Rock Lab

We're hiring! Check out our ad and please re-post or forward to interested #Microbiology parties: apply.interfolio.com/174783

UChicago Microbiology is searching for tenured or tenure-track faculty working in host-pathogens interactions, viral and bacterial pathogenesis, and emerging infectious diseases. Come join our vibrant Department! microbiology.uchicago.edu
Apply here apply.interfolio.com/174404

Department of Microbiology | The University of Chicago

UChicago Microbiology is searching for tenured or tenure-track faculty working in host-pathogens interactions, viral and bacterial pathogenesis, and emerging infectious diseases. Come join our vibrant Department! microbiology.uchicago.edu
Apply here apply.interfolio.com/174404

Congratulations!

Evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transcription regulation is associated with increased transmission and drug resistance Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates have a complex phylogenetic structure and vary in clinical phenotypes. Combining high-throughput RNA-seq and global population genomics reveals gene expression as an axis of variation in host interaction. Underscoring this, variants in a regulator of a key virulence pathway are associated with increased transmission and drug resistance.

Now online! Evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transcription regulation is associated with increased transmission and drug resistance

We are hiring an Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine. Come join our collaborative research environment with state-of-the-art facilities in NYC! Application review starts Oct 22.
biochem.weill.cornell.edu/join-our-fac...

National Academy of Medicine to Present Hamburg Award to Carl F. Nathan for Seminal Discoveries That Improve Understanding of Innate Immunity - NAM WASHINGTON — The National Academy of Medicine (NAM) today announced that Carl F. Nathan is the recipient of the 2025 David and Beatrix Hamburg Award for

Congratulations to JEM Editorial Board Co-Chair Carl Nathan on receiving the 2025 David & Beatrix Hamburg Award from @nam.edu for his fundamental work in improving understanding of #InnateImmunity:

Congratulations Tanya!

Very interesting, excited to see where this goes.

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

Faculty recruitment - Our Scientists Applications for faculty positions are currently being accepted. Application deadline is October 6, 2025.

Applications for faculty positions at Rockefeller are now open! We are seeking exceptional, creative scientists to join our faculty.

Learn more below:

Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut Senators from both parties endorsed a $400 million increase to the budget of the National Institutes of Health on Thursday

Senate committee endorses NIH budget increase, rebuking Trump administration’s proposed 40% cut www.statnews.com/2025/07/31/n...

SuFEx-based antitubercular compound irreversibly inhibits Pks13 - Nature A preclinical covalent compound, CMX410, contains a aryl fluorosulfate warhead that targets the acyltransferase domain of Mtb Pks13, an essential enzyme in cell-wall biosynthesis, making it a pro...

Congrats to all authors! Very cool mechanism. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I doubt that there is a single family in America that hasn’t benefitted directly from the NIH.

Thanks for your leadership on this @asm.org. asm.org/articles/pol...

Human iPSC derived alveolar macrophages reveal macrophage subtype specific functions of itaconate in M. tuberculosis host defense M. tuberculosis must survive within multiple macrophage populations during infection, including alveolar macrophages (AM) and recruited inflammatory macrophages. In mice, itaconate, produced in macrop...

Happy to share the most recent preprint from the lab, the thesis work of Dr. Adam Krebs and a collaboration with many, including the Geissmann lab @mskcancercenter.bsky.social
Here is a short paper thread. #tuberculosis #macrophages 🦠
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

"In addition to interrupting lifesaving science, the suspensions will threaten jobs and take money away from universities and their surrounding economies in 10 states representing all regions of the country..."

Hard agree. But for the grants I know that were hit, the “substantial” qualifier is too generous—there’s no risk.

"In TAG’s view, the suspended TB studies do not pose a substantial risk to the American public in comparison with the clear and present danger of TB, which is the world’s leading cause of death from a single infectious agent."

www.treatmentactiongroup.org/statement/tr...

Well done Liam!

Trump officials halt ‘dangerous’ research, overriding NIH career scientists The Trump administration’s actions on NIH gain-of-function research have raised concerns among scientists, who argue the move could block experiments that are safe and potentially lead to new treatmen...

The politically appointed NIH deputy director Matt Memoli overrode career staff and the NIAID director to suspend additional projects he deemed risky — mainly about tuberculosis and ones that made the bacterium less dangerous, the WaPo reports.

Exclusive: NIH suspends dozens of pathogen studies over ‘gain-of-function’ concerns Trump executive order leads to pauses on U.S.-funded research into TB, influenza, COVID-19, and other diseases, dismaying some scientists

Exclusive: In response to White House concerns about allegedly risky research on viruses, bacteria, and other pathogens, the National Institutes of Health has begun a crackdown on dozens of studies it was funding, ScienceInsider has learned. scim.ag/44oJIbw

Great work from Horia Todor in Carol Gross's lab showing it's possible to predict complexes in "competition" pools in AF3 resulting in the first all-by-all prediction for a species. After length correcting the ipTM score predicts well known interactions and correlating ipTM vectors also has value.

Reminder for science budget watchers-- House and Senate Appropriations Committees are working on FY26 spending bills to determine NSF and NIH funding. The White House recommended a 57% reduction for NSF and 40% for NIH. But Congress sets the budget.

www.ascb.org/science-poli...

Daniel J.C. Kronauer Interview with Daniel Kronauer, who studies the evolution and function of insect societies at Rockefeller University.

Check out our latest issue where we interview @danielkronauer.bsky.social, who studies the evolution and function of insect societies at Rockefeller University. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis biology, pathogenicity and interaction with the host Nature Reviews Microbiology - In this Review, Warner, Barczak, Gutierrez and Mizrahi explore essential aspects of Mycobacterium tuberculosis physiology and biology, present recent advances related...

💥 Very excited to share this review in Nature Reviews Microbiology.
Contributing to this review with Val, Digby and Amy was an enlightening experience! Hope people in the community find it useful- we managed to cite around 200 papers...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

www.bwfund.org/funding-oppo...

Please apply!

Replaying germinal center evolution on a quantified affinity landscape Darwinian evolution of immunoglobulin genes within germinal centers (GC) underlies the progressive increase in antibody affinity following antigen exposure. Whereas the mechanics of how competition be...

Wanted to highlight our latest preprint--a huge effort by multiple people and labs, but led primarily by @wsdewitt.github.io, Tatsuya Araki, and Ashni Vora, in a very close wet-dry collaboration with @matsen.bsky.social’s lab at the Hutch

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

DnaJ mediates phage sensing by the bacterial NLR-related protein bNACHT25 Bacteria encode homologs of the human NACHT proteins that form inflammasomes, and use them to defend against phage infection. This study shows that the NLR-related protein bNACHT25 detects diverse pha...

Bacteria encode homologs of the human NACHT proteins that form inflammasomes and use them to defend against phage #infection. @amyconte.bsky.social @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social &co show that bNACHT25 detects diverse phages indirectly through interaction with the host chaperone DnaJ. 🧪
plos.io/4koXP60