U. Mich Micro-Immuno Dept
@umichmicroimmuno.bsky.social
Watch this space for news about our science and our people working in the University of Michigan Microbiology and Immunology Department! Go Blue!
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @balunaslab.bsky.social Bridges knowledge gap of host-microbiome-environ. interactions/establishes foundation for continuing research on ecological effects of trace metals in these biological systems.
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived metabolites from Botryllus schlosseri in metal interactions | mSystems
Given the importance of marine invertebrates and their microbial communities in marine
ecosystems, we sought to characterize the largely unknown microbial associates, metal
sequestration, and metaboli...
journals.asm.org
October 27, 2025 at 12:21 PM
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @balunaslab.bsky.social Bridges knowledge gap of host-microbiome-environ. interactions/establishes foundation for continuing research on ecological effects of trace metals in these biological systems.
www.annualreviews.org/docserver/fu... @teresaomeara.bsky.social Review highlights the critical role of stress adaptation in pathogenicity and potential avenues for further research and therapeutic intervention.
www.annualreviews.org
October 27, 2025 at 12:17 PM
www.annualreviews.org/docserver/fu... @teresaomeara.bsky.social Review highlights the critical role of stress adaptation in pathogenicity and potential avenues for further research and therapeutic intervention.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This work demonstrates a powerful technique to recover host-virus dynamics from static timepoints and will support future high-throughput single-cell virology applications.
Reconstructing EBV reactivation and DNA damage response kinetics in morphologic pseudotime
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) lytic infection contributes to virus-associated cancers and autoimmunity and depends on viral subversion of host DNA damage responses (DDR). Here, we use high-content screenin...
www.biorxiv.org
October 14, 2025 at 11:50 AM
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... This work demonstrates a powerful technique to recover host-virus dynamics from static timepoints and will support future high-throughput single-cell virology applications.
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived metabolites from B schlosseri in metal interactions journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @balunaslab.bsky.social Insights into B. schlosseri’s biological and chemical interactions with microorganisms and their environment.
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived metabolites from Botryllus schlosseri in metal interactions | mSystems
Given the importance of marine invertebrates and their microbial communities in marine
ecosystems, we sought to characterize the largely unknown microbial associates, metal
sequestration, and metaboli...
journals.asm.org
September 22, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Multi-omics analysis reveals important role for microbial-derived metabolites from B schlosseri in metal interactions journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @balunaslab.bsky.social Insights into B. schlosseri’s biological and chemical interactions with microorganisms and their environment.
Multiplexed PCR to measure in situ growth rates of uropathogenic E. coli during experimental UTI journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @proteusqueen.bsky.social This study provides a cost-effective/efficient alternative to WGS for studying bacterial replication dynamics during infection.
Multiplexed PCR to measure in situ growth rates of uropathogenic E. coli during experimental urinary tract infection | Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Accurately measuring bacterial growth rates in the host, which plays a crucial role
in determining the success of pathogens in establishing infections, poses significant
challenges. To address this, b...
journals.asm.org
September 8, 2025 at 12:10 PM
Multiplexed PCR to measure in situ growth rates of uropathogenic E. coli during experimental UTI journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @proteusqueen.bsky.social This study provides a cost-effective/efficient alternative to WGS for studying bacterial replication dynamics during infection.
Multiplexed PCR to measure in situ growth rates of uropathogenic E. coli during exp. UTI journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @proteusqueen.bsky.social Cost-effective/efficient alt. for studying bacterial replication during infection, offering new info re pathogen behavior/host-microbe interactions.
Multiplexed PCR to measure in situ growth rates of uropathogenic E. coli during experimental urinary tract infection | Applied and Environmental Microbiology
Accurately measuring bacterial growth rates in the host, which plays a crucial role
in determining the success of pathogens in establishing infections, poses significant
challenges. To address this, b...
journals.asm.org
August 5, 2025 at 12:03 PM
Multiplexed PCR to measure in situ growth rates of uropathogenic E. coli during exp. UTI journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @proteusqueen.bsky.social Cost-effective/efficient alt. for studying bacterial replication during infection, offering new info re pathogen behavior/host-microbe interactions.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... @teresaomeara.bsky.social Study highlights the critical role of Als4112 in C. auris colonization and virulence, and explores potential strategies to reduce the pathogen’s adherence to abiotic surfaces and thus its spread in healthcare settings.
