Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
kbarrack.bsky.social
Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
@kbarrack.bsky.social
Microbiology at Dartmouth
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
Excited to share new work from Sarvesh Surve examining the gut microbiota of adults with CF using colonoscopy samples and a culturomics approach. We note continued depletion of Bacteroidota (which we noted in kids) & enrichment of aerobes in the mucosa of pwCF.
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41256617/
November 21, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
Congratulations to Bassam el Hafi, who successfully defended his PhD thesis yesterday! He did a terrific job! Bassam connected microbial interactions to the complexity of human communication. Thanks also to Sarah Clark of the Anschutz School of Medicine who served at Bassam's outside examiner.
November 6, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
Happy to finally see this out! Bassam El Halfi (@bassamhafi.bsky.social - my first rotation student when I started my post-doc in @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social) did an amazing job investigating mechanisms of interspecies metabolic interactions. Check it out! #microsky

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Pseudomonas aeruginosa supports the survival of Prevotella melaninogenica in a cystic fibrosis lung polymicrobial community through metabolic cross-feeding | mBio
Polymicrobial interactions impact disease outcomes in pwCF who suffer from chronic respiratory infections. Previous work established a CF-relevant polymicrobial community model that allows experimenta...
journals.asm.org
September 12, 2025 at 6:46 PM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
Excited to share our latest work, driven by my recently graduated PhD student Kaitlyn Barrack, exploring the mechanisms of bacterial dysbiosis in the CF gut - including a role for a colorectal cancer-associated genotoxin in this competition.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
@kbarrack.bsky.social
September 5, 2025 at 12:57 PM
Really cool story that I am proud to be a part of!
Our newest manuscript on the gut-lung axis in CF, lead by Rebecca Valls, explores sex and intestinal regional differences in response to Bacteroides. Check it out!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 28, 2025 at 2:12 PM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
We had the O'Toole Lab Reunion on Sat here at Dartmouth, celebrating 26 amazing years - science is all about the people, and I have been fortunate to have a great bunch of folks in the lab over the years! And THANKS to all the lab members who did all the organizing!
August 25, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
Excited about our most recent paper lead by Kaitlyn Barrack, a minireview in JB comparing the CF and IBD guts - from microbiomes to physiologies. There are many similarities...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology @kbarrack.bsky.social
August 18, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Grateful for George and his support through and through!
Kaitlyn Barrack, who defended recently, was hooded at the Dartmouth Investiture last Saturday. We got all decked out in our robes!
June 16, 2025 at 3:21 PM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
Words of Wisdom: Starting in 2019 at the lab retreat, senior grad students and postdocs shared words of wisdom based on their experiences to hopefully help the next generations navigate grad school and beyond. Here is the list with this year's additions:
sites.dartmouth.edu/biofilm/word...
Words of Wisdom – O'Toole Lab
sites.dartmouth.edu
June 12, 2025 at 8:23 PM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
Day 2 of the retreat also means a lobster dinner, a view of the light house and some blueberry pie!
June 11, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
And for dinner, we carried on the tradition of paella, which was also a staple at the Kolter lab reunions when I was a postdoc!
June 10, 2025 at 10:32 AM
Reposted by Kaitlyn Barrack, PhD
Yesterday was the first day of the 23rd O'Toole lab retreat! We had science presentations from Sherry and Alex & a session on data wrangling from Sarvesh and Leslie. Plus I talked about my projects, & "Words of Wisdom" from senior grad students Kaitlyn and Bassam.
June 10, 2025 at 10:30 AM