Andreas Bäumler

A Salmonella T3SS-2 mutant grows fine in spleen macrophages, contradicting tissue culture dogma (PMID: 23236281). This observation was largely ignored, but adding certain carbon sources rescues growth in cultured macrophages, hinting that T3SS-2 may be doing something entirely different in vivo.

Provision of Preferred Nutrients to Macrophages Enables Salmonella to Replicate Intracellularly Without Relying on Type III Secretion Systems Intracellular survival and replication within macrophages are key virulence determinants of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium. This phenomenon is traditionally attributed to the activity of its ...

A Salmonella T3SS-2 mutant grows fine in spleen macrophages, contradicting tissue culture dogma (PMID:23236281). This was largely ignored, but adding certain carbon sources rescues growth in cultured macrophages, hinting T3SS-2 may be doing something different in vivo www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Infections as ecosystems: community metabolic interactions in microbial pathogenesis | Infection and Immunity Microbial communities are present on nearly every surface of the human body. These microbiomes exist as dynamic ecosystems that are influenced by heterogeneous nutritional and chemical landscapes, the...

Excited to have our new mini review on Microbiome Metabolism out today in I&I as part of the @asm.org New Voices in Microbiology collection! Check it out!

🧫🧪

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

Recurrent gene flow between Neanderthals and modern humans over the past 200,000 years Although it is well known that the ancestors of modern humans and Neanderthals admixed, the effects of gene flow on the Neanderthal genome are not well understood. We develop methods to estimate the a...

Resistance is futile!

Neanderthals interbred with humans over a period of 200,000 years, in three major waves, until the last survivors were assimilated by modern humans. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Humanity’s urgent challenges need solutions from systems microbiology | mSystems It is with great excitement and sincere dedication that I assume the role of editor in chief of mSystems. Building on the momentum and reputation that mSystems has achieved in its first decade, we wil...

Meet the new Editor in Chief of mSystems journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Infection and Immunity is now welcoming nominations for highly promising scientists at the assistant professor level (or equivalent) to submit research to the next New Voices in Microbiology Collection!

Please nominate by the August 18 deadline using the below link:
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PgtE protease enables virulent Salmonella to evade C3-mediated serum and neutrophil killing | mBio Non-typhoidal Salmonella serovars primarily cause gastrointestinal infections but can also lead to bacteremia through mechanisms that are not completely elucidated. Here we show that the outer membran...

Happy that our manuscript showing that PgtE protease enables Salmonella to evade C3-mediated serum and neutrophil killing is published in mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... - check out the companion paper from @rtsolis.bsky.social and team, focused on PgtE in the African Salmonella strain ST313

The study identifies 4 Salmonella isolates from teeth (i.e., likely a case of bloodstream infection) dating to the Neolithic, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Would be cool to know the serotype 🙂

Nature should be the model for microbial sciences | Journal of Bacteriology Historically, our understanding of microbes has been based on laboratory cultures. Much of what we know at a mechanistic level is based on “model organisms” which are species that readily grow in labo...

Today's reading: Nature should be the model for microbial sciences journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... by @brettbakker.bsky.social @emilyraehyde.bsky.social and @pedroleao.bsky.social

Looks ideal for a talk I am working on on model organisms ...

The new open access policy of NIH will take effect next week (July 1st). All NIH funded research 🔬🧪🧬accepted after July 1st must be open access upon publication. Worried about fees? 💸 Check out how IAI stacks up against other journals—you might be surprised. #OpenAccess #SciComm #Microbiology

The proteome of the late Middle Pleistocene Harbin individual Denisovans are a hominin group primarily known through genomes or proteins, but the precise morphological features of Denisovans remain elusive due to the fragmentary nature of discovered fossils. Her...

The proteome of the late Middle Pleistocene Harbin individual | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus of the >146,000-year-old Harbin cranium A mitochondrial genome from Middle Pleistocene hominin dental calculus from northeastern China clusters with mtDNAs of early Denisovan individuals in Siberia, linking a nearly complete cranium to Deni...

