Mark Mandel

Congratulations to you both!!

Kat, so sorry for your loss. I enjoyed learning a little about his life here. May his memory be a blessing to you and your family.

I was very lucky to have John as my first student! ☺️ Over time my specific motivation waxes and wanes -- sometimes it's the focus on students, sometimes an amazing result, sometimes it's providing support to colleagues. And there are always obstacles, just an extra helping of them right now.

As an aside, I really enjoyed meeting Ciara Sanders from John Brooks' Lab, so also enjoy keep training good students and helping them to become great students!

It's completely normal to feel this way post tenure. Give yourself the grace to rediscover your underlying motivations and discover some of the things you don't have to worry about now that you're over that hurdle.

Extra kudos and thanks to all the staff at NIH and NSF and other federal funding agencies for working extra hard in very small windows of opportunity to get grants reviewed and funds released before the attention-addled federal policies change again (on an hourly basis).

🧪BREAKING: NIH has laid out 5 options for funding publications costs on grants (yes, FIVE!). This is hugely impactful.

Make your opinions known by September 15, fellow scientists.
🧪
grants.nih.gov/grants/guide...

JB Table of Contents Volume 207, Issue 7 Journal of Bacteriology: Table of Contents Volume 207, Issue 7

In the July issue of JB: Cell walls, cell division, gluconate metabolism, electron transfer, membranes, spres, Abx-r, efflux pumps, chromosome replication, toxin delivery, surface sensing and more.
journals.asm.org/toc/jb/207/7
@asm.org #JBacteriology

Jesús Soriano, union leader in the scientific rebellion against Trump: ‘You’ll go to a restaurant and won’t know if the meat is contaminated or not’ The Spanish doctor, of the US National Science Foundation, is the only employee to put his full name to a letter against the dismantling of the government agency

NSF’s Union President epitomizes moral leadership. I’m proud to have him as a colleague and friend.

Kenyon is hiring a TT microbiologist! Please share widely. I’m the search chair & am happy to answer any questions. careers.pageuppeople.com/695/cw/en-us...

A few comments - happy to explain in more detail When the paper was published, I was one of the people who publicly critiqued aspects of it. My biggest critique was of the press conference and the quotes and comments some of the authors made regarding the paper where they made claims about things that were not even in the paper. I also was deeply concerned that the authors refused to discuss critiques of their paper until those critiques were published in the peer reviewed literature. The paper certainly had multiple erroneous conclusions as well. But again, the biggest problem to me was the claims made at the press conference and in ongoing coverage that were even more misleading, wrong, and unwarranted than claims made in the paper. Despite my concerns about the paper and the discussions with the press, I do not agree with the decision to retract the paper now. This is for a few reasons including those below: First, it seems a bit strange to apply a new standard retroactively to papers from the past. There were standards for retraction at the time the paper was published and those were apparently applied, leading to them to not retract the paper. So - Science has new standards but it would make more sense to me to apply such standards moving forward. Second, there is no statement in the retraction notice that Science is going to retroactively go through other past publications to see if any also meet this new standard. So if they are going to retroactively apply this to the arsenic paper, what about the likely 100s to 1000s of other papers in Science and Science-associated journals with other major errors in conclusions? I personally know of many papers in science that have significant errors or wrong conclusions and would fit the COPE definitions likely. Third, I personally do not agree that the COPE guidelines Dr. Thorp is referencing are a useful tool in science publishing. Scientific articles may contain dozens to hundreds to thousands of different con…

It sort of conveys what I wrote to the author but I don't think strongly enough. So here is what I wrote to the author which she summarized in the section quoted above

“If the editors determine that a paper’s reported experiments do not support its key conclusions, even if no fraud or manipulation occurred, a Retraction is considered appropriate.” H. Holden Thorp, Editor-in-chief, Science journals

Science is retracting the December 2010 Research Article, “A bacterium that can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus.” (THREAD 🧵) scim.ag/4lGQ9g7

Gut bacteria make a molecule that promotes plaque build-up in arteries A bacterially produced molecule circulates in the bloodstream and increases the risk of cardiovascular disease by hijacking immune-cell signalling.

Gut bacteria make a molecule that promotes plaque build-up in arteries, perspective by Federico Rey & Vaibhav Vemuganti www.nature.com/articles/d41... on the new imidazole propionate (ImP) study from Annalaura Mastrangelo, Iñaki Robles-Vera, David Sancho et al www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Microbial Databases, Software Tools, and Web Services Publish your microbial database or software tool in MRA to gain recognition, citations, and community trust.

