Patrick Kenney, MD MS

Repeated pulmonary dosing of β-glucan-chitosan-PLGA nanoparticles controls Mycobacterium tuberculosis in mice | Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains a leading global health threat. In 2023, TB was responsible for an estimated 1.25 million deaths and once again became the single...

I played a small role helping set up local protocols for MTb evaluations - happy to see this work continuing to grow! Kutscher, et al, put in significant work - for those who've worked in a BSL3, the work required to complete an animal study, especially the length/complexity for MTb, is Herculean.

This is something to aspire to! #phagesky

Lytic anti-Staphylococcus aureus phage M963 resensitizes its host to methicillin by a tarS-dependent mechanism Bacteriophage M963 targeting a clinical strain of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) was isolated from wastewater. Purification was optimized and the phage was subsequently characteriz...

We just posted a new preprint describing an anti-MRSA phage targeting the terminal β-GlcNAc on wall teichoic acid. The host becomes phage resistant, but methicillin susceptibility is the consequence in some pathways; cotreatment with methicillin is synergistic at achievable MICs. #phagesky #IDsky

Our latest video in our partnership with @glaucomflecken.bsky.social summarizes a new trial investigating the mass administration of ivermectin for reducing malaria transmission. Read the full results of the BOHEMIA trial for free: nej.md/DrG31

Happy someone did the math! I've run into this numerous times and have had lots of theories but no time/energy/math skills to follow through - there's a sweet spot at an MOI around 10^-3 to -5 where resistance may still occur, but above/below that the bacteria win faster in a simple system.

A bacteriophage genus infects carbapenem resistant Acinetobacter baumannii via a non-capsular receptor and provides protection in vivo Microbiology; Virology

I started studying phages just over 4 years ago. The project that started it all is finally published. We isolated 6 closely related anti-Acinetobacter phages and showed that they are not capsule-specific and can reduce bacterial load in a rat model. More work still to come on this! #phagesky #IDsky

If there was any doubt at all that the CDC is fully destroyed, this page on autism and vaccines on its website confirms it. It's now just another vessel of dangerous health misinformation. I have no words. This is beyond sad.

This is a great preprint - I can't wait to see the polished product!

YouTube video by Dr. Glaucomflecken Infectious Disease Doctor Goes To A Soccer Game

@puzzlebetter.bsky.social www.youtube.com/shorts/Q8UGF...

Hoping this is the start of something great - Lassa is a scourge

@isv-news.bsky.social #ISV2025
Alec Freyn, Moderna presenting ISV Paper of the Year 2025 - quadrivalent mRNA vaccine against a broad spectrum of orthopoxviruses.

It's interesting (in a bad way) that these bigger LLMs seem so off with their advice in a lot of different fields and so prone to hallucinations. Meanwhile, I know folks who use OpenEvidence regularly and haven't had similar issues. I wonder if the big ones just absorb too much questionable material

This one hurts. yikes

Glad to see someone is still trying this drug for the US! The FDA declined to approve a few years ago based on (if I remember right) some issues about prespecified endpoints on an otherwise solid trial. I have concerns about overuse, but this could keep people out of hospital and off OPAT. #IDSky

Speaking for all physicians and healthcare providers here. When we see patients in need of care especially in an emergency room we do not leave them for dead. We do not care about their immigration status, we treat them because that is what we took an oath to do and is also basic human decency.

Other groups use it successfully, so I know it's a me problem. To be fair, up until a few weeks ago I couldn't even figure out how to download something from GitHub (a dangerous admission, I know).

I can muddle my way through installing Python and even figured out how to install Bacphlip, but it seems to run on an old version of python, and even if I get that going, I can't get the command line to run the script on the genome of interest. I'm sure it's something silly.

I'm afraid you're not open to messaging. My overall bioinformatics needs are high (someday, over the rainbow , I'll have funding to hire a full time bioinformatics specialist / geneticist), but the current need is narrow. I am just trying to figure out how to make Bacphlip work.

There are lots of things I wish I knew - today I wish I knew how to use Python (or had the time to learn!). Right after that is my wish that someone would put Bacphlip on the phage.galaxy.eu UI so old fogies like me who learned chemistry instead of programming can use it 😭 #phage

great thread!!

Patient seeking care at NIH hospital detained by ICE NIH officials called immigration authorities after scrutinizing the patient’s identification presented to security at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center.

"First do not harm" is not a suggestion it is a core feature of the job. If you can't check your biases at the door when you provide healthcare, find another job. Calling ICE on a patient is some disgusting behavior.
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

Raw milk sickens 21 people in Florida including 6 children Public health officials in Florida are reporting 21 cases of campylobacter and E. coli infections linked to drinking raw milk, all from the same farm.

Raw milk in the US has significant safety issues, no matter what some folks say. #IDSky

A must read

This is a nice report - goes along with anecdotal data as well as extrapolation from dalbavancin.

What is wild, though, is that 9 of 27 patients in this study had PSSA. 33%!! I think I saw a PSSA isolate once... #IDSky

RFK Jr. spouted dangerous vaccine falsehoods on national TV. As a parent and infectious diseases doctor, I couldn't stay silent. Here's what the data actually shows. 🧵

New moment of “WTF”:

-pt with rare infection (so rare will leave unnamed, as could reveal identity)
-nl times: reach out to CDC for testing
-now: “they confirmed they are not currently accepting specimens for serology…they suggested we could reach out to Canada National Reference Center”

😳😳😳

Short but accurate - firing the ACIP experts hurts everyone. #IDSky www.idsociety.org/news--public...

Marco Rubio said no one has died due to U.S. aid cuts. This mom disagrees Mariam Mohammed says her younger son died when she could not get treatment for him at a U.S.-funded clinic that had temporarily closed. Researchers say there are many thousands of cases like his.

The ongoing tragedy of American withdrawal from aid programs: www.npr.org/sections/goa...