Nick Pokorzynski

Mechanistic study of a low-power bacterial maintenance state using high-throughput electrochemistry Anaerobic phenazine cycling by an opportunistic bacterial pathogen supports a low-power, non-growth metabolism that lends itself to quantitative and mechanistic study of maintenance physiology.

Dianne Newman: beautiful demonstration of maintenance metabolism in #Psuedomonas, which uses PCN redox cycling to support PMF during anaerobic growth #Phages2025

www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...

Super excited to share our paper online 🚨today🚨 in Cell Host & Microbe‬! Xiaomei Ren @xiaomeiren.bsky.social and Mason Clark @rmasonclark.bsky.social‬ co-led discovery of ecological factors for Acinetobacter baumannii carriage in the gut, a reservoir for pathogen spread. 🎉

tinyurl.com/443kfefk

Microbial metal physiology: ions to ecosystems Nature Reviews Microbiology - Metal ions are required for all cells, and their homeostasis relies on ancient mechanisms that facilitate their import, distribution and storage. In this Review,...

Metal ions are universally required for life, and many of the foundational principles of metal homeostasis have emerged from studies of microbial systems. In this review, I provide a introductory overview targeted to those new to the field.
#MicroSky #Metals

rdcu.be/eycU2

If this all sounds like a calculated plan to reduce the size of the federally funding biomedical research enterprise, I believe that is exactly what is it.

The notion that this "facilitates efficient management" of grants and the appropriation is, to use an official NIH term, horseshit.

/fin

NIH staff are being required to fully fund ~ 50% of their grants. This means that all 4 years of an award will be paid out of this appropriation. This will help them get the appropriated funds spent, but will mean they can only fund (1/2 + 1/4*1/2) = 5/8 has many grants as they would have otherwise.

Probably also worth pointing out that when you look at highly “productive” scientific operations, the main thing you find is an increase in human contribution (eg, more scientists) not some streamlined procedure to arrive at groundbreaking findings. I’m not sure we can escape that fact!

In other words, if we imagine an “efficient” science, we necessarily have to imagine a science that spends less time at the bench, less time mired in figuring out unexpected results, and less time arriving at truly novel outcomes. This ultimately compromises the potential - and efficacy - of science

Rooting science in practical activity - rather than say, good ideas (replace with good experiments!) - reveals why improving the “efficiency” of science is a lost cause. The only real efficiency to be gained would ultimately diminish the *practice* of science, and thus its creative potential.

Agreed and in addition: the essence of creativity is practical activity. That is, the real human interaction with nature/the environment/the object is what produces creativity. This is why AI is so *barren* - its substrate is preexisting information, not the creative frontier of knowledge.

a graph of the cumulative binomial probability of 1 or more hits given a number of trials and a 5%, 10% or 20% per-trial rate

Time to revisit the probability of at least one NIH grant award given relevant success rates. It has been ~20% overall success in recent completed FY. Many ICs have *paylines* around 10%ish.

Overview of paper revealing role of arginine in regulating K. pneumoniae mucoidy.

Our paper reporting a highly conserved mechanism by which arginine positively regulates hypervirulent K. pneumoniae mucoid phenotype is now fully online.
rdcu.be/euiWG

Summary picture is below, but details in the 🧵

Cases of Salmonella and Campylobacter reach 10-year high

#Salmonella and #Campylobacter are common causes of food poisoning, and can lead to serious illness in the young, elderly and those with weakened immune systems. Cases of both infection increased by 17% between 2023 and 2024.

Find out more on our news story: www.gov.uk/government/n...

If you are interested in the basic mechanisms of gene expression and regulation in microbes, make sure to put this conference on your calendar for 2027. I expect the conference will only keep getting better!

This year we got to honor the lifelong contributions of field-defining scientists Carol Gross and Steve Busby. It was truly humbling and such an honor to witness the enormous scope and impact of their science, mentorship, and advocacy over 40+ years.

