Kelley Gallagher

Maybe a single image is worth a thousand thread words:

Revitalizing actinobacteria research: an urgent response to the antimicrobial resistance crisis - Natural Products and Bioprospecting Abstract The crisis of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is escalating while the antibiotic pipeline remains stagnant. Our bibliometric analysis of eight decades of literature reveals a critical imbalanc...

Research into filamentous actinomycetes, the antibiotic producers, is in steep decline. Loads of natural products chemistry research worldwide but not much aimed at understanding their biology and ecology. The latter is key to unlocking their specialised metabolism

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Beachside science in Ventura with @kelleygallagher.bsky.social and her awesome PhD student during the STIM GRC.

We put Streptomyces on a pedestal. From regulatory networks to signaling molecules that shape microbial decisions and metabolism.
Science is better with conversations and ocean air. 🦠🧫

All I do is not hear about grants I applied for 8 months ago.

My first first-author paper is posted! Glad to have this out! 🦠🚨🕺

We show that pGpp production depletes GTP, inhibits translation, and remodels the transcriptome faster than (p)ppGpp.

...and more!

The sporulation phosphorelay protein Spo0B is membrane localized in Paenibacillus! The transmembrane domain appears to increase interaction with relay partners. Congrats to former lab undergrad @isabellalin.bsky.social and her grad mentor @cassidyprints.bsky.social

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

So happy to see Mark recognised for his incredible work. Over a ~40 year career he and his group discovered ECF sigma factors, characterised many key developmental regulators of the Streptomyces lifecycle, and identified new mechanisms of bacterial gene regulation, antibiotic action and resistance.

Huge congrats to outstanding undergraduate student @justine-choi.bsky.social who defended her honors thesis this week!

Stable inheritance of the Streptomyces linear plasmid SCP1 by dual ParABS partition systems Low-copy-number plasmids often rely on dedicated maintenance mechanisms, such as partitioning systems, to ensure stable inheritance across generations. These partition systems actively segregate siste...

📄 Delighted to share that the preprint of my main PhD work is out now!

👏 A huge thank you to everyone involved, @tommclean.bsky.social, Govind Chandra, Ngat Tran (both not on BlueSky) and especially my PhD supervisor @tunglejic.bsky.social 👏

🧵 below!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Marjory Stephenson Prize 2026: Professor Mark Buttner — @johninnescentre.bsky.social

Outreach and Engagement Prize 2026: @lindsaybroadbent.bsky.social — @uniofsurrey.bsky.social

Translational Microbiology Prize 2026: @alanlparker.bsky.social — @cancerwales.bsky.social

Discovery and Heterologous Expression of the Soil Metagenome-Derived Lasso Peptide Metanodin with an Unprecedented Ring Structure Culture-independent metagenomic approaches have proven to be effective tools for identifying previously hidden biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) encoding novel natural products with potential medical relevance. However, producing these compounds remains challenging as metagenomic BGCs often originate from organisms phylogenetically distant from available heterologous hosts. Lasso peptides, a subclass of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptide (RiPP) natural products, exhibit diverse bioactivities, yet no lasso peptide has previously been discovered directly from a metagenome. Here, we report the discovery and heterologous expression of the first soil metagenome-derived lasso peptide. Expression of its biosynthetic gene cluster in Escherichia coli, followed by mass spectrometry analysis, strongly supported the predicted amino acid sequence and lasso structure of the peptide. Notably, this lasso peptide is the first to feature asparagine as the ring-forming residue at position one. Taxonomic analysis of the corresponding BGC identified an uncultivated member of the Steroidobacterales family (Gammaproteobacteria) as the closest known relative of the potential native host. These findings underscore the potential of metagenomic genome mining to reveal structurally novel RiPPs and to expand our understanding of the natural diversity of lasso peptides.

Happy to share our newest manuscript about the discovery and hererologous expression of metanodin, a new lassopeptide with unprecedented structural features directly from soil metagenomes. pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
#secmet #lassopeptides #syntheticbiology

Beyond Immunity: Uncovering the Hidden Diversity of Bacterial NLRs (SCHLIMPERT_J26DTP) | Doctoral Training Partnership Join us in exploring the hidden functions of ancient immune proteins in bacteria. Bacteria, like plants and animals, have evolved sophisticated systems to detect and respond to threats.

We have a PhD opportunity available in our group @johninnescentre.bsky.social through the NRP Doctoral Training Partnership. Help us uncover the Hidden Diversity of Bacterial NLRs.

Start date: October 2026. For more information and how to apply👉 biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/bey...

Very excited about our work from @jordanthesier.bsky.social and @popomicro.bsky.social et al. We find that Tn7 family elements common in bacteria (that include all of the guide RNA-directed transposons, CAST) are also found across archaea including many in the exciting Asgard group! #MicroSky #TESky

Functional amyloid proteins confer defence against predatory bacteria Nature - Escherichia coli uses curli fibres, oligomers of the functional amyloid CsgA, as a barrier to protect against the predatory bacteria Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus and Myxococcus xanthus in a...

