Jessica Brown Lab
@brownlabutah.bsky.social
Jessica Brown, associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Utah. Fungal pathogenesis. Antifungal treatment discovery. Dabbling in fungal ecology. Tweets my own. She/her.
Powerful piece! www.ms.now/opinion/canc...
Opinion | The U.S. is dangerously close to defunding miracles like the one that saved my life
Jenney Bitner: I'm not a scientist or policy expert. But I know that the drug that kept me alive for my children was built on a foundation of public investment.
ms.now
Screaming to the abyss: #ColossalBio did not resurrect the dire wolf and they're probably just going to make an antelope with methemoglobinemia to give it a bluish color. Their #DeExtinction #DisInformation campaign is just a pyramid scheme because #ExtinctionIsForever 🧪
When humans create an artificial island, how do fungi colonize this new habitat? Using the Danish island Peberholm as an experimental system, a recent Fungal Ecology article examines arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal succession on new land. doi.org/10.1016/j.fu... 📷 Wikipedia
Educational short read on 2 billion years of fungal evolution from ancestral marine flagellates to mushrooms. www.mycostories.com/post/two-bil... #fungi #evolution #symbiosis #mycorrhiza 🍄
Two Billion Years of Fungal Evolution: How Symbiosis Shaped Earth's Most Diverse Kingdom
Fungi emerged approximately 2.4 billion years ago in primeval seas, likely colonising land before plants around one billion years ago
mycostories.com
🦠 The impact of phenotypic heterogeneity on fungal pathogenicity and drug resistance #fungi #mycology #DrugResistance #pathogens academic.oup.com/femsre/artic...
The impact of phenotypic heterogeneity on fungal pathogenicity and drug resistance
This review discusses the contribution of phenotypic heterogeneity in fungi to pathogenesis and antifungal drug resistance.
academic.oup.com
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi boost plant resilience by remodelling the plant-pathogen membrane interface Check-out the latest paper from @alexguyon.bsky.social & @dromius.bsky.social 📖 doi.org/10.1016/j.ce... in @cp-cellreports.bsky.social News article www.slcu.cam.ac.uk/news/arbuscu...
Abstract deadline today for Fungal Genetics! And still time to register, don't miss one of the best meetings for fungal genetics and genomics, an exciting meeting with great colleagues. If you are new to fungal biology you will find a welcoming community to share your science. #Fungal26 🧬🍄💻🦠🌱🪲
Jason Stajich@hyphaltip.bsky.social · 10mo agoRegistration open for #Fungal26 genetics-gsa.org/fungal-2026/ at Asilomar.
FIRST first-author pub for Brent is OUT! “Insights into Current Coccidioidomycosis Therapeutic Pathways” now in @asm.org Fluconazole dominates, but switches are common in severe cases. Proud mentor moment! 🎉 @cudeptofmedicine.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Insights into current coccidioidomycosis therapeutic pathways | Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy
Coccidioidomycosis (“San Joaquin Valley Fever”) is a systemic fungal infection caused by the dimorphic fungi Coccidioides immitis and Coccidioides posadasii, which are endemic to regions of the Southw...
journals.asm.org
New work led by members of the @rokaslab.bsky.social! ☺️ 1,154 yeast genomes in the Saccharomycotina subphylum were surveyed for their relationship between reduced gene repertoires broadly associated with genome stability functions and elevated evolutionary rates.🧬 academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...
Stable hypermutators revealed by the genomic landscape of genes involved in genome stability among yeast species
Abstract. Mutator phenotypes are short-lived due to the rapid accumulation of deleterious mutations. Yet, recent observations reveal that certain fungi can
academic.oup.com
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌿 Excited to share our Primer on fungal endophytes, the elusive members of the fungal kingdom that defy easy classification. Neither pathogens nor symbionts in the strict sense, they challenge how we define ecological guilds. @umr-iam.bsky.social
Fungal endophytes
Organisms are commonly grouped into ecological guilds that reflect their shared resource use and similar ecological roles. The guild concept has been …
sciencedirect.com
New pre-print from our group showing remarkable synchrony of proliferative growth and regulated cell death during plant infection- each conidial cell has a different fate - by the rice blast fungus. Led by Alice Eseola with @osesmir.bsky.social Lauren Ryder @danmaclean.bsky.social and Martin Egan
bioRxiv Molecular Biology@biorxiv-molbio.bsky.social · 10mo agoSynchronous spatio-temporal control of autophagy and organelle trafficking is necessary for appressorium-mediated plant infection by Magnaporthe oryzae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.06.680644v1
Very excited to announce that our department is now accepting applications for a tenure track faculty position in Cell Biology: uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UASYS/... Come join our wonderful department!
Assistant Professor Cell Biology
Current University of Arkansas System employees, including student employees and graduate assistants, need to log in to Workday via MyApps.Microsoft.com, then access Find Jobs from the Workday search ...
uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com
We have a new paper out in Molecular Ecology, led by @devinbendixsen.bsky.social ! Reproductive isolation due to divergent ecological selection is accompanied by vast genomic instability in experimentally evolved yeast populations onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Assistant Professor (Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions), Dept of Microbiology, Fall 2026 apply.interfolio.com/173345 at University of Tennessee - Knoxville. Position is part of a faculty cluster hire in Bioinformatics, Genomics and Quantitative-based Solutions for Food Security.
