Duncan Kountz
@dkountz.bsky.social
Anaerobic microbial metabolism and biochemistry. Postdoc in Schuller Lab (SYNMIKRO, Uni Marburg).Fmr Pioneer Fellow at U Michigan. PhD: Balskus lab (Harvard) UG: Krzycki lab (Ohio State)
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
Evolutionary bioenergetics of sporulation
"energetic cost of sporulation in units of ATP by integrating time-resolved genome, transcriptome, and proteome profiles"
#Bsubtilis #MicroSky
#PNAS by @ckarakoc.bsky.social @shoestrapped.bsky.social @jaytlennon.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
"energetic cost of sporulation in units of ATP by integrating time-resolved genome, transcriptome, and proteome profiles"
#Bsubtilis #MicroSky
#PNAS by @ckarakoc.bsky.social @shoestrapped.bsky.social @jaytlennon.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Evolutionary bioenergetics of sporulation | PNAS
Energy is required for the expression and maintenance of complex traits. In many habitats,
however, free energy available to support biosynthesis i...
www.pnas.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:25 AM
Evolutionary bioenergetics of sporulation
"energetic cost of sporulation in units of ATP by integrating time-resolved genome, transcriptome, and proteome profiles"
#Bsubtilis #MicroSky
#PNAS by @ckarakoc.bsky.social @shoestrapped.bsky.social @jaytlennon.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
"energetic cost of sporulation in units of ATP by integrating time-resolved genome, transcriptome, and proteome profiles"
#Bsubtilis #MicroSky
#PNAS by @ckarakoc.bsky.social @shoestrapped.bsky.social @jaytlennon.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Does anyone know a good commercial source of rumen fluid in Europe (Germany in particular)? Maybe I just need to start cultivating a relationship with farmers...
February 5, 2026 at 12:53 PM
Does anyone know a good commercial source of rumen fluid in Europe (Germany in particular)? Maybe I just need to start cultivating a relationship with farmers...
From Joe Krzycki's, Bing Hao's and @djferguson.bsky.social 's labs:
Delineation of the Active Site of MtgB, a Cobalamin-dependent Glycine Betaine Methyltransferase
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Delineation of the Active Site of MtgB, a Cobalamin-dependent Glycine Betaine Methyltransferase
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Delineation of the Active Site of MtgB, a Cobalamin-dependent Glycine Betaine Methyltransferase
The MttB superfamily member MtgB catalyzes the methylation of a cognate corrinoid protein with glycine betaine and representatives have been described…
www.sciencedirect.com
February 4, 2026 at 12:31 PM
From Joe Krzycki's, Bing Hao's and @djferguson.bsky.social 's labs:
Delineation of the Active Site of MtgB, a Cobalamin-dependent Glycine Betaine Methyltransferase
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Delineation of the Active Site of MtgB, a Cobalamin-dependent Glycine Betaine Methyltransferase
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Das wetter ist sehr schlecht. Es schneit hefting und ich bin kalt
February 3, 2026 at 5:21 PM
Das wetter ist sehr schlecht. Es schneit hefting und ich bin kalt
One of the perks of living in Marburg is that you can email Rolf Thauer and be like “remember me? want to get coffee?” and he’s just like “yes” and suggests a place that like 300 ft from your appartment
February 2, 2026 at 12:46 AM
One of the perks of living in Marburg is that you can email Rolf Thauer and be like “remember me? want to get coffee?” and he’s just like “yes” and suggests a place that like 300 ft from your appartment
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
Fantastic team effort of several groups in the SPP2002 @dfg.de and a brilliant PhD - Eva Herdering in the Kiel team @schmitzstreitslab.bsky.social
🧬 Dive into the small proteome of Methanosarcina mazei (across 5 conditions)! A key resource by @schmitzstreitslab.bsky.social @uni-kiel.de for uncovering #smallproteins functions, motifs and proteoforms in #archaea.
👉 buff.ly/HJOi3E0
👉 buff.ly/HJOi3E0
January 31, 2026 at 12:23 PM
Fantastic team effort of several groups in the SPP2002 @dfg.de and a brilliant PhD - Eva Herdering in the Kiel team @schmitzstreitslab.bsky.social
A newly identified quaternary amine:corrinoid methyltransferase (for tetramethylammonium) in Methanococcoides. Surprisingly, this one isn't a trimethylamine methyltransferase family member!
www.frontiersin.org/journals/mic...
www.frontiersin.org/journals/mic...
