Portrait of Dr. Rita Colwell with short silver-gray hair, smiling warmly at the camera. She is wearing round glasses, pearl earrings, a pearl necklace, a white blouse, and a dark blazer. Her arms are confidently crossed, and she stands against a plain medium-gray studio background.

Microbiologist Dr. Rita Colwell was born #OTD in 1934. She is recognized for her study of global infectious disease spread through water sources. Her research on cholera helped save 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 lives.

She was the first female director of the National Science Foundation (NSF), 1998-2004. #WomenInSTEM

Conservation and evolution of the programmed ribosomal frameshift in prfB across the bacterial domain | mBio Translation termination is catalyzed by one of two release factors in bacteria, RF1 or RF2. It has been known for decades that RF2 levels in Escherichia coli are regulated by a programmed ribosomal frameshift within the prfB gene that encodes RF2. We ...

Latest from the lab! Analysis of everyone’s favorite regulatory mechanism in bacteria — the RF2 programmed frameshift! Likely present in the ancestor of bacteria, use of this mechanism is influenced by stop codon usage! Big congrats to @cassidyprints.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Quantitative dissection of Agrobacterium T-DNA expression in single plant cells reveals density-dependent synergy and antagonism - Nature Plants Alamos et al. show that Agrobacterium engages in density-dependent interactions that dictate transformation efficiency and transgene expression. These findings enable a quantitative model to improve m...

Interesting MS on Agrobacterium cooperation and antagonism as well as development of dual binary system that mitigates plant immune antagonism. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Linear dicentric chromosomes in bacterial natural isolates reveal common constraints for replicon fusion | mBio Most bacterial genomes are monopartite with a single, circular chromosome. However, some species, like Agrobacterium tumefaciens, carry multiple chromosomes. Emergence of multipartite genomes is often...

Happy to share a new publication on a collaboration with Xindan Wang and @fuquaclay.bsky.social labs. We identified and characterized naturally occurring Agrobacterium strains with fused chromosomes. Did mobile genetic elements play a role in fusion? journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A day ago at this hour of the evening, I was presenting our biofilm topics at #Biofilminar… today a pistachio creme brûlée with raspberry sorbet as a treat

Registration is free

On the ASM Biofilms website in the Important Dates list, you click on the ASM Biofilminar link to register.

Proud of IU Micro for showing up in force at the Stand Up for Science rally yesterday (03/07) on a gray and chilly day in front of the statehouse in Indianapolis. Our pro-science, pro-research, pro-people, pro-fairness messsage was delivered loud and clear.

A very thorough and authoritative* overview of bacterial metallostasis (metalloregulation, trafficking, metalation) from the Giedroc and Capdevila labs!

*58 figures and almost 1000 references! wow!
#MicroSky

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) | Biofilm Research Center | Binghamton University

See the URL below for a great summer 2025 REU opportunity at Binghamton University in biofilm research. Let your biofilm-interested undergraduates know! www.binghamton.edu/centers/biof...

• Author accepted manuscripts (peer reviewed articles) must be made available in Pubmed Central WITHOUT EMBARGO upon the official date of publication.
• Policy effective date is Dec 31, 2025 (no end date).

Infamous paper that popularized unproven COVID-19 treatment finally retracted Study on hydroxychloroquine by Didier Raoult and colleagues gets pulled on ethical and scientific grounds

Infamous paper that popularized unproven COVID-19 treatment finally retracted

Study on hydroxychloroquine by Didier Raoult and colleagues gets pulled on ethical and scientific grounds
@cathleenogrady.bsky.social reports.

www.science.org/content/arti...

#asmbiofilms

Check out the ASM 10th Conference on Biofilms Bluesky page @asmbiofilms2025.bsky.social

Happy to be switching from X to Bluesky. Looking forward to using this alternative platform to connect to the community.