(not) Imran Khan

Fermentative growth decreases the iron demand of Staphylococcus aureus Iron (Fe) is an essential nutrient for S. aureus survivability and pathogenesis, but excess Fe can catalyze the formation of toxic oxygen radicals, em…

Very happy to share some more good news. Our collaboration with Jeffrey Boyd's lab is now published at J Inorganic Biochemistry! Here, Jeff found that iron limitation reprograms S. aureus metabolism towards fermentation. We're grateful to be part of this study.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Defined roles for the Staphylococcus aureus POT transporter DtpT in di/tripeptide uptake and glutathione utilisation inside human macrophages Author summary The environments where bacterial pathogens thrive are often rich in proteins and their degradation products, including oligopeptides, which can be taken up by the bacterium and used as ...

Our work deciphering the substrate preferences of a di-/tripeptide transporter from S. aureus is now available as a proof at @plos.org Pathogens! Big thanks to the reviewers and to all the brilliant co-authors, particularly Callum who helped get those last few crucial experiments across the line

Cheers Emm!! Very glad to finally see this out in the world

Nasal Staphylococcus aureus carriage promotes depressive behaviour in mice via sex hormone degradation - Nature Microbiology Nasal colonization by Staphylococcus aureus is linked with depression in a human cohort and shown in a mouse model to cause decreased serotonin and dopamine in the brain.

#NewResearch

Nasal colonisation by S. aureus is linked with depression in a human cohort and shown in a mouse model to cause decreased serotonin and dopamine in the brain

#MicroSky #Depression

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

Expression of mecA increases daptomycin tolerance in Staphylococcus aureus | mBio The incidence of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia is on a steady incline in many parts of the world. Given the associated mortality rates have changed little in the last 10 years, this is a major heal...

Latest from Lizzie Ledger in the lab…. Very cool story demonstrating the cross reactivity of a single AMR mechanism to confer resistance/tolerance to two distinct classes of antibiotics.

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Awesome story!

Commensal yeast promotes Salmonella Typhimurium virulence - Nature Commensal Candida albicans enhances the virulence and dissemination of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Typhimurium.

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.

Great work from Nathan and the team!

Small molecule inhibitors of the NorA multidrug efflux pump potentiate antibiotic activity by binding the outward-open conformation Antibiotic resistance is among the greatest threats of the modern era. Multidrug efflux pumps expel antibiotics from bacterial cells and present a particular challenge by conferring resistance to a br...

New preprint from the lab, in collaboration with Ed Tate, Nate Traaseth and many others!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Determining the importance of the stringent response for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus virulence in vivo - PubMed The stringent response is a stress signalling pathway with links to bacterial virulence. This pathway is controlled by the nucleotide alarmone (p)ppGpp, produced in Staphylococcus aureus by three synt...

Also proud to see some work from my friends (and former labmates!) Naz and Lucy published today! Very cool insights into the importance of nucleotide signalling in S. aureus infection. Congrats to @corrigar.bsky.social and all the authors on this cool work :)

SLC45A4 is a pain gene encoding a neuronal polyamine transporter - Nature The SLC45A4 gene encodes a neuronal polyamine transporter and is linked to pain response in humans and mice.

Great to see Sigurbjorn's work on polyamine transport out now in Nature! Great work from a great scientist

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

A new class of binding-protein dependent solute transporter exemplified by the TAXI-GltS system from Bordetella pertussis Communications Biology - Identification and characterization of an unusual tri-domain TRAP transporter binding protein from Bordetella pertussis reveals insight into the diversity of binding...

Really pleased to share some recent work from our lab now published in Comms Bio. Here, we’ve identified and characterised a peculiar TRAP transporter binding protein from B. pertussis that we think uses a membrane component from a completely different transporter family.
rdcu.be/eAr8v

A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour chocolate fermentation - Nature Microbiology An in-depth microbiological and metagenomic analysis of Colombian farm and fermentation facilities resulted in the design of a defined microbial community that can reproduce the flavour of fine chocol...

Out now!

🍫🦠A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour #chocolate fermentation

By Gabriel Castrillo, David Salt & co

#microsky #microbiomesky 🧪

Read it here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Characterization of an amyloid-based antiphage defence system in Escherichia coli - Nature Microbiology Prion-like proteins in Escherichia coli trigger an abortive infection mechanism in response to phage infection—a process similar to amyloid-mediated immune signalling in fungi and animals.

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

Structural unification of diverse transmembrane acyltransferases reveals a conserved fold for the Transmembrane Acyl Transferase (TmAT) superfamily The movement of acyl groups across biological membranes is essential for many cellular processes. One major family of proteins catalysing this reaction are the acyl transferase family 3 (AT3) proteins...