Call for manuscript submissions on publicly available databases, software tools, and web-based services that can be used as a resource for the microbiology community. Happy to answer any questions.
journals.asm.org/journal/mra/...

Systematic screen uncovers regulator contributions to chemical cues in Escherichia coli Transport machineries are crucial for antibiotic resistance, but their regulation by external cues is poorly understood. This study identifies environmental chemicals that regulate transporter transcr...

Finally out! A small screen helps understand a little more about how E. coli regulates major transporters, and reveals how caffeine induces phenotypical antibiotic resistance. Huge thanks to collab @andrenmateus.bsky.social (Umeå) and Christian L. Müller (Munich)!
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

We are on the lookout for postdocs for two different projects at the intersection of ecology, evolution, and the human microbiome.

See thread for more information and reach out!

I am seeking a postdoc for my group at UCLA. We work at the intersection of population genetics x microbiome (garud.eeb.ucla.edu). If interested, please message me!

Happy to share the last publication before the summer break, a Minireview in #mSystems, a collaboration between two PhD students in the group, María and Adele

The role of plant host genetics in shaping the composition and functionality of rhizosphere microbiomes

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

I see you are dressed like everyone in Madison. How will attendees spot you?

Comparison of Euprymna species. (A) E. berryi (left) and E. scolopes (right) eggs immediately prior to hatching. (B) An E. berryi and E. scolopes hatchling 24 h post-hatching. (C) An adult female E. berryi. (D) An adult female E. scolopes.

Bobtail squids have lit the way—literally —in microbiome research for decades. Most of what we know comes from the Hawaiian bobtail squid. However, researchers are turning to a new easier-to-raise contender: the hummingbird bobtail squid. #AppEnvMicro: asm.social/2v3

UW–Madison expands child care and education system to support university families The Office of Child Care and Family Resources (OCCFR) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is proud to announce the expansion of the UW–Madison Child Care and Education System (CCES), effective July...

Great news for families with little Badgers: UW–Madison's Office of Child Care and Family Resources is proud to announce the expansion of UW's Child Care and Education System, effective July 1. Three additional accredited, high-quality child care and education centers will join the system.

Great team effort here!

Euprymna berryi as a comparative model host for Vibrio fischeri light organ symbiosis | Applied and Environmental Microbiology Microbiome studies have been substantially advanced by model systems that enable functional interrogation of the roles of the partners and the molecular communication between those partners. The Euprymna scolopes-Vibrio fischeri system has contributed ...

New paper comparing the light organ symbiosis in the hummingbird bobtail squid to the infamous Hawaiian bobtail squid.

Congrats to @markjmandel.bsky.social and crew, and thanks for letting me take some light organ images for the pub!

Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment

Franklin W. Stahl, 95, Dies; Helped Create a ‘Beautiful’ DNA Experiment. Gift article:
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/s...

Just a reminder to the Biofilms community that the Early Registration period ends today (July 8) for the 10th ASM Conference on Biofilms (Nov 9-13, 2025, Portland, OR) at the lowest prices (asm.org/events/asm-b...). If you've already registered thanks; if not you can still catch these lower rates!

UW oncologist studies how viruses cause cancer — and how we can better prevent them A Q&A with Paul Lambert shows what we know about virus-linked cancers and innovative ways to limit their spread

Nice profile of the great Paul Lambert that emphasizes our need to continue supporting basic research into viruses that cause >15% of all human cancers. news.wisc.edu/uw-oncologis...

Photo of the Madison state capital peeking through the Edgewater hotel, from the water.

Photo of University of Wisconsin Memorial Union and sailboats, from the water.

Beautiful night in Madison, Wisconsin.

Excited to have @ashley17061.bsky.social as the new Editor-in-Chief of mSystems and a great team of Senior Editors, Editors, and Journal Staff!!

Excited for you to be back!!

mSystems Board of Editors Members of the mSystems Editorial Board

Excited to be back at #mSystems (@asm.org), now as a Senior Editor, working to support our new Editor-in-Chef @ashley17061.bsky.social 🤩

Support society journals! If you have work at the boundary between microbiology & systems biology, send us your manuscript!

journals.asm.org/journal/msys...