Diarrhea-causing infection increasing in US, CDC says Officials called the increase "a public health threat," especially since shigella is spread easily from person to person.

#Diarrhea-causing #infection increasing in United States ...

| #shigella | #MicroSky | #bacteria | #pathogen | #publichealth | Via @usatoday.com

Cases of drug-resistant infection that causes diarrhea are rising: What to know Cases of drug-resistant Shigella infections are increasing in the United States in a trend that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are calling a “public health threat.&#8221…

#Shigella in the #news. We've known about #MDR, now we're seeing a rise in #XDR isolates
@shigellameeting.bsky.social
#Microsky #AMR #IDsky

thehill.com/homenews/nex...

‼️There are a FEW DAYS LEFT to submit an abstract to present a poster or be considered for a talk at BBM! ‼️

⭐️Regsiter and submit abstracts through our website: bostonbacterial.org ⭐️

Abstract submission deadline/early registration: April 17th

Registration deadline: June 5th

SEE YOU AT #BBM2026!

Professor Sean Crosson stands at a lectern behind bouquets of flowers to deliver a talk at this year's Classes without quizzes event. On the screen behind him is the quote "Between animal and human medicine there are no dividing lines - nor should there be." attributed to Rudolf Virchow (ca. 1858).

MGI's Rudolph Hugh Endowed Professor Sean Crosson gave a talk at this weekend's "Classes Without Quizzes" event entitled "Many Microbes, One Health: Bacteria at the interface of animal, plant, and human health."

Read more about the event here: natsci.msu.edu/alumni-frien...

McLaughlin, Fiebig, Crosson et al. discover/characterize two variants of Circe, a freshwater N4-like podophage that requires smooth LPS as a receptor.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology

‘Treasure trove’ of antiviral proteins could inspire powerful molecular tools Two research teams mined genomic data from bacteria to create databases containing thousands of antiviral defence proteins that could inspire powerful biotechnologies.

Bacteria have been fighting off viruses using a huge arsenal of molecular weaponry that scientists did not know about — until now. Researchers have identified proteins that could lead to virus-fighting drugs and technologies.

go.nature.com/4dqQnXI

Phage receptor prediction from genome sequencing alone. Bacterial receptor (blue) interacting with phage proteins (purple) is shown here

📣Huge preprint 🔔
Today we share something our group has been working toward for a long time, led by @lucasmoriniere.bsky.social We asked can we predict which receptor a phage targets from its genome sequence alone? For most phages, we couldn’t. So Lucas set out to do something I had only dreamed of.

More patients will face bacterial infections that no antibiotic can treat, and the pipeline for new drugs cannot keep up. One of the most promising options for treating resistant infections already exists in nature: bacteriophages, the viruses that infect and kill bacteria.

Tackling antimicrobial resistance requires treating coordinated phage therapy as a strategic priority. Read the new op-ed from ASM Health Director Dev Mittar: asm.social/2Sc

Bringing in @simrouxvirus.bsky.social because it feels like we as a community are going to begin having vigorous discussion about ground truthing phage-bacteria interactions and what data prove and don’t prove

ASM Health: Advancing Microbial Science for a Healthier World

Breakthrough science needs coordination to deliver impact.

ASM Health is launching 4 initiatives to turn microbial discovery into real-world solutions—starting with the Phage Therapy Coordination Network to address AMR at scale. Apply to collaborate: asm.social/2MU

Our first lab publication from UT Southwestern!
Phage-Based Approaches to Chronic Pseudomonas aeruginosa Lung Infection in #CysticFibrosis

www.mdpi.com/2079-6382/15...

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.

Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.

A thread 1/8

Why attend the @shigellameeting.bsky.social in 6 months you ask? (🧵) 🦠 🧫 🔬 #Microsky #IDsky

What a question and a grand request,
To muse on why scientists should travel for a pest!
Forget lonely lab benches and the pipette's cold song,
There are better pursuits for which researchers long.

NIH Standardized Organoid Modeling (SOM) Center The Standardized Organoid Modeling (SOM) Center will be the nation’s first fully integrated platform dedicated to developing standardized organoid-based New Approach Methodologies (NAMs).

Exciting to see the Standardized #Organoid Modeling Center is opening to help standardize protocols, provide tools and resources, and connect the research community at the national level after being in development for a few years
www.nih.gov/som

Registration & abstract submissions are open for the #Shigella meeting! Travel grants available too! All are welcomed, whether you are active in #Shigella research or interested in the 21st century perspective on this formidable pathogen! 🦠 🧫 #Microsky
www.shigella2026.conferences-pasteur.org/home

Come and join us in Paris 2026 to talk all about Shigella!

