Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Gaurav Pandharikar @gpandharikar.bsky.social · 2d

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌿 Excited to share our Primer on fungal endophytes, the elusive members of the fungal kingdom that defy easy classification. Neither pathogens nor symbionts in the strict sense, they challenge how we define ecological guilds. @umr-iam.bsky.social

Fungal endophytes

Organisms are commonly grouped into ecological guilds that reflect their shared resource use and similar ecological roles. The guild concept has been …

www.sciencedirect.com

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Nick Talbot @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social · 2d

New pre-print from our group showing remarkable synchrony of proliferative growth and regulated cell death during plant infection- each conidial cell has a different fate - by the rice blast fungus. Led by Alice Eseola with @osesmir.bsky.social Lauren Ryder @danmaclean.bsky.social and Martin Egan

bioRxiv Molecular Biology @biorxiv-molbio.bsky.social · 2d

Synchronous spatio-temporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for appressorium-mediated plant infection by Magnaporthe oryzae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680644v1

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Jeff Lewis @lewislab.bsky.social · 13d

Very excited to announce that our department is now accepting applications for a tenure track faculty position in Cell Biology: uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UASYS/...

Come join our wonderful department!

Assistant Professor Cell Biology

Current University of Arkansas System employees, including student employees and graduate assistants, need to log in to Workday via MyApps.Microsoft.com, then access Find Jobs from the Workday search ...

uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Rike Stelkens @stelkens.bsky.social · 21d

We have a new paper out in Molecular Ecology, led by @devinbendixsen.bsky.social ! Reproductive isolation due to divergent ecological selection is accompanied by vast genomic instability in experimentally evolved yeast populations onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Jason Stajich @hyphaltip.bsky.social · 22d

Assistant Professor (Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions), Dept of Microbiology, Fall 2026 apply.interfolio.com/173345 at University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Position is part of a faculty cluster hire in Bioinformatics, Genomics and Quantitative-based Solutions for Food Security.

Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio

apply.interfolio.com

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Amelia Barber @ameliabarberphd.bsky.social · Jul 29

My group at is hiring a PhD student to explore how fungal pathogens that live in the environment will adapt their genomes, acquire new phenotypes, and perhaps even increased infectivity as a result of climate change. Please share!

More info and applications at @ jobs.uni-jena.de/vrbup

AI-generated drawing of a woman looking through a microscope with DNA and fungi drawn in the background. The text contains the same content as the bsky post.

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Neta Shlezinger @shlezingerlab.bsky.social · Aug 24

Our study on a mycovirus that boosts fungal virulence is now out — and beautifully covered in this Behind the Paper piece by Amariliz Rivera

Huge thanks for capturing the heart of the story so thoughtfully. @natmicrobiol.nature.com rdcu.be/eB9yg

Mycoviruses steer fungal fitness

Nature Microbiology - A mycovirus drives the fitness of the lung-infecting fungus Aspergillus fumigatus under stress, helping it to survive within immune cells, and thus shaping its pathogenesis.

rdcu.be

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Jason Stajich @hyphaltip.bsky.social · Jul 17

www.the-scientist.com/a-fungus-not...

A Fungus, Not Its Insect Host, Paints the World Red

Lac insects carry a yeast-like symbiont that produces a commercially important bright red pigment, revealing insights about insect-microbe symbiosis.

www.the-scientist.com

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Jessica Brown Lab @brownlabutah.bsky.social · Jul 8

I love teaching this experiment! I also like that both scientists had (have; Meselson is alive) long and, I hope, happy lives. Karmic rewards for beautiful science?

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Shannon Righi @shannonrighi.bsky.social · Jun 6

Excited to share our editorial on peer review, out now in #mBio! This was a mighty group effort with my mBio Early Career Editorial Board peer mentoring group
@proctordm.bsky.social and Rachy Abraham.

From novice to expert: preparing your peer review | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

From novice to expert: preparing your peer review | mBio

Peer review is the process that academic journals, conferences, and funding agencies use to ensure the quality of scholarly work before it is published, presented, or funded. Reviewers for academic jo...

journals.asm.org

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · May 21

#NatureMicroPicks

🦇 ex vivo models for bat viruses!

Bat organoids as new models to study zoonotic viruses.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Diverse bat organoids provide pathophysiological models for zoonotic viruses

Bats are important reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens, but suitable model systems for comprehensively exploring host-pathogen interactions and assessing spillover risks remain limited. To address this g...

www.science.org

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Dr Ellie Murray, ScD @epiellie.bsky.social · May 20

Vaccine skeptics want to retest vaccines, claiming they haven't been tested well enough. Devil's advocates ask "where's the harm in that?"

But there is harm. Lots of it.

open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...

