Applying to PhD programs? Consider UAlbany's Biomedical Sciences program! We're keen to recruit students interested in molecular microbiology, virology, structural & comp biology. We're a close-knit department invested in our trainees, and Albany is fun & affordable. Please share!! shorturl.at/buMsZ

We are updating our Expansion Microscopy (U-ExM) website with : - Protocols tips to help you get started - Examples of applications across different biological systems. - work in progress - an antibody database 👉 mocel.unige.ch/research-gro...

I am delighted to share our latest paper on mycomembrane protein assembly which came out last week in @pnas.org This was a fantastic collaboration between my former colleague, Elizabeth (#Betsy) Hart, and my first PhD student, Dieuwertje (#Didi) de Bruin. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... (1/n)

1/5 Do you use GFP to measure protein abundance? Be very careful. Our new bioRxiv preprint shows that, under translation inhibition, fluorescence can stop tracking how much reporter protein is actually there. Please share widely.

4 years (!) in the making, in this review Jade Wang and I detail the fundamental processes underlying growth, the cell autonomous nature of homeostatic control, and the contribution of stochasticity to both. TL;DR Bacteria are more like teenagers than you think. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bacterial growth rate in populations and single cells - Nature Microbiology

In this Perspective, Levin and Wang give a brief history of bacterial growth rate and discuss how it is connected to nutrient availability and macromolecule synthesis, with a focus on (p)ppGpp as a ce...

nature.com

I am so excited to share my first first-author manuscript regarding the mysterious effects of magnesium in Bacillus subtilis! 🧵⬇️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #MicroSky

Magnesium induces iron starvation and metabolic rewiring to support the viability of cell envelope mutants and antibiotic-stressed cells

Magnesium supplementation permits deletion of otherwise essential genes involved in cell envelope biogenesis in the Gram-positive model bacterium Bacillus subtilis. Yet, the specific underlying mechan...

biorxiv.org

my 3yo son starts to ask some complicated questions. Today he asks why can't I see the blades when the fan is running? I hope I explained in a good way. And this, reminds me a cool video that I watched youtu.be/QcUey-DVYjk?...

Astrophysicist Explains Gravity in 5 Levels of Difficulty | WIRED

YouTube video by WIRED

youtu.be

This is now published! For those interested in microbial mechanotransduction: www.cell.com/current-biol...

Microbial GAIN domains undergo autoproteolysis and enable release of diverse cell-surface-associated proteins

Brogan and Rudner report the identification of a microbial autoproteolytic domain that is structurally homologous to the GAIN domain of eukaryotic adhesion GPCRs. Rather than participating in transmem...

cell.com

anna brogan@apbrogan.bsky.social · 6mo ago

My latest work! We found that the autoproteolytic GAIN domain which mediates force responsive signaling in adhesion GPCRs is not unique to eukaryotes. The microbial counterparts anchor diverse adhesion, enzymatic, and toxin domains to the cell surface, enabling release by likely mechanical stimuli.

I just still cannot help myself from looking that these beautiful real-time dynamics videos from @anjbadri.bsky.social lab! thanks to all the authors from @joeloparo.bsky.social / @anjbadri.bsky.social and TJ Ha labs.

Miloš Tišma@tismaa.bsky.social · 3mo ago

I'm happy to share the first paper from my postdoc work: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... How does RecA find one homologous sequence in an entire chromosome -and what turns that encounter into a repair-competent one? We find that DNA topology is the gatekeeper !! 1/10

🚨 New in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We reveal how the antibiotic target PBP1b fortifies the E.coli division site against osmotic rupture. Proud this was completed in our independent labs @dmf-unil.bsky.social, with @avettiger.bsky.social. Congratulations to all authors! 🦠❄️🔬 #teamtomo bit.ly/3SCbOg1 👇

The penicillin-binding protein PBP1b fortifies the Escherichia coli division site against osmotic rupture - Nature Microbiology

A specific isoform of PBP1b functions independently of the activator protein, LpoB, to drive generation of a wedge-like peptidoglycan structure that strengthens the division site in Escherichia coli.

doi.org

Another chapter of my thesis is out! We asked whether we could pair proteome-wide AlphaFold screening with Tn-seq to identify biologically relevant protein-protein interactions. We identify ClcR (formerly YerH) as a component of the Rod complex in Gram-positive bacteria. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A broadly conserved gram-positive lipoprotein regulates cell elongation | PNAS

The cell wall peptidoglycan (PG) protects virtually all bacteria from osmotic lysis and specifies cell shape. Synthesis of this exoskeleton is carr...

pnas.org

when penicillin killing rod-shaped bacteria

Disrupting phage liquid crystalline droplets restores antibiotic susceptibility in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms out in @plosbiology.org by @abultarafder.bsky.social and team. Exciting collaboration with @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social @pearce-maths.bsky.social and others

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · 5mo ago

#Biofilm matrices containing filamentous phages help #Pseudomonas aeruginosa tolerate antibiotics. @abultarafder.bsky.social @tbharat-lab.bsky.social &co show that #nanobody disruption of #phage Pf4 #LiquidCrystalline droplets restores #antibiotic susceptibility @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4xkd6Mw

Hello #world, meet 1,000× Expansion Microscopy. A small gel would grow to the size of an Olympic swimming pool, while amino-acid-scale distances become visible with ordinary light microscopy. Led by Helena Hu from @eboyden3.bsky.social's lab, in collab with us. Story: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Sub-cellular chemical mapping using correlated cryogenic electron and mass spectrometry imaging online @natmethods.nature.com, led by Hannah Ochner, collaboration with @catfranco.bsky.social and @kiranrpatil.bsky.social labs doi.org/10.1038/s415...

