Stenotrophomonas maltophilia exhibits defensive multicellularity in response to a Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing molecule https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.02.651457v1

Our review on Z-ring placement mechanisms in cocci is out! This was a fun one to write!
#Microsky 🦠🧫

Excited to share this new preprint from the lab, where postdoc Pavan Silva @kptsilva.bsky.social found pathways that control gene amplifications, and thus antibiotic resistance, in Staph aureus!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are now live at PLoS Genetics! Thanks to the editors and reviewers for their work and suggestions to improve the paper!

@asm.org this better not be anticipatory obedience. I have 5 lab members planning on going to ASM microbe this year. I will absolutely pivot to another meeting if ASM gives in to anti-DEI efforts.

Just to be clear: Lyme was discovered by a CDC scientist investigating what was thought to be a cluster of juvenile rheumatoid arthritis cases in Lyme CT. It is not a bioweapon, but him saying it will ABSOLUTELY lead to people coming to me and other ID docs asking for testing/treatment 🙄🤦🏻‍♂️

Very important paper out by George Liu's team in JCI this week: "Pathobiont-driven antibody sialylation through IL-10 undermines vaccination" www.jci.org/articles/vie...

Here is my commentary on it: www.jci.org/articles/vie...

🚨 PhD opportunity 🚨 The Whelan lab, along w @brockhurstlab.bsky.social, are looking for a PhD student w bioinformatic experience/interest to investigate the evolution of transmissibility in bacterial pathogens, with a focus on P. aeruginosa. More info & link to apply below.

Please spread the word!

Check out this new review from our lab led by postdoc Pavan Silva! We explore the varied mechanisms by which gene amplifications lead to antibiotic resistance.
www.nature.com/articles/s44...

SO EXCITED to share our recent work on dietary zinc deficiency worsening Acinetobacter baumannii pneumonia, out today with @natureportfolio.bsky.social!! Surprisingly, this is due at least in part to the allergic-type cytokine IL-13. SharedIt link: rdcu.be/d0h4h Eat your zinc rich foods! 🦪🫘🧀🥩🥜

Particular thanks are due to @anukharelab.bsky.social
for her mentorship and support throughout the project, @saraalexander.bsky.social for getting everything started, and everyone else in the lab for their support and feedback.

...from pyocyanin, suggesting that loss of CodY activity facilitates protection via a multifaceted transcriptional response. We think this contributes to understanding how bacteria can adapt to interspecies antagonism, thus improving or maintaining fitness in polymicrobial environments.

...mutant in response to PYO that i) rapidly suppressed metabolism and ii) enhanced expression of stress response genes, particularly catalase. Experimentally, chemical inhibition of metabolism and overexpression of catalase in our parental strain were both sufficient to provide protection...

...the supremely talented @saraalexander.bsky.social, who evolved these adapted strains and identified loss-of-function mutations in CodY, a global transcriptional regulator, as responsible for increased S. aureus survival in PYO. Subsequently, we defined transcriptional changes in the CodY...

Happy to share our newest preprint from @anukharelab.bsky.social and my first postdoc project: biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Here, we characterized how S. aureus adapts to pyocyanin, an antimicrobial produced by P. aeruginosa. This project was started by...