The hidden cost of retesting vaccines

A reader asked me a question I get semi-regularly about vaccine skeptics:

open.substack.com

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Dr. David Miller 🏳️‍🌈 @davidimiller.bsky.social · May 19

🧪 Basic science boosts the economy:

"The proposed dismantling of NSF [and NIH] raises an urgent question: do these cuts actually save money or merely delay spending until the bill gets larger?

The answer is clear: these cuts will cost the economy billions."

Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually

Economists find public R&D drives a quarter of U.S. productivity growth — and pays for itself

www.forbes.com

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Dr. David Boulware, MD MPH @drboulware.bsky.social · May 9

We are fund raising to support our meningitis research team in Uganda to continue our work on fungal meningitis and TB meningitis. We work on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment --- and will continue with or without US gov support.
gofund.me/9e797ba7

Donate to Help Save Lives: Aid People with Meningitis in Uganda, organized by Ciara Featherly

Cryptococcal and tuberculosis meningitis are serious brain infec… Ciara Featherly needs your support for Help Save Lives: Aid People with Meningitis in Uganda

gofund.me

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Microbiology Society @microbiologysociety.org · May 8

Only one week to go until the abstract submission deadline for Candida and Candidiasis 2025! Make sure to submit your abstract by 15 May 2025 at 23:59 BST. Find out more on our website. microb.io/Candida2025A... #Candida2025

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Edward Wallace @ewjwallace.bsky.social · Apr 22

Translation meeting in Edinburgh (that I'm co-organising).
Invited speakers include Allen Buskirk on his deep mechanistic work on prokarotic translation, Karen Merchante on plant ribosomal proteins and their effect, and the UK Translation community bringing their best science!
#RNAbiology #ribosome

Biochemical Society @biochemsoc.bsky.social · Apr 16

Are you registered for the 30th Translation UK meeting? This year, our ever-popular conference is taking place at the incredible University of Edinburgh! Be quick - abstract submission and earlybird discount ends 30 April. 🧪
Register today: www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/2...

A Biochemical Society Scientific Meeting
Translation UK 30 June- 2 July 2025
Abstract and earlybird deadline: 30 April 2025

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Jessica Brown Lab @brownlabutah.bsky.social · Apr 18

After the past few months, I'm taking the win and stopping.

Jessica Brown Lab @brownlabutah.bsky.social · Apr 18

For your own sake, I hope that you are referencing the airport in Argentina and not anything to do with cardiovascular health.

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Tobias Hohl, MD PhD @fungalspore.bsky.social · Mar 21

So happy to see this story come together. Check it out! Kathleen Mills and many collaborators - GM-CSF–mediated epithelial-immune cell cross-talk orchestrates pulmonary immunity to Aspergillus fumigatus | Science Immunology www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

GM-CSF–mediated epithelial-immune cell cross-talk orchestrates pulmonary immunity to Aspergillus fumigatus

During mold infection, epithelial-derived GM-CSF licenses neutrophil killing of fungal cells, leading to improved survival.

www.science.org

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Jason Stajich @hyphaltip.bsky.social · Mar 20

Important work in battling Mucormycosis www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... - CotH is an interesting spore coat gene which has a bacterial origin in these and several other ZZ fungi. In Mucor it is important for their blood vessel invasion.

A humanized antibody against mucormycosis targets angioinvasion and augments the host immune response

An anti-CotH humanized IgG1 antibody protects against lethal mucormycosis when given as adjunctive therapy to immunocompromised mice.

www.science.org

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Jason Stajich @hyphaltip.bsky.social · Mar 1

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Use their names: there are no basal, lower, or early diverging fungi

Fungal biologists have embraced phylogenies for understanding the biology of this diverse group in an evolutionary framework. In an attempt to highlight lineages of fungi that are distinct from the...

www.tandfonline.com

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Reposted by Jessica Brown Lab

Josh Marshall @joshtpm.bsky.social · Feb 20

The WHITE HOUSE has found a workaround to block NIH-backed medical research even after judges ordered them to allow it to go forward. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/white...

White House Finds Workaround to Shut Down NIH-Backed Medical Research

From the beginning of this drama going on a month ago the...

talkingpointsmemo.com

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Dr. Becca @docbecca.bsky.social · Feb 19

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.

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 🦠🧫🧪🧬🔬

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Darren Thomson @darrenthomson.bsky.social · Feb 17

🔈 We will be releasing the registration website in the coming week. Watch this space for any #Africa based mycologists wanting to use fluorescence microscopy to study fungal pathogenic mechanisms!

Darren Thomson @darrenthomson.bsky.social · Jan 17

🔬 Are you interested in fluorescence microscopy of fungal pathogens/pathogenesis?
Mycology Bioimaging Intiaitive @mrccmm.bsky.social is thrillied to announce it's first workshop in CapeTown for #African scientists (w/AfricaMicroscopyInitiative)

Please disseminate!
forms.office.com/e/gcpvytvyuz

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