Ben Ross

Magnesium depletion by Candida albicans unleashes two unusual modes of colistin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa with different fitness costs Bacterial resistance to the vital last-resort antibiotic colistin is an increasing challenge. This study shows that magnesium sequestration by C. albicans enables P. aeruginosa to evolve much higher l...

Our story on the evolution of colistin resistance is just out on @plosbiology.org (journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... Evolution doesn’t happen in isolation. We show that competing fungi can rewire the evolutionary trajectory of colistin resistance in P. aeruginosa. Great teamwork with the Ernst lab

We’re hiring a Microscopy Core Director at the Wadsworth Center!
It's a state position (job stability & PENSION!) in a uniquely academic, research-driven environment 😎
Please share 🙏
statejobs.ny.gov/public/vacan...

Vermont’s sole Olympic-sized ski jump caps annual competition with a surprise - VTDigger A defending Slovenian champ was poised for a historic trophy win this Presidents Day weekend at Brattleboro’s Harris Hill. Enter the last-minute teenage entry from Lake Placid.

Cool one in Brattleboro too vtdigger.org/2026/02/16/v...

I am seeking a postdoc to join my group at UCLA -- ideally the candidate would have some experience in either population genetics or microbes/microbiome (computational background needed). We have a range of projects and are happy to tailer to your interests. Please dm/email me if interested.

Cool work Ari, congrats!

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...

In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.

very sad news. Peer Bork was one of the leaders of our field, a wonderful scientist, and he's much too young to be gone. www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

Here, we find that many Genomic islands have origins of transfer (oriT) mobilisable by conjugation, incl. known Pathogenicity & defense islands. iOriT use only an oriT for transfer by hitching on conjugative elements: they make abundant, diverse, ancient families of mobile genetic elements. See🧵

Proud to announce SimPhyNI, a new tool for bacterial GWAS with higher precision and scalability than existing tools. Try it out and let us know what you think!!

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication We create vector graphics of model organisms and emerging biological research organisms to enhance our publications. We’re sharing these editable graphics under a CC0 license for other scientists to...

A free, open-access library of high-quality organism illustrations for science communication

Gene-specific selective sweeps are pervasive across human gut microbiomes - Nature Development and application of the integrated linkage disequilibrium score (iLDS) reveals both selective pressures impacting the human gut microbiome and the mechanisms by which gut bacteria adapt to ...

Grateful to share our paper on gene-specific selective sweeps in human gut microbiomes, now out in Nature! It has been a joy to work with @rwolff.bsky.social, whose insights and hard work made this possible.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bacterial conjugation can restructure biofilms and increase their resilience while constraining host cell dispersal Winans et al. show how plasmid transfer can reorganize bacterial communities into dense aggregates, conferring antibiotic and phage tolerance to otherwise sensitive host cells. Conjugation-dependent a...

Beautiful work from Jay Winans in the Nadell Lab @dartmouthartsci.bsky.social showing IncF plasmid pED208 spreading like wildfire through E. coli biofilms www.cell.com/current-biol...

The first ever cover art from my lab! And an awesome story about how chromatin changes in response to the N/C ratio from my first grad student, Anusha Bhatt!

Pediatric Infectious Diseases/Microbiology - Professor Series (tenure track/tenure), Open Rank University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

🚨New faculty job opportunity 🚨

Please share this ad for a faculty position in our department at UC Irvine, in the fields of microbiology and infectious disease. MD/PhDs and PhDs are desired and should apply!

recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09954

I think some folks might be happy to see this. NIGMS MIRA R35 for EI/NI has been published. PAR-26-121 files.simpler.grants.gov/opportunitie...

I wrote my PO who said that they are hoping it will come out soon but this has to now be reviewed at the HHS level and so they have no more info. Said that since it has to be posted 60d ahead of first deadline, the Jan deadline may have to be postponed.
Mild panic is ensuing.....

😞

I’m curious if anyone has heard anything about the status of the NIGMS R35 MIRA, currently there is no next submission deadline for established investigators and we have now passed the forecasted new announcement date

Poster deadline for the Keystone Microbiome Meeting in Banff is December 30th www.keystonesymposia.org/conferences/...

Will be a great meeting focused on human microbiomes, spanning basic, mechanistic, and applied. Organized by myself, @amibhatt.bsky.social , and Harry Sokol. Join us!

Flood maw on the T2 earthbended land sets them back a turn

Assistant Professor position posted for my Department, Biological Sciences at UNC Charlotte! Current research foci: Immunology, Microbiology, Virology; Biomolecular Function; Proteostasis; Genome Integrity; Epigenome Regulation; Cancer; Environmental Risks. jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/65141

Two unrelated Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages require the exopolysaccharide Psl for infection - npj Biofilms and Microbiomes npj Biofilms and Microbiomes - Two unrelated Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages require the exopolysaccharide Psl for infection

Two unrelated Pseudomonas aeruginosa phages require the exopolysaccharide Psl for infection

NPJ Biofilms and Microbiomes from Courtney Reichhardt and @micheleleroux.bsky.social and colleagues

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

Excited to share some new work led by grad student Sophie Walton (w/ @petrovadmitri.bsky.social). We used in vitro gut communities to study how natural selection acts on strains of the same species as they compete within larger communities. Check out Sophie's thread below for details!

Congratulations to BCB Professor Soni Lacefield on Receiving the Genetics Society of America Ira Herskowitz Award!

This prestigious award recognizes “outstanding contributions in the field of yeast research in the last 20 years”

Loved Dark is Rising growing up. Reading it to my 11 year old now

Proteolytically activated antibacterial toxins inhibit the growth of diverse gram-positive bacteria | PNAS Many species of bacteria produce small-molecule antibiotics that enter and kill a wide range of competitor microbes. However, diffusible antibacter...

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

#microsky

Congratulations Eloi! What’s next?

Dear Secretary McMahon, Ms. Mailman, and Mr. Haley, I appreciated the opportunity to speak with you yesterday. I welcome further engagement around how we can (a) enhance the long-standing partnership between the federal government and this country's leading research universities and (b) ensure that higher education stays focused on academic excellence. As I shared on the call, I do not believe that the involvement of the government through a compact--whether it is a Republican- or Democratic-led White House- is the right way to focus America's leading colleges and universities on their teaching and research mission. Our universities have a responsibility to set our own academic and institutional policies, guided by our mission and values, our commitment to free expression, and our obligations under the law. Staying true to this responsibility is what will help American higher education build bipartisan public trust and continue to uphold its place as the envy of the world. We remain open to other ways to work with the federal government to enhance higher education. Best, Sian Leah Beilock President

Dartmouth is OUT! Thank goodness... a friend at U of A and I have been playing "Who will be the last of the 9 standing?" and it's not gonna be us!