Congrats @jakechoby.bsky.social!!

Come join us in Breckenridge next May!

Come join us at @mcgill.ca as an assistant professor in virus-host interactions! Please share widely.

mcgill.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/McGill...

Big shoutout to @olayarendueles.bsky.social @julielebris.bsky.social , @nathaliechen.bsky.social, @dariavantyne.bsky.social and Adeline Supandy—such an awesome team effort from the #VanTyneLab at Pitt! 💫 Great to see phage work move forward together! #PittsburghPhageProgram

🔬 The spotlight continues!
We’re excited to introduce the next incredible member of the #PittsburghPhageProgram team — meet Dr. @dariavantyne.bsky.social, whose work is helping push the boundaries of what’s possible in #phagetherapy. #InfectiousDiseases #P3 #VanTyneLab

Behind every patient story, every discovery, and every #phage, there’s a dedicated team making it happen.
Over the next few weeks, we’re excited to introduce the people who power the #PittsburghPhageProgram — starting with Dr. Ghady Haidar.🧫✨

Emerging strains of a deadly ‘superbug’ seem to have picked up an advantage over other micro-organisms: a chemical weapon that kills competing bacteria

https://go.nature.com/4lb8279

Shoutout to @dariavantyne.bsky.social, our Head of Phage Biology and Discovery, for her leadership in #phagetherapy. P3's latest clinical impact was given the spotlight in Contagion Live! Read more on how phage therapy is transforming treatment options: 🔗 tinyurl.com/Contagion-Live

Also, check out Emma's blog post about the study here: communities.springernature.com/posts/surviv...

Finally, we wondered whether the strain replacement we observed at our hospital was a widespread phenomenon by examining over 15,000 publicly available VREfm genomes. We found that what is happening at UPMC is also happening all over the world. Global genomic surveillance for the win!

To test whether bacteriocin T8 could help VREfm colonize the intestine, we phoned a friend @joeyzacks.bsky.social. The Zackular lab performed a mouse colonization study, which showed that bacteriocin T8 provided a strong competitive advantage in the mammalian gut.

We observed large-scale strain replacement just in the 6 years of our study, and Emma figured out that this was likely due to production of a bacteriocin called T8, which is carried on a plasmid, kills enterococci, and was previously studied as a probiotic for the treatment of intestinal dysbiosis.

In this study, first author @emmamills1.bsky.social took all the genomes collected by EDS-HAT between 2017 and 2022 and asked a simple question: which VREfm lineages are prevalent in the population, and does their prevalence change over time? Spoiler alert: There were big changes!

We are fortunate to have access to VREfm genomes and isolates from EDS-HAT, a bacterial genome sequencing surveillance program that has been running @upmc.com for almost a decade. EDS-HAT was built to detect transmission (yay @sundermannaj.bsky.social!), but it also enables lots of other studies.

Excited to share our latest, out today in @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social Bacteriocin production facilitates nosocomial emergence of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium www.nature.com/articles/s41... @idpittstop.bsky.social

👋 We're the Pittsburgh Phage Program (P3)! Based at Pitt, we advance precision medicine using phages—viruses that kill bacteria. We fight antibiotic resistance through compassionate use & clinical trials.

Follow for 🔬research, 💡phage facts, 📢success stories!
#PhageTherapy #P3

How does avi-caz treatment lead to broad-spectrum treatment failure? Our awesome Peds ID faculty and labbie @rapskiid.bsky.social shows how, by longitudinal sequencing, genotyping, and phenotyping. Congrats Glenn! @dariavantyne.bsky.social @aleciarokes.bsky.social

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

I remember seeing Dr. O’Brien at seminars around Boston and Cambridge and being wowed at his stature, both physically and in the AMR field. And that was before I knew whose father he was… www.nejm.org/doi/abs/10.1...

From our lab to yours, happy holidays!

🧪 Please share! Spring 2025 Microbiology & Immunology Diversity Scholars Program Applications open Dec 4-Jan 15. The program seeks to provide biomedical research opportunities for Pittsburgh area undergrads who are from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds
www.pmi.pitt.edu/research/mid...

JOB CLAXON!

I am recruiting a post-doctoral researcher on a BBSRC-funded project (36 months) on the genetics and functional genomics of vancomycin resistance in enterococci.

Further details here: edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Please DM or email me if you want to discuss this post.

Silver lining of an otherwise awful week: attending #RBM2024 with these fabulous folks. A great meeting full of awesome science!

Check out this collection in the ASM journal Spectrum which highlights some recent advances on #Phagetherapy #MicroSky-with @dariavantyne.bsky.social

journals.asm.org/phage-therap...