Frontiers | Methanogenesis from tetramethylammonium and choline in Methanococcoides methylutens Q3c requires a nonpyrrolysine monomethylamine methyltransferase homolog
Methanogenesis is a key biological process contributing to both global climate change and renewable energy via methane. Methylotrophic methanogenesis is an i...
www.frontiersin.org
January 31, 2026 at 1:14 PM
A newly identified quaternary amine:corrinoid methyltransferase (for tetramethylammonium) in Methanococcoides. Surprisingly, this one isn't a trimethylamine methyltransferase family member!
www.frontiersin.org/journals/mic...
www.frontiersin.org/journals/mic...
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.
January 25, 2026 at 5:39 PM
The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy. It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
Watch this video if you want to cry over overwhelming decency rather than over rage about what some are trying to turn our country into.
A video of Alex Pretti reading out the final salute of an unnamed veteran he cared for until the end of his life in the ICU, posted to Facebook by his son.
January 25, 2026 at 9:22 AM
Watch this video if you want to cry over overwhelming decency rather than over rage about what some are trying to turn our country into.
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
So important. What they say is not the story. That is never the story. What happened is the story. Write what happened.
Media: do not lead with the false government framing of what happened
January 25, 2026 at 12:05 AM
So important. What they say is not the story. That is never the story. What happened is the story. Write what happened.
In the past, I wasn’t one of the people who said we should abolish ICE. Now, I am. There does need to be an organization that is responsible for things like immigration, interdiction of counterfeit currency operations, etc, but ICE is rotten and needs extirpataton
January 25, 2026 at 12:45 PM
In the past, I wasn’t one of the people who said we should abolish ICE. Now, I am. There does need to be an organization that is responsible for things like immigration, interdiction of counterfeit currency operations, etc, but ICE is rotten and needs extirpataton
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
This guy went to work today, put a mask on, kidnapped a 5 year old child, and then used him as bait so both he and his father could be sent behind bars
January 22, 2026 at 2:13 AM
This guy went to work today, put a mask on, kidnapped a 5 year old child, and then used him as bait so both he and his father could be sent behind bars
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
A five-year-old boy seized on his way home in Minnesota and now locked up in Texas. His family didn't know where he was for 24 hours.
January 21, 2026 at 11:36 PM
A five-year-old boy seized on his way home in Minnesota and now locked up in Texas. His family didn't know where he was for 24 hours.
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
Important work here from the NYT. Ross wasn’t run over. He dropped his cell phone, which he had shifted to his left hand to draw his weapon. And then he shot and killed a person with the gun in his right hand.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/v...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/v...
Video Analysis of ICE Shooting Sheds Light on Contested Moments
www.nytimes.com
January 16, 2026 at 11:22 PM
Important work here from the NYT. Ross wasn’t run over. He dropped his cell phone, which he had shifted to his left hand to draw his weapon. And then he shot and killed a person with the gun in his right hand.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/v...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/15/v...
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
Very sad to hear about the passing of Peer Bork, one of true giants of computational biology
www.embl.org/news/embl-an...
www.embl.org/news/embl-an...
In remembrance of Peer Bork | EMBL
EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.
www.embl.org
January 16, 2026 at 7:44 PM
Very sad to hear about the passing of Peer Bork, one of true giants of computational biology
www.embl.org/news/embl-an...
www.embl.org/news/embl-an...
I currently live in this twilight zone where Germans can tell that I have German ancestry from my last name, but also from my last name, I’m clearly not German
January 16, 2026 at 10:44 AM
I currently live in this twilight zone where Germans can tell that I have German ancestry from my last name, but also from my last name, I’m clearly not German
Thrilled to be able to finally post my first adventure into secondary metabolism!:
Flavoaffinins, Elusive Cellulose-Binding Natural Products from an Anaerobic Bacterium
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Co-authors: Ruocheng Yu, f. undergrad Jessie Lee, @katherinem.bsky.social , and Emily Balskus!
