Vera Vollenweider

Our new study combines experiments with bioinformatics to examine amino acid metabolism in Pseudomonas strains co-isolated from pond and soil communities
by Simon Maréchal, Beni Heiniger, @swagatika.bsky.social, Shaohua Gu, Christian Ahrens
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Excited to announce my upcoming @snsf.ch Ambizione research group at EPFL on bacteria-host interactions, combining systems approaches and microphysiological models.
🚨 We have an open PhD position! More info on projects and how to apply here: elisabettacacace.github.io/BHI-Lab/
🧪

Excited to see this out on bioRxiv: pyoverdine shows strong inhibitory activity against Legionella. Iron sequestration as a mechanism shaping interactions with environmental and opportunistic pathogens 👇

bioRxiv by @alecava.bsky.social, Johanna Kohler, @mgabrielli.bsky.social, @veraeva.bsky.social, @rkmicrobes.bsky.social, and @drinkmic.bsky.social

Siderophore-mediated inhibition of Legionella pneumophila by environmental Pseudomonas isolates

Individual bacterial taxa drive colonisation resistance to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus in human nasal microbiome samples Identifying bacterial interactions that determine susceptibility of human microbiomes to colonisation by pathogenic bacteria has crucial implications for understanding health and disease and, conseque...

How do interactions with resident nasal microbiota shape colonisation resistance to MRSA?

Excited to share this preprint in collaboration with @mboum.bsky.social @anaellefait.bsky.social Silvio Brugger and Alex Hall.

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

Phages responding to host quorum sensing!

A family of linear plasmid phages that detect a quorum-sensing autoinducer exists in multiple bacterial species | mBio The discovery of quorum-sensing responsive linear plasmid phages has transformed understanding of phage-bacterial interactions by demonstrating inter-domain chemical communication. To date, however, e...

The final form of my 2nd postdoc paper with the Bassler Lab! Turns out our favorite quorum-sensing phage isn’t a one-off, but rather a member of a globally dispersed family of phages that sense a universal autoinducer.

#phagesky #microsky

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

Streptomyces secretes a siderophore that sensitizes competitor bacteria to phage infection - Nature Microbiology A secondary metabolite sensitizes competitor Bacillus subtilis to a wide panel of lytic phages by sequestering iron and preventing the activation of Spo0A.

Microbes weaponizing secondary metabolites to make rivals vulnerable to phage attack 🧪🦠

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

I am very excited to announce that a fully funded PhD position is available in my group.

Topic: Synergistic coevolution in mono-specific and multi-species microbial consortia

Please RT or forward this information to interested candidates.

Deadline: 11.01.26

More info:

shorturl.at/f1TuF

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.

Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.

A thread 1/8

MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Resistant zombies: how drug-resistance plasmids manipulate the behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa at University of Liverpool on Fin... PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Resistant zombies: how drug-resistance plasmids manipulate the behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa at University of Li...

🚨#PhD studentship opportunity! Plasmids provide bacteria with antimicrobial resistance, but do they have more fundamental effects on behaviour? 🧫🦠💫🧟‍♂️

Apply for a 4y funded MRC DiMeN position with me and Jamie Wheeler @livuni-ives.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition - Nature Microbiology Mathematical modelling and experimental tests reveal principles that govern displacement of a resident strain by an invader in microbial communities.

Can we leverage bacterial competition for targeted replacement of harmful strains? Maybe! Our recent piece in @natmicrobiol.nature.com provides a theoretical framework and a set of experiments to show what it might take: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Quantifying the effects of antibiotic resistance and within-host competition on strain fitness in Streptococcus pneumoniae Competition significantly influences bacterial population dynamics, particularly in how strains interact within and between hosts. This study shows that within-host competition in Streptococcus pneumo...

New(ish!) paper on how within-host competition and antibiotic resistance shape the fitness of Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes, out in August in Plos Biology. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Check out @julielebris.bsky.social’s thread on our latest manuscript describing phenotypic heterogeneity in capsule production in Klebsiella & Acinetobacter @klebclub.bsky.social

This work started when I was still in @pasteur.fr & got finished in @cbitoulouse.bsky.social
#microsky #phagesky

Fantastic news, congrats!