The Mechanisms of Microbial Transcription GRC was excellent this year. This is a community of the highest caliber: rigorous science at the frontier of microbial gene expression, covering a wide range of organisms and processes, presented by first-time PhD students and legends alike.

The GRS on Microbial Transcription 2025 is now over!

Amazon science and people!
🦠🧬
Great experience to have served as a chair of this meeting along with @npokorzynski.bsky.social

Passing the power now to Celeste and Caroline for #MoMT2027 !!

#microbiology #microsky

That’s a wrap on the 2025 Mechanisms of Microbial Transcription GRS!

Kicking off the 2025 Mechanisms of Microbial Transcription GRS w/ keynote speaker Maria Hadjifrangiskou!

Did a control experiment that I did not expect to work, which would have sank an entire arm of this project, but it worked beautifully. Thank you biology gods for watching over me in these trying times.

Just a few spots remaining for the GRC Salmonella Biology and Pathogenesis meeting to be held in August. The final program is now online. www.grc.org/salmonella-b...
Apply now to hear about the latest scientific discoveries about Salmonella, meet up with old friends, make new friends......

Brave Genius by Sean B. Carroll: 9780307952349 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books The never-before-told account of the intersection of some of the most insightful minds of the 20th century, and a fascinating look at how war, resistance, and friendship can catalyze genius.  ...

One of my favorite history of science books: "Brave Genius"

It's about Jacques Monod, discoverer of the lac operon, who risked everything to fight fascism/Nazis as a part of the French Resistance, along with his buddy Albert Camus.

Be like Jacques.

www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/213596...

Third track model for coordination of septal peptidoglycan synthesis and degradation by FtsN in Escherichia coli - Nature Microbiology Partitioning of FtsN and the septal peptidoglycan synthesis complex between an active synthesis track and an inactive denuded glycan track coordinates opposing peptidoglycan synthesis and degradation ...

Our new paper on FtsN is out! Now there are three tracks for organized cell wall constriction-- the old, boring E. coli always manages to surprise us.

A special shout-out to all the people who made this work possible, especially Dr. Jason Lyu, and Dr. David Weiss.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

My view of cells is influenced heavily by Canguilhem’s recounting of the history of cell theory in the 18th and 19th century, where cells were viewed (ontologically) as inextricable from the whole organism. (Of course there is the exception of single-celled organisms!)

If by displaced you mean transferred from the organismal level to the cell/gene level, I completely agree.

Another common example that gets under my skin: you commonly hear that X “evolved to” do Y. Of course, evolution does not have a plan or direction, so this is just poor semantics, and I think most biologists would agree. Nevertheless, the tendency towards agency/purpose persists.

Note also how there is no mention of ethics in this vision of “gold standard science,” other than their obsession with fraud.

“Open-science” now becomes a tool to comb through any science the admin does not approve of. They will distort this to mean whatever they want it to mean in the moment, and justify suppressing scientific investigation under the guise of open science.

This results from platforming “science” as a discrete and exclusive claim on empirical (and in this way, authoritative) information, rather than a *knowledge*-building practice.

The right can now take these claims on empiricism/authority and use them to clamp down on whatever science they dislike.

List of HHS program cuts. For accessible PDF email altcdc1@pm.me

RFK Jr: “We will create an honest, unbiased, gold-standard science at HHS, accountable to the President, to Congress, and the American people.”

Here is the list of cuts not advertised or reviewed but instead pieced together by us from leaks. The programs in bold (most) have ALREADY been cut.

“I Believe It”: NIH Director Pushes Lab Leak Conspiracy At Contentious NIH Town Hall As Staffers Walk Out Dozens of NIH staffers walked out when Jay Bhattacharya promoted the unproven COVID origins story; others protested research cuts.

NEW: Dozens of staffers walked out of Jay Bhattacharya’s first town hall event on Monday after the NIH director said he believed the lab leak conspiracy theory.

We got video.

www.importantcontext.news/p/i-believe-...