Lars Dietrich

FACULTY POSITION: We are seeking an Assistant Professor to join our growing and vibrant Department of Microbiology at Cornell! FOCUS: Using bacteria to address 21st century challenges. (part of a cohort hire in SynBio). *please repost* academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/33098 #MicroSky

𝗖𝘆𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗮𝗿-𝗥𝗲𝗱 𝗟𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁 please read Sofie van Dorst's 10-part 🧵here on bluesky – or on Nov 02 in our blog: smallthingsconsidered.blog #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky #teamtomo #CryoEM #CryoET

The Department of Biology and Marine Biology at UNCW welcomes applicants for three positions: (1) Lecturer - Biology jobs.uncw.edu/postings/40847 (2) Asst Prof - Cell & Molecular Bio jobs.uncw.edu/postings/41148 (3) Asst Prof - Evolutionary and/or Quantitative Bio jobs.uncw.edu/postings/41207 #jobs

Pseudomonas aeruginosa R-bodies deliver an ADP deaminase toxin https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.21.760852v1

In the early 1900s, Emmy Noether explored the mathematical consequences of symmetries. In doing so, she shook the very foundations of fundamental physics. https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-noethers-theorem-revolutionized-physics-20250207/

We've been funded to start using Dictyostelium as a model system for early endomembrane evolution!! Now I'm hiring a Postdoc to join the lab in Edmonton and start playing with Dicty in the lab:) iaejup.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Watching Flagella (or Cilia) in Motion by Christoph — Still images do not tell whether cells rotate their flagella like a propeller or flap them like a whip. To find out, one has to film living cells...

The phenotypic landscape of the model firmicute Bacillus subtilis PNAS from Carol A. Gross www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

My latest @newscientist.com cartoon. many more here: www.newscientist.com/author/tom-gauld/

Fantastic, comprehensive, useful review if you care about RNA modifications in bacteria: @asm.org @csdetweiler.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Ten years ago Tami, Roy, and I released a movie we made of antibiotic resistance evolving in real time. I thought maybe a couple thousand people tops would see it. I couldn't have imagined it would be seen millions of times, and be taught from middle school through the graduate level worldwide

Out now in Science: Two papers from our lab reveal VIPR, an RNA-guided DNA-targeting system in bacteriophages, providing clues to the origins of CRISPR www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats to Peter Yoon, @kenjmloi.bsky.social @terryzzy.bsky.social, T.Docter & team

The “brain-eating amoebae” Naegleria fowleri normally hunts for bacterial prey in pond sediments. Its drive to squeeze into tiny crevices may help explain how it moves from the human nose through the sinus, along olfactory axons, and into the brain. In PNAS: https://ow.ly/3JCY50ZOPvg

New in JB: Karin Sauer and colleagues update us on all the great science at the 10th American Society for Microbiology Conference on Biofilms. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org #JBacteriol @microsky.bsky.social

Bacterial biosynthetic gene clusters Editorial by @evodivmet.bsky.social on the 16 articles published in the thematic issue in Essays in Biochemistry portlandpress.com/essaysbioche...

We love that @theguardian.com crowns an Invertebrate of the Year and 2026's winner is the leaf sheep, Costasiella kuroshimae, a green solar-powered slug tinyurl.com/556zwt9a Find out about another solar powered sea slug that takes cues from its chloroplasts doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

Excited to share our paper with @savitski-lab.bsky.social, led by @tarabartolec.bsky.social, Karin Mitosch & Clément Potel, out now in @nature.com. We show that T7 phage broadly disables bacterial defenses using a unique ‘loose cannon’ protein kinase. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hey friends of microbial evolution and science education! I posted the talk about EvolvingSTEM for anyone unable to attend #ISME20 in New Zealand. youtu.be/xzHI05eH104

Biofilm formation in #Bacillus subtilis is thought to precede sporulation, but T. Updegrove says that a subpopulation of sporulating cells triggers other cells to become biofilm formers via an intracellular metabolite (glycerol) repurposed as a signaling molecule (!) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Pls share. Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences - Genetics/Genomics at Smith College. apply.interfolio.com/190342

Our Dept of Microbiology & Immunology @Geisel School of Medicine @Dartmouth has an opening for an Assistant Professor. Looking for programs bridging multiple areas in Micro & Immuno. A great place to be! Programs: www.M2P2.org www.dartmouthbiofilm.org Job ad: apply.interfolio.com/187637

The UNLV School of Life Sciences looking to hire someone to teach and assess online biology lecture and laboratories courses for non-biology majors. Come join my dept! Job ad: nshe.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UNLV-E...

