🎥 Professor @andresfloto.bsky.social on new funding from: @wellcometrust.bsky.social @gatesfoundation.bsky.social @novonordisk.bsky.social and how VPD-HLRI research is helping reshape antibiotic discovery in the fight against antimicrobial resistance. Read more: 🔗 bit.ly/4rJy6c2

A low-carb diet is considered a promising weight-loss solution. But does it really help to reach your dream weight? In a fact check for #UniNova, endocrinologist PD Dr. Eleonora Seelig explains that food quality matters more than cutting out carbohydrates.

Do carbohydrates make you fat?

Don’t eat carbohydrates after 6 p.m., or cut them out altogether: A low-carb diet is considered a promising weight-loss solution. But do you really have to deny yourself pasta and bread if you want to...

unibas.ch

A paper in Nature Microbiology presents Antimicrobial Single-Cell Testing, a large-scale live-cell imaging approach that quantifies bacterial killing in real time at single-cell resolution, which can predict treatment outcomes. go.nature.com/3Nwnez8 #microsky 🧪

Our first lab paper is out. Large-scale testing of antimicrobial lethality at single-cell resolution predicts mycobacterial infection outcomes. From single cells to patients, across tuberculosis and M. abscessus. 👉 doi.org/10.1038/s415... 👇 Thread

Some bacterial pathogens play dead to dodge antibiotics. A new test watches them closely—and helps choose drugs that finish the job. #AntibioticTolerance @biomedizin.unibas.ch @lucboeck.bsky.social

New test shows which antibiotics actually work

Researchers at the University of Basel present a new test that measures how effectively antibiotics kill bacteria and helps predict treatment outcomes

unibas.ch

How can we tell whether an antibiotic eradicates an infection? Researchers from the @biomedizin.unibas.ch, at the @unibas.ch, present an antimicrobial single-cell microscopy-based method that measures antibiotic lethality in individual bacteria. 🔗 doi.org/10.1038/s415... @natmicrobiol.nature.com

Very nice work Josie - congrats!

Josie Bryant@josiebryant.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Really pleased to share the first paper to come out of the lab. We found that hospital patients were frequently colonised with P. aeruginosa and that the same clone was shared between the gut and the lung. The phylogenies indicate that the clones moved from lung->gut www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited for New Approaches and Concepts in Microbiology 2025 with sessions on Bacterial systems biology, Bacterial cell biology & protein machines, Microbiomes, Environment & evolution, Pathogenesis & phage, Antibiotic discovery, mechanisms, and resistance. #EESMicrobiology

In the fight against bacterial pathogens, researchers are combining vaccination with targeted colonization of the intestine by harmless microorganisms. This approach could potentially mark a turning point in the antibiotics crisis. www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/news/detail/...

New vaccine concept tackles harmful bacteria in the intestine

In the fight against bacterial pathogens, researchers are combining vaccination with targeted colonization of the intestine by harmless microorganisms. This approach could potentially mark a turning p...

biozentrum.unibas.ch

Exciting PhD studentship opportunity in @andresfloto.bsky.social lab on understanding chemical permeability to advance antibiotic drug discovery www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50800/. Combines experimental approaches with in silico screening and generative AI.

Happy to share the latest work from the lab @crick.ac.uk. Outstanding work from Di Chen and Tony Fearns showing the link between Mtb membrane damage, calcium leakage and ATG8/LC3 lipidation in macrophages. Congratulations Di and Tony! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis phagosome Ca2+ leakage triggers multimembrane ATG8/LC3 lipidation to restrict damage in human macrophages

Ca2+ leakage triggers LC3 lipidation on multimembrane as Mtb phagosome damage response, independent of autophagy.

science.org

Apply now for our international Master of Science in Physics of Life @biozentrum.unibas.ch @unibasel.ch! Scholarships available. More information: www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/education/de... #Master #Students #Research #Physics #Mathematics #ComputerScience #Engineering #Basel #Switzerland

NEW COMMENT! TB trials with purely microbiological primary endpoints give greater weight to outcomes that matter most, generalise better to non trial settings, are less biased if regimens differ in duration, and are often better powered #IDSky @catherineberry.bsky.social @sgschumacher.bsky.social

Daniel Grint@danieljgrint.bsky.social · last yr.

It was a pleasure working with @tomayates.bsky.social on this comment in @lancetmicrobe.bsky.social It's time for new TB treatment trials to use a more focused primary outcome definition, moving on from the composite outcome that has prevailed for the last decade www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Host and pathogen aficionados: Join us in Blois!- registration deadline 1st March- Please RP- meetings.embo.org/event/24-hos...

Cell biology of host-pathogen interactions

Microbial infections lead to drastic changes in the architecture and metabolism of the host cell. The inaugural FEBS EMBO Cell Biology of Host-Pathogen Interaction Advanced Course explores the mechan…

meetings.embo.org

New paper, discussing open problems in bacterial phenotype prediction with ML: arxiv.org/abs/2502.07749

Whole-Genome Phenotype Prediction with Machine Learning: Open Problems in Bacterial Genomics

How can we identify causal genetic mechanisms that govern bacterial traits? Initial efforts entrusting machine learning models to handle the task of predicting phenotype from genotype return high accu...

arxiv.org

Researchers at the University of Basel have developed a method to test the mode of action of 1,500+ substances on cells at once, uncovering hidden drug mechanisms and potential new uses - paving the way for repurposing drugs.

Testing the effect of thousands of compounds on cellular metabolism

Researchers at the University of Basel are able to test the effects of more than 1,500 compounds on cell metabolism in parallel. Their analysis also led to the discovery of previously unknown mechanis...

unibas.ch

We found that many bacterial species use exogenous peptidoglycan fragments - released by lysis of neighboring cells - as a general danger signal, triggering a danger response that protects bacteria against many dangers: biofilm formation. Details here 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bacteria use exogenous peptidoglycan as a danger signal to trigger biofilm formation - Nature Microbiology

Peptidoglycan released by neighbouring kin or non-kin cell lysis induces physiological changes that protect from a range of stresses, including phage predation.

nature.com

⚠️ Bit of an alarm bell to MDR-TB regimen BPaL/M - resistance to constituent antibiotics developing and transmission of such strains already occurring #TBSky #IDSky @nejm.org www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...

Transmission as a Key Driver of Resistance to the New Tuberculosis Drugs | NEJM

Whole-genome sequencing was used to show that resistance to newer antituberculosis drugs is present in at least 27 countries and that up to a quarter of this resistance may be due to person-to-...

nejm.org

Indeed a very beautiful start into 2025 - congrats !

Noémie Lefrancq@noemielefrancq.bsky.social · 2y ago

Incredibly excited to share that our manuscript was just published in @nature.com ! What a way to start the new year! 🎉 https://buff.ly/4gyYCzx We present phylowave, a framework that enables to learn the fitness dynamics of pathogens from phylogenies. 🧵 A thread... 1/n #IDSky #IDModelling

... after almost 4000 citations 🙄; many of which probably saying it was wrong, but citation is citation

Cathleen O'Grady@cathleenogrady.bsky.social · 2y ago

It took four days from submission to publication, and nearly five years from publication to retraction. After campaigning by many, many scientists, and an investigation by Elsevier, an infamous paper on hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 treatment has been retracted. 🧪 www.science.org/content/arti...