Adhesin Als4112 promotes Candida auris skin colonization through interactions with keratinocytes and extracellular matrix proteins
Candida auris is a fungal pathogen notorious for persistent skin colonization and transmission in healthcare settings. Here, we show that a C. auris conserved adhesin, Als4112, is required for skin co...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
July 7, 2025 at 2:48 PM
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... @teresaomeara.bsky.social Study highlights the critical role of Als4112 in C. auris colonization and virulence, and explores potential strategies to reduce the pathogen’s adherence to abiotic surfaces and thus its spread in healthcare settings.
@bmoore-beth.bsky.social We are delighted to announce that Dr. Teresa O'Meara was awarded the Henry Russel award at U-M. Our highest honor for an early-mid career faculty member for her outstanding research and teaching! @teresaomeara.bsky.social @umichmicroimmuno.bsky.social
June 16, 2025 at 8:03 PM
@bmoore-beth.bsky.social We are delighted to announce that Dr. Teresa O'Meara was awarded the Henry Russel award at U-M. Our highest honor for an early-mid career faculty member for her outstanding research and teaching! @teresaomeara.bsky.social @umichmicroimmuno.bsky.social
Checkout this article I found at PLOS: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... @drsprggs.bsky.social Highlights a key difference btw MCPyV & other polyomaviruses that will improve our understanding of its pathogenesis & aid in the development of targeted therapeutic strategies vs MCPyV-associated malignancies.
Temporal gating of nuclear import: How Merkel cell polyomavirus exploits the cell cycle for nuclear entry
Author summary Merkel cell polyomavirus (MCPyV) causes a rare but deadly form of skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma. However, many aspects of its infectious life cycle are unclear, including how...
dx.plos.org
June 16, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Checkout this article I found at PLOS: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... @drsprggs.bsky.social Highlights a key difference btw MCPyV & other polyomaviruses that will improve our understanding of its pathogenesis & aid in the development of targeted therapeutic strategies vs MCPyV-associated malignancies.
journals.lww.com/pidj/fulltex... @jason-weinberg.bsky.social Ganciclovir should be used with caution and close monitoring. Approaches to mitigate the risks of nephrotoxicity should be investigated.
Nephrotoxicity of Intravenous Ganciclovir in Pediatric... : The Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal
ion.
Methods:
We identified children undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation in the Pediatric Health Information System database and tracked them for 1 year following transplantation. The pri...
journals.lww.com
June 16, 2025 at 3:06 PM
journals.lww.com/pidj/fulltex... @jason-weinberg.bsky.social Ganciclovir should be used with caution and close monitoring. Approaches to mitigate the risks of nephrotoxicity should be investigated.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @teresaomeara.bsky.social @drbadbug.bsky.social Overall, our findings illustrate non-canonical IRE1α activation during infection and a function for IRE1α in supporting organelle contact sites to safeguard against rapidly growing microbes.
IRE1α promotes phagosomal calcium flux to enhance macrophage fungicidal activity
The mammalian endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress sensor inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α) is essential for cellular homeostasis and plays key roles …
www.sciencedirect.com
June 9, 2025 at 7:00 PM
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @teresaomeara.bsky.social @drbadbug.bsky.social Overall, our findings illustrate non-canonical IRE1α activation during infection and a function for IRE1α in supporting organelle contact sites to safeguard against rapidly growing microbes.
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... @teresaomeara.bsky.social Study prospectively designed de novo chaperones and demonstrate that artificial proteins can rescue complex biological processes in the context of the whole cell.
Deep homology and design of proteasome chaperone proteins in Candida auris
A central tenet of biology is that protein structure mediates the sequence-function relationship. Recently, there has been excitement about the promise of advances in protein structure modeling to gen...
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
June 9, 2025 at 6:57 PM
pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC... @teresaomeara.bsky.social Study prospectively designed de novo chaperones and demonstrate that artificial proteins can rescue complex biological processes in the context of the whole cell.
Macropinosomes are a site of HIV-1 entry into primary CD4+ T cells | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @kingrasa1.bsky.social Altogether, this study identifies macropinocytosis as one pathway for HIV-1 entry into primary CD4+ T cells.
Macropinosomes are a site of HIV-1 entry into primary CD4+ T cells | PNAS
HIV-1 has been observed to enter target cells at both the plasma membrane and endosomes.
