Nick Pokorzynski
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npokorzynski.bsky.social
Nick Pokorzynski
@npokorzynski.bsky.social
250 followers 390 following 110 posts
Asst Professor @ Oregon State University Dept of Microbiology | Formerly Postdoc @ Yale | Investigating the metabolic basis of bacterial virulence | he/him | Views = mine

https://pokorzynski-lab.squarespace.com/
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Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social
Long-term control of Salmonella after transient T3SS-2 inhibition https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.30.685576v1
October 31, 2025 at 1:16 AM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
If you want to understand Jim Watson’s legacy, I think this passage from Lewontin’s “The Triple Helix” helps:
November 8, 2025 at 8:34 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
Office sign means it’s official, and it’s got my go-to Salmonella-infected macrophage cartoon on it.
October 17, 2025 at 10:24 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
Grant submitted/tossed into the abyss. Pray for me.
October 9, 2025 at 1:42 AM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
Georges Canguilhem, “A Vital Rationalist”
October 4, 2025 at 4:45 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
Please share: I'm hiring a postdoctoral scholar to investigate molecular mechanisms governing Salmonella cell envelope homeostasis inside mammalian host cells. Come join a great microbiology community @oregonstate.edu in beautiful Corvallis, OR!

Appy here: hr.oregonstate.edu/open-postdoc...
Microbiology Postdoctoral Scholar | Office of University Human Resources
hr.oregonstate.edu
October 2, 2025 at 4:22 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
Anybody out there using the Bio-rad TransBlot Turbo system? Do you like it? Have you compared to the iBlot platform? Pros, cons? Welcoming all strongly opinionated immunoblot snobs in the replies below 👇
September 30, 2025 at 2:22 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
My only criticism of One Battle After Another is that they got the molecular biology wrong
September 29, 2025 at 3:26 AM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
Our lab website is live, check it out: pokorzynski-lab.squarespace.com
Pokorzynski Lab @ Oregon State University
pokorzynski-lab.squarespace.com
September 16, 2025 at 9:44 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
heatherfeaga.bsky.social
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/...
Conservation and evolution of the programmed ribosomal frameshift in prfB across the bacterial domain | mBio
Translation termination is catalyzed by one of two release factors in bacteria, RF1 or RF2. It has been known for decades that RF2 levels in Escherichia coli are regulated by a programmed ribosomal frameshift within the prfB gene that encodes RF2. We ...
journals.asm.org
August 19, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
johnhelmann.bsky.social
The B. subtilis histidine-containing phosphocarrier protein (HPr) supports PTS-sugar import, interacts with GAPDH, and helps mediate carbon catabolite repression (CCR). Here, a mutant HPr protein is shown to alleviate metabolic intoxication in a cpgA mutant.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
A metabolic diagram illustrating various ways the HPr protein interacts with other proteins to affect metabolism.
August 14, 2025 at 2:09 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
Cool to see this out in the world - a project that I helped start in the Carabeo lab before I left for Yale: iron starvation enables recognition of intracellular Chlamydia due to dysregulated peptidoglycan remodeling. Congrats to 1st author Monisha Alla!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Chlamydia iron starvation links nutritional immunity to pathogen recognition
Nutritional immunity is an antimicrobial strategy that evolved to starve pathogens of essential nutrients, with death as the desired outcome. Here, we report that transient iron starvation of the obli...
www.biorxiv.org
August 10, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
blekhman.bsky.social
200 days in, checking in on HHMI funding opportunities:

Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program - not accepting applications

Gilliam Fellows Program - not accepting applications

Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program - not accepting applications

Investigator Program - not accepting applications
blekhman.bsky.social Ran Blekhman @blekhman.bsky.social · May 17
This is not some small foundation -- HHMI has a $24 billion endowment. It is the world's 2nd richest biomedical research foundation.

