I'm excited to share our recent working using forward genetics to identify virulence determinants in Rickettsia. Check it out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A genetic screen identifies O-antigen as essential for Rickettsia parkeri survival in macrophages by protecting from inflammasomes and interferon-stimulated genes

Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is highly immunostimulatory, yet it is evolutionarily conserved among many obligate intracellular bacteria for unknown reasons. We report a forward genetic screen to identify ...

biorxiv.org

🚨 New preprint: GATO-seq did it again! ELOF1 is the missing promoter-proximal factor that confers RNA Pol II resistance to TFIIF. Including ELOF1, DSIF, and NELF in GATO-seq reactions recapitulates promoter-proximal pausing in vitro at physiological conditions for the 1st time. tinyurl.com/ELOF1

Interested in genetically encodable inhibitors of your favorite biomolecular condensate? Excited to announce our latest work, w/ Jibin Sadasivan, Gene-Wei Li, & Lindsay Case, on protein fragments as generalizable regulators of phase separation. (1/n) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our most recent paper "Divergent Rickettsia species exhibit distinct mechanisms of actin-based motility" is now out in @jcb.org! Check it out here: rupress.org/jcb/article/...

I'm happy to share a review that our lab put together on innate immune responses to Rickettsia. One interesting tidbit - different Rickettsia species have distinct interactions with xenophagy, where some species co-opt ubiquitylation, while others avoid it! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Innate immune responses to Rickettsia: emerging themes and contrasts between species

Over 10 species of Rickettsia cause serious human disease across the globe, including deadly spotted fever and typhus. These arthropod-borne microbes …

sciencedirect.com

How every layer of science's "self-correcting machinery" failed when Iva Veseli and I simply wanted to reproduce the findings of a high-profile study on gut microbiome and autism: merenlab.org/2026/04/15/u...

Unfalsifiable by Design: A Year of Trying and Failing to Reproduce a Human Microbiome and Autism Study

The myth of open data, reproducibility, responsibility, and accountability in science, and your role in it

merenlab.org

Excited to share our latest work from first author Patrick Woida. Using a novel surface display platform for expression of split TurboID, we discovered that CYLD is recruited to the Listeria surface via the effector InlC and that it supports cell-to-cell spread www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

With CauloCon coming up in a few weeks, we are excited to share with you the schedule for the upcoming meeting! There will be 3 keynotes and 26 short talks over three days. You can see more information at caulocon.com

Notice of Temporary Extension of Eligibility for the NIH Pathway to Independence Award (K99/R00): for Individuals whose final due date was September-November 2025 and January-March 2026. As always, reach out to your PO/IC contact to discuss. grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

Check out our latest paper from first author Allison Scott using a powerful enrichment strategy to enable transcriptional profiling of the early stages of a rickettsial infection

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Hybrid capture RNA-seq defines temporal gene expression in Rickettsia https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.04.697603v1

First 🟦 post - my main postdoc work is out in the world! We designed a Cas12a-based genetic screen to identify host factors that contribute to infection by the tickborne pathogen Rickettsia parkeri, and stumbled across a really exciting direct interaction between host and bacterium🦠. Check it out!

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Host cyclophilin-mediated maturation of an obligate intracellular bacterial surface virulence factor https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.28.684717v1

Thrilled to contribute to this exciting work on protein binder design together w/ @hannes-stark.bsky.social , Felix Faltings, Regina Barzilay, Tommi Jaakkola, and co. We applied BoltzGen to design novel antimicrobial peptides targeting DNA gyrase based on inhibitory protein fragments. (1/n)

Hannes Stark@hannes-stark.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Excited to release BoltzGen which brings SOTA folding performance to binder design! The best part of this project is collaborating with a broad network of leading wetlabs that test BoltzGen at an unprecedented scale, showing success on many novel targets and pushing the model to its limits!

Thrilled to share my work from the @jkagan1.bsky.social lab! TLDR: O-acetylation and wall teichoic acid compete for space on S. aureus peptidoglycan. This competition regulates DNA release, and thus immune receptor activation, during infection! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #microsky #immunosky

Wall teichoic acid is required for DNA-triggered innate immune receptor activation by Staphylococcus aureus

Receptors that stimulate inflammation are commonly activated by ligands that are buried within microbial cells. The mechanisms that facilitate immunostimulatory ligand release from microbes during inf...

biorxiv.org

1/ Excited to share the first preprint from my lab! 🎉 My postdoc Paz asked how cholera toxin (CT) helps Vibrio cholerae thrive in the gut. Turns out, CT rewires epithelial metabolism toward L-lactate production—fueling pathogen growth in the small intestine during disease

Cholera toxin-induced disease generates epithelial cell-derived L-lactate that promotes Vibrio cholerae growth in the small intestine

Cholera toxin (CT) promotes Vibrio cholerae colonization by altering gut metabolism to favor pathogen growth. We have previously found that CT-induced disease leads to increased concentrations of L-la...

biorxiv.org

Are you an MIT postdoc in the life sciences? Come join my new initiative, the KendallSqBio Postdoc Symposium on Sept. 10, 2025! ✅ Present your science ✅ Connect with other postdocs ✅ Build your community Abstract deadline July 11th! forms.gle/iXMTYfqgLKWR...

Alert! The abstract deadline for the Microbial Pathogenesis & Host Response meeting has been extended to July 7 meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...

Microbial Pathogenesis & Host Response

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.

meetings.cshl.edu

Excited to share this story from my PhD, out today in Nature Communications! We show that Coxiella removes cathepsin B to reduce lysosomal hostility and promote bacterial success. This depends on a vacuole established by effector CvpB. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Coxiella burnetii manipulates the lysosomal protease cathepsin B to facilitate intracellular success - Nature Communications

The zoonotic pathogen Coxiella burnetiiestablishes a unique intracellular niche within a lysosome-derived vacuole. Here Bird et al. undertook proteomic, cell biology and microbiology approaches to cha...

nature.com

Excited to see many in the bacterial pathogenesis community joining here in the last few weeks, so here's a Starter Pack to help make connections. Reply/DM to be added to this or future Packs. #Microsky go.bsky.app/VH64BaY

go.bsky.app/L3L2iFz