Very nice Luiz & team!

🎥 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

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...

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.

This is figure 1, which shows that ASCT enables high-throughput assessments of bacterial viability.

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 🧪

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This work is not the end of our journey. It’s the start.
If you find it interesting and would like to discuss, collaborate, support or work with us, please reach out.
#Tuberculosis #NTM #AMR #SingleCell

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Huge thanks to the co-first authors (Alexander Jovanovic, Frederick Bright and Ahmad Sadeghi), collaborators, and funders (SNSF, Cloëtta Foundation, Bangerter-Rhyner Foundation, Goldschmidt-Jacobson Foundation, Helmut-Horten Foundation, and the Swiss Society for Pneumology).

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Take-home: antibiotic efficacy isn’t just about inhibiting growth, but also about killing bacteria in the right physiological state.

Single-cell killing measurements predict in vivo outcomes, uncover new biology, and enable improved drug discovery, regimen design, and personalised diagnostics.

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Can ASCT help tailor treatments to individual patients?
Strain-specific M. abscessus killing dynamics for amikacin, cefoxitin and imipenem were associated with individual patient outcomes, whereas most MICs were not.

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Can ASCT uncover new bacterial biology?
By combining ASCT with whole-genome sequencing and GWAS, we identified a phage protein strongly linked to M. abscessus killing (of drugs targeting protein synthesis only). We experimentally validated this effect using gene knockout and complementation.

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Is killing also shaped by the bacterium?
Assessing >400 clinical isolates of Mycobacterium abscessus, we observed highly variable killing dynamics. These differences were distinct from drug resistance, yet largely driven by bacterial genetics.

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Can ASCT guide drug development?
Testing 65 drug regimens in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, we found that killing under starvation conditions (but not in nutrient-rich media) predicted infection outcomes in mice and humans. MICs did not.

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To address this, we developed Antimicrobial Single-Cell Testing (ASCT): a high-throughput live-cell imaging approach that measures bacterial death in real time at single-cell resolution.
Using ASCT, we tracked >140 million individual bacteria, for up to 7 days, across >20,000 conditions.

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Most antibiotic tests measure bacterial growth inhibition, not bacterial death.
This often fails to predict treatment outcomes, especially in mycobacterial infections, where therapy is long, requires multiple antibiotics and is frequently unsuccessful (e.g. M. abscessus).

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

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

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

Some bacterial pathogens play dead to dodge antibiotics. A new test watches them closely—and helps choose drugs that finish the job. (Symbolic image: Adobe Stock)

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 Luiz - congrats!

Very nice work Josie - congrats!

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

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...

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/...

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.

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.

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/...

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

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…

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

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...

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

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...

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.

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.

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...

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-...

⚠️ 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/...

Indeed a very beautiful start into 2025 - congrats !