Words cannot describe how excited I am to share the findings from the second half of my postdoc in @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social's lab where we discover that bacteria use functional amyloids to defend themselves from predatory bacteria. rdcu.be/euu5Y. See thread for details on this epic adventure 1/.

Expanding the diversity of bacterial DNA partitioning: A CTP-independent ParABS system for plasmid partitioning in Streptomyces | PNAS The ATP- and CTP-dependent ParA-ParB-parS segrosome is a macromolecular complex that segregates chromosomes/plasmids in most bacterial species. CTP...

Finally published! Many thanks to the reviewers and editor whose comments & suggestions improved this work significantly more than the first preprint version!!!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Excited to share our latest review! Check it out to see what we know so far about how Staphylococcus aureus coordinates key processes during its cell cycle

How does your favorite species elongate? 🧵 "Phenotypic plasticity in bacterial elongation among closely related species". Happy to see this paper in print @natcomms.nature.com. Nice work by @mariedelaby.bsky.social, Liu Yang et al. See original 🧵, different colours, same data and conclusions.

First podcast recording of the day. Guest is Dr. Tory Hendry of Cornell University, chatting about interactions between fluorescent Pseudomonas and aphids!

AutoMLST2: a web server for phylogeny and microbial taxonomy Abstract. Accurate and accessible phylogenetic analysis is essential for understanding microbial taxonomy and evolution, which are integral to microbiology

Happy to announce that our „newest old tool“ autoMLST2.0 is out and published. You need an accurate and easy to use tool to build #phylogenetictrees from #bacterialgenomes: academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...

Our review on Z-ring placement mechanisms in cocci is out! This was a fun one to write!
#Microsky 🦠🧫

Cell division in rod-shaped bacteria is well studied (think "Min system"), but how do round bacteria find their middle? @felixrl.bsky.social 's new review article covers how #Staph aureus, Streptococci, and others figure out how to perform binary fission.

portlandpress.com/biochemsoctr...

YebC2 resolves ribosome stalling and increases fitness of cells lacking EF-P and the ABCF ATPase YfmR Author summary Polyproline motifs are essential structural features of many proteins but are difficult for the ribosome to synthesize. EF-P reduces ribosome pausing at polyproline motifs. Here, we sho...

Latest work from the lab - we identify a translation factor, YebC2, that reduces ribosome stalling in B. subtilis!

Congrats to co-first authors: grad students Hye-Rim Hong & Cassidy Prince & undergrad Dennis Wu @denniswu02.bsky.social

journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

Please repost: Postdoc position in antibiotic discovery in a large multidisciplinary project combining high-throughput approaches, microscopy, AI, and hit-to-lead optimization at @umontreal.ca and @mila-quebec.bsky.social. Apply to ML.Antibiotics@gmail.com. See
lnkd.in/dVVk4N3s. #microsky

A mutation in RNA polymerase imparts resistance to β-lactams by preventing dysregulation of amino acid and nucleotide metabolism Patel and Helmann identify metabolic pathways that are dysregulated in RNAP mutant strains with altered β-lactam sensitivity. Genetic and physiological studies demonstrate that BCAA and Pyr synthesis ...

Excited to share! @yeshapatel.bsky.social and I report...

Mutations in RNAP confer antibiotic resistance via transcriptome remodeling.
Repression of branched chain amino acid and Pyr pathways increases β-lactam resistance in B. subtilis.

#MicroSky #AMR #antibiotics
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

I want to expand on the extent to which IDEAA materials have been purged: I wrote an article last year for women’s history month on the history of women in antimicrobial development….DELETED.

Cool stuff with my two favorite sporulating bacteria, Streptomyces and Bacillus
🧪🧫🦠

Beautiful work on bacterial contractile injection systems (CIS) by @pilhoferlab.bsky.social and @s-lab.bsky.social 🦠🧪🧫

elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

Postdoctoral Fellow - Bethesda, Maryland (US) job with National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) | 668360 NIAID seeks candidates for a postdoctoral fellowship position studying gene regulation and the cell biology of spirochetes.

Join our team studying gene regulation and cell biology of spirochetes @ NIAID, NIH! Work on the dynamic NIH main campus in Bethesda, MD! Apply (email philip.adams@nih.gov) before Feb. 9th. More details @ ScienceCareers:
jobs.sciencecareers.org/job/668360/p...

We’re excited to advertise the Microbial Friends and Foes REU program! Please share info with your undergrads, for 10 weeks paid research experience at Cornell. Apps due on Feb 1. @heatherfeaga.bsky.social

cihmid.cornell.edu/academics-pr...

go.bsky.app/sYxCv4