Denisovan mitochondrial DNA from dental calculus of the >146,000-year-old Harbin cranium: Cell www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Microbial Pathogenesis & Host Response Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Meetings & Courses -- a private, non-profit institution with research programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology, genomics, bioinformatics.

Alert! The abstract deadline for the Microbial Pathogenesis & Host Response meeting has been extended to July 7 meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...

So sad to see this affect one of my favorite flavors.

The infectious dose of Salmonella is usually considered to be high, exceeding 100,000 bacteria, based on volunteer studies. But the dose required to cause infection in foods, esp. fatty foods, may be fewer than 100 (Blaser Rev Infect Dis 1982).

How a discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR - Richmond Scientific A discovery in Yellowstone National Park led to the development of PCR, the gold-standard COVID-19 tests used to fight the global pandemic.

Reminder: Nobel-prize winning PCR (1983), used in basically all genetic tech today, was only possible because of extremophile bacterium discovered in 1964 in Yellowstone funded by a small ~$80k NSF grant with no obvious application at the time. #science 🧪
www.richmondscientific.com/how-a-discov...

The defunding of public institutions and rise of pseudoscientific thinking during the Hellenistic decline did not just silence a few scholars, it extinguished a centuries-long legacy of discovery and plunged Europe into a scientific dark age that lasted more than a thousand years.

What lessons can we draw? The rise and fall of Hellenistic science shows that scientific progress is neither inevitable nor immune to collapse. It takes generations to cultivate a thriving intellectual ecosystem, yet only moments of intolerance, neglect, or shortsighted policy to dismantle it.

The heliocentric theory was revived by Copernicus in 1543 and supported by Galilei’s observations. The rebirth of science during the Renaissance paved the way for Thomas Saveryto invention of the steam engine in 1698, more than a millennium after description of its principle by Heron of Alexandria.

This influx of scrolls ignited a rebirth of science in Europe, the Renaissance. Renowned intellectuals like Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo Galilei made groundbreaking contributions to science and engineering by delving into the distant past to rediscover lost knowledge of the Hellenistic period.

The rediscovery of Hellenistic science began in the 8th century when the few surviving scrolls were translated into Arabic. These texts made their way to Western Europe via Arab scholars in Spain in the 12th century, and later more extensively through the influx from Byzantium in the 15th century.

Society returned to a prescientific age. Chemical knowledge, increasingly entangled with mystical and religious beliefs, evolved into the practice of alchemy. Astronomical theory declined, reduced to a tool for casting horoscopes rather than understanding the cosmos.

Romans could not follow the logic of Hellenistic science but admired their conclusions. However, early interpretations of Christianity considered Hellenistic science an abomination because it suggests humans are the ultimate source of truth. As a result, little remains of Hellenistic literature.

The decline of scientific inquiry started with the Roman conquest of major Hellenistic centers starting 212 BCE and a brutal persecution of the Greek immigrant population in Alexandria by king Ptolemy VIII in 145-144 BCE. Depleted of Greek intellectuals, the thriving centers of learning went silent.

By replacing speculation with hypothesis-driven inquiry, Hellenistic science produced numerous remarkable breakthroughs that were centuries ahead of their time: the invention of the steam engine; an accurate calculation of Earth’s circumference and the proposal of a heliocentric model.

In contrast, Archimedes (287-212 BCE), applying the scientific method, formulated the principle of buoyancy: an object submerged in a fluid experiences an upward force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. This principle refuted Aristotle’s theorem by explaining how a metal boat can float.

The scientific method marked a qualitative leap over the natural philosophy that dominated Classical Greece in the fourth century BCE. For example, the prominent Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BCE) believed that objects move to their natural resting place (i.e., metal sinking in water).

What triggered the exponential growth of discovery at these centers of higher education was the invention of the scientific method, a systematic approach to inquiry that guides researchers through observation, question formulation, hypothesis, experimentation, data analysis, and conclusion.

Perhaps the most prominent Hellenistic center was Alexandria, a city founded by Alexander the Great in Egypt. Every major Hellenistic city had a publicly funded research institute, termed Mouseion (i.e., Museum), and a publicly funded library housing a vast collection of scrolls.