A cool use of DALI/FoldSeek building on new human HG-SNAT protein enabled Bethan Kinniment-Williams & co., to structural unify the TmAT superfamily of membrane-bound acyltransferases first proposed by Milton Saier Jnr in TCDB. @jnb-lab.bsky.social
www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Inactivation of branched-chain amino acid uptake halts Staphylococcus aureus growth and induces bacterial quiescence within macrophages Author summary Staphylococcus aureus is a prominent human pathogen causing acute and chronic disease. It is facultatively intracellular and can reside within many host cell types, including profession...

Very important new paper regarding amino acid acquisition inside staph-infected macrophages! Key role for BCAAs + nice evidence that host cell nutrients can be conveyed to bacteria in the phagosome to facilitate growth... Big implications for host-path interactions. Great work!

A single transcriptional regulator is crucial for the adaptation of Staphylococcus aureus to diverse niches https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.01.668060v1

Regulation of airway fumarate by host and pathogen promotes Staphylococcus aureus pneumonia - Nature Communications This study reveals how the pathogen Staphylococcus aureus adapts to the lung microenvironment, rich in host metabolites fumarate and itaconate, by using a key enzyme, FumC, to support its metabolic fi...

Pleased to share our latest study @natcomms.nature.com! We show that the host metabolites fumarate and itaconate impose selective pressure on Staphylococcus aureus, driving its adaptation via the enzyme FumC. Grateful to all who contributed to this work!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Environmental cues in different host niches shape the survival fitness of Staphylococcus aureus - Nature Communications Staphylococcus aureus adapts to diverse host environments during infection. Here, the authors use transposon sequencing to reveal niche-specific genes and identify 27 core genes required for S. aureus...

Exciting new paper from Wonsik Lee's group in Korea, using TnSeq to study gene essentiality in various intracellular and extracellular infection niches of S aureus. Loads of cool insights into metabolism and nutrient acquisition in the host

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

Carrier-mediated transport as a common route of antibiotic ingress into bacteria - PubMed Increasing antibiotic resistance among pathogenic bacteria is undermining our ability to treat infection, and new antibacterial drugs are urgently needed to address the problem. One of the most signif...

Just seen this very clever paper from Alex O'Neill's group at Leeds. Systematic approaches to identify routes of antibiotic uptake in S. aureus and E. coli! As someone who never believed the dogma of passive diffusion, I feel very vindicated.. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40631918/

Commensal to pathogen switch in Streptococcus pneumoniae is governed by a thermosensing master regulator https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.23.655729v1

Glycosylation of serine/threonine-rich intrinsically disordered regions of membrane-associated proteins in streptococci - Nature Communications Here, the authors identify mechanisms of glycosylation of intrinsically disordered regions present in streptococci membrane proteins, uncovering a functional role for glycosylation in Streptococcus mu...

Cool work by the group of Natalia Korotkova demonstrating glycosylation of some of our favorite proteins like PBP1a, MapZ and RodZ! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Competition with Pseudomonas aeruginosa induces Staphylococcus aureus in an antibiotic-tolerant viable but non culturable state https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.30.651255v1

Emergence of transferable daptomycin resistance in Gram-positive bacteria - npj Antimicrobials and Resistance npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - Emergence of transferable daptomycin resistance in Gram-positive bacteria

This is fascinating, but also terrible news regarding antimicrobial resistance in multidrug-resistant Gram-positives

'Emergence of transferable daptomycin resistance in Gram-positive bacteria'

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Just posted on bioRxiv!

We reveal the structure of the MurJ/LysM (JM) complex.
A small phage protein, LysM (37 residues), binds to MurJ like a wedge and freezes its motion.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Great to see this exciting work from Javeria, Rory and Reyme finally out there for people to see :) such a nice, clean story

Couldn't be happier to announce I'm officially PhDone! Huge shout-out to Gavin and Marjan for their encouragement and all their support over the years :)

Pyrimidine sufficiency is required for Sae two-component system signaling in Staphylococcus aureus https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.20.644390v1

Bacteriophage-derived endolysins restore antibiotic susceptibility in penicillin- and erythromycin-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae infections https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.18.644011v1

Cell-autonomous innate immunity by proteasome-derived defence peptides - Nature Proteasomal degradation of cellular proteins generate defence peptides constitutively and in response to bacterial infection. Such peptides might provide a source of natural antibiotics that...

Wow!

surprising new cell-intrinsic innate immune function in 𝘕𝘈𝘛𝘜𝘙𝘌

PROTEOSOMES generate antimicrobial peptides that kill bacteria as a first line of defense

bacterial infection alters proteasome function to boost this protective activity

are proteosomes a novel target for antimicrobial therapy?