Ayomikun Kade

In the standard SEM image, aggregates of bacterial cells with no visible matrix sit on top of a network of collagen fibrils. In the cryo image, interconnected aggregates are covered with a smooth coat of matrix, and no collagen is visible - it is under the aggregates, and the only tissue structures visible are patches of elastin fibres.

If you check out my lab's recent work, you'll notice how much biofilm structure is destroyed by dehydration & vacuum during standard scanning electron microscopy. These are both images of P. aeruginosa PA14 #biofilm on pig lung tissue at 48h p.i: using cryoSEM retains the biofilm matrix. #MicroSky

A four-panel figure showing scanning electron micrographs of Pseudomonas biofilm on the surface of pig lung tissue. Aggregates of bacteria sit on top of a network of collagen fibrils, with some bacterial cells penetrating the collagen mesh.

Paper out! We used RNAseq to track changes in P. aeruginosa gene expression over 7 days of #biofilm infection in our #CysticFibrosis lung model. www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #MicroSky (1/n)

👩🏻‍🔬Today is International Day of Women & Girls in Science!

We’re celebrating three inspiring women advancing #microbiology - Samantha McLean, @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social & @sawilks.bsky.social - sharing their journeys & advice

Read more tinyurl.com/yc74vps7

#WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM #MicroSky

A smiling woman kneels to cut a cake on a low table. The cake is decorated to look like a bacterial biofilm. There is a bunch of pink roses and a large gift bag on the table.

Congratulations to our latest Dr, @phoebesilva.bsky.social! Phoebe has done some beautiful work optimising cystic fibrosis media & models to allow growth of NTHis so we can start to understand their role in lung disease, and exploring interactions between NTHi, P. aeruginosa and S. aureus. #MicroSky

Four graphs, showing the response of PA14 and an isogenic pel mutant, and PAO1 and an isogenic pel psl double mutant, to meropenem and colistin. There is no difference between the response of mutants and WTs.

During her PhD, Jenny found something unexpected: biofilm-deficient P. aeruginosa mutants were just as tolerant to antibiotics as the WT when grown in our cystic fibrosis lung model. But why? #MicroSky 1/n

Excited to share our preprint that describes the mechanism of action of an historical infection remedy called Bald’s Eyesalve. In this preprint, we show that Bald’s Eyesalve has multifaceted mechanism of action against both S. aureus and A. baumannii (1/n).

Microbial Primer: Ancientbiotics – making modern antimicrobials from historical infection remedies The modern antibiotic era began in the early twentieth century, but humans have long used materials from the natural world to attempt to treat the symptoms of infection. In this primer, we will discus...

Why should microbiologists be interested in historical infection remedies, and how can we best investigate them for antimicrobial discovery? Thoroughly enjoyed co-writing this Microbiology Primer with @tosinorababa.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #MicroSky #Ancientbiotics

Congratulations to the latest new Dr in the house, @microbescience.bsky.social! 🍾

A group of people at a restaurant table

#PhDone! Congratulations to Dr @tosinorababa.bsky.social, who passed his viva today 🎉

Low concentrations of tetrasodium EDTA cause significant killing of biofilm-associated P. aeruginosa in high validity models of chronic wound and CF lung infections but not in a model of endotracheal tube colonisation Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a pathogen notorious for its antimicrobial resistance and is currently classified as a high-priority pathogen for which new drugs are needed. Tetrasodium EDTA (tEDTA) is one of the new antimicrobial compounds that have been shown to have good antibacterial and antibiofilm efficacy against P. aeruginosa. Due to the diversity and highly drug-tolerant nature of P. aeruginosa biofilms in different infection environments, it is important to carry out pre-clinical testing of new antibiofilm agents against this pathogen in media and models that accurately mimic diverse infection environments. In this study, we used different high validity media and biofilm models that mimic chronic wounds, endotracheal tubes, and cystic fibrosis lung infections to assess the efficacy of tEDTA against P. aeruginosa biofilms. We report that different infection environments influence the susceptibility of both planktonic and biofilm forms of P. aeruginosa to tEDTA. The highest tolerance to tEDTA was observed in the media and biofilm model that mimics the endotracheal tube environment. In conclusion, we show that although different infection environments influence the efficacy of tEDTA against P. aeruginosa biofilms, it has good potential for use as an alternative antimicrobial in treating P. aeruginosa-associated biofilm infections. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.

Low doses of tEDTA kill P. aeruginosa in models of chronic wound and CF lung #biofilm, but not in a model of endotracheal tube colonisation: preprint from a project led by @tosinorababa.bsky.social and implemented by a crack team of PhD students! #MicroSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Lovely work by @c-cornbill.bsky.social @kadeayomikun.bsky.social @nreddy.bsky.social @microbescience.bsky.social @tosinorababa.bsky.social, pooling their skills with lung, wound and endotracheal tube models to explore the potential of tetrasodium EDTA in different infection contexts #MicroSky

Combining antibiotics to tackle antimicrobial resistance Nature Microbiology - Combining antibiotics remains a promising approach to treat patients and to prevent the emergence of antimicrobial resistance

Combining antibiotics remains a promising approach to treat patients and to prevent the emergence of antimicrobial resistance – new COMMENT out now.