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
My group at is hiring a PhD student to explore how fungal pathogens that live in the environment will adapt their genomes, acquire new phenotypes, and perhaps even increased infectivity as a result of climate change. Please share! More info and applications at @ jobs.uni-jena.de/vrbup
Our study on a mycovirus that boosts fungal virulence is now out — and beautifully covered in this Behind the Paper piece by Amariliz Rivera Huge thanks for capturing the heart of the story so thoughtfully. @natmicrobiol.nature.com rdcu.be/eB9yg
Mycoviruses steer fungal fitness
Nature Microbiology - A mycovirus drives the fitness of the lung-infecting fungus Aspergillus fumigatus under stress, helping it to survive within immune cells, and thus shaping its pathogenesis.
rdcu.be
Excited to share our editorial on peer review, out now in #mBio! This was a mighty group effort with my mBio Early Career Editorial Board peer mentoring group @proctordm.bsky.social and Rachy Abraham. From novice to expert: preparing your peer review | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
From novice to expert: preparing your peer review | mBio
Peer review is the process that academic journals, conferences, and funding agencies use to ensure the quality of scholarly work before it is published, presented, or funded. Reviewers for academic jo...
journals.asm.org
#NatureMicroPicks 🦇 ex vivo models for bat viruses! Bat organoids as new models to study zoonotic viruses. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Diverse bat organoids provide pathophysiological models for zoonotic viruses
Bats are important reservoirs of zoonotic pathogens, but suitable model systems for comprehensively exploring host-pathogen interactions and assessing spillover risks remain limited. To address this g...
science.org
Vaccine skeptics want to retest vaccines, claiming they haven't been tested well enough. Devil's advocates ask "where's the harm in that?" But there is harm. Lots of it. open.substack.com/pub/epiellie...
The hidden cost of retesting vaccines
A reader asked me a question I get semi-regularly about vaccine skeptics:
open.substack.com
🧪 Basic science boosts the economy: "The proposed dismantling of NSF [and NIH] raises an urgent question: do these cuts actually save money or merely delay spending until the bill gets larger? The answer is clear: these cuts will cost the economy billions."
Trump’s NIH And NSF Cuts Estimated To Cost The U.S. Economy $10 Billion Annually
Economists find public R&D drives a quarter of U.S. productivity growth — and pays for itself
forbes.com
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
Translation meeting in Edinburgh (that I'm co-organising). Invited speakers include Allen Buskirk on his deep mechanistic work on prokarotic translation, Karen Merchante on plant ribosomal proteins and their effect, and the UK Translation community bringing their best science! #RNAbiology #ribosome
Biochemical Society@biochemsoc.bsky.social · last yr.Are you registered for the 30th Translation UK meeting? This year, our ever-popular conference is taking place at the incredible University of Edinburgh! Be quick - abstract submission and earlybird discount ends 30 April. 🧪 Register today: www.eventsforce.net/biochemsoc/2...
So happy to see this story come together. Check it out! Kathleen Mills and many collaborators - GM-CSF–mediated epithelial-immune cell cross-talk orchestrates pulmonary immunity to Aspergillus fumigatus | Science Immunology www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
GM-CSF–mediated epithelial-immune cell cross-talk orchestrates pulmonary immunity to Aspergillus fumigatus
During mold infection, epithelial-derived GM-CSF licenses neutrophil killing of fungal cells, leading to improved survival.
science.org
Important work in battling Mucormycosis www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... - CotH is an interesting spore coat gene which has a bacterial origin in these and several other ZZ fungi. In Mucor it is important for their blood vessel invasion.
A humanized antibody against mucormycosis targets angioinvasion and augments the host immune response
An anti-CotH humanized IgG1 antibody protects against lethal mucormycosis when given as adjunctive therapy to immunocompromised mice.
science.org
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Use their names: there are no basal, lower, or early diverging fungi
Fungal biologists have embraced phylogenies for understanding the biology of this diverse group in an evolutionary framework. In an attempt to highlight lineages of fungi that are distinct from the...
tandfonline.com
The WHITE HOUSE has found a workaround to block NIH-backed medical research even after judges ordered them to allow it to go forward. talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/white...
White House Finds Workaround to Shut Down NIH-Backed Medical Research
From the beginning of this drama going on a month ago the...
talkingpointsmemo.com
If the block on the Federal Register isn’t removed in the next few months, I fear a majority of labs will close within a year. This small procedural wrench has the power to kill US science indefinitely, losing an entire generation of discovery and innovation.
Brian Stevenson Ph.D. spirochete lab@bstevensonlab.bsky.social · last yr.I had two grant proposals up for review in the NIH Bacterial Virulence (BV) study section. It was canceled without notice this morning. Without those grants, my lab must close within a year. And so the purge of scientific research in the US continues 🤬 #MicroSky 🦠🧫🧪🧬🔬