Slightly diminish a band:
System Of A Clown

📢 Announcing a Research Fellowship for Clinicians

🥼 The fellowship supports career development in academic medicine in areas relevant to infection and treatment.

🕶️ The call will open in October - watch this space!

👉https://www.nccr-antiresist.ch/education/research-fellowship-for-clinicians/

Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.12.669853v1

Chromosomal capture of beneficial genes drives plasmids toward ecological redundancy Abstract. Plasmids are a ubiquitous feature of bacterial genomes, but the forces driving genes and phenotypes to become associated with plasmids are poorly

New paper with @rwheatley8.bsky.social and Cedric Lood

Actual title: Chromosomal capture of beneficial genes drives plasmids towards ecological redundancy.

Sensationalist title: Plasmids carry useless genes

academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...

We are looking for a PhD student for a project on chloronitramide in drinking water. Please spread the word!

jobs.ethz.ch/job/view/JOP...

Happy to share this detective work by Rune Overlund Stannius now published in #mSystems

phenotype+genomes▶️GWAS▶️gene cluster for pigment production

Identification of widely conserved biosynthetic gene cluster involved in pigment production of Bacillus subtilis
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Using an experimental evolution platform @farhanrc.bsky.social & @chemtips.bsky.social show that tripartite antibiotic loops - sequential regimens involving three antibiotics - can resensitize bacteria to the 1st drug as multidrug resistance evolves

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf115

#evobio #molbio

Postdoc alert!! Rolf is an amazing advisor and Zurich is a great place to live. Send your best students this way! ⬇️📢 #MicroSky 🦠❤️

‼️ Great Postdoc opportunity ‼️
In pathogen interactions with Rolf Kümmerli at the University of Zurich

UZH: Postdoctoral researcher in microbiology The Department of Quantitative Biomedicine is an interdisciplinary biomedical research unit that combines basic science with biotechnological and medical research, using both experimental and computat...

We are looking for a highly motivated postdoc to work on pathogen interactions. Please send in your application via

jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie...

Microbial siderophores for One Health One Health is an integrative concept striving for healthy environments, animals, and humans. Microbes play a fundamental role for this concept as they are key drivers of ecosystem stability and host h...

Our opinion piece on the role of microbial siderophores for One Health is now out

with Zhong Wei, Shaohua Gu, Yuanmei Zuo, Zhiyuan Li and @veraeva.bsky.social

www.cell.com/trends/micro...

Microbial siderophores for One Health One Health is an integrative concept striving for healthy environments, animals, and humans. Microbes play a fundamental role for this concept as they are key drivers of ecosystem stability and host health. A central microbial feature across various environments is the secretion of siderophores, low-molecular-weight metabolites that chelate ferric iron (Fe3+) with high affinity. We propose that, by steering iron and metal availability, siderophores can be important for One Health in four key areas via: (i) enhancing crop yield, (ii) mitigating heavy metal pollution, (iii) preventing pathogen colonization, and (iv) serving as potential treatments for established infections. Collectively, siderophores are attractive molecules to complement our efforts in increasing human, animal, and environmental health.

Microbial siderophores for One Health

Opinion article out now: Microbial siderophores for One Health

We explore how siderophores can help:
🌱 boost crop yield
🌍 detoxify polluted environments
🦠 block pathogen colonization
💊 inspire new anti-infectives

#MicroSky #OneHealth #ScienceSky #Siderophores

🎉 Fantastic News 🎉

Our CMFI Cluster of Excellence @unituebingen.bsky.social receives funding extension for the next seven years.

Spokesperson Andreas Peschel @andreaspeschel.bsky.social: "We can now advance our research into resistance mechanisms and new antimicrobial agents!"

shorturl.at/rcK1A

Modeling predicts that metabolic diversity increases the ecological impacts of weapon gene transfer. Modeling scenarios for each column are shown across the top row. Bottom row: Example dynamics of the strains (attacker, target, transconjugant) during a contest using parameters that correspond to the cross (X) shown in the parameter sweeps directly below.

#Bacteria use weapons to outcompete rivals, but what happens if they're transferred? @prokaryota.bsky.social @jdpal.bsky.social &co show that HGT of toxin #plasmids is rare but recipients can thrive under relaxed nutrient competition, reshaping bacterial warfare @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/43vC3X7