Lucas A. Meirelles

The ISC - your new home at UMass Boston?

The view of Boston Harbor from front of campus

Heeeeey #Microbial #Ecology folk! My department has a job opening for a tenure track Microbial Ecologist! Feel free to DM me with questions. Come join our awesome supportive whip-smart & kind crew in the Biology Department of @umassboston.bsky.social! employmentopportunities.umb.edu/boston/en-us...

Dissecting the impact of transcription factor dose on cell reprogramming heterogeneity using scTF-seq - Nature Genetics This study introduces single-cell transcription factor (TF) sequencing, a single-cell barcoded and doxycycline-inducible TF overexpression approach that reveals dose-sensitive functional classes of TFs and cellular heterogeneity by mapping TF dose-dependent transcriptomic changes during the reprogramming of mouse embryonic multipotent stromal cells.

🧵1/ Excited to share our new paper introducing a new #singlecell assay: scTF-seq, a high-throughput single-cell approach to explore how transcription factor (TF) dose shapes cell identity and reprogramming outcomes. 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Big congrats to the entire team @EPFL & @SIAT_China

Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404

Clostridioides difficile pathogenesis and control Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 02 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41579-025-01242-2Clostridioides difficile infection is challenging to diagnose and treat and is associated with considerable mortality, morbidity and economic costs worldwide. In this Review, Chilton et al. discuss changes in global epidemiology, breakthroughs in pathogenesis and antibiotic resistance, the role of microbiota dysbiosis and the potential for microbiota-based therapeutics for Clostridioides difficile infection.

New online! Clostridioides difficile pathogenesis and control

Polymyxin B lethality requires energy-dependent outer membrane disruption - Nature Microbiology The antibiotic polymyxin B requires bacterial metabolic activity to cause sufficient damage to the outer membrane to access the inner membrane, which it permeabilizes via an energy-independent mechanism to kill the cell.

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

#microsky

Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria Gene redundancy complicates systematic characterization of gene function as single-gene deletions may not produce discernible phenotypes. We report dual transposon sequencing (dual Tn-seq), a platform...

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

#microsky

Faculty Professor Associate - Full-Time | Vaughn Cooper We are recruiting Faculty microbiologists in three (3) different, complementary, and collaborative areas at the University of Pittsburgh associated with the School of Medicine. 1) Fundamental researc...

🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro
2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute
3) Center for Vaccine Research
🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa senses exopolysaccharide trails using type IV pili and adhesins during biofilm formation - Nature Microbiology Opposing forces generated by exopolysaccharide trail binding versus type IV pilus retraction generate a high cyclic diGMP–high cyclic AMP state in Pseudomonas aeruginosa that promotes social motility.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa senses exopolysaccharide trails using type IV pili and adhesins during biofilm formation by O'Toole, Parsek, & Wong groups www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Group Leader - EMBL Hamburg Are you ready to lead groundbreaking research in Infection Biochemistry? Join us at EMBL Hamburg! We are recruiting outstanding scientists to establish independent research groups tackling fundamental...

Pls share: Distributing this advertisement from EMBL for a group leader position at their Hamburg, Germany site:

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

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

Our latest efforts to understand Enterococcal wound infection. In long-term collaboration with @gthibault.bsky.social, we discovered how E. faecalis makes extracellular ROS - via EET!⚡️Which in turn dysregulates host UPR to delay wound healing. Led by @aarontan.bsky.social - his videos below are 🤩!

Congrats to the team!!! 🎉

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

Within-host bacterial evolution and the emergence of pathogenicity - Nature Microbiology In this Review, Tonkin-Hill et al. discuss the processes driving bacterial evolution and emergence of pathogenesis within hosts, the importance of understanding within-host genetic diversity, and the ...

#Review

A discussion on the processes driving bacterial evolution and emergence of pathogenesis within hosts, the importance of understanding within-host genetic diversity, and the implications for transmission analysis and infectious disease control.

#MicroSky 🦠

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

Respiratory viral infections awaken metastatic breast cancer cells in lungs - Nature Mouse models show that respiratory infections from viruses such as influenza and SARS-CoV-2 can trigger metastasis of dormant breast cancer cells in the lungs, a finding supported by epidemiological d...

Respiratory infections reactivate dormant metastatic breast cancer cells in mouse lungs, correlating with evidence in humans that #SARS-CoV-2 infection increases the risk of cancer-related mortality & lung metastasis

😎 biology but double whammy for cancer patients

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🧪

Reactivation of mammalian regeneration by turning on an evolutionarily disabled genetic switch Mammals display prominent diversity in the ability to regenerate damaged ear pinna, but the genetic changes underlying the failure of regeneration remain elusive. We performed comparative single-cell ...

