CIHR funding rate: 13.6%. Early 2000s: 30%+. Canada’s new $1.7B Impact+ program recruits talent — but without increased Tri-Council base funding, we risk further strain on an already stretched system. We’re calling for $1B over 5 years. Support here: tinyurl.com/33c5av46

Excited to share our latest publication, led by Dr. Ellie McCallum and Juan Burckhardt! bit.ly/4kfzQaf You can access the article for free here: authors.elsevier.com/a/1mWb4L7PXu... And more information is available on the updated preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Glowing bacterial sensors detect gut illness in mice before symptoms emerge

UBC researchers have engineered gut bacteria that dim their fluorescent glow in the presence of illness.

bit.ly

Sharing exciting work led by PhD students McCallum and Burckhardt! We created a new series of syn bio tools in Bacteroides to create non-invasive, real time and sensitive in vivo gut biosensors. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Expanding the Bacteroides synthetic biology toolkit to develop an in vivo intestinal malabsorption biosensor.

The human gut is a highly dynamic physical environment where perturbations - including factors such as acidification, oxygenation, and particle concentration (osmolality) - can influence microbiota co...

biorxiv.org

Excited to share our latest preprint led by Dr. Hunter! We show that osmotic shifts, common in the gut, alter T4 phage-E. coli evolution. High osmolality promotes fitness but selects for mucoid, weakly phage-resistant E. coli, with implications for phage therapy! biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Osmotic conditions shape fitness gains and resistance mechanisms during E. coli and T4 phage co-evolution

Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect bacteria and offer a promising approach to combating antimicrobial resistance in the gut by selectively targeting harmful bacteria while preserving t...

biorxiv.org

Excited to share our latest publication by Adel Yavarinasab et al!

Ákos T Kovács@evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · last yr.

Electrogenic dynamics of biofilm formation: Correlation between genetic expression and electrochemical activity in Bacillus subtilis Biosensors and Bioelectronics from @ctropini.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Very excited to share a new paper in collaboration with the Ciernia lab! We show that early-life inflammation alters sex hormones and mating behavior in mice, alongside shifts in hormone-modifying microbiota members! Great work by Olivia Sullivan, Claire Sie and many others! doi.org/10.1016/j.bb...