TWiM provides thoughts on providing better training for a non-academic career, and help celebrate Black in Microbiology Week with a 2023 paper by Ari Kozik, a co-founder of Black Microbiologists Association and Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan.
TWiM reviews how a coating of lipoproteins provides a stabilizing environment on the inner membrane of Bacillus subtilis spores, and a miniaturized device that integrates genetically engineered probiotic biosensors with a custom-designed photodetector and readout chip to track mediators of inflammation in the gastrointestinal tract
TWiM discusses a dispute about whether the mycobiome plays a role in the development of cancer, and the structure and function of channels that are delivered to plant cells by pathogenic bacteria.
TWiM explains how phages avoid tRNA-targeting host defenses, and discovery of a new antibiotic from an uncultured bacterium that binds to an immutable target.
TWiM reveals that the ice cream manufacturing environment harbors psychrotrophic bacteria, and identification of a deadly bacterial strain causing widespread deaths of newborns in Uganda.
TWiM explains personalized aerosilized phage therapy for a chronic lung infection, and using the combination of antibiotic and a DNA molecule that binds alpha-gal to reduce S. aureus infection in vivo.
TWiM reveals that breast milk bioactives are essential for development of the infant microbiome and immunity, and how capsule mutants of Klebsiella pneumoniae can affect bacterial pathogenesis.
TWiM explains how photoferrotrophic bacteria initiated plate tectonics over 2500 million years ago, and how two bacteria work together to cause childhood tooth decay.
From ASM Microbe 2023 in Houston, TWiM speaks with Mimi Goldschmidt about her remarkable career in microbiology which included training astronauts to safely bring moon rocks back to Earth.
TWiM highlights viral defense and counter-defense: cGAS mediated ubiquitination to counter infection, and viral sponges that sequester nucleotide signals to inactivate immunity.
About the Hosts of TWiM
Vincent Racaniello, Ph.D. (@profvrr) is Higgins Professor of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University Medical Center. He has been studying viruses for over 40 years. He teaches virology to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as medical, dental, and nursing students. His lectures are available online at iTunes University, YouTube, and Coursera.
Michael Schmidt, Ph.D. (TWiM) is the Professor and Vice Chairman of Microbiology and Immunology and Director of the Office of Special Programs at the Medical College of South Carolina. Dr. Schmidt is leading a team of infectious disease specialists from three health sciences centers and engineers from industry.