Fantastic 🧵 👇! For more information on the role of Dutch scientists in clandestine penicillin production during WW2 see citation below. 1/

Dan Kaszeta FRHistS@dankaszeta.bsky.social · 3d ago

Penicillin was not, in fact, the first antibiotic.

Avocados come in 2 varieties - A-types start each day female and switch to male midday. B-types do the reverse. In work just published from the last chapter of my PhD, we show this system evolved 40+million yrs ago and is regulated by alleles of 1 transcription factor www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Balanced polymorphism in a floral transcription factor underlies the ancient rhythm of daily sex alternation in avocado | PNAS

In avocado and certain wild relatives in Lauraceae, a highly synchronized daily rhythm of floral sex timing promotes cross-pollination between two ...

pnas.org

Please repost! #microsky🦠 The Glickman Lab at MSK is recruiting! Projects in Mtb pathogenesis, basic biology of mycobacteria, and mycobacterial cancer therapies. See our publications here: tinyurl.com/3f386f4x Send CV and cover letter to: glickmanmycolab@gmail.com

Does the (live) shingles vaccine protect against dementia? Fergus Hamilton and colleagues provide important evidence in a new preprint using hospital data from the whole of England in a regression discontinuity design from which we *don't* show evidence of a meaningful protective effect /cont

While my hair is hanging in there, I'm of the age where my social media feeds get targeted ads for hair loss products, e.g. Amazon's #1 bestselling "Nutrafol" As I study host-pathogen interactions, I wondered what other immune cell-themed grooming products might be envisioned .. Any other ideas?

The van Leeuwenhoek Centre for Advanced Microscopy (LCAM) organises the next edition of the "Functional Imaging" course at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), the Netherlands at Oct 5th-16th 2026. More info at: www.microscopycourse.nl?page_id=652

When people ask me what the phrase "artificial intelligence" means, my short answer is, it means "venture capitalists, give me some money". But OUP asked me for a longer answer, given here and summarized in the section headings: doi.org/10.1093/9780...

Annual killifish continue to surprise us: they make neutrophils before almost every other cell type, even before gastrulation. Neutrophils usually arise from the lateral plate mesoderm (forming in cyan), but in killifish they are already patrolling around the embryo in gold. tinyurl.com/killiphil

I wanted to like QED's new 1% preprint ranking. I really did. But the more I looked at the data, the more uncomfortable it made me. Here is my full peer review. open.substack.com/pub/blekhman...

My Peer Review of The 1%

I wanted to like QED's new 1% ranking. I don't.

open.substack.com

New paper in collaboration with @proftracypalmer.bsky.social, @lislowe.bsky.social and many more. We show that mycobacteria produce Type VII secreted anti-bacterial protein toxins. Excited to explore this new area of mycobacterial biology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

If you had to work (laptop) in a cafe for a morning in Edinburgh, where would you go (asking for me)

🏆 Congratulations to Bouke de Jong, winner of the Gardner Middlebrook Award at #ESM2026! One of the highest honours in our community, awarded for an outstanding career and lasting impact on mycobacteriology. A privilege to celebrate it in Verona. Huge congrats, Bouke 👏 #ESM26 #ESMyco

I'm incredibly proud to share our paper on the preclinical evaluation of the BNT164 mRNA tuberculosis vaccine candidates. Now online in the final version at Nature Immunology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccines BNT164a1 and BNT164b1 are immunogenic, well tolerated and efficacious in rodent models - Nature Immunology

Here the authors characterize mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccine candidates BNT164a1 and BNT164b1 and show that they are immunogenic, well tolerated and efficacious in preclinical animal models.

nature.com

Beautiful work by @kkjimbsky.bsky.social in collaboration with @nvastenhouw.bsky.social @pengellab.bsky.social where we used CRISPRi-seq in a zebrafish meningitis model of pneumococcal infection coupled with metabolomics. #MicroSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

In vivo genome-wide CRISPRi-Seq in Streptococcus pneumoniae reveals host-adaptive pathways essential for meningitis and identifies new therapeutic targets

Streptococcus pneumoniae is an important human pathogen that causes invasive diseases and remains the leading cause of bacterial meningitis. However, the bacterial determinants required for survival w...

biorxiv.org

Hij hangt in de kerstboom tussen andere ballen. Schippers is een van die mensen die ons het leven serieus laat nemen, door de onbelangrijke ruis er omheen niet serieus te nemen.