Submit to the JB Biofilms Collection! Research Articles & Minireviews on biofilm formation/dispersal, Abx tolerance, polymicrobial interactions, signalling, imaging & more. Submission deadline: 30 September 2026. journals.asm.org/journal/jb/b... @asm.org #JBacteriol #ASMjournals

#FungiFriends

Phenazine Pride #PrideMonth #bacterial_pigments Agar art by Marina Smiley

Published in Infection and Immunity, Gracious Donkor and I explore the diverse mechanisms microbes employ to withstand ROS-mediated stress and discuss recent efforts to harness oxidative stress responses as a potential strategy for developing new antimicrobials. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Day 1 of @asm.org #ASMmicrobe2026 was great! Wonderful reconnecting with the Microbiology community, including fellow @hypothesisfund.bsky.social family members @laahrs.bsky.social & @paulturnerlab.bsky.social!

The TCA cycle and pentose phosphate pathway are linked to lipid droplet expansion in nitrogen-starved Lipomyces starkeyi cells https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.27.728067v1

Abstract suggesting that some protists can use symbiosis for magnetoreception. Promising direction, seeing as there have been zero magnetoreceptors discovered outside bacteria... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Time for a new edition of Canadian biochemist and medical researcher extraordinaire Maud Menten (1878-1960), 🐡🧪👩🏼‍🔬 #histsci coauthor of the Michalis-Menten equation, inventor of the azo-dye coupling which was the first example of enzyme histochemistry for imaging tissues and the first 🧵

New insight published in @molecularmicro.bsky.social by @saraalexander.bsky.social + Mark Goulian about how the phosphotransfer system known as PTS-Ntr mediates methylglyoxal resistance via K+ transporters. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats (Current Biology) Beautiful microscopy of an Asgard archaeon, in the same family as Lokiarchaea, in syntrophy with a sulfate-reducing bacteria Very very nice paper we saw in preprint form: www.cell.com/current-biol...

#MicrobiologyMonday: Gliding motility allows cells to move smoothly along surfaces without flagella. Although this strategy has evolved independently across many microbial lineages, common mechanical principles emerge. Learn more in #JBacteriology: asm.social/2SJ

Biofilm spatial structure and superinfection immunity modulate inter-phage competition @plosbiology.org by James Winans and Carey Nadell journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

By all means, if you're deciding, take the time you need. But if you're deciding between two places, and there are three others you've ruled out, let those three know as soon as possible, not once you've picked a school You could make a huge difference to someone else's life

Annual reminder: if you’ve been accepted to multiple graduate programs and are still deciding, please let the ones you’re definitely not going to know as soon as possible! -Someone who got into his PhD off the waitlist the day after the deadline

(bacterial) cell divisionists take note 👇 the schwille lab did it again! now adding FtsN*) to the party, with FtsA, FtsZ and the Min gang already on board... *) cytoplasm.domain thx séamus for pointing this out🙏 #MicroSky

Happy #InternationalWomensDay to the brilliant women in our Hypothesis Fund community who are taking the intellectual risks to pursue bold ideas, supporting one another, and transforming science together. You inspire us every day. 💫 #IWD2026

#OnThisDay in 1938, American evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis was born. Margulis is most known for developing and popularising the endosymbiotic theory, which explains how eukaryotic cells evolved organelles from simpler prokaryotic organisms that resided within another and became incorporated.

At long last! Check out the link to our publication in @nature.com to learn more. doi.org/10.1038/s415... 12/12

One of the biggest questions in biology is how complex cells evolved about 2 billion years ago. Here's my new story on how scientists are solving the mystery of eukaryotes like us. Gift link: nyti.ms/4qMbo22

Preprint on the permeability of Gram+ bacterial cell wall from a few months ago. Intriguing findings, elegant methodology. Cell wall is largely impermeable to molecule sizes of mNeonGreen (27kDa) and above. How do larger secreted proteins get through? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #microsky

a daring approach: looking at LUCA's ancestors, i.e. pre-darwinian evolution. but not surprising it's coming from @kacarlab.bsky.social 👏 glad to see Iwabe et al. (1989) among the references (blew my mind when it came out >30 y ago)

Seema Mattoo on Bordetella pertussis and whooping cough! Matters Microbial, @mattoolab.bsky.social @markowenmartin.bsky.social #MicroSky

@poojag96.bsky.social work on the bioenergetics of spore germination is now published- Pooja had a really nice summary that I've put below but essentially we think the role of bioenergetics in spore germination has been completely overlooked! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...