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balunaslab.bsky.social
Balunas Research Group
@balunaslab.bsky.social
1.3K followers 200 following 19 posts
#natural_products #hostmicrobe #symbioses

University of Michigan
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Department of Medicinal Chemistry

Find us at http://balunaslab.org
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Reposted by Balunas Research Group
umichmicroimmuno.bsky.social
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived metabolites from B schlosseri in metal interactions journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @balunaslab.bsky.social Insights into B. schlosseri’s biological and chemical interactions with microorganisms and their environment.
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived metabolites from Botryllus schlosseri in metal interactions | mSystems
Given the importance of marine invertebrates and their microbial communities in marine ecosystems, we sought to characterize the largely unknown microbial associates, metal sequestration, and metaboli...
journals.asm.org
September 22, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
kateduncan.bsky.social
Just registered for my favourite conference - the Marine Natural Products Gordon Research Conference (GRC) in March 2026. Chair @balunaslab.bsky.social and Vice-Chair Roger Linington have put together a really exciting program www.grc.org/marine-natur... - applications open - see you there?
2026 Marine Natural Products Conference GRC
The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Marine Natural Products will be held in Ventura, California. Apply today to reserve your spot.
www.grc.org
October 20, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
umichmicroimmuno.bsky.social
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @balunaslab.bsky.social Bridges knowledge gap of host-microbiome-environ. interactions/establishes foundation for continuing research on ecological effects of trace metals in these biological systems.
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived metabolites from Botryllus schlosseri in metal interactions | mSystems
Given the importance of marine invertebrates and their microbial communities in marine ecosystems, we sought to characterize the largely unknown microbial associates, metal sequestration, and metaboli...
journals.asm.org
October 27, 2025 at 12:21 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
Congrats to Dulce Guillén Matus for her newest manuscript out today! A collaborative manuscript on the microbes, metals, and metabolites of Botryllus schlosseri, a marine tunicate! doi.org/10.1128/msys...
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived metabolites from Botryllus schlosseri in metal interactions | mSystems
Given the importance of marine invertebrates and their microbial communities in marine ecosystems, we sought to characterize the largely unknown microbial associates, metal sequestration, and metabolite production of the marine colonial tunicate, Botryllus schlosseri, a model organism for cellular and developmental studies. Using an integrated multidisciplinary approach, we identified significant correlations between metals, metabolites, and bacterial taxa. B. schlosseri tissue was highly enriched in metals compared to seawater, and B. schlosseri microbiome beta-diversity was significantly different from seawater. We also introduced the concept of the pan-metabolome to classify metabolites based on their presence or absence across complex samples and found microbial metabolites in both the core and flexible metabolome. These findings offer insights into B. schlosseri’s biological and chemical interactions with microorganisms and their environment, bridging the knowledge gap of host-microbiome-environment interactions and establishing a foundation for continuing research on the ecological effects of trace metals in these biological systems.
doi.org
September 15, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
teresaomeara.bsky.social
Today is a good day to read our preprint about Candida albicans interactions with its neighbors! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... led by the amazing Faith Davis and a fantastic team of collaborators @kylaost.bsky.social @shannonrighi.bsky.social @balunaslab.bsky.social @tuowang.bsky.social
Bacterial metabolites induce cell wall remodeling, antifungal resistance, and immune recognition of commensal fungi
The fungus Candida albicans commensally colonizes mucosal surfaces in healthy individuals but can cause both superficial mucosal and life-threatening disseminated infections. The balance between comme...
www.biorxiv.org
July 28, 2025 at 2:04 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
We loved having you here @sarahmackattack.bsky.social !! Your contributions to our science were much appreciated but it was your fantastic seminar and engaging workshop that really stole the day! 🥰🤩
sarahmackattack.bsky.social Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · Jun 5
I’m at the Uni of Michigan today! I’ll be doing a science comm. seminar + workshop later, but now I’m catching up on all the squid + bacteria symbiosis work with @spencernyholm.bsky.social & @balunaslab.bsky.social.

These labs collaborate, understanding symbiosis with both biology & chemistry.
A orange and yellow bobtail squid with maroon speckles wears lab goggles, holding a test tube with blue liquid in one hand (the kind of test tube that you’d grow bacteria in) and a bulbous green flask with green liquid in it (the kind you usually do chemistry in). The background is totally inappropriate, it looks like it came out of a Nickelodeon show from the 90s
June 7, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
drlaurasanchez.bsky.social
The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry @UCSC
invites applications for an Assistant Teaching Professor. Looking for a dedicated faculty member to bring enthusiasm/excitement to the delivery of undergrad instruction, deadline 5/14/25!
recruit.ucsc.edu/JPF01884
General Chemistry Assistant Teaching Professor (Initial Review Date: May 14, 2025)
University of California, Santa Cruz is hiring. Apply now!
recruit.ucsc.edu
March 25, 2025 at 2:45 AM
balunaslab.bsky.social
Worth reading the whole thing - THIS is the American I know and love
iwashyna.bsky.social Jack Iwashyna @iwashyna.bsky.social · Feb 20
Over on LinkedIn, the head of the Executive Secretariat of the NIH -- a central part of NIH leadership 🧪🩺-- resigned with a lettter worth reading