By flipping an evolutionarily disabled genetic switch involved in Vitamin A metabolism, researchers in Science have enabled ear tissue regeneration in mice.

Learn more: scim.ag/3TzUSnH

Known effects of arginine on Gram-positive and Gram-negative behavior

It's seem like arginine is emerging as a major host cue. So we wrote an IAI minireview on how arginine levels vary between host tissues and affect microbial behavior.

The review is online today!
journals.asm.org/doi/epdf/10....

@brookeeryan3.bsky.social

#microsky

Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

How a Biofilm’s Strange Shape Emerges From Cellular Geometry | Quanta Magazine Micro decisions can have macro consequences. A soft matter physicist reveals how interactions within simple cellular collectives can lead to emergent physical traits.

www.quantamagazine.org/how-a-biofil...

A scalable gut epithelial organoid model reveals the genome-wide colonization landscape of a human-adapted pathogen Nature Genetics - A genome-wide screen using human gut epithelial organoids combined with transposon-directed insertion sequencing identifies over 100 Shigella flexneri genes required for...

Our latest work combines human gut epithelial #organoid culture with experimental #Shigella #infections, transposon mutagenesis, and statistical modeling. This has led to the mapping of the comprehensive geneset that drives Shigella epithelial colonization.

Out @natgenet.nature.com:

rdcu.be/eqGgf

New tenure track assistant professor position in molecular microbiology in our department @dmf-unil.bsky.social @unil.bsky.social! We are casting a wide net for an experimental molecular microbiologist. Apply here: wwwfbm.unil.ch/releve/appli...

Bioenergetic stress potentiates antimicrobial resistance and persistence - Nature Communications The bactericidal action of some antibiotics is associated with increased ATP consumption, cellular respiration, and reactive oxygen species formation. Here, Li et al. show that constitutive hydrolysis...

I'm thrilled to share the newest paper from the Yang Lab! Ever wonder how bacterial metabolism affects antibiotic resistance #AMR? In this study, Barry Li, a former MD/PhD student in the lab, took on this question using a systems and #synthetic_biology approach. 1/n

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

Pseudomonas aeruginosa: ecology, evolution, pathogenesis and antimicrobial susceptibility - Nature Reviews Microbiology Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a functionally versatile bacterium, a leading opportunistic human pathogen and a model organism in microbiology. In this Review, Letizia, Diggle and Whiteley discuss P. aerug...

New review on the ecological and pathogenic versatility of P. aeruginosa:

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

Phage DisCo: targeted discovery of bacteriophages by co-culture | mSystems In this work, we describe a targeted phage discovery method that allows immediate isolation of phages with specific traits. Currently, to find a phage with specific properties, huge libraries of phage...

The latest work from my lab, Phage Disco, a method
@ellie-rand.bsky.social
developed for targeted discovery of bacteriophages based on the bacterial receptor, defense system, or other component they interact with, is now live in mSystems
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

West African–South American pandemic Vibrio cholerae encodes multiple distinct phage defence systems - Nature Microbiology The West African–South American lineage of Vibrio cholerae contains multiple distinct anti-phage defence systems that provide resistance to various phage families, including vibriophage ICP1, a key pr...

Exciting news!! Our latest paper is out in Nat. Microbiol. @natmicrobiol.nature.com

We show that a sub-lineage of 7th pandemic V. cholerae has acquired mobile genetic elements packed with phage defense systems—rendering it multi-phage resistant 😳 ..... 1/3

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

IMBA is recruiting a Junior Group Leader! Are you interested in starting your own lab, pursuing curiosity-driven basic research in the life sciences? Apply by May 18: imba.science/beagroupleader #hiring #biology #research #groupleader #europe

Delighted to announce the @keystonesymposia.bsky.social meeting: Beyond #Antibiotics: Emerging Strategies Combating #BacterialInfection. Join us in Breckenridge in May 2026!!

You can check out the program and amazing lineup of speakers below: keysym.us/KSAntibiotics26

#KSAntibiotics26

#phage #phagesky

Join the Blokesch lab (@EPFL) as a postdoc in Molecular Microbiology 🤩
Study Vibrio cholerae defense systems (phage/plasmid) in a dynamic, collaborative environment in Lausanne close to Lake Geneva in 🇨🇭!
Please visit my lab's webpage for details about the position and how to formally apply.

Dual oxic-anoxic co-culture enables direct study of anaerobe–host interactions at the airway epithelial interface | mBio Conflicting oxygen demands between anaerobes and host cells present a significant barrier to in vitro modeling of how these cell types interact. To this end, the significance of our dual oxic-anoxic c...

"Dual oxic-anoxic co-culture enables direct study of anaerobe–host interactions at the airway epithelial interface"

#microsky

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