New preprint! Cell division has to happen at the right place but how Archaea pick that place is unknown. We now identified a three-protein system, Dip, that positions the divisome at midcell in H. volcanii and is broadly conserved across Archaea. A thread 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

www.protocols.io/view/cryo-ex... New protocol alert!! Cryo-expansion microscopy of C. elegans and Tardigrades using the high pressure freezer!

Cryo-Expansion Microscopy of C. elegans and Tardigrades

Cryo-Expansion Microscopy of C. elegans and Tardigrades. Expansion microscopy (ExM) improves imaging r. Read full protocol, steps, and materials on protocols.io

protocols.io

Our paper is now out in Science! Super excited to share our discovery that #mitochondria #pearling is the elusive mechanism driving the regular distribution and inheritance of #mtDNA nucleoids 🧬 [1/6]

(bacterial) chromosome segregationists take note 👇 membrane-anchoring of the 𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘊 region to ensure proper daughter chromosome segregation after replication initiation – proposed decades ago but never substantiated... 👉now shown for 𝘚. 𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘶𝘴 by mariana pinho's lab

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Nucleoid-binding protein RicO anchors replication origins to the membrane to ensure correct chromosome segregation in Staphylococcus aureus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710092v1

#MicroSky Please RT @erc.europa.eu-funded postdoc position in my lab to identify the molecular basis of prey-predator interactions using our favorite micro-vampire Bdellovibrio exovorus as a model. Let's find what the bite is made of! 🧛 Flexible start date. Info: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/415877

Postdoctoral researcher in molecular and cellular bacteriology - ERC CoG VAMPIRE

The research group of Prof Géraldine Laloux at the de Duve Institute (UCLouvain) is looking for a highly motivated postdoc to elucidate the molecular factors underlying bacterial prey-predator interac...

euraxess.ec.europa.eu

Many of the scientists Jeffrey Epstein courted were already well-established and well-funded. So why didn’t they all just say no? Science talked with three who did just that. Here’s how Epstein approached them, and why they refused to have anything to do with him. ⬇️ https://scim.ag/40qbXnv

Meet three scientists who said no to Epstein

The warning signs included a web search, a mother’s doubts, and inklings of a “sexist attitude”

scim.ag

here is a comprehensive history of the use of agar in microbiology by corrado nai 👇 🙏 thx for pointing this out @microbingle.bsky.social earlier, corrado told the story of fanny angelina hesse in STC. #MicroSky

microbingle.bsky.social@microbingle.bsky.social · 8mo ago

The origins of agar www.asimov.press/p/agar

Bacillus thuringiensis and insects: a century of intimate history #JBacteriol #Minireview from Leyla Slamti and Didier Lereclus journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

The moment you’ve all been waiting for… 🦠 SAVE THE DATE! 🦠 BBM2026 will be held from June 22nd - 23rd at Boston University’s George Sherman Union. Our featured speaker this year is Dr. Eric Skaar from Vanderbilt University! Registration opens soon! More info at: bostonbacterial.org #BBM2026

Excited to share first preprint from our lab! @giubotti.bsky.social found that antibiotic tolerance in multispecies biofilms follows a surprising spatial pattern: cells survive only at intermediate distances from a partner species. 🦠 Preprint: doi.org/10.64898/202...

Do microbes get more food by swimming or staying still? Turns out both work, and cilia help them pull in nutrients no matter the strategy. buff.ly/vK3GmK5

Should I stay or should I swim

Evolutionary pressures have shaped the feeding behaviours of aquatic microorganisms in alignment with the underlying physics of fluid flow.

buff.ly

🔬🚨New preprint alert! 🚨🔬 We developed quantitative expansion microscopy (qExM) - a method to accurately count proteins in situ by combining expansion microscopy's improved labeling with statistical estimators borrowed from ecology www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #SuperResolution #CellBiology

everytime I thought: "such a nice and straightforward idea why no one had tried" and when I tried: "damn I cannot make the plasmid"

Now online @natmicrobiol.nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pneumococcal S protein coordinates cell wall modification and repair to resist host antimicrobials - Nature Microbiology

Streptococcal S protein activates a peptidoglycan cell wall repair and modification complex to promote resistance of Streptococcus pneumoniae to lysozyme and LL-37, and increase virulence during infec...

nature.com

Jan-Willem Veening@veeninglab.com · 2y ago

I had some help 🎶 Teamwork makes the dream work! Checkout our latest preprint spearheaded by Jessica Burnier in a great collaboration with the labs of Waldemar Vollmer, @nizet.bsky.social & Malcolm Winkler #MicroSky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Fer’s tour de force in B. anthracis is out! Fer got Tn-seq running, built an ordered knockout library, defined all essential sporulation genes, and found a peptidoglycan deacetylase inhibitor critical for engulfment. Including our first one-by-all Alphafold screen! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Identification of sporulation genes in Bacillus anthracis highlights similarities and significant differences with Bacillus subtilis

How good is Bacillus subtilis as a model for the spore-forming pathogen Bacillus anthracis? Using high throughput genetics to identify B. anthracis sporulation genes and cytological analysis of the mu...

journals.plos.org