Conlon Lab

Loss of O-antigen due to wbbL mutations is common and associated with increased mortality in Escherichia coli bloodstream infections | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Kash lab at UNC is hiring a new technician (our current two are off to grad school!!) posting will go live soon, email me CV and names of references if interested.

Congratulations to MD-PhD student, Amanda Velez and all co-authors on our new PNAS paper describing how the innate immune protein calprotectin incapacitates autolysins, inducing tolerance to B-lactam antibiotics. A fun collaboration with Thomas Kehl-Fie. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Come join us in Knoxville! The Dept. of Microbiology 🧫🦠 at the University of Tennessee is hiring 2 Assistant Professors (tenure track, 9-month appt.). Microbial Drivers of Chronic Disease: apply.interfolio.com/173153Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions: apply.interfolio.com/173345

Delighted to share our latest paper - A host-directed adjuvant sensitizes intracellular bacterial persisters to antibiotics. Excellently led by Dr. Kuan-Yi Lu. We think it's a great proof-of-concept that altering immune cell behavior can make antibiotics work better www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Looking to hire a postdoctoral associate to examine how antibiotics frequently fail in vivo and identifying new ways to make them work better. unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/306...

Excited to share the work with @dweisslab.bsky.social‬ and great collaborators on how gene amplification generates dynamic heteroresistance to new beta-lactams, like cefiderocol. We hope drug developers will consider heteroresistance during antibiotic development rdcu.be/euijW

For our first post on Bluesky, we're excited to share our recent work published in mBio @asm.org! Led by PhD student @madeofmicrobes.bsky.social, we show that flagellar motility and interactions with the mucus environment influence Pseudomonas antibiotic tolerance. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Discovery of a new class of natural antibiotics with a new mode of action to address antimicrobial resistance, a major unmet need @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Research shows: Rifaximin prophylaxis drives resistance to daptomycin, an unrelated, last-resort antibiotic Rifaximin is used for hepatic encephalopathy in liver patients at high risk for infections, including VRE treated with daptomycin. The antibiotic was thought to pose a low resistance risk

www.nih.gov/news-events/... Nice to see our recent paper highlighted in NIH - Research Matters newsletter

Multiple faculty positions in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in association with the Center for Immunology, and the Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Cornell University

Delighted to share our new study. A collaboration with the Thurlow lab. Antibiotic resistance rapidly emerges and thrives in diabetic mice. A worrying coming together of two major and growing health problems worldwide www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#WeekendRead! Ahn, Arthur &co show @CellHost&Microbe that pathogenic E. coli produce a metallophore that sequesters zinc in macrophages, stabilizing HIF1a & driving fibrosis in #IBD mouse models and Crohn Disease patients! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A new VRSA variant was found in North Carolina, raising concerns. The emergence of more VRSA variants and locations increases the risk of spread, as it expands the potential to infect different populations and environments, making it harder to control and contain. www.idse.net/Resistance-S...

Worrisome During the 2022–23 school year, CDC reports DTaP vaccine coverage dropped to 92.3%; vaccine exceptions rose 10% As a pediatrician, few patients were as precarious as the infant with pertussis hospitalized for weeks in the ICU with severe apnea spells requiring repeated resuscitation

How do secreted and membrane-localized enzymes get appropriately metalated? ... Bixi He and I tackled this question, with a focus on the cell envelope... Metalation of Extracytoplasmic Proteins and Bacterial Cell Envelope Homeostasis | Annual Reviews - go.shr.lc/3V0lM92

New Salmonella Persister cells Review is just out❗️ Rachel Giorgio & Sophie Helaine overview the physiology & clinical implications of antibiotic-recalcitrant Salmonella during infection - highlighting important knowledge gaps that need to be addressed… www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Arginine Regulates the Mucoid Phenotype of Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.20.624485v1

Research, prevention, awareness - Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections

Here‘s the start of a list of some researchers on Bluesky who are working with (or who have worked with) inoculation theory, a theory of resistance to influence built on a biological inoculation/vaccine analogy, with applications in mis/disinformation, politics, health… go.bsky.app/7E6pFc4

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

Finally, someone speaks some sense at @nytimes.com. Thank you Zeynep Tufekci. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/o...

Congratulations Lauren! Great work!

Calling all microbiologists! Registration is open for the Mid-Atlantic Microbial Pathogenesis Meeting, February 2-4, 2025.! Abstract deadline is 12/8/2024, but don't wait, filling fast. Check it out at mampm.org.

Publication Alert! Happy to share our new work published in CellReports of a collaboration with the Zychlinsky Lab (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology). "Histone H1 kills MRSA". cell.com/cell-reports.... Enjoy!