Hung-Ji Tsai

The open letter from UKRI last night was basically a word soup with no new information or clarity on the situation, and even more concerningly, no sincere apology for how it’s been handled and communicated to the U.K. academic community.

🗓 SAVE THE DATE! The 2027 GRC Immunology of Fungal Infections will take place Jan 17-22 in California. Watch this space for program updates! Need a visa to attend? Apply now to secure your spot early.
#fungalconferences #immunosky 🧪🍄
www.grc.org/immunology-o...

Update on UKRI funding situation.

Summary: it is mostly bad news, and with significant uncertainties around new funding model.

Fungal Pathogens: Emerging Threats and Future Challenges | Keystone Symposia Join us at the Keystone Symposia on Fungal Pathogens: Emerging Threats and Future Challenges, January 2026, in Breckenridge, with field leaders!

🎊 Happy new year! I'm looking forward to an exciting 2026 filled with great conferences and science! First up is the Keystone #KSFUNGALPATH26 in just under 2 weeks - full program now online:
www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

How I confronted my growing cynicism about academia—and rekindled my sense of purpose “Maintaining hope doesn’t mean ignoring hardships or naïvely expecting things to work out,” this professor writes

How I confronted my growing cynicism about academia—and rekindled my sense of purpose | Science | AAAS www.science.org/content/arti...

Extensive horizontal transfer of transposable elements shapes fungal mobilomes Romeijn et al. reveal that horizontal transposon transfer is widespread in fungi, contributing up to 70% of transposon content in some taxa. The authors uncover thousands of events across diverse line...

Extensive horizontal transfer of transposable elements shapes fungal mobilomes

@currentbiology.bsky.social by @jromeijn.bsky.social et al from @mfseidl.bsky.social

www.cell.com/current-biol...

Done my 8-pages scientific proposal (1xsummary + 5xproposal + 2xfgures) for a grant and ended with a 146-pages application package. so not real.

There are no words to describe how excited and honored I am to take on the role. Already had such amazing support from the plant pathology community in Switz and cannot wait to grow the team further and see how far we can get in tackling our fungal foes. Look out for jobs starting in May 2026!

We warmly welcome Dr. Megan McDonald as Associate Professor of Plant Disease Dynamics. Her research on fungal diseases in crops will strengthen our expertise and collaborations across plant sciences. 🌱

#BSMM2025. Super proud of @alicjaszkolnik.bsky.social giving an amazing talk on molecular platform development for fungal pathogens!!!

Very excited to announce launch of brand new journal npj Fungal Science! As EIC I'm joined by a fantastic board of academic editors from across the mycology field. You can learn more about the journal scope and submit your work here: www.nature.com/npjfungalsci/

Evolution of antifungal resistance in the environment - Nature Microbiology This Review discusses the evolution, emergence and expansion of environmental fungicide and antifungal drug resistance.

A little holiday news:

Evolution of antifungal resistance in the environment www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This started out as a little thought way back in early 2024 between @normanvanrhijn.bsky.social and I, and turned into a full on review! We hope it proves useful to the community.

Exciting new lab alert 🚨 🧪

Today our team from @imibirmingham.bsky.social visit @chadvaleprimary.bsky.social to show our future scientists the microbes living with plants. Big thanks to @sophie-e-powell.bsky.social to lead an amazing talk and Maria, @alicjaszkolnik.bsky.social @roxtoby.bsky.social to help with microscopy.

The Things We'll Never Know, A Science Fair of Canceled Grants

To remain a beacon of progress, the U.S. must support scientists, not silence them. Today, at “The Things We’ll Never Know: A Science Fair of Canceled Grants,” we are learning from scientists about their canceled projects & the impact on American science. #StandUpForScience

it still takes 2 days to recover from a grant rejection. I thought I could do better.

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

Candida auris is emerging as a prevalent urinary pathogen Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are one of the most common infections, with a subgroup of these infections, catheter-associated UTIs (CAUTIs), accounting for 40% of nosocomial infections. While the ma...

