CDC released provisional 2024 data on sexually transmitted infections (STIs). For the first time in years, overall reported cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, & syphilis are down ~9%. In 2024, over 2.2 million STIs were reported. That’s still 13% higher than 10 years ago. www.cdc.gov/sti-statisti...

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine. 1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro 2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute 3) Center for Vaccine Research 🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

Merck is accepting applications for its 2026 Future Talent Program - these are internships and co-ops in a variety of areas including drug discovery, vaccines, clinical trials, biostatistics, epidemiology, HEOR, data science, regulatory affairs, and more #chemsky 🧪⚗️ jobs.merck.com/us/en/search...

Here is the Virginia Department of Health standing order that can used to get a pharmacy based covid vaccine for those 65+ or 18-64 with at least one underlying condition. Your pharmacy should have a copy as well. www.vdh.virginia.gov/content/uplo...

The @ukhsa.bsky.social STI Reference Lab has identified a strain of Neisseria gonorrhoeae which evades detection on the Cepheid Xpert CT/GC Assay. Read more in our eurosurveillance article www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2...

Postdoc position (please re-post) A funded postdoctoral position, will open in 2026 to study aspects of Neisseria gonorrhoeae pathogenesis, antigenic variation, genetics, or physiology. If interested in more information, please contact Hank Seifert [email protected] #MicroSky

Interested in host-pathogen interactions? Want to work in a fun, exciting, and rigorous environment with phenomenal colleagues and world class facilities? Believe it or not, we’re hiring! Please share #MicroSky 👇 womeninscience.com/posting/7315...

Incredibly honored to announce I've received an R37 MERIT award to continue our studies on gonococcal-neutrophil interactions. Thank you to the many mentors, colleagues, collaborators, and most importantly, lab members who have contributed to this work!

New York Times story with profiles of researchers whose grants were terminated. [Gift Link] www.nytimes.com/2025/08/24/o...

Our new review “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘝𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘔𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤-𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘴” is out Compared to antibiotics, vaccines: ✓ Act prophylactically at low pathogen burden ✓ Less prone to inducing resistance due to multifactorial nature of immune pressure 🧵1/3

Excited to have our new mini review on Microbiome Metabolism out today in I&I as part of the @asm.org New Voices in Microbiology collection! Check it out! 🧫🧪 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Some journals are claiming that you need to pay big $$ for gold open access to comply with NIH's new public access policy. FYI that is total bs. You can comply by depositing the Accepted Manuscript into PubMed Central on the Date of Publication without embargo. Pass it on.

Excited to share our new call for papers at @asm.org's MRA journal. Do you have a database, software, or web-based tool that would be a great resource for the micro community? Consider submitting it to MRA! journals.asm.org/journal/mra/...

Please use this link to nominate: asm.org/IAI-minireview

A few weeks late, but delighted to announce I'm an editor at Infection and Immunity! Send your manuscripts to this @ASM.org society journal - proceeds go back to our community. And free immediate #OpenAccess through #SubscribeToOpen. Want to know more? journals.asm.org/S2O

Infection and Immunity is now welcoming nominations for highly promising scientists at the assistant professor level (or equivalent) to submit research to the next New Voices in Microbiology Collection! Please nominate by the August 18 deadline using the below link: app.asm.org/account/logi...

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...

Alert! The abstract deadline for the Microbial Pathogenesis & Host Response meeting has been extended to July 7 meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...

Wonderful to be at #ASMicrobe and catch up with colleagues including the amazing Monica Gestal! #ASMJournals

INVALUABLE must read for academic leadership and really all researchers 👇🏻

Exclusive: Confusion over new DEI language from NSF and NIH leads Williams College to be first institution to pause accepting any grants www.science.org/content/arti...

I helped explain to the Chicago Tribune the enourmous and irrational damage the NIH funding freeze is causing at Northwestern. “You’re at risk of losing an entire next generation of scientists" "it’s terrifying; it’s completely senseless." www.chicagotribune.com/2025/06/07/w...

Are you looking for a faculty job? We are hiring in my department at Roswell Park NOW. Contact me for details as I await the formal ad. (Please RT.)

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!

SIS 2025 registration ends next Monday. We still have a few seats available. Please join us! @uvaimmunology.bsky.social

Congratulations to UVA MIC Chair and MSTP Co-Director Mariano Garcia-Blanco on election to the National Academy of Sciences! 🎉 www.nasonline.org/news/2025-na...

