PC Lee

This is scant consolation, but Listeria was first discovered by Hülphers in Sweden in 1910. He isolated the bacterium from the liver of a rabbit & called it "Bacillus hepatis." Others later suggested "Bacterium monocytogenes" or "Listerella hepatolytica" & settled on "Listeria monocytogenes." #IDsky

Today in History: September 28, Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin 1924: First round-the-world flight 2020: Global COVID death toll reaches 1 million 2022: Hurricane Ian strikes Florida

Today is the 97th anniversary of penicillin's discovery!

Many know the story of Fleming's serendipitous find. But fewer know that the antibiotic-producing mold drifted in from a nearby lab where it was being studied during an unusually cool period that allowed it to grow.
apnews.com/today-in-his...

Nice writeup of our discovery of the first Legionella phage from @uoftmedicine.bsky.social. A special thanks to Betty Zou for being interested in our latest work. temertymedicine.utoronto.ca/news/scienti...

Call for Applications for the Azrieli International Visiting PhD Fellowship - The Azrieli Foundation The Azrieli International Visiting PhD Fellowship offers outstanding international PhD candidates the opportunity to conduct short-term research in Israel, fostering academic collaboration and strengt...

PhD students! Curious about RNA biology, phages & interbacterial interactions? Come spend 3–4 months in my lab through the Azrieli International Visiting PhD Fellowship (ILS 12K/month). Collaborate and experience science & culture together!
azrielifoundation.org/azrieli-fell...

Gold-covered hairballs may reveal why cats eat grass Spiky projections on plant matter may act like “drain snakes,” helping felines dislodge wads of fur

@science.org exclusive! Scientists--and owners--have puzzled for years about why cats eat grass, only seemingly to throw it up for no reason. Could a new study finally solve the mystery? Cool--and very fun--story by Christa Lesté-Lasserre

Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence - Nature Commensal Candida albicans enhances the virulence and dissemination of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium.

Excited to share our new publication, out today in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... @kanchanj.bsky.social led this fascinating fungal-bacterial interaction project. We are grateful for our wonderful collaborators Brian Peters and David Underhill.

A Twitter conversation from 2019 in search of the elusive Legionella phages.

Sorry for the late reply ‪@superbug-slayer.bsky.social ‪@roblavigne.bsky.social‬. Here's a Legionella phage & it likely shaped the emergence of Legionnaires' in the first place! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... (cryoEM w/ @smlea.bsky.social @justindeme.bsky.social). #phage #legionella #legionnaires

What to Know About Plague After a New Case in California

Yes plague still exists in many parts of the world including the western US:

What to Know About Plague After a New Case in California www.nytimes.com/2025/08/22/h...

A bacterial toxin-antitoxin system involved in an unusual response to genotoxic stress | EMBO reports imageimageThe GndRX system in Legionella pneumophila is a predicted toxin-antitoxin module that causes death during DNA stress. GndRX has non-canonical functionality and appears to be the consequence ...

From former PhD Student Jordan Lin (now a postdoc w/ Ami Bhatt), in which we describe a contact-dependent, cell-extrinsic response to genotoxic stress. #MicroSky.

A bacterial toxin-antitoxin system involved in an unusual response to genotoxic stress | EMBO reports www.embopress.org/doi/full/10....

Legionnaires' disease exhibits a strong seasonality in incidence and is favored during warm, humid conditions. This has implications for the potential impact of climate change.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC...

2 dead, 58 sick from Harlem Legionnaires' disease cluster A second person has now died and more than 50 people have fallen ill as part of a growing Legionnaires’ cluster in Harlem, city health officials reported Monday.

“A second person has now died and more than 50 people have fallen ill as part of a growing Legionnaires' cluster in Harlem, city health officials reported… The cases from the cluster have been found in five Harlem ZIP codes: 10027, 10030, 10035, 10037 and 10039, along with the bordering communities”

Medical school prerequisites should include microbiology Medical schools must make microbiology a prerequisite — to prepare students not just for school but for practicing medicine.

Not sure it should be required, but given the scant time devoted to basic science in most med schools, taking micro as an undergrad makes good sense. Microbiology is a great foundation for learning medicine at molecular, cellular, physiological and community levels.

www.statnews.com/2025/07/16/m...

Excellent letter to the editor of her hometown paper by PhD student Adrienne Brauer. First two lines are bangers. Science does help everyone! #proudPI #McClintockProject #midwest

Congrats @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social @vvazquez.bsky.social and co-authors!!

