Victor J. Torres

Victor J. Torres

@torreslab.bsky.social

Scientist fascinated by infectious diseases, host-microbe interactions and bacterial infections. Views my own 🇵🇷 #CienciaBoricua #MacFellow #MRSA

2.3K followers181 following25 posts

Pinned

Victor J. Torres reposted

Led by St. Jude, an international collaboration mapped the spread of the dominant H5N1 avian influenza strain, D1.1, across North American wild birds. The continent-wide map helps interpret bird-to-human infections and supports ongoing surveillance. ow.ly/YaRv50YK5iS

ow.lyFirst continent-wide map of dominant avian influenza strain explains its spreadFind out how mapping the spread of an avian influenza strain through birds across North America helped scientists understand its human-to-human spread risk.

Victor J. Torres reposted

Bacteria in our BRAINS??! We observed translocation of bacteria from the gut to the brain via the vagus nerve. This occurred after high fat diet, or without dietary changes in mouse models of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and autism. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

journals.plos.orgTranslocation of bacteria from the gut to the brain in miceRecent studies link gut dysbiosis to neurological disease, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study shows that a high-fat diet increases gut permeability and enables bacterial transloc...

Victor J. Torres reposted

New @sloanfoundation.bsky.social grants: Exemplary Pathways to STEM Graduate Education. Up to $500,000 for orgs focused on helping remove obstacles for undergraduates who want to pursue advanced STEM degrees. Deadline is June 1. Please share & apply if this is you! sloan.org/programs/hig...

sloan.orgCall for Letters of Inquiry: Exemplary Pathways to STEM Graduate Education | Alfred P. Sloan FoundationOur mission is to make the world a better place through the advancement of scientific knowledge.

Excited to announce the upcoming 2026 Microbial Toxins and Pathogenicity GRC and GRS meeting taking place July 12 - 17, 2026 at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire. This meeting will be chaired by yours truly and co-chaired by @sunnyshinlab.bsky.social www.grc.org/microbial-to...

grc.org2026 Microbial Toxins and Pathogenicity Conference GRCThe 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Toxins and Pathogenicity will be held in Waterville Valley, New Hampshire. Apply today to reserve your spot.

Victor J. Torres reposted

While everyone is hustling for the holidays, hopefully folks will have time to submit abstracts or register for #ASMMicrobe2026 in DC! Please repost!

Victor J. Torres reposted

This year, researchers advanced H5N1 research showing that the virus in dairy cattle retains avian features, posing low pandemic risk, and that pasteurized milk with inactive viral components is safe. Studies also identified key S. aureus virulence mechanisms in natural host models.

Victor J. Torres reposted

Hey friends. I’m looking for a postdoc interested in studying host-pathogen interactions and immunology of tuberculosis. Send me some good people! We have a great group here! Email me joanne@pitt.edu. Thanks!

Victor J. Torres reposted

Victor J. Torres reposted

Victor J. Torres reposted

Victor J. Torres reposted

Asuncion Mejias, MD, PhD, MsCS, FPIDS, discusses RSV infection in infants and young during this year’s Caroline B. Hall Lecture.

Victor J. Torres reposted

I'm honored to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. As always, I extend my sincerest thanks to all my wonderful mentors, colleagues, collaborators, admins, and trainees who make this work possible. #MacFellow

Texas Science@texasscience.bsky.social

UT Austin has a new “genius grant” recipient! Texas Science professor Jason McLellan has been awarded a MacArthur Fellowship — aka the “genius grant” — by The MacArthur Foundation. #TexasScience @mclellanlab.bsky.social #MacArthurGenius @utaustin.bsky.social cns.utexas.edu/news/accolad...

Victor J. Torres reposted

Victor J. Torres reposted

Excited to share our new publication, out today in Nature! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... @kanchanj.bsky.social led this fascinating fungal-bacterial interaction project. We are grateful for our wonderful collaborators Brian Peters and David Underhill.

nature.comCommensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence - NatureCommensal Candida albicans enhances the virulence and dissemination of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium.

Victor J. Torres reposted

Victor J. Torres reposted

Excited to post our first S. aureus preprint on biorxiv! Big congrats to co-first authors, postdocs @anjali20anil.bsky.social and Rezia Braza, and really enjoyed the collaboration with @torreslab.bsky.social !

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social

Staphylococcus aureus exhibits spatiotemporal heterogeneity in Sae activity during kidney abscess development https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.08.663646v1

Victor J. Torres reposted

Victor J. Torres reposted

Hey y'all! My department is conducting a search for an assistant or associate professor in bacteriology. It's pretty broadly defined. If you know anyone who's looking for a great department that does awesome science - please send them our way! You can DM me with any questions you have 😀

Victor J. Torres reposted

🚨 Big news! Infection and Immunity is now open access! 🌍🔬 That means wider visibility & impact for your research. Worried about fees? 💸 Check out how IAI stacks up against other journals—you might be surprised. #OpenAccess #SciComm #Microbiology

7/8 We hypothesized porins may not be critical during infection of an immunocompromised host (the common victim of Enterobacter infections). Indeed, porin mutants were able to cause lethal infection in a neutropenic mouse model, and in an ex vivo model of human bacteremia.

3/8 In a mouse model of infection, only E. hormaechei sequence type 78 (ST78) caused lethal infection. In a cluster of closely related ST78 isolates, we identified an avirulent outlier that we used for comparative genomics.