However, which pathways mediate its entry into primary CD4...
www.pnas.org
June 9, 2025 at 6:54 PM
Macropinosomes are a site of HIV-1 entry into primary CD4+ T cells | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @kingrasa1.bsky.social Altogether, this study identifies macropinocytosis as one pathway for HIV-1 entry into primary CD4+ T cells.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @drbadbug.bsky.social @teresaomeara.bsky.social Findings illustrate non-canonical IRE1α activation during infection and a function for IRE1α in supporting organelle contact sites to safeguard against rapidly growing microbes.
IRE1α promotes phagosomal calcium flux to enhance macrophage fungicidal activity
The mammalian endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress sensor inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α) is essential for cellular homeostasis and plays key roles …
www.sciencedirect.com
May 20, 2025 at 11:25 AM
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @drbadbug.bsky.social @teresaomeara.bsky.social Findings illustrate non-canonical IRE1α activation during infection and a function for IRE1α in supporting organelle contact sites to safeguard against rapidly growing microbes.
www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/... @drbadbug.bsky.social A role for FXII in responding to bac. infection & suggests that by inhibiting the contact & KKSs & impairing neutrophil activation, CpaA may blunt the innate immune response/help prevent the elimination of A baumannii from the human host.
Acinetobacter Baumannii Secreted Protease CpaA Inhibits Factor XII-Mediated Bradykinin Generation and Neutrophil Activation | Circulation Research
BACKGROUND: FXII (coagulation factor XII) is best known for its roles in the contact and kallikrein-kinin
pathways. FXII is converted to its active enzyme (FXIIa [activated factor XII]) by
PKa (plasma...
www.ahajournals.org
May 20, 2025 at 11:23 AM
www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/... @drbadbug.bsky.social A role for FXII in responding to bac. infection & suggests that by inhibiting the contact & KKSs & impairing neutrophil activation, CpaA may blunt the innate immune response/help prevent the elimination of A baumannii from the human host.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @drbadbug.bsky.social @teresaomeara.bsky.social Overall, our findings illustrate non-canonical IRE1α activation during infection and a function for IRE1α in supporting organelle contact sites to safeguard against rapidly growing microbes.
IRE1α promotes phagosomal calcium flux to enhance macrophage fungicidal activity
The mammalian endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress sensor inositol-requiring enzyme 1α (IRE1α) is essential for cellular homeostasis and plays key roles …
www.sciencedirect.com
May 12, 2025 at 8:27 PM
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @drbadbug.bsky.social @teresaomeara.bsky.social Overall, our findings illustrate non-canonical IRE1α activation during infection and a function for IRE1α in supporting organelle contact sites to safeguard against rapidly growing microbes.
Metabolic adaptability and nutrient scavenging in Toxoplasma gondii: insights from ingestion pathway-deficient mutants MSphere journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @verncarruthers.bsky.social This work advances our understanding of the metabolic adaptability of Toxoplasma.
Metabolic adaptability and nutrient scavenging in Toxoplasma gondii: insights from ingestion pathway-deficient mutants | mSphere
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular pathogen that infects virtually any nucleated cell in
most warm-blooded animals. Infections are asymptomatic in most cases, but people with
weakened immu...
journals.asm.org
May 5, 2025 at 7:17 PM
Metabolic adaptability and nutrient scavenging in Toxoplasma gondii: insights from ingestion pathway-deficient mutants MSphere journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @verncarruthers.bsky.social This work advances our understanding of the metabolic adaptability of Toxoplasma.
HIV-1 single-transcription start-site mutants display complementary replication functions restored by reversion journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... @telesnitsky.bsky.social When mutants that expressed only one RNA were forced to revert, they regained functions associated with the second RNA.
HIV-1 single-transcription start-site mutants display complementary replication functions that are restored by reversion | Journal of Virology
HIV-1 generates two RNAs during its replication that differ by only two nucleotides
in length. Despite this very minor difference, the RNAs perform different and complementary
replication functions. W...
journals.asm.org
April 22, 2025 at 11:23 AM
HIV-1 single-transcription start-site mutants display complementary replication functions restored by reversion journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... @telesnitsky.bsky.social When mutants that expressed only one RNA were forced to revert, they regained functions associated with the second RNA.
Metabolic adaptability/nutrient scavenging in T gondii: insights from ingestion pathway-deficient mutants Msphere journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @verncarruthers.bsky.social This work advances our understanding of the metabolic adaptability of Toxoplasma.