Dendritic cells activate pyroptosis and effector-triggered apoptosis to restrict Legionella infection | mBio The innate immune system senses bacterial pathogens by employing pattern recognition receptors that detect pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) and guard proteins that monitor pathogen disru...

Thrilled that our latest paper showing that DCs undergo either pyroptosis or apoptosis upon bacterial blockade of host translation to restrict Legionella is now online at the @asm.org journal mBio! Congrats to 1st author @vvazquez.bsky.social & co-authors! 🎉 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Registration for MMPC 2025 opens today! We can’t wait to see you in St. Charles, IL, for the first MMPC hosted by Loyola University Chicago!
www.mmpconference2025.com/registration

ASM members outside of the U.S Capitol.

ASM members inside of the U.S Capitol building.

Members of the American Society for Microbiology spent a day on Capitol Hill meeting with members of Congress and their staff to advocate for federal science funding and to discuss biosafety and biosecurity. Learn more about #ASMAdvocacy at asm.social/2pV.

IRE1α promotes phagosomal calcium flux to enhance macrophage fungicidal activity The mammalian endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress sensor inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α) is essential for cellular homeostasis and plays key roles …

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @drbadbug.bsky.social @teresaomeara.bsky.social Overall, our findings illustrate non-canonical IRE1α activation during infection and a function for IRE1α in supporting organelle contact sites to safeguard against rapidly growing microbes.

Thank you to all teachers/mentors in science

Cell division in rod-shaped bacteria is well studied (think "Min system"), but how do round bacteria find their middle? @felixrl.bsky.social 's new review article covers how #Staph aureus, Streptococci, and others figure out how to perform binary fission.

portlandpress.com/biochemsoctr...

≋B≋A≋C≋T≋E≋R≋I≋A≋L≋
≋S≋P≋E≋E≋D≋

The spirochete that causes Lyme disease was clocked at 2,800 µm/min moving back and forth across a platelet—100 times greater than the speed of a neutrophil, the fastest human cell

Petition to rename:
"𝘽𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙖 𝙗𝙪𝙧𝙜𝙙𝙤𝙧𝙁𝙀𝙍𝙍𝘼𝙍𝙄"

Ref: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001633

Genetic determinants of gene amplifications alter frequency and evolutionary trajectory of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus Gene amplifications are thought to be common in bacterial populations, providing a rapid reversible mode of adaptation to diverse stresses, including the acquisition of antibiotic resistance. We previ...

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...

DR Congo: Anthrax kills dozens of hippos in Virunga National Park - BBC News Efforts are now under way to recover the animals and bury them to prevent further spread.

The fight between Hippo and pathogens continues at the molecular and organismic levels…
www.bbc.com/news/article...

TNF signaling maintains local restriction of bacterial founder populations in intestinal and systemic sites during oral Yersinia infection Enteroinvasive bacterial pathogens are responsible for an enormous worldwide disease burden that critically affects the young and immunocompromised. Yersinia pseudotuberculosis is a Gram-negative ente...

Stefan’s work can be found here on biorxiv:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We describe analysis of oral infection & systemic dissemination dynamics of yersinia pseudotuberculosis using a library of isogenic bacteria each containing unique barcodes to track them throughout the infection

NIH PostBac program is open again! And I will be hiring! #JobPostComing

www.training.nih.gov/research-tra...

🚨 Big news! Infection and Immunity is now open access! 🌍🔬 That means wider visibility & impact for your research. Worried about fees? 💸 Check out how IAI stacks up against other journals—you might be surprised. #OpenAccess #SciComm #Microbiology

Thrilled to share our @elife.bsky.social paper "Inflammasomes primarily restrict cytosolic Salmonella replication within human macrophages" by 1st author Dr. @marisaegan.bsky.social (@cambupenn.bsky.social alum, now faculty @swarthmorecollege.bsky.social)! elifesciences.org/articles/90107 🧵(1/n)

Carboxysome Shell Protein CcmK2 Assembles into Monodisperse and pH-Reversible Microparticles Synthetic nano- and microparticles have become essential tools in biotechnology. Protein-based compartments offer distinct advantages over synthetic particles, such as biodegradability and biocompatib...

New paper from the Vecchiarelli Lab! 🧵
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

In collaboration with Lu-Ning Liu lab.

Congratulations to first author Claudia Mak!
@claudiamak.bsky.social

P.S. Claudia is looking for postdocs in protein biochemistry!

Pls ReSkeet

Infectious Disease research is more important than ever!! 👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇👇