Ajai Dandekar
@ajaidandekar.bsky.social
Sociomicrobiologist. Critical care and cystic fibrosis doctor. University of Washington. Views are my own. he/him sites.uw.edu/aadlab
It's nice to have Democratic candidates nationwide who say what they believe with conviction and moral clarity
Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d agoOssoff: "If John Lewis were marching today from Selma to Montgomery, Mike Collins would be grabbing a billy club"
New @nejm.org Voices: how I write an introduction to a research manuscript “My first piece of advice…: write your introduction backwards. “My second piece of advice: innovate in your ideas, not in the structure of how you present the ideas.” voices.nejm.org/doi/full/10....
Start Here to Write a Research Introduction Section
A step-by-step guide to writing a concise introduction to a clinical research manuscript
voices.nejm.org
How do Burkholderia multivorans bacteria adaptively evolve during infections of the cystic fibrosis airway? A longtime collab and intensive study of 8 patients links bacterial adaptations to disease progression. Our findings also unite prior studies. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Convergent genetic evolution within Burkholderia multivorans chronic infections correlates with lung function decline in cystic fibrosis patients
The patterns and pathways of pathogen adaptation during chronic infections can reveal the gateways microbes must unlock to colonize and persist. In chronic lung infections of cystic fibrosis (CF) pati...
biorxiv.org
That we still sentence people to death in the US is a stain on our nation and diminishes us all www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/u...
Tennessee Death Row Inmate Christa Pike Still Alive After Attempts to Execute Her, Lawyers Say
Christa Pike was convicted of murdering a classmate in 1995. It was not clear what went wrong in the execution or what her current medical condition was.
nytimes.com
Hard to say... The proposal for a board to make NIH funding decisions completely violates governing statutes. Neither the NIH Director nor the OMB Director have any legal role. If these are not just targeted leaks, I don't know if Bhattacharya is making legal or policy arguments.
Drug Monkey@drugmonkey.bsky.social · 3w agoHow long can Bhattacharya last??
Did DEI close the Strait of Hormuz? No. But it hasn't re-opened it either.
This is an incredible meeting
Will Ratcliff@wcratcliff.bsky.social · 4w ago1/17 Submissions are now open for the 2027 Microbial Population Biology GRC! We expect this meeting to be extraordinarily oversubscribed. If you want to come, time is of the essence--apply ASAP! June 27–July 2 • Andover, NH www.grc.org/microbial-po...
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has refused to allow mail-in voting restrictions for the midterms, rejecting the Trump administration’s bid to revive a U.S. Postal Service plan. USPS is expected to continue delivering mail ballots as usual www.documentcloud.org/documents/28...
26A305
documentcloud.org
dan rather is 190 years old and would be better on 60 minutes than ross douthat. peter jennings has been dead for a quarter century and might be better than both.
Why we do clinical trials, exhibit N This is a really disappointing result. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/04/s...
The Heart Drug Pelacarsen Fails, Shocking Novartis and Cardiologists
Doctors were hopeful the drug, which was being tested in a large clinical trial by Novartis, was going to be a powerful new tool to fight heart disease.
nytimes.com
Our new paper with @ckellison.bsky.social. is finally out! We identify an ancient and widely conserved mechanism that promotes initiation of fiber polymerization in type IV pili and type II secretion systems.
β-strand addition within tip initiation complexes licenses assembly of diverse type IV filaments | PNAS
PilC/PilY1 proteins are tip-located adhesins of type IV pili (T4P) that are critical for T4P function in diverse behaviors including twitching moti...
pnas.org
Big time credit goes to @hsiehyp.bsky.social who started this project with me and her co-mentor @ajaidandekar.bsky.social aided by Wanting (Wendy) Sun, Ziqi (Chelsea) Wang in our lab & Ernst lab at UMd. If you’re interested in this, Phoebe is hiring: www.labofpie.org (sadly there is no actual pie)
LAB of PIE
We study the mechanisms of cross-kingdom microbial competition and how it influences microbial evolution and interaction with hosts
labofpie.org
HHMI@hhmi-science.bsky.social · last mo.Antibiotic resistance isn't just a genetic problem; it's ecological. New research from #HHMIInvestigator Harmit Malik & co shows that when a dangerous bacterium shares space w/a common fungus, it can be pushed toward resistance it wouldn't develop alone — but with a built-in weakness bit.ly/4g1jLnZ
I was worried that a psychopath was in the row behind me during my flight home yesterday. (if the plan was to claim the row, they were not successful; A and C were filled before we boarded)
We as scientists must assume that *NOTHING* this administration does with regard to NIH or NSF comes from a place of good faith, even if you agree with the action in principle
Mark Peifer (He, him)@peiferlabunc.bsky.social · 2mo agoWe also have to remember that there is almost certainly a hidden agenda behind this with the current administration--making it easier for political appointees to make decisions that have nothing to do with the merit of the science
Amazing how many issues in present-day Seattle reflect this 1936 redline map
David Kroman@kromandavid.bsky.social · 2mo agoMy final Seattle Times story ran today and is about how rich neighborhoods’ push for underground power cables in the 1960s/70s has become a $3 billion problem for all of us today. www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news...
This play, "Eulogy", about growing up and persevering through life with cystic fibrosis, is absolutely incredible and worth a trip to the Seattle Rep in the fall www.seattlerep.org/events/speci...
Eulogy | Seattle Rep
seattlerep.org
Lab preprint! Zichu Yang, Anvita Billa, and Adi Desai systematically studied the DNA-binding domain of the quorum sensing transcription factor LasR. A collaboration with Matt Parsek
bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 2mo agoAnalysis of the DNA-binding domain of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa quorum sensing transcription factor LasR https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.08.12.744480v1
El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"
Laetiporus sulphureus (I believe) growing in my backyard
The only conclusion that can be drawn is that the White House press corps knows and accepts both the appearance and reality of its obeisance
Carl Quintanilla@carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3mo ago“.. he was met with applause from roughly half the room .. before turning toward new #WHCA president Jacqui Heinrich, who smiled .. and embraced the man who had just spent more than an hour assailing the work of those seated before him.” @passantino.bsky.social www.status.news/p/the-white-...
Seattle Link is an interesting example of a jurisdiction that got the system planning basics right (an alignment that essentially hits the relevant traffic generators + a robust bus system to feed) but is now totally failing at delivery and cost control, killing its momentum in the long run.
The USMNT and Knicks being really good except for the precise moment when Trump involves himself is really funny
1st time since 1930 that the US men will have a winning record at the World Cup
I’ve accumulated several transit cards from around the world, and the Seattle World Cup orca card (right) graphic design is excellent
