I am very happy to share that I have started this week as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology at the Richard A. Gillespie College of Veterinary Medicine in Harrogate, Tennessee. It has been a beautiful journey from IAAS to Ohio State to Cornell, and now to LMU-CVM.

We discovered a new family of c-di-NMP receptors, widespread in bacteria & regulating🦠motility @pnas.org A great collab. w/ @mygalperin.bsky.social @vikramalva.bsky.social @thethormannden.bsky.social www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @hhu.de @cmfi.bsky.social @sfb1381.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social

The outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria blocks many antibiotics. Our latest work reveals that L-type pyocins bypass this barrier by inactivating the BAM complex, killing Pseudomonas aeruginosa without entering the cell, providing a new blueprint for beating antibiotic resistance.

Latest from the lab! Analysis of everyone’s favorite regulatory mechanism in bacteria — the RF2 programmed frameshift! Likely present in the ancestor of bacteria, use of this mechanism is influenced by stop codon usage! Big congrats to @cassidyprints.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

#microsky We challenge the long-standing view that peptidoglycan alone protects cells from bursting. Our study shows that the periplasm — enclosed by OM–PG connections — acts as a pressure buffer essential for osmoprotection in Gram-negative bacteria. 📄 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It is a dream-come-true moment for me! The unique long-chain fatty acid transporter of Legionella pneumophila that we reported in our earlier study made it to the JB cover! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A dual-target antibiotic strategy, combining membrane disruption with another cellular pathway, shows promise in reducing bacterial resistance, offering a new direction in combating antimicrobial resistance. doi.org/g855sh

Nature research paper: Macrophages recycle phagocytosed bacteria to fuel immunometabolic responses https://go.nature.com/3XmyOPD

My first-author PhD paper is out in @naturecomms.bsky.social: A “double trouble” approach—combining membrane disruption with a key cellular pathway—dramatically limits bacterial #resistance. Discover “Exploring the principles behind antibiotics with limited resistance” #AMR #DrugDevelopment #MEvoSky

The new JB is out. We thank ad hoc reviewers for 2024, minireviews on spores, mycobacteria, phages in the gut, formate metabolism and biofilm microenvironments. Check out articles on LD-transpeptidases, Myxo, B12 (my favorite vitamin) & more. journals.asm.org/toc/jb/207/2 @asm.org #JBacteriology

New review out in @NatureRevMicro on the complex rltnshp btween metabolism & AMR! A true labor of love from previous postbac Mehrose, grad students Varun & Zirui, and collaborator @drrobsmith.bsky.social (plus figures I'll likely use for many talks to come 😊) rdcu.be/eaES2

Excited to share my recent work published in #JBacteriology @asm.org ! We found that LD-transpeptidases drive phenotypic differentiation of Legionella and Coxiella into intrinsically resistant forms. Grateful to all who made this possible ! journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...