www.linkedin.com/posts/nathan...
February 18, 2024 TO: Dr. Matthew Memoli, Acting Director, NIH CC: John Burklow, Chief of Staff, NIH Julie Berko, Director, OHR, NIH FROM: Nathaniel James Brought, Director, ES, NIH SUBJECT: Resignation Dear Dr. Memoli, On July 3, 2001, I stepped off a bus on Marine Corps Recruit Training Depot Perris Island. Scared out of my mind, I stood on a pair of freshly painted yellow footprints, raised my right hand, and recited the oath of enlistment: I, Nathaniel James Brought, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. For the last 23 years, 7 months, and 15 days, I like to believe I have faithfully carried out the duties of each office to which I've been appointed in my military and civilian service to this nation. That Service has taken me from the Marine Corps to 3 different federal departments, spanned 3 continents, included service in one war zone, and has included: • For the Marine Corps and the National Security Agency, I worked on intelligence operations at the highest classification levels using bleeding edge intelligence tools to ensure America's special operators put boots-to-asses on America's enemies overseas (including commendations crediting my work for the kill or capture of dozens of terrorists), ensuring America's policy makers were able to track the movement of dangerous dual nuclear technology across international borders, and monitored the flow of terrorist financing across the international banking system. • Utilized information from all-source intelligence to ensure the continued security of America's homeland from international and domestic threats. • Worked with some of the finest lawyers in the world to ensure America's security operations were effective, while upholding the rights of all those who interacted with them. • Ensuring that America's rural communities had access to programs like rural development loans, farm aid, and that America's children wouldn't be hungry as they sat in their classrooms and tried to learn. • Most recently, and frankly most dear to my heart, working with each of you here at the National Institutes of Health to advance the future of science and medicine. Not for Americans. Not for any one group of people. But for ALL of humanity. I am unbelievably proud to be able to say that there are Americans who are alive, and terrorists who are not, because of the work I've done to serve this nation. I am proud to say that my service to this country has allowed me to ensure that my children have never faced the struggles of poverty that I grew up with. That service didn't begin because of some great altruistic impulse or drive. I didn't grow up saying "I want to do the great work that needs to be done to weave the fabric of America and ensure her people are not only safe, but healthy." Frankly, that service began because I was poor, and I was inspired. I grew up as a free lunch kid who lived in project housing. It was my fellow Americans who made sure I wasn't hungry in class and that I had enough food to excel academically the way I did. It was Americans who had more than we did that made sure I had good schools to attend where I could learn things that expanded my mind. As I approached the end of high school, I dreamed of going to college and figuring out how to make a living that would allow me to do more tha… to go to college. I knew my grades weren't good enough to compete for scholarships with kids who were as smart as me but also had private tutors and didn't have to work after class to be able to drive their brand-new cars to our school each day. So, I gave up. I nearly failed my senior year of high school with an attendance failure, even though I only needed two classes to graduate. I didn't see the point. What was the point of learning calculus? So it would be that much harder when my dream of being a brain surgeon died not because I was incapable, but because I didn't have the means to make it come true? I resigned myself to being one of the working poor. I resigned myself to needing a spinal fusion before I was 50, like my father, because he literally broke his back trying to make his dreams come true. The example of my father didn't inspire me at that time. It reminded me of the futility of trying to escape the rung of the social ladder I had been born onto. No matter how smart or "gifted and talented" I may have been, I saw no path that led me to a place where I could realize my potential. So, instead I accepted that it would be wasted. Ultimately, the reason I find myself here today, rather than in the place I saw as my only end, is because of another young man who committed to serving his country. Shamefully, I do not remember his name, but there was a young corporal from the United States Marine Corps who had been assigned as a recruiter in Reading, Pennsylvania at that time. This man spoke to me about my plans for my future during lunch one day at school. I told him I planned to do what my father had done. Work hard jobs until my body broke down, maybe start a struggling business, and try to do what I could to stay above the poverty line and off welfare. I told him I hoped to be successful enough that my kids never had to watch me use food stamps at the grocery store. It had been hard to watch my mom go through that. How sad is that? I was a smart young 18-…
February 21, 2025 at 12:01 AM
balunaslab.bsky.social
So proud to be UMich faculty!
February 19, 2025 at 11:35 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
matthewherron.bsky.social
I lost my job at the National Science Foundation yesterday, along with 167 of my colleagues, including some dear friends. This was the best job I've ever had, and I thought it would be my last. The PI community has been sympathetic and supportive, without exception. I will miss working for you.
February 19, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
docbecca.bsky.social
If the block on the Federal Register isn’t removed in the next few months, I fear a majority of labs will close within a year. This small procedural wrench has the power to kill US science indefinitely, losing an entire generation of discovery and innovation.
bstevensonlab.bsky.social Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab @bstevensonlab.bsky.social · Feb 19
I had two grant proposals up for review in the NIH Bacterial Virulence (BV) study section. It was canceled without notice this morning.
Without those grants, my lab must close within a year.
And so the purge of scientific research in the US continues
🤬
#MicroSky 🦠🧫🧪🧬🔬
February 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
Jen Nguyen gave a great 3rd year seminar today!
February 11, 2025 at 9:34 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
An amazing way to celebrate 2024 with @balunaslab.bsky.social holiday party! So fortunate to work with these great people!
December 9, 2024 at 1:20 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
A fun conversation with @markowenmartin.bsky.social about our host-microbe chemical communication! youtu.be/yTFEi6dWuJk?...
Matters Microbial #67: Chemical Communication in Microbe Symbioses
YouTube video by MicrobeTV
youtu.be
December 5, 2024 at 1:18 AM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
kateduncan.bsky.social
If you are new to 🦋 and are interested in microbial natural products - here’s some starter packs to help connect us go.bsky.app/72NeGsT and go.bsky.app/4xnRN52 - there’s also one set up by @danudwary.secondarymetabolism.com here
go.bsky.app/Q9svkYf
November 20, 2024 at 9:40 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
bmoore-beth.bsky.social
Hello all. Finally made my way to 🦋. Looking for my peeps in host defense, immunology and lung biology! Please help me find you!
November 16, 2024 at 11:52 AM
balunaslab.bsky.social
I had a strict rule that my lab T was for professional only posts - I could make a personal Bsky account but in fact I think it might be time to let in posts that feel personal but because of the times we live in, affect both personal and professional… here is the first of those posts
georgetakei.bsky.social George Takei @georgetakei.bsky.social · Nov 16
I have faced fascism before, in this very country. I was one of 120,000 Japanese Americans summarily rounded up and expelled from our homes at gunpoint, all for the crime of looking like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor.

