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 …

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...

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

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...

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

This project has been incubating for a while, and I'm very grateful to my labmates who pitched in (@laurenbird.bsky.social and others not on 🟦), @johndoench.bsky.social, and my amazing mentor @lamasonlab.bsky.social. More to come soon!

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!

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)

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...

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

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...

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

Poster of diverse scientists chatting with each other and holding idea balloons representing various fields in the life sciences, such as DNA, cells, gears, and lightbulbs. More information is available through the QR code.

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...

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.

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

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...

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...

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