Had a wonderful time at #phages2025. Cool venue, exciting science, and inspiring people!

GitHub - gbouras13/colabfoldv: Augmented Local MSA Generation for Phage and Viral Proteins using the ColabFold Framework Augmented Local MSA Generation for Phage and Viral Proteins using the ColabFold Framework - gbouras13/colabfoldv

I also put together an extra ColabFold formatted database of nearly 130M phage proteins that can be used to make better viral protein structure predictions github.com/gbouras13/co...

Our MISC clinical trial results, just published!

“Clinical Trial Finds Safe, Effective Treatment for Children with Severe Post-COVID Syndrome”

massgeneralbrigham.org/en/about/newsr…

#COVID
@ScienceTM
@biotium.bsky.social

Really looking forward to the First #Shigella International Meeting to be held in Paris, France, April 2026! The meeting website is almost ready. Please follow @shigellameeting.bsky.social for more information and updates! #Microsky 🦠 🧫 🔬

Systematic, high-throughput characterization of bacteriophage gene essentiality on diverse hosts Understanding core and conditional gene essentiality is crucial for decoding genotype-phenotype relationships in organisms. We present phage high-thro…

Delighted to be part of this collaboration with the Raman Lab at @uwmadison.bsky.social:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

TAILΦR Milestone! Dosed our first patient with
@bwtrautner.bsky.social in an academic-led clinical trial (NCT06559618). The phages were discovered, manufactured, tested, FDA approved and now administered in one location by one team, an end-to-end miracle we hope will counter the AMR crisis. Dream!

A scalable gut epithelial organoid model reveals the genome-wide colonization landscape of a human-adapted pathogen Nature Genetics - A genome-wide screen using human gut epithelial organoids combined with transposon-directed insertion sequencing identifies over 100 Shigella flexneri genes required for...

Our latest work combines human gut epithelial #organoid culture with experimental #Shigella #infections, transposon mutagenesis, and statistical modeling. This has led to the mapping of the comprehensive geneset that drives Shigella epithelial colonization.

Out @natgenet.nature.com:

rdcu.be/eqGgf

Had a wonderful time learning from the amazing scientists presenting at #bbm2025. Huge congrats to Morgan Devlin for recognition of her poster presentation! Very well deserved! #phagesky #proudPI

The Phageome’s Role in Health and Disease YouTube video by American Society for Microbiology

The human body is chock full of phages, from the skin to the gut. What role does the phageome have in health and disease? Watch Microbial Minutes for the story! www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PyM...

🚨 Extensively drug-resistant #Shigella is increasing in #LosAngeles. PLWH and GBMSM are disproportionately affected.

We have seen several of these, very difficult to treat.

Antibiogram shows 📈 resistance, susceptibility testing is 🔑.

#IDsky #Medsky #EMSky #AMR #XDR
🔗: t.e2ma.net/webview/3apx...

Engineering bacteriophages through deep mining of metagenomic motifs We unlock the potential encoded in phage metagenomes to engineer phages to change host range and kill pathogenic bacteria.

#phagesky

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Building the evidence for the use of bacteriophage therapy Publicaciones de la Organización Mundial de la Salud

📢 Attention all phage-interested: the WHO has just release its first report on phages!

This report highlights key insights from expert consultations, webinars, and a dedicated workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia.

Read report here ➡️ www.who.int/europe/publi...

NIH Grants Fueled $95 Billion In FY 2024 Economic Activity, Finds New Report National Institutes of Health grants generated almost $95 billion in economic activity nationwide in FY 2024 according to a new report by United for Medical Research.

New report shows that NIH grants fueled $95 billion in economic activity and 407,782 jobs in 2024.

That's not to mention the countless lives that biomedical research has saved.

Show me a better investment than that.
www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

'Alarming': A Dangerous Diarrhea-Causing Superbug Is Spreading in Los Angeles An novel and extensively drug-resistant strain of Shigella sonnei has emerged and is likely still actively spreading in the U.S., scientists warn.

#SuperBug #Shigella #Diarrhea #LA #LosAngeles #California #StomachFlu #XDR #Bacteria #Sonnei

Researchers have tracked down a worrying new strain of Shigella bacteria in the area—one that can resist almost every antibiotic thrown at it.

Abridged (shortened) article thread ⬇️ 4 min