I spent my childhood behind barbed wire. My parents lost everything. 1/
November 16, 2024 at 12:56 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
Hmmm looking forward to reading this one…
November 16, 2024 at 12:50 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
Another intriguing paper - our main squid pathogen is part of the Fusarium solani species complex 🧐
ameliabarberphd.bsky.social Amelia Barber @ameliabarberphd.bsky.social · Sep 24
Fusarium solani is a cool group of fungi that can infect plants and humans and has exciting genome biology.

What features underlie this multi-kingdom pathogenicity? Do clinical isolates have different accessory chromosomes?

Check out our preprint for the answers! doi.org/10.1101/2024...
Comparative pan-genomics reveals divergent adaptations in clinically-relevant members of the Fusarium solani species complex
bioRxiv - the preprint server for biology, operated by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, a research and educational institution
www.biorxiv.org
November 16, 2024 at 12:49 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
I have to say one of the things I’ve been missing is back - I used to see the most exciting papers on science T and now it’s starting to happen here!
mfwhite2.bsky.social Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Nov 16
Important paper - just imagining the possibilities if bacteria sense phage infection in neighbours
jcamthrash.bsky.social Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash.bsky.social · Nov 15
Metabolites from intact phage-infected Synechococcus chemotactically attract heterotrophic marine bacteria www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
November 16, 2024 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
tolarchaeota.bsky.social
My wonderful department here at UNC Wilmington is searching for an assistant professor in Marine Biology. Research areas of interest include, but are not limited to marine botany, phycology, mycology, and programs that integrate genomics and quantitative approaches. jobs.uncw.edu/postings/33731
Assistant Professor in Marine Biology
The Department of Biology and Marine Biology at The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) invites applications for a 9-month tenure track Assistant Professor position in Marine Biology starti...
jobs.uncw.edu
November 14, 2024 at 11:10 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
The UMich Dept of Medicinal Chemistry has an exciting opening for a new faculty member! Amazing department, fantastic colleagues, exceptional trainees! Apply here: research.umich.edu/m-pact/how-t...
November 14, 2024 at 3:16 PM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
kateduncan.bsky.social
If you are attending the Marine Natural Products GRC next month, please do come along to the policy workshop led by Prof Marcel Jaspars on the impacts of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity agreement on Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) 🌊 - all welcome
February 21, 2024 at 11:26 AM
Reposted by Balunas Research Group
daverdude.bsky.social
It was great leading this large collaborative effort – it’s safe to say that 3DED/MicroED will undoubtedly play a role in secondary metabolite discovery and characterization!

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
December 20, 2023 at 3:55 PM
balunaslab.bsky.social
Our amazing summer student Andrea Laboy Figueroa presented her research @SACNAS and won an award! Well done Andrea!
October 30, 2023 at 12:59 PM