If any funder can double down on their support for science right now, it's HHMI. But they are doing the opposite.
August 9, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
ameliarandich.bsky.social
Dianne Newman: beautiful demonstration of maintenance metabolism in #Psuedomonas, which uses PCN redox cycling to support PMF during anaerobic growth #Phages2025

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
Mechanistic study of a low-power bacterial maintenance state using high-throughput electrochemistry
Anaerobic phenazine cycling by an opportunistic bacterial pathogen supports a low-power, non-growth metabolism that lends itself to quantitative and mechanistic study of maintenance physiology.
www.cell.com
August 4, 2025 at 11:59 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
laurenpalmer.bsky.social
Super excited to share our paper online 🚨today🚨 in Cell Host & Microbe‬! Xiaomei Ren @xiaomeiren.bsky.social and Mason Clark @rmasonclark.bsky.social‬ co-led discovery of ecological factors for Acinetobacter baumannii carriage in the gut, a reservoir for pathogen spread. 🎉

tinyurl.com/443kfefk
August 4, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
johnhelmann.bsky.social
Metal ions are universally required for life, and many of the foundational principles of metal homeostasis have emerged from studies of microbial systems. In this review, I provide a introductory overview targeted to those new to the field.
#MicroSky #Metals

rdcu.be/eycU2
Microbial metal physiology: ions to ecosystems
Nature Reviews Microbiology - Metal ions are required for all cells, and their homeostasis relies on ancient mechanisms that facilitate their import, distribution and storage. In this Review,...
rdcu.be
July 28, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
jeremymberg.bsky.social
If this all sounds like a calculated plan to reduce the size of the federally funding biomedical research enterprise, I believe that is exactly what is it.

The notion that this "facilitates efficient management" of grants and the appropriation is, to use an official NIH term, horseshit.

/fin
July 22, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
jeremymberg.bsky.social
NIH staff are being required to fully fund ~ 50% of their grants. This means that all 4 years of an award will be paid out of this appropriation. This will help them get the appropriated funds spent, but will mean they can only fund (1/2 + 1/4*1/2) = 5/8 has many grants as they would have otherwise.
July 22, 2025 at 6:02 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
Agreed and in addition: the essence of creativity is practical activity. That is, the real human interaction with nature/the environment/the object is what produces creativity. This is why AI is so *barren* - its substrate is preexisting information, not the creative frontier of knowledge.
needhibhalla.bsky.social Needhi Bhalla 💅🏽 @needhibhalla.bsky.social · Sep 27
Finally, I don't know why we resist defining scientific research as a creative endeavor. Any scientist who has achieved some degree of professional success recognizes the creativity and the bursts of conceptual understanding that accompany major innovation.
July 22, 2025 at 3:34 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
drugmonkey.bsky.social
Time to revisit the probability of at least one NIH grant award given relevant success rates. It has been ~20% overall success in recent completed FY. Many ICs have *paylines* around 10%ish.
a graph of the cumulative binomial probability of 1 or more hits given a number of trials and a 5%, 10% or 20% per-trial rate
July 18, 2025 at 8:39 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
lauraamike.bsky.social
Our paper reporting a highly conserved mechanism by which arginine positively regulates hypervirulent K. pneumoniae mucoid phenotype is now fully online.
rdcu.be/euiWG

Summary picture is below, but details in the 🧵
Overview of paper revealing role of arginine in regulating K. pneumoniae mucoidy.
July 1, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
ukhsa.bsky.social
#Salmonella and #Campylobacter are common causes of food poisoning, and can lead to serious illness in the young, elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Cases of both infection increased by 17% between 2023 and 2024.

Find out more on our news story: www.gov.uk/government/n...
Cases of Salmonella and Campylobacter reach 10-year high
June 26, 2025 at 2:13 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
The Mechanisms of Microbial Transcription GRC was excellent this year. This is a community of the highest caliber: rigorous science at the frontier of microbial gene expression, covering a wide range of organisms and processes, presented by first-time PhD students and legends alike.
June 21, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Reposted by Nick Pokorzynski
dplazasaez.bsky.social
The GRS on Microbial Transcription 2025 is now over!

Amazon science and people!
🦠🧬
Great experience to have served as a chair of this meeting along with @npokorzynski.bsky.social

Passing the power now to Celeste and Caroline for #MoMT2027 !!

#microbiology #microsky
June 15, 2025 at 8:31 PM
npokorzynski.bsky.social
That’s a wrap on the 2025 Mechanisms of Microbial Transcription GRS!
June 15, 2025 at 7:15 PM