Our newest preprint is out! 🧫 Can pathogens affect epithelial regeneration? And if so, what are the consequences for the tissue and pathogen physiology? We used pyocyanin, a Pseudomonas aeruginosa metabolite, to start addressing this. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.15.732350v1 🧵

Pyocyanin disrupts airway regeneration to favor chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection

During chronic infections, host tissues undergo repeated cycles of injury and repair while being exposed to bacterial products. Although many virulence factors trigger immune responses, whether bacter...

biorxiv.org

Why would anyone want to be a scientist? There are the pleasures of: 1. Having the initial idea or insight, 2. Watching the idea develop into new experiments or a new model, and 3. Telling others. Martin A. Schwartz Check out also his Night Science podcast episode: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/7...

@anu-sharma.bsky.social want a twitch? lose itch to use LB, go with flow and your cells may grow #sciku 🧪🧬🔬🧫🦠 #Phages2025 doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...

@anu-sharma.bsky.social: flow increases H2O2 effectiveness against #pseudomonas 50-fold, combining the two blocks motility and growth #phages2025 🦠 www.cell.com/current-biol...

Combining multiple stressors blocks bacterial migration and growth

Here, Sharma et al. use microfluidics to simultaneously provide a physical stressor (shear flow) and a chemical stressor (H2O2) to the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The replenishing power of ...

cell.com

www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-biofil...

How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry | Quanta Magazine

Micro decisions can have macro consequences. A soft matter physicist reveals how interactions within simple cellular collectives can lead to emergent physical traits.

quantamagazine.org

(bacterial) cell divisionists take note, unbedingt 👇 #MicroSky

Kumaran Ramamurthi@ramamurthilab.bsky.social · last yr.

@felixrl.bsky.social's new review in JBC highlights recent research on how #Staph aureus performs several interrelated processes like peptidoglycan assembly, cell division septum placement, and how the septum is a hub for modifying the PG to decorate the cell surface: www.jbc.org/article/S002...

In B. subtilis, TerC proteins function in Mn export to support the metalation of exoenzymes. MeeY is also required (directly or indirectly) for production of surfactin, a lipopeptide required for swarming motility! (collab. with Dan Kearns' lab @IU). #MicroSky journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The TerC family metal chaperone MeeY enables surfactin export in Bacillus subtilis | Journal of Bacteriology

Bacillus subtilis produces surfactin, a powerful detergent-like compound that functions in intercellular communication, surface motility, and as a broad-spectrum antimicrobial agent. Production of surfactin, a cyclic lipopeptide, depends on a non-...

journals.asm.org

Read this to find out how fluid flow influences antimicrobial delivery! 🧪 Glad to be a part of this work. Congratulations @ashuppara.bsky.social!

School of Molecular & Cellular Biology at Illinois (U. of I.)@mcbillinois.bsky.social · 2y ago

Some notoriously difficult to treat infections may not be as resistant to antibiotics as has been thought, according to new research from #ILLINOIS using a microfluidic device that more closely duplicates the fluid flow found in the body than standard cultures. go.mcb.illinois.edu/flow

1/10 🧵 Injecting some science in your feed: Happy to share another chapter in our investigation of bacterial surface sensing. We describe the role of CpaL, a minor pilin-like protein, a key player in surface sensing and adhesion in Caulobacter crescentus. #microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Stimulation of the Caulobacter crescentus surface sensing pathway by deletion of a specialized minor pilin-like gene

Bacteria colonize surfaces through complex mechanisms of surface sensing. Pili are dynamic bacterial appendages that play an important role in this process. In Caulobacter crescentus , tension on retr...

biorxiv.org

How do bacteria experience nutrient stress in nature? In our new preprint, we study how cells respond to nutrient limitation under flow. We find that in flow, cells can grow on concentrations of glucose 1,000 times lower than in batch cell culture. (1/5) #microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New research from the lab of Joe Sanfilippo demonstrates that the amount of hydrogen peroxide required to inhibit bacterial growth is 50x less than previously thought, at amounts naturally present in the human body. go.mcb.illinois.edu/bacteria

To honour Abigail A. Salyers (1942-2013), who is considered as the mother of microbiome research, DSMZ researchers named the strain Streptomyces salyersiae (DSM 41770) after her. #WomenInScience #antibiotics #antibioticresistance #microbiome #microbiology

The first review article from my lab, helmed by @celiasouque.bsky.social, "From Petri Dishes to Patients to Populations: Scales and Evolutionary Mechanisms Driving Antibiotic Resistance" is now online and open access at Annual Reviews Microbiology: www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

So excited to see this in press! Congratulations to @anu-sharma.bsky.social for her fantastic work and first published first author paper. Check it out!!!

Anu Sharma@anu-sharma.bsky.social · 2y ago

Do you feel stressed? Is it one thing or a combination? Turns out bacteria can’t handle stress either! Excited to share my first first author paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social! Combining multiple stressors blocks bacterial migration and growth! www.cell.com/current-biol...

Do you feel stressed? Is it one thing or a combination? Turns out bacteria can’t handle stress either! Excited to share my first first author paper out now in @currentbiology.bsky.social! Combining multiple stressors blocks bacterial migration and growth! www.cell.com/current-biol...

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...