Candida auris is emerging as a prevalent urinary pathogen journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics - 2025 meeting 26 - 27 November 2025 - Liverpool, UK

Save the date! Understanding and Predicting Microbial Evolutionary Dynamics 2025 will be held on 26-27 November in Liverpool: microb.io/MicroEvo25 #MicroEvo25

U.S. scientists’ lives and careers are being upended. Here are five of their stories As the second Trump administration sends U.S. science into upheaval, countless researchers are fighting for their futures

I am extremely pleased to share this feature articulating why I have lost my sanity lately. www.science.org/content/arti...

How do vaccines work?

Prof @robinmay9.bsky.social explains how #vaccination changed the world, saving millions of lives and enabling us to eradicate a lethal disease for the first time in human history...

Watch full lecture: gres.hm/how-vaccines

#immunology #vaccine

UK to launch scheme to recruit global research talent after Trump crackdown Initiative backed by £50mn in government money comes as US administration seeks to cut funding and suppress research

www.ft.com/content/d1ce...

Hi, everyone! My name is Alex. I'm a microbiologist/cell biologist/biochemist, and I'm sharing some of my career biography today for #YoungScientistNetworking.
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First, being a professor, even when things are hard, is one of the best jobs on the planet. You get to discover new things, and to help new generations do the same. You get to teach, which is a grind but also an immense privilege.
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Aneuploidy is the leading cause of pregnancy loss. In work led by @saracarioscia.bsky.social and @aabiddanda.bsky.social, we reanalyzed genetic testing data from 139,416 IVF embryos to discover variants associated with recombination phenotypes and aneuploidy risk. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Schematic of the findings. This study reveals two distinct pools of Atg11 in S. cerevisiae. A lower proportion of Atg11 which is less dynamic canonically localizes at the pre-autophagosomal structures (PAS) onto the vacuolar membrane, necessary for selective autophagy and dependent on actin. While the more dynamic Atg11 localizes at the SPBs in a higher proportion which is critical for high-fidelity chromosome segregation. The asymmetric Kar9 localization together with the dynamic instability of MTs is crucial for pre-anaphase spindle positioning and alignment, and chromosome biorientation. Before anaphase onset, aMTs are unstable and cyclin Clb4 levels are high. The mono-oriented kinetochores have defective tension, leading to the activation of Ipl1. Ipl1 carries out the disassembly of defective kinetochore-MT attachments via phosphorylation and activates SAC. SAC delays anaphase onset until biorientation is achieved. Upon biorientation, SAC is silenced, Pds1 gets degraded, separase is activated, and Cdc14 is released from the nucleolus via the FEAR pathway leading to proper sister chromatid separation. APC-C/Cdc20 also degrades Clb4 upon anaphase onset crucial for the stability of aMTs. Atg11 ensures asymmetric localization of both Spc72 and Kar9 at the dSPB, critical for non-random SPB inheritance.

Are #autophagy -related proteins involved in #GenomeStability? @hashimreza.bsky.social @kaustuvsanyal.bsky.social &co show that Atg11 has an essential non-canonical function in error-free #chromosome segregation via the Kar9-dependent spindle positioning pathway @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4lfbeP1

A novel pan-fungal screening platform for antifungal drug discovery: proof of principle study | Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy The necessity and importance of diverse treatment options for fungal infections have become increasingly apparent. The clinical utility of available antifungals is limited by undesirable features such...

My first ever first author paper has been published! Pretty cool I guess... 😎 doi.org/10.1128/aac....

Image shows five speakers four of which are female and one male from the Institute of Microbiology and Infection speaking today the Microbiology Society Annual Conference

We are in Liverpool this week at the @microbiologysociety.org Annual Conference
our IMI line up today looks like this .. #Microbio25

@whelanfj.bsky.social rocks as always.

So glad to be here at #microbio25 ! Very important opening words: “publishing 1 paper with us allows 4 students to attend this AC for free” #publishforthecommunity