. More: link.europa.eu/PNxpxw