Judith Behnsen

graphical abstract. Left is a fungal cell surrounded by bacteria, and the Hog1 cascade is turned on. Right is a fungal cell covered in mannan fibrils that prevent IgA and caspofungin and increase CLR recognition by macrophages

Candida albicans is usually hanging out with bacterial neighbors, so what happens to the fungus during co-culture?
The bacteria secrete metabolites that induce massive cell wall remodeling that change immune recognition and drug resistance. Read more in our new paper: www.cell.com/current-biol...

A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year.

A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision.

A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year.

The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.

We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...

1/ Ever needed to annotate TEs in a fungal genome, but didn't know where to start?

We have released #MycoMobilome, a community-focused non-redundant database of transposable element consensus sequences for the fungal kingdom, constructed from >4,000 fungal genomes!

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

One transcript, two functions: the emerging roles of dual-function RNAs Abstract. Bacteria use small regulatory RNAs (sRNAs) and small proteins to change gene expression and modulate cellular processes in response to changing e

One transcript, two functions: the emerging roles of dual-function RNAs

microLIFE review by @lizmarialuke.bsky.social and Kai Papenfort at @uni-jena.de

academic.oup.com/microlife/ad...

We're hiring! Check out our ad and please re-post or forward to interested #Microbiology parties: apply.interfolio.com/174783

Dear #microbiology and #immunology community- I took a break from social media after I deleted my Twitter account, but am back here. Please help me rebuild my community by following me and amplifying this message- I will follow you back. Thank you and I look forward to our many interactions!

Opening session of the MMPC conference with Abby Kroken and Jonathan Allen on stage and a slide displayed.

Another great @mmpconference.bsky.social wraps up… 👏 to organizers Jonathan Allen and Abby Kroken! @akroken.bsky.social

Dose makes the difference! #Candidaalbicans uses the toxin #candidalysin not only to cause infections but also to quietly colonize the mouth – too little fails, too much triggers immune defense.

@natmicrobiol.nature.com
@mpm-hki.bsky.social

picture credits: Erik Böhm, @leibniz-hki.de

What if NIH had been 40% smaller? Replaying history with less NIH funding shows widespread impacts on drug-linked research

This paper does a great job with a "It's a Wonderful Life" scenario about NIH, supposing the consequences of the bottom 40% of the funding NIH grants never existed.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

tl:dr The world would lose a lot, but directly and indirectly

We are hiring! The Dept of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics is looking for faculty at the Assistant or Associate professor level (tenure track). Please consider joining our vibrant microbiology and immunology community at the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine

Abstract submissions are open for the Midwinter Conference of Immunologists @midwinter-immun.bsky.social!! www.midwconfimmunol.org The Early Bird Registration deadline is Nov 14, 2025.
There will be lots of Selected Abstract talks so submit an abstract to be considered!

Thank you Ivan! The story has come a looong way since the time you were here at UIC.

Thank you so much!

Thank you, Matt! So much more detail to figure out but we're super happy to see this finally published.

Thank you, Iliyan! So happy it's finally published.

Thank you, Bella! Hope you had a great rest of the summer!

Thank you Kyla! It was great seeing you in Denver. Hope to see you at another conference soon.

The short summary and behind-the-scenes of our paper in this Research Briefing article out today: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Thank you, Hiu. It took some time but now it's finally published!

Thank you Joel!

Thank you Sunny!

Thank you for all your support!

Thank you Erin!

Congratulations Rebecca! So happy to hear!

Thank you Joe!

Thank you, Marc!

The project would not have been possible without the labs of Brian Peters, who generated Candida strains and David Underhill, who performed sequencing and analysis. They were truly wonderful to work with.

This project was a true whole-lab effort. It was driven by @kanchanj.bsky.social (now on the job market for Assistant Professor positions) with substantial contributions by second author @oliviatodd.bsky.social. So proud of the whole lab!

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.

A little more than 2 weeks to apply for a Postdoc position in our lab @leibniz-hki.de 👇🏻