Congrats to @juliebiteenlab.bsky.social PhD #20, Dr. Xiaofeng Dai! 🦠🔬💻🧬

After a set of productive rotations, we are thrilled to welcome Lyn, Yuhan, and Anna, three fabulous Chemistry students who have now **officially** joined the Biteen Lab! #SingleMolecule #SuperResolution Biophysical Chemistry.

Glad we could contribute to this beautiful work from Claire Dudley et al! I remain forever in awe of Dr. Daniel Foust’s amazing data visualization skills.

New preprint from the Vecchiarelli Lab! 🧵

Congratulations to first author Dr. Claire Dudley!
@claire-dudley.bsky.social

Claire uncovered a critical player in the organization for the photosynthetic cytoplasm of cyanobacteria - polyphosphate! #polyP

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

In the context of carboxysome positioning, @azaldegui.bsky.social found that the aggregation of a bacterial microcompartment is prevented by a self-organizing DNA-binding ATPase! #SingleMolecule #SuperResolution #Microscopy
with @cellforganized.bsky.social and JianLiu
doi.org/10.64898/202...

Still at #bps2026? Check out Xiaofeng’s flash talk on this paper at 2:45pm in room 201/202/203.

More great #bps2026 #SingleMolecule science on Monday! Sam’s poster (B393) identifies IDR function in HP1 protein homologs, and Xiaofeng’s poster (B178) describes combining 2D tracking and 3D simulations to measure how the nucleoid viscosity responds to cellular processes!

Lots of great #SingleMolecule science at #bps2026! Check out Ruochuan’s poster (B431) on Sunday—she is understanding bacterial warfare by investigating how bacteriocin toxins translocate into E. coli.

Xiaofeng combined 2D live-cell single-particle tracking with 3D simulations to specifically measure the bacterial nucleoid accessibility and viscosity! Our preprint describes how these nucleoid properties respond to cellular processes! Code is available too.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our amazing collaborators include
@laur-mccar.bsky.social @abbondanzieri.bsky.social @meyerroc.bsky.social and XindanWang.

Bacteria are amazing! The abundant Dps protein binds and protects DNA in stationary-phase cells with minimal effect on chromosome accessibility, dynamics, and organization. Now in NAR doi.org/10.1093/nar/...; I'm really proud of our multidisciplinary team led by Lauren, Lindsay, and Xiaofeng, et al.

Now published in Protein Science: Dan used single-molecule and SOFI microscopies to visualize curli fibers (the major component of E. coli biofilms) on living cells! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Also submitted just before the holidays: David Fuller collaborated with the Xindan Wang Lab to measure how growth-phase-dependent chromosome reorganization affects the behavior and function of bacterial nucleoid-associated proteins. #SingleMolecule #Microscopy
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Submitted just before the holidays: Dan Foust collaborated with the Lyle Simmons Lab to measure how enzyme activity is spatially modulated to process RNA-DNA hybrids. #SingleMolecule #Microscopy
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Happy New Year from the Biteen Lab!

No, I’m sorry to miss it, but planning to attend the Single Molecules GRC in Les Diablerets in the summer.

Microbiology and infectious diseases This page highlights recent articles on all aspects of bacteriology, mycology, parasitology and virology, covering the biology of pathogens, host-pathogen ...

@lortzrodz.bsky.social's manuscript was featured as a @natcomms.nature.com Editors' Highlight! Read more about this functional change in the material state of bacterial condensates:
doi.org/10.1038/s414... ,
and see the rest of the collection at:
www.nature.com/collections/...

Stress changes the material state of a bacterial biomolecular condensate and shifts its function from mRNA decay to storage - Nature Communications Bacterial ribonucleoprotein bodies are dynamic biomolecular condensates that play roles in RNA metabolism. Here, Ortiz-Rodríguez et al. show that, under stress, these condensates shift from a liquid s...

Now in print: @lortzrodz.bsky.social with @schraderlab.bsky.social found that the stress-induced transition of the material properties of bacterial ribonucleoprotein bodies repurposes them from sites of mRNA decay to reservoirs for mRNA storage.
@natcomms.nature.com

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🎃The annual Biteen Lab continues on a beautiful fall afternoon. 🎃

Thrilled to share our multidisiplinary work on how genome-wide DNA bridging by H-NS reshapes the stationary phase bacterial nucleoid and affects the transcriptional landscape. With Xindan Wang and @meyerroc.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Please do! Let me know if you’d like any additional materials or insight.

Supporting Chemistry Graduate Students’ Academic Writing Practice through a Professional Development Course Writing is important for science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate students to achieve milestones within their programs and for their future career aspirations. However, although STEM...

One of my proudest achievements from my time as DGS was designing and implementing a mandatory prof. dev. course focused on writing in the discipline. Daisy Haas @dahaas and I wrote up our teaching approaches and course content, now out in J. Chem. Ed. #chemicaleducation pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1...

Dps binds and protects DNA in starved Escherichia coli with minimal effect on chromosome accessibility, dynamics and organisation Dps is the most abundant nucleoid-associated protein in starved Escherichia coli with ∼180, 000 copies per cell. Dps binds DNA and oxidises iron, facilitating survival in harsh environments. Dps-DNA c...

Lauren, Lindsay, Xiaofeng et al. coupled live-cell super-resolution microscopy with ChIPseq and Hi-C in starved E. coli to learn that the abundant protein Dps compacts DNA while only minimally affecting other nucleoid properties. XindanWang Lab & @meyerroc.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The fall semester is in full swing! Welcome to incoming PhD students Yuhan and Lyn! Looking forward to lots of amazing biophysical chemistry. sites.lsa.umich.edu/biteen-lab/p...

We took a day off to enjoy the sunshine ☀️ and the Huron River! We only made a few 🤓 jokes about phase separation and condensates as we tubed in the Argo Rapids.

Same place, new lab photo! We hope everyone's summer is filled with great science :) 🔬🦠🥼🤓

No, but I need this too! @samjlord.bsky.social ?

A thoughtful Current Opinion from Chris @azaldegui.bsky.social laying out how ParA-type ATPases partition DNA cargos—especially carboxysomes—in bacteria. Fun summer reading for those interested in how bacteria position their contents. @cellforganized.bsky.social
authors.elsevier.com/a/1lWGb4tPFp...

Congratulations to 🎓Dr. David Fuller 🔬🦠on his successful PhD defense!

Lab members enjoyed teaching the WISE GISE campers about fluorescence and microscopy last week—experiments included extracting chlorophyll from spinach and measuring the color with hand-held spectrometers! wise.umich.edu/k-12-familie...