Adam Fountain
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adamfountain.bsky.social
Adam Fountain
@adamfountain.bsky.social
PostDoc in the Ramakrishnan/Luisi labs at University of Cambridge.

Bedaquiline resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis #ENDTB
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Three senior CDC leaders who resigned told The Post they were asked to participate in an unscientific vaccine recommendation process that they believe could harm the health of Americans.
CDC leaders who resigned said RFK Jr. undermined vaccine science, risking lives
As the CDC reels from the firing of its director, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Fox News the agency is “in trouble and we need to fix it.”
www.washingtonpost.com
August 28, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Our latest work, in collaboration with the terrific @kashishsingh.bsky.social in the Carter lab @mrclmb.bsky.social is out. So proud of this study and everyone involved...
Cryo-EM structures of Egl-BicD-RNA complexes reveal how diverse mRNAs are selected for subcellular localization https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.02.668268v1
August 5, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
🦠 NEW VIDEO 🦠

The molecular biology of how Mycobacterium Tuberculosis evades the immune system so well.

Starting with this simulation of a full outer envelope of m.TB--let's explore how the deadliest & most persistent human pathogen completely hacks our immune response. #molecularbiology
July 2, 2025 at 6:38 PM
Bedaquiline resistance driven by the MmpS5L5 efflux pump is threatening the drug regimens used to treat MDR-TB.

In our new preprint, we used structural and genetic approaches to better understand how MmpS5L5 effluxes bedaquiline and how future resistance may evolve. 🧵🔽

#TBsky #MicroSky #TB
Structural and functional analysis of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis MmpS5L5 efflux pump presages a pathway to increased bedaquiline resistance
Bedaquiline, an antitubercular drug that targets ATP-synthase, is a key component of a new oral drug regimen that has revolutionized the treatment of multi drug resistant tuberculosis. Clinical bedaqu...
www.biorxiv.org
June 26, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Challenging times for biomedical research in the U.S. One of our grants was terminated and two others frozen. Thinking of colleagues from Bethesda to Boston to South Africa who are facing the same uncertainty. Now more than ever, we must speak up for the value of this work.
May 16, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Antifungal drug discovery gets an interesting and unexpected shot of good news:
A New Type of Antifungal
www.science.org
March 20, 2025 at 9:19 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Statement from WHO TB program on the impact of USAID cuts. TLDR: it's devastating.

hq_globaltuberculosisprogramme.cmail19.com/t/d-e-stuitu...
March 5, 2025 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
A long post about what’s happening to the science funding agencies in the US and why. As mentioned, this one just kept getting longer even as I kept stripping curse words from it.

www.science.org/content/blog...
What's Happening Inside the NIH and NSF
www.science.org
February 4, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Lysenkoism was a Soviet-era pseudoscientific movement led by Trofim Lysenko, and endorsed by Stalin. It rejected established genetics science in favor of politically driven, unproven agricultural theories and ideological loyalty, leading to widespread crop failures and famine.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices is currently stacked with academic experts well versed in the science of vaccines. A new secretary of Health and Human Services could rapidly change that, Katherine J. Wu writes. theatln.tc/BQ7rbFmn
January 25, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Many people talk about the "Golden Age of Antibiotics", but I hadn't seen it visualized properly.

Just how many types of antibiotics were discovered during that time?

So, I visualized it myself!
December 23, 2024 at 10:09 AM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Our first TB preprint with @jnb-lab.bsky.social is out! Using spectroscopic techniques from our lab, we resolve the exact mode of action of everyone's favourite TB drug, bedaquiline. I'd like to add a few comments about the microbiology part of the picture! #TBsky #MicroSky (1/7)
Finally we are able to share our story on the molecular mechanism of the transformative anti-tuberculosis drug bedaquiline within living cells

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A (hopefully) broadly-accessible tutorial below ⬇️ (it ended up being really long!)
bioRxiv Manuscript Processing System
Manuscript Processing System for bioRxiv.
submit.biorxiv.org
December 6, 2024 at 10:15 AM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Finally we are able to share our story on the molecular mechanism of the transformative anti-tuberculosis drug bedaquiline within living cells

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A (hopefully) broadly-accessible tutorial below ⬇️ (it ended up being really long!)
bioRxiv Manuscript Processing System
Manuscript Processing System for bioRxiv.
submit.biorxiv.org
December 5, 2024 at 10:16 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Chai-1, the open source AF3 clone, is now available with an Apache 2 license github.com/chaidiscover...
November 27, 2024 at 4:58 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
We have quite a range of PhD projects this year, covering cryo-EM methods, bacteriology/bioenergetics, and infection/antibiotics/vaccines. Would really appreciate if people can RT and share with their teams!
November 29, 2024 at 11:55 AM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Charles Darwin and Robert Koch walked into a bar... find out the outcome of this interaction here:

elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...
A macroevolution-inspired approach to reveal novel antibiotic resistance mechanisms
elifesciences.org
November 14, 2024 at 12:34 PM
Reposted by Adam Fountain
Been thinking about creating a collection of good protein structure figures, as inspiration for my own work.

#1 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
March 3, 2024 at 8:37 AM