Ran Blekhman

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

Night heron, spotted at the Garden of the Phoenix

Acetaminophen Use During Pregnancy and Children’s Risk of Autism, ADHD, and Intellectual Disability This nationwide cohort study with sibling control analysis examines the association of acetaminophen use during pregnancy with children’s risk of autism, ADHD, and intellectual disability.

Unrelated to anything, just a cool recent paper

jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

Garden of the Phoenix in Hyde Park is a gem

I'm hiring a computational biologist interested in complex trait genetics using deep learning approaches. Reach out to me, if interested.

Gut fungi are associated with human genetic variation and disease risk In contrast to decades of research on gut bacteria, human genetic determinants of the gut fungal community (mycobiome) remain understudied. This investigation presents the first GWAS on the number and...

Excellent journal club discussion today of a new paper finding human genetic variants associated with fungi in the gut - interesting results!

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Update from Chicago. The situation is dire. Complete anarchy. Please send the national guard asap to put an end to this lawlessness

Rapid Response: Reinvesting in Racial and Indigenous Health Equity Research The purpose of this call for proposals is to meet the current moment by supporting timely, actionable health equity research that has been interrupted by shifts in federal funding.

More foundations should do this:

"Funding is exclusively available to applicants who have already received federal funding (e.g., from the NIH, CDC, NSF) for their health equity research, but have since had their funding rescinded due to federal administrative actions"

www.rwjf.org/en/grants/ac...

"It's people who will get cancer in 10, 20 or 30 years who will really pay the price."

We're literally defunding our future survival.

A defined microbial community reproduces attributes of fine flavour chocolate fermentation - Nature Microbiology An in-depth microbiological and metagenomic analysis of Colombian farm and fermentation facilities resulted in the design of a defined microbial community that can reproduce the flavour of fine chocol...

Cool application of microbiome in food science

Using metagenomics on Colombian cacao, they mapped how microbes influence chocolate flavors. Then they built a defined microbial consortium that replicates premium chocolate flavors -- validated by trained tasters!

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

Dr. Mattea Allert (University of Minnesota): Perspectives in Multi-Modal Modeling from Birth to Adulthood: A Journey from the Early Microbiome to Neurological Disease Mechanisms Dr. Taj Yeruva (University of Maryland-College Park): Beyond the Barrier: Rethinking Mucus to Engineer Materials for Drug Delivery Dr. Said Arevalo-Alquichire (Harvard Medical School): RUNX1-based therapeutics for the treatment of vitreoretrinal diseases

The second BME UNITE Future Faculty Seminar will be on Monday, August 25th, at 1 pm EST. Come hear from Drs. Mattea Allert, Taj Yeruva, and Said Arévalo Alquichire, PhD to learn more about their science and future research programs! Register here: tinyurl.com/bmeunite25

Chicago ✈️

That's great. But it's likely that this competition ended and funds were committed before their apparent shift in priorities

This is not just HHMI. All Chan Zuckerberg Initiative funding calls are CLOSED. The Gates Foundation has no Grand Challenges funding opportunities. I've never seen anything like this. Private foundations have just decided to stop supporting biomedical research.

200 days in, checking in on HHMI funding opportunities:

Freeman Hrabowski Scholars Program - not accepting applications

Gilliam Fellows Program - not accepting applications

Hanna H. Gray Fellows Program - not accepting applications

Investigator Program - not accepting applications

Congrats Rita!

Imidazole propionate is a driver and therapeutic target in atherosclerosis - Nature Imidazole propionate produced by gut microbiota is associated with atherosclerosis in mouse models and in humans, and causes the development of atherosclerosis through activation of the imidazoline-1 ...

Fascinating new paper reveals a new gut microbiome connection to heart disease. Microbes produce imidazole propionate (ImP), which directly triggers atherosclerosis through immune activation - even without high cholesterol.

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

Good night from Chicago

New paper in @nature.com! With @kiseokmicro.bsky.social , Siqi Liu, Kyle Crocker, Jojo Wang, Mikhail Tikhonov & Madhav Mani — a massive dataset and simple model reveal a few conserved regimes that capture how soil microbiome metabolism responds to perturbations. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

agreed - still interesting as a first step, but a lot more to do

Human gut bacteria bioaccumulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances - Nature Microbiology Human gut bacteria bioaccumulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly known as forever chemicals, in intracellular aggregates. Colonization of gnotobiotic mice with bioaccumulating bac...

New paper showing that gut bacteria absorb "forever chemicals" (PFAS) at high levels.

This bacterial "sponge effect" could influence PFAS levels in our bodies and explain individual differences in PFAS exposure.

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

Theory of host-microbe symbioses: Challenges and opportunities Growing insight into microbial symbioses highlights the need to model these systems mathematically. We discuss three areas requiring theoretical advan…

Our article on the challenges and opportunities in studying host-microbe symbioses is now published in Cell Host & Microbe! @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Thank you Irene!

thanks Sean!

Thank you Kirk!

Thanks Piper! From taking our first grad school classes together to this. What a wild ride

Thank you!

Thanks Nick!

Thank you Seth!

Mine took just a little bit longer though 😅