The kids unpacked all our decorations too, i had no choice but love it 🎄

Two McMaster researchers awarded prestigious HFSP grants At a Hamilton-area daycare, Lindsay Kalan and Jonathan Cannon pass each other in the parking lot at dropoff. They smile, nod, and carry on with . . .

Congratulations to IIDR member @lkalan.bsky.social, who has received a prestigious @hfspo.bsky.social grant. The new funding will power a study that could, for the first time ever, lead to the definitive characterization of a functional human pheromone.

brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/two...

Huge thanks to the amazing team at @currentbiology.bsky.social for highlighting fungi in this special issue. Many excellent reviews and perspectives from so many mycological heroes. Lots of great material to use in teaching/outreach. 🍄

Fungi shape genome evolution of bacteria even in the absence of major growth phenotypes Abstract. Studies of microbial interactions often emphasize interactions with large, easily measurable growth differences and short-term ecological outcome

Fungi shape genome evolution of bacteria even in the absence of major growth phenotypes

#ISMEJournal from @benwolfe.bsky.social

Penicillium camemberti and Geotrichum candidum on Pseudomonas carnis evolution

academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

If you're a grad student or an undergrad interested in research I need to you listen to me very carefully.

You cannot learn to write good research papers if you do not read good research papers.

Stop asking LLMs to summarize papers for you.

This is the 3rd time today axolots have come up ranging from my kids kindy class to a company using them to heal wounds. It feels like a sign.

This work wouldn’t have been possible without all the incredible co authors, including those on Blue Sky: @lkalan.bsky.social @biobarber.bsky.social @corrigar.bsky.social @jarrods.bsky.social

Delighted to share that @asm.org has met its goal for all of its 'legacy' journals (ie favorites like J. Bact, I&I, AEM) so ALL 2025 articles will be published open access. Thanks to all institutional subscribers, this is the S2O way.

Please submit to these great journals!

asm.org/Press-Releas...

Rare taxa in the core microbiome Rare taxa are an important constituent of the microbiome and play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics. However, little is known about rare taxa within the core microbiome...

Rare taxa in the core microbiome

@cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social Opinion by Ditam Chakraborty, Alex Jousset, Zhong Wei, and Samiran Banerjee
@ndsuofficial.bsky.social and Nanjing Agricultural University

www.cell.com/trends/micro...

From 2010 to 2016 (latest data I have ), NIH research contributed to EVERY drug approved by the FDA

Screenshot of tweet from @AlecStapp “Too many people take biomedical innovation for granted.” Below this is a screenshot from an article on the Atlantic.com. Highlighted is the text: “A child born with cystic fibrosis in the 50s could expect to live until age 5. In the 70s, age 10. In the early 2000s, age 35. With Trikafta came a quantum leap. Today those who begin taking the drug in early adolescence, a recent study projected, can expect to survive to age 82.5 - an essentially normal lifespan.”

I remember the cystic fibrosis patients I took care of 20 years ago.

I also remember the dedicated HIV wards in the hospitals, and that Princess Diana made headlines for shaking hands with AIDS patients.

Progress has been incredible.

Miracles are where you choose to see them.

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.

In 2024 NIH grant awards supported 407,782 jobs and $94.58 billion in new economic activity nationwide, the largest figure in the history of the report. www.forbes.com/sites/michae...

*At least* $95 billion.

The return on investment from NIH dollars is one of the best there is.

Also: I personally like the benefits from modern medical technology, dental care, ophthalmological care, and more I am sure as I age.

Context matters: assessing the impacts of genomic background and ecology on microbial biosynthetic gene cluster evolution

#mSystems MiniReview by by @raufs.bsky.social & @lkalan.bsky.social

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Tragic Childhood Death from Measles Reminds Us That Some Don't Understand Either the Medical Significance or the Human Heart My ID colleague Dr. Adam Ratner, Chief of Pediatric ID at NYU Medical Center, just published an insightful and remarkably timely book called Booster Shots:  The Urgent Lessons of Measles and the Uncer...

If someone thinks the measles outbreak and childhood death in Texas are "not unusual" or "happens all the time", they are deeply misinformed. h/t @adamratnermd.bsky.social for the inspiration.

blogs.jwatch.org/hiv-id-obser...

Inside the Collapse at NIH Administration officials pressured NIH to avoid clear advice from the agency’s own lawyers to restart grant funding now.

The Atlantic story on the situation at NIH is sobering. We are so screwed.

www.theatlantic.com/health/archi...

The first measles death in the US in a decade -- the tragic, preventable death of a child whose parents chose not to protect them with vaccination -- should spark an immediate nation-wide campaign to ensure all children are protected against preventable diseases. Anything less is unconscionable.

Hello Buffalo friends! It’s rally for science time! March 7, 2-6PM, Niagara Square! Sign up below and please spread the word!

www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-up-f...

This would be a great time for Canada to invest heavily in biomedical research to support its own scientists and bring in amazing talent from down south. 🇨🇦🧪

On this day 12 years ago, @kcg.bsky.social posted the “This is Fine” comic.

Congrats, so great!

40 years ago all of Genbank was published in print form by NAR. The same format today would require over 4 light seconds of shelf space. To a year of progress in 2025.

Bifidobacteria are the primary consumers of breast milk and very important in the infant gut. However, current methods for profiling them require custom implementation. @ben-braun.bsky.social tackled this during his rotation in my lab by creating a fast, robust, and user-friendly tool. Check it out!

Can verify.

📌

would love to be added thanks!

Tapping into Bacterial Conversations | HHMI Over the course of 30 years, HHMI Investigator Bonnie Bassler has helped usher in a new branch of science centered on quorum sensing, the process by which bacteria communicate with one another and orc...

Conversation with the brilliant contemporary microbiologist and molecular biologist—HHMI and MacArthur Fellow Bonnie Bassler of Princeton University

Pioneer in the chemical signaling mechanisms that bacteria use to communicate with each other known as “quorum sensing”

www.hhmi.org/news/tapping...

Hey #IDSky, #Microsky and #ImmunoSky - I'm so pleased that @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social and @mcmasternexus.bsky.social are now here, as well as microbiologists extraordinaire @gdwantibiotics.bsky.social @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social and @lkalan.bsky.social - get these folks in some #starterpacks!

Cryo-EM characterization of the anydromuropeptide permease AmpG central to bacterial fitness and β-lactam antibiotic resistance - Nature Communications AmpG is an MFS importer of bacterial cell wall fragments. Here, authors present a cryoEM structure and supporting mutagenesis to illuminate AmpG’s essential role in bacterial fitness and derepression ...

Just in time for #WAAW - new collab paper with the Strynadka lab at UBC on structure/function of #peptidoglycan fragment recycling transporter AmpG involved in AmpC-related beta lactam resistance. www.nature.com/articles/s41... @yaegerluke.bsky.social

re-posting the potentially best meme I've ever made here, before the other place collapses and it's lost to history #MicroSky 🦠