Read it here: rdcu.be/efaKQ

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pathogen adaptation to lung metabolites Opportunistic pathogens like Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus rapidly adapt to the dynamic metabolic landscape of the respiratory muco…

"Pathogen adaptation to lung metabolites"

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

#microsky

Infamous paper that popularized unproven COVID-19 treatment finally retracted Study on hydroxychloroquine by Didier Raoult and colleagues gets pulled on ethical and scientific grounds

Infamous paper that popularized unproven COVID-19 treatment finally retracted

Study on hydroxychloroquine by Didier Raoult and colleagues gets pulled on ethical and scientific grounds
@cathleenogrady.bsky.social reports.

www.science.org/content/arti...

A figure from a scientific paper showing multiple Western blots. Each panel shows black horizontal stripes ('bands') on a light grey background. Colored boxes added by me, not part of the original figure, highlight bands that look remarkably similar - suggesting the photos might have been photoshopped.

#Retraction by @plos.bsky.social
Reported to the journal in October 2015, but apparently the journal only recently contacted the authors, and now the data from this 2013 paper is no longer available.
So sad it took so long to contact the authors.
#ImageForensics

Towards improved biofilm models Nature Reviews Microbiology - In this Perspective, Rumbaugh and Whiteley explore the advantages and limitations of current medical biofilm models and outline a framework for quantitatively...

Was a pleasure writing this with @whiteleylab, excited to share it with the biofilm community!
rdcu.be/dQf4Z

our ancestors accomplished more, with less, against worse. stay locked in.

Feel free to add me

Here are some free/open-source sites for the preparation of scientific illustrations, including icon libraries: bioicons.com, scidraw.io, bioart.niaid.nih.gov, inkscape.org, biogdp.com, reactome.org/icon-lib

Bacterial Organelles in Iron Physiology A proposed model of iron trafficking during ferrosome formation.

A review on "Bacterial Organelles in Iron Physiology" from Hualiang Pi et al.

Joe Neilands (a siderophore pioneer) once stated that Fe was too important for bacteria to export. Bacteria DO export Fe, but they can also store it in organelles.
#MicroSky

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Does the UK’s liver transplant matching algorithm systematically exclude younger patients? Seemingly minor technical decisions can have life-or-death effects

“If you’re below 45 years, no matter how ill, it is impossible for you to score high enough to be given priority scores on the list” - an exploration of systematic bias in the UK’s liver matching algorithm www.aisnakeoil.com/p/does-the-u...

Battling Infectious Diseases in the 20th Century: The Impact of Vaccines The number of infected people, measured over 70-some years and across all 50 states and the District of Columbia, generally declined after vaccines were introduced.

Believe your eyes! Look at these beautiful figures of a ~70 year period in the US. Watch cases of measles, mumps, rubella, polio, pertussis, smallpox, hepatitis plummet with safe & effective immunizations! 🏆

#VaccinesWork #GetVaccinated #MedEd
#MedTwitter #MedSky

graphics.wsj.com/infectious-d...

Title and abstract of the memoriam in the Journal of Cell Biology in the link

In September the world lost one of the great biologists of our time: Joe Gall. He bridged the transition from the histology era of cell biology to our molecular present, contributing a remarkable set of insights in his 9 decades 1/n 🧪
rupress.org/jcb/article-...

Dietary zinc deficiency promotes Acinetobacter baumannii lung infection via IL-13 in mice Nature Microbiology - Increased IL-13 drives increased bacterial dissemination and mortality following Acinetobacter baumannii lung infection of zinc-deficient mice and can be countered by...

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! 🦪🫘🧀🥩🥜

I am a terrible supervisor! @kadeayomikun.bsky.social is here too, he’s comparing biofilms grown in different infection models #MicroSky

Great…I should join in

Prediction of strain level phage–host interactions across the Escherichia genus using only genomic information - Nature Microbiology Phage–host interactions are computationally predicted using only genomic information, highlighting future research directions and enabling generation of custom phage cocktails.

Out in Nature Microbiology, we predicted phage-bacteria interactions in E. coli species using only genomic information.

Adsorption, not defense systems, is the main driver at this scale (relevant for a phage therapy context), leading to tailored cocktails!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧵👇

Bacteriophages, Biofilms, Biofouling and MDROs with Special Guest Phage Researcher and Scientist Atif Khan You Make Me Sick! · Episode

My interview podcast on my research and how #bacteriophages can be used for treatment of human MDR infections.

open.spotify.com/episode/0UPr...

How to apply for a (UK) postdoc fellowship - Elisa Granato How to apply for a (UK) postdoc fellowship Disclaimer: this guide was written based on my experience applying for (and being awarded) a BBSRC Discovery Fellowship in 2020/2021. Some of this might appl...

'Tis the season ... of UK research fellowship interviews! Here are some tips & tricks to help you prepare - featuring a list of 100(!) common Q&A questions elisagranato.com/how-to-apply...