A huge congratulations to newly minted Dr. Evan Lamb on his spectacular PhD defense! Evan will now complete his medical training through UVA's MSTP.

Slots are filling up at the Phagocytes GRC this June! We'll be selecting speakers from abstracts very soon, so apply now to make sure yours is considered!

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

Bluetorial: Non-Competitive Renewal (Continuation) Awards Normally, multiyear NIH grants are paid with awards each year, pending administratively reviewed progress reports. “NIH” has been slow in making these awards. This has led to $1.83 B being withheld from institutions through February 2025.

Network-based population analysis of 31,595 gonococcal genomes reveals phase variability, genetic diversity and mobile element dynamics drive antimicrobial resistance and phenotypic diversity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.28.640638v1

#weekendreading 🔬 Mitochondria sense bacterial lactate and drive release of neutrophil extracellular traps @cellpress.bsky.social #microsky www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Excited by phagocyte biology? Still making summer conference plans? The Phagocytes GRC has an amazing lineup of invited speakers and many opportunities for talks from submitted abstracts. Apply soon for full consideration! www.grc.org/phagocytes-c...

Dive into our latest Microbe Matters 🦠 where Alison Criss talks about Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and if you find those micrographs super cool, you're not the only ones! 😊 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Pope is in critical condition due to a"polymicrobial infection” of the lungs. What is this? An infection caused by multiple “germs”, most likely bacteria given the severity of the condition. One of many examples on why microbiology research matters. www.livescience.com/health/virus...

The National Institutes of Health had to stop considering new grant applications, delaying funding for research into diseases ranging from heart disease and cancer to Alzheimer's and allergies.

Lovely paper. The bug we work on, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, has *hundreds* of genes that can phase-vary (stochastically switch on and off), to allow immune evasion and adaptation to different niches within and between hosts. 1/

Please consider communicating with your representatives and senators. No NIH study sections or NIH funding councils have met because the meetings are not published in the Federal Register. This Federal Register block has the same effect on blocking NIH funding despite a court order.

Bacterial Virulence study section was cancelled this morning. The email was sent 2 hours before the meeting start time. I feel terrible for the investigators 😡

A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter. By @avaskham.bsky.social bit.ly/3X8ngz8

This is not a joke. It is likely that ACIP recommendations will be scaled back (or vanish) under RFK, Jr. and be ceded to state authorities. But insurers may not cover vaccinations not recommended by ACIP. Get yourself and your loved ones updated ASAP.

98% of NIH grants that should have gone out this month, didn't. Despite court orders 'unfreezing' the funds, they are frozen. Biomedical research will grind to a halt. Clinical trials will end. All for no reason: the total impact on the US budget is miniscule

ATTENTION If you are someone who had an F31-Diversity (or similar) application submitted this cycle, please DM me here, contact me on signal (jeremymberg.78), or email me at [email protected]. I will keep all information confidential. 2/n

Since 1991, the NIH Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) is dedicated to K-12 students & funds innovative STEM educational projects. It supports our EvolvingSTEM program that engages >1500 students/yr in authentic research. 🚨Its Program Announcement (PAR-23-137) is now GONE.😡 nihsepa.org

Keep speaking up because it matters. Call out inhumane policies that will kill people. PEPFAR funded HIV drug distribution resumes...for now. www.nytimes.com/2025/01/28/h...

Sharing preprint by UVA MSTP student Evan Lamb showing that #complement enhances #AMR #gonorrhea to antibiotics! Terminal complexes without C9 are lytic to gonococci and promote antibiotic sensitivity, too

Scientists and Physicians I’m being serious here —at this precarious juncture, along with all other defensive and support strategies, it is important to seize the public narrative—high level investment and leadership in medical discovery and innovation is unabashedly patriotic! USA! USA! USA!

I am confident that scientific societies will play an unusually important role in the coming years. If you are a microbiologist of any kind, please consider joining @asm.org if you haven't already. There are many ways to get involved, including advocacy. To learn more: asm.org/About-ASM/Vo...

The study warns that the spread of resistance in N. gonorrhoeae is driven by specific plasmids and could worsen with the use of Doxy-PEP (doxycycline post-exposure prophylaxis), a strategy to prevent STIs. This raises concerns about the emergence of more resistant strains, threatening public health.