Metabolic adaptability and nutrient scavenging in Toxoplasma gondii: insights from ingestion pathway-deficient mutants | mSphere
Toxoplasma gondii is an obligate intracellular pathogen that infects virtually any nucleated cell in
most warm-blooded animals. Infections are asymptomatic in most cases, but people with
weakened immu...
journals.asm.org
April 8, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Metabolic adaptability/nutrient scavenging in T gondii: insights from ingestion pathway-deficient mutants Msphere journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @verncarruthers.bsky.social This work advances our understanding of the metabolic adaptability of Toxoplasma.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @anukulshenoy.bsky.social Using our model of neutrophilic asthma, we identify lung epithelial-CD4+ TRM cell crosstalk as a key rheostat of allergic airway neutrophilia.
Lung CD4+ resident memory T cells use airway secretory cells to stimulate and regulate onset of allergic airway neutrophilic disease
Neutrophilic asthma is a vexing disease, but mechanistic and therapeutic advancements will require better models of allergy-induced airway neutrophili…
www.sciencedirect.com
March 31, 2025 at 6:57 PM
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @anukulshenoy.bsky.social Using our model of neutrophilic asthma, we identify lung epithelial-CD4+ TRM cell crosstalk as a key rheostat of allergic airway neutrophilia.
JCI Insight - CD103+ dendritic cell–fibroblast crosstalk via TLR9, TDO2, and AHR signaling drives lung fibrogenesis insight.jci.org/articles/vie... @bmoore-beth.bsky.social For the first time to our knowledge, evidence that AHR exon 2 floxed mice retain the capacity for ncAHR signaling.
JCI Insight -
CD103+ dendritic cell–fibroblast crosstalk via TLR9, TDO2, and AHR signaling drives lung fibrogenesis
insight.jci.org
March 31, 2025 at 6:55 PM
JCI Insight - CD103+ dendritic cell–fibroblast crosstalk via TLR9, TDO2, and AHR signaling drives lung fibrogenesis insight.jci.org/articles/vie... @bmoore-beth.bsky.social For the first time to our knowledge, evidence that AHR exon 2 floxed mice retain the capacity for ncAHR signaling.
Toxoplasma gondii PROP1 is critical for autophagy and parasite viability during chronic infection MSphere journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... @verncarruthers.bsky.social Results reveal a critical role for TgPROP1 in autophagy and underscore the importance of this pathway in parasite persistence.
Toxoplasma gondii PROP1 is critical for autophagy and parasite viability during chronic infection | mSphere
It is estimated that up to a third of the human population is chronically infected
with Toxoplasma gondii; however, little is known about how this parasite persists long term within its hosts.
Autopha...
journals.asm.org
March 31, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Toxoplasma gondii PROP1 is critical for autophagy and parasite viability during chronic infection MSphere journals.asm.org/doi/full/10.... @verncarruthers.bsky.social Results reveal a critical role for TgPROP1 in autophagy and underscore the importance of this pathway in parasite persistence.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @verncarruthers.bsky.social The detection of AsGM1 prior to Eomes expression, and its persistence in known transitional states, positions AsGM1 as a pivotal marker for tracing NK-to-ILC1 transitions, transcending ambiguity inherent to the NK-to-ILC1 continuum.
A membrane lipid signature unravels the dynamic landscape of group 1 innate lymphoid cells across the health-disease continuum
In an era where established lines between cell identities are blurred by intra-lineage plasticity, distinguishing stable from transitional states is c…
www.sciencedirect.com
March 24, 2025 at 6:37 PM
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @verncarruthers.bsky.social The detection of AsGM1 prior to Eomes expression, and its persistence in known transitional states, positions AsGM1 as a pivotal marker for tracing NK-to-ILC1 transitions, transcending ambiguity inherent to the NK-to-ILC1 continuum.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @jason-weinberg.bsky.social Mutagenicity is not considered a plausible initial key event in the mode of action for styrene-induced mouse lung tumors as these data support that styrene is not an in vivo mutagen.
Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis | EMGS Journal | Wiley Online Library
Styrene has been shown to induce lung tumors in mice, but not in rats. The current study investigated the potential role of genotoxicity as an initial key event in the mode of action for styrene-indu....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
March 18, 2025 at 12:19 PM
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @jason-weinberg.bsky.social Mutagenicity is not considered a plausible initial key event in the mode of action for styrene-induced mouse lung tumors as these data support that styrene is not an in vivo mutagen.