I'm incredibly proud to share our paper on the preclinical evaluation of the BNT164 mRNA tuberculosis vaccine candidates. Now online in the final version at Nature Immunology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccines BNT164a1 and BNT164b1 are immunogenic, well tolerated and efficacious in rodent models - Nature Immunology

Here the authors characterize mRNA-based tuberculosis vaccine candidates BNT164a1 and BNT164b1 and show that they are immunogenic, well tolerated and efficacious in preclinical animal models.

nature.com

Oh wow, amazing: "Discovery and identification of a handwritten laboratory notebook by Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin describing experimental studies and development of the BCG vaccine for tuberculosis at the Institut Pasteur" doi.org/10.1016/j.tu...

After a long hiatus, happy #MicroscopyMonday! Here are some amoebae squeezing themselves into narrow channels (part of a video for our preprint pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41377514/). Sound effects by Dillon (my 4 month old who may have had a little to do with the bluesky hiatus!)

I was discouraged when my "fish on bicycles" project failed to achieve its aims, but I can finally announce that I have completed my "FISH ON STILTS" project successfully. Meet Bathypterois grallator, the tripod fish. They live in the deepest parts of the ocean, resting on three modified fins.

This is worth the click. I promise. Very well written indeed. ><

In Preparation@inprep.bsky.social · 2mo ago

It is so great after 1+ year of tendonitis knee injury to be back on the ultimate frisbee pitch. Old dog still has some tricks up the sleeve. Footage from ulti.tv. #worklifebalance

I am skeptical that already approved Ebola virus vaccines and monoclonals will show promise during the ongoing outbreak of Bundibugyo virus for the simple reason that the two viruses are highly divergent (~35% AA divergence in GP). Focus should be on BDBV-specific or "pan-Ebola" countermeasures. 🧵

Kristian G. Andersen@kgandersen.bsky.social · 3mo ago

"It’s worth doing a clinical study, but I think the idea that, like, ‘Oh, let’s just roll out Ervebo and then hope for the best’ is misguided." cen.acs.org/articles/104...

shocking statistics, but only limited public outcry.. We should be more vocal about this tb.impactcounter.com

Clycstictyrinty is my favorite antibody mediated function! Maybe with some extra AI we can leverage it?!

Waggoner Lab@labwaggoner.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Review: A new era of NK cell immunotherapy in tumor treatment: latest advances and cutting-edge perspectives from basic research to clinical practice www.frontiersin.org/journals/imm... @frontiersin.bsky.social

This is a very interesting video. After a brief intro, the first 3 minutes are a monologue starting in the English of 600AD and transitioning to modern American. Where do you start understanding it? youtu.be/842OX2_vCic?...

From Old English to Modern American English in One Monologue

YouTube video by Simon Roper

youtu.be

The Journées Sécrétion are back! 8th and 9th October in Marseille Keynote lecture by: @wilbertbitter.bsky.social Registration is open until June 15: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... Organized by Romé Voulhoux @cascaleslab.bsky.social, @thicoz.bsky.social, Julien Giraud, Yaelle Aouizerate

WHO is aware of and supporting a public health event involving a cruise vessel sailing in the Atlantic Ocean.

Looking for a #postdoc outside the US, focusing on gut microbiome, AMR dynamics & phage-bacteria interactions. Bridging wet lab and computational approaches🦠👩‍💻. Hartmann Lab, Northwestern University, defending late 2026. Boosts appreciated 🙏🧫🧪 #microbiome #metagenomics #MicroSky

A finding that started to surface in mice 15 years ago. I think it was met with quite some scepticism, yet it doesn't seem to go away. Very interesting. Great consistent work over many years by @danbarberphd.bsky.social lab. I briefly worked on this topic for a while with Jeroen van Heijst.

Daniel L. Barber, PhD@danbarberphd.bsky.social · 3mo ago

So we blocked IFNγ in Mtb infected macaques and….the animals were fine. Turns out mice overestimate the importance of IFNγ in TB because IFNγ drives iNOS in mice but not macaques or humans. This means we don’t actually know how T cells suppress Mtb. rdcu.be/ff9GB #tuberculosis #immunology