Flavoaffinins, Elusive Cellulose-Binding Natural Products from an Anaerobic Bacterium
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Co-authors: Ruocheng Yu, f. undergrad Jessie Lee, @katherinem.bsky.social , and Emily Balskus!
pubs.acs.org
January 15, 2026 at 3:26 PM
Thrilled to be able to finally post my first adventure into secondary metabolism!:
Flavoaffinins, Elusive Cellulose-Binding Natural Products from an Anaerobic Bacterium
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Co-authors: Ruocheng Yu, f. undergrad Jessie Lee, @katherinem.bsky.social , and Emily Balskus!
Flavoaffinins, Elusive Cellulose-Binding Natural Products from an Anaerobic Bacterium
pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Co-authors: Ruocheng Yu, f. undergrad Jessie Lee, @katherinem.bsky.social , and Emily Balskus!
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
/2 Anyway, America was never about everyone loving liberty; America was always about enough people loving liberty and being willing to defend it to keep down the people with totalitarian souls.
January 13, 2026 at 3:57 PM
/2 Anyway, America was never about everyone loving liberty; America was always about enough people loving liberty and being willing to defend it to keep down the people with totalitarian souls.
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
It would be a mistake to see Trumpism as authoritarianism imposed on an unwilling nation, as opposed to authoritarianism implemented in a nation with a plurality that is already made up of authoritarian bootlickers who created the context for Trumpism to thrive.
January 13, 2026 at 3:52 PM
It would be a mistake to see Trumpism as authoritarianism imposed on an unwilling nation, as opposed to authoritarianism implemented in a nation with a plurality that is already made up of authoritarian bootlickers who created the context for Trumpism to thrive.
Walking to my soon-to-be work through a trail in the woods today. Major brothers Grimm vibes
January 13, 2026 at 12:04 AM
Walking to my soon-to-be work through a trail in the woods today. Major brothers Grimm vibes
Reposted by Duncan Kountz
Stephen Colbert on the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good: “The message from this administration is clear. Only they determine the truth. And when their forces come to your city: obey or die. And if you die, you clearly didn’t obey. This should be an alarm bell for the entire country.”
January 9, 2026 at 8:15 PM
Stephen Colbert on the ICE murder of Renee Nicole Good: “The message from this administration is clear. Only they determine the truth. And when their forces come to your city: obey or die. And if you die, you clearly didn’t obey. This should be an alarm bell for the entire country.”
Please share! The Balskus Lab (where I did my PhD) his hiring a Research Assistant to work on the vaginal microbiome: us.smrtr.io/4rGc4
Can testify that branch of the Balskus Lab (like the other branches) is a vibrant research environment with cool projects and cool equipment!
Can testify that branch of the Balskus Lab (like the other branches) is a vibrant research environment with cool projects and cool equipment!
Research Assistant I Lab
Company Description: By working at Harvard University, you join a vibrant community that advances Harvard's world-changing mission in meaningful ways, inspires innovation and collaboration, and builds...
us.smrtr.io
January 9, 2026 at 5:17 PM
Please share! The Balskus Lab (where I did my PhD) his hiring a Research Assistant to work on the vaginal microbiome: us.smrtr.io/4rGc4
Can testify that branch of the Balskus Lab (like the other branches) is a vibrant research environment with cool projects and cool equipment!
Can testify that branch of the Balskus Lab (like the other branches) is a vibrant research environment with cool projects and cool equipment!
Marburg: soon to be my new home (at least for a few years). Is it any wonder I’m going there? So much great microbiology, past and present
Marburg: famous for its #virus, but legendary for its #archaea! 🦠
Beyond the headlines, the city gave us Methanothermobacter marburgensis—the key microorganism used to map the #methanogenesis pathway. A true powerhouse for #microbiology!
@mpimicrobiomarburg.bsky.social
@unimarburg.bsky.social
Beyond the headlines, the city gave us Methanothermobacter marburgensis—the key microorganism used to map the #methanogenesis pathway. A true powerhouse for #microbiology!
@mpimicrobiomarburg.bsky.social
@unimarburg.bsky.social
January 9, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Marburg: soon to be my new home (at least for a few years). Is it any wonder I’m going there? So much great microbiology, past and present
This is my last week in the US before moving to Marburg, Germany. I’m flying to Frankfurt on Friday
January 6, 2026 at 3:21 PM
This is my last week in the US before moving to Marburg, Germany. I’m flying to Frankfurt on Friday