Joe Dillard

The Dillard Lab is looking to hire a research technician to study the mechanisms by which Neisseria gonorrhoeae damages human Fallopian tubes during pelvic inflammatory disease. Lab website: www.dillardlab.mmi.wisc.edu View the job posting: shorturl.at/YO2sE

Spanish government launches a plan to study women’s health, which has been so neglected 👏🏼👏🏼 El gobierno lanza un plan para apoyar la investigación sobre la salud de la mujer, tan abandonada hasta ahora elpais.com/salud-y-bien...

The #WHO just released recommendation of #doxyPEP for #STI prevention among MSM and transgender women Monitoring of #AMR also recommended Research gaps still remain, including long-term impacts on AMR/microbiome and effectiveness in different settings www.who.int/teams/global... #STIsky

We’re hiring! Join the Weber Lab at the University of Iowa to study Chlamydia effector biology, centrosome regulation, vesicular trafficking, and innate immunity. Please share!

I'm convening a session at ASM Microbe 2026 on vaginal infections. Come learn about the great recent advances in research on Gardnerella, Sneathia, Group B Strep, and Candida infections. #ASMicrobe invt.io/1bxbqiyuh8c

Out Now! Local peptidoglycan composition defines division site selection in Streptococcus pneumoniae #MicroSky

Exciting research here on the development and lab evaluation of #CRISPR #POC tests for #STIs (chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, HSV 1 /2) Also very interesting they could detect S91F to predict cipro resistance in #gonorrhea POC tests for STIs can be game-changers in many settings #STIsky #IDsky

Dr. Cole's presentations at the Neisseria meetings were delightful. So sorry he is gone.

This is a great @cidjournal.bsky.social supplement for all you #gonorrhea, #STI, and #AMR enthusiasts. Or for anyone who’s heard about drug-resistant gonorrhea and wants to learn more. Will link articles in 🧵 below - check it out and share! #openaccess #IDsky #STIsky bsky.app/profile/carb...

Wishing a happy and successful year to all of you

We mapped the whole human fallopian tube in 3D and at single-cell resolution via our CODA workflow. More about this work here: biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Excited to share my latest postdoctoral work in the Shen Lab at Tufts! In this study, we follow up on an exciting finding by former grad student @shailab.bsky.social that C diff uses its Class A PBP (PBP1) to drive cell division (unlike previously studied bacteria)! journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

A Lyt at the end of the tunnel? Unraveling the complex interactions of the N-acetylglucosaminidase LytG in cell wall metabolism RSC Chemical Biology pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

STD cases have fallen, but not syphilis in newborns. Data for 2024 from the CDC showed a 3rd consecutive year of fewer gonorrhea cases & the 2nd year of fewer adult cases of chlamydia & the most infectious form of syphilis. However, congenital syphilis cases aren't seeing the same improvements👇

Cool work by @mkjos.bsky.social Daniel Straume showing that the competence-induced peptidoglycan hydrolase LytF promotes pilus extrusion, thereby enhancing the efficiency of DNA uptake in S, sanguinis. Is this also a major function of the pneumococcal CbpD fratricide? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Uropathogenic #Ecoli #UPEC proliferate as round coccoid cells during intracellular infection; @alaskapokhrel.bsky.social @bill-lab.bsky.social &co show that accelerated division via FtsZ constriction drives this, the coccobacillus form persisting for generations @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4gdx97i

Our paper describing transformation of Gardnerella species is published in Infection and Immunity. We think this will lead to further molecular studies of bacterial vaginosis and potential therapeutics. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

This first-author publication is my… first! Archaea kill bacteria by targeting their Achilles’ heel: peptidoglycan. Big shoutout to @ahocher.bsky.social‬, @valeriesoo.bsky.social‬, Pauline Misson, @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social‬ and MRC LMS Proteomics. A thread 🔽 journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Bacterial cell wall & periplasm paradigm shift - important read #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thrilled to share the first preprint from my group! Prevotella are predominant but understudied members of the respiratory microbiome. They have a reputation for being hard to work with, but understanding them is likely important for understanding how they contribute to respiratory health. 🧫🔬

Very happy to share that a large part of my thesis work is out today: B. subtilis uses the second messenger c-di-AMP to modulate its turgor pressure in response to the state of its cell envelope. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It's the height of morel season in south-central Wisconsin.

We have developed methods for making targeted mutations in Gardnerella species. It's been a long slog, and the bacteria put up a lot of hurdles. Thanks to the hard work and ingenuity of Amy Klimowicz and Erin Garcia, we can make deletions, point mutations, and complements. Preprint is on bioRxiv.

Our review on Z-ring placement mechanisms in cocci is out! This was a fun one to write! #Microsky 🦠🧫

dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... #MicroSky

So…um…who is doing the testing for multi drug resistant gonorrhea and resistant trichomonas ????

Work of our lab @univie.ac.at in close collaboration with the Hauck Lab @uni-konstanz.de was published in @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social today. A compound highly selective in targeting Neisseria gonorrhoeae using a novel mode of action. @cemess.bsky.social medienportal.univie.ac.at/en/media/rec...

Spring is just starting in south central Wisconsin. My son and I enjoyed a 5 mile hike and foraging for scarlet elf cups in the rain.

(1/10) New preprint: Expansion of tetM-carrying Neisseria gonorrhoeae in the US, 2018-2024; Link: www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

I’m very happy to share our latest work on the ParABS system. We investigated the dynamic interaction between the ATPase ParA and the CTPase ParB mediating chromosome segregation in Myxococcus xanthus. I would like to thank all the people involved.

Potential Impact of Doxycycline Post-Exposure Prophylaxis on Tetracycline Resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Colonization with Tetracycline-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Group A Streptococcus ✅ Just Accepted #IDSky

Europe reports surging STIs, including #AMR gonorrhea, alongside FDA approval of a new antibiotic and WHO’s AMR research priorities, stressing urgent global action. Related updates (mpox, dengue, COVID) underscore need for coordinated innovation and stewardship. www.cidrap.umn.edu/sexually-tra...

New preprint 🚨: with @madejmar.bsky.social we found that the Bacteroidetes beta-barrel assembly machinery is quite different to E. coli. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #cryo-EM

#Neisseria gonorrhoeae evades immunity by altering its surface structures. @maierlab.bsky.social &co show that this process also modulates bacterial interactions, driving microcolony diversification, aggregation, colony morphology & #antibiotic tolerance 🧪 @plosbiology.org plos.io/4aN1zdO

New paper out today from the lab on Akkermansia muciniphila 🦠and how it breaks down host glycans! Very proud of my group, especially @cassiebakshani.bsky.social who did an amazing job. @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Starting to see papers that are just alphafolds of stuff with no experiments. Who is reviewing this?