Ammar Zafar

Last week my second PhD student Giovanna defended her thesis. Could not have asked for a better student, who worked completely independently the last one year! Amazing body of work that is soon to be published. Wishing her the best of luck in all her future endeavors.

New paper out from the Zafar/Haas lab detailing how complement system protects against fatal dissemination of Klebsiella pneumoniae from the gut to systemic sites. Work led by the fabulous postdoc Juan Valencia-Bacca @juanvalenciabacca.bsky.social

✨If you have a story you would like to share with the community, please submit an abstract by Feb 16. ✨

We have a protocols paper out led by fantastic post docs Juan Valencia-Bacca and Maidul Islam. More animal tools for the Kleb research community!!

Apparently only allows 10 free clicks to it 🙄

Mechanisms of bacterial host-to-host transmission | Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews SUMMARYBacterial pathogens must navigate complex host environments to thrive, replicate, and ultimately transmit to new hosts. Effective transmission is critical for pathogen propagation and often requires overcoming host defenses and exploiting ...

Our comprehensive review on bacterial transmission is out today in MMBR @asm.org, which took us ~2 years to put together. Thanks to Kim Walker @drwalkermsbanta.bsky.social and my graduate student, Giovanna Hernandez, for all the hard work they put into this review!

journals.asm.org/eprint/JIVRR...

🚨 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

Thanks Lauren!

Figure summarizing the regulatory effects induced by the gastrointestinal tract environment on Klebsiella pneumoniae, leading to T6SS-mediated killing of Betaproteobacteria.

Klebsiella pneumoniae uses a type VI secretion system to overcome microbiota-mediated colonization resistance

@azmicro.bsky.social @emorydeptofmed.bsky.social

#microbiome #bacteria #pathogens #microbiology

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

After 6 wonderful years at Wake Forest School of Medicine the Zafar lab is now officially open at Emory School of Medicine in the dept. of microbiology and immunology!

Post Doc Juan Valencia-Bacca representing the Zafar/Haas lab at the mid-Atlantic microbial pathogenesis meeting #mampm describing the role of gut complement in controlling K pneumoniae!

Klebsiella pneumoniae employs a type VI secretion system to overcome microbiota-mediated colonization resistance - Nature Communications Through metagenomics, Bray et al. identified Klebsiella pneumoniae interacting microbiota partners in the gut, and a transposon mutagenesis screen revealed a role for its T6SS in gut colonization, wit...

First post! Our study in Nature Comms showing the importance of the T6SS of Klebsiella pneumoniae in gut colonization. We combined tn-seq with metagenomics and identified new microbiota targets and T6SS regulators.
Major thanks to Kim walker and Virginia Miller

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