Conlon Lab
@bconlon.bsky.social
Associate professor studying antibiotics and host-pathogen interactions at UNC Chapel Hill
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Come join us in Knoxville!
The Dept. of Microbiology 🧫🦠 at the University of Tennessee is hiring 2 Assistant Professors (tenure track, 9-month appt.).
Microbial Drivers of Chronic Disease: apply.interfolio.com/173153Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions: apply.interfolio.com/173345
The Dept. of Microbiology 🧫🦠 at the University of Tennessee is hiring 2 Assistant Professors (tenure track, 9-month appt.).
Microbial Drivers of Chronic Disease: apply.interfolio.com/173153Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions: apply.interfolio.com/173345
October 24, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Come join us in Knoxville!
The Dept. of Microbiology 🧫🦠 at the University of Tennessee is hiring 2 Assistant Professors (tenure track, 9-month appt.).
Microbial Drivers of Chronic Disease: apply.interfolio.com/173153Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions: apply.interfolio.com/173345
The Dept. of Microbiology 🧫🦠 at the University of Tennessee is hiring 2 Assistant Professors (tenure track, 9-month appt.).
Microbial Drivers of Chronic Disease: apply.interfolio.com/173153Quantitative Microbe-Plant-Environment Interactions: apply.interfolio.com/173345
Delighted to share our latest paper - A host-directed adjuvant sensitizes intracellular bacterial persisters to antibiotics. Excellently led by Dr. Kuan-Yi Lu. We think it's a great proof-of-concept that altering immune cell behavior can make antibiotics work better www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A host-directed adjuvant sensitizes intracellular bacterial persisters to antibiotics - Nature Microbiology
The authors developed a screen to find compounds that modulate intracellular Staphylococcus aureus metabolism and discovered KL1, which sensitizes persisters to antibiotics by reversing host-induced tolerance.
www.nature.com
October 10, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Delighted to share our latest paper - A host-directed adjuvant sensitizes intracellular bacterial persisters to antibiotics. Excellently led by Dr. Kuan-Yi Lu. We think it's a great proof-of-concept that altering immune cell behavior can make antibiotics work better www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Looking to hire a postdoctoral associate to examine how antibiotics frequently fail in vivo and identifying new ways to make them work better. unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/306...
Post-Doc Research Associate - Conlon Lab
This Postdoctoral Research Associate will be involved with advanced independent biomedical research, including project development, experimental design and performance, data analysis, written progress...
unc.peopleadmin.com
September 11, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Looking to hire a postdoctoral associate to examine how antibiotics frequently fail in vivo and identifying new ways to make them work better. unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/306...
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Excited to share the work with @dweisslab.bsky.social and great collaborators on how gene amplification generates dynamic heteroresistance to new beta-lactams, like cefiderocol. We hope drug developers will consider heteroresistance during antibiotic development rdcu.be/euijW
Copy number flexibility facilitates heteroresistance to increasing antibiotic pressure and threatens the beta-lactam pipeline
Nature Communications - Choby et al. show that dynamic increases in the copy number of preexisting β-lactamase genes in heteroresistance enables resistance of continua of cellular...
rdcu.be
July 2, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Excited to share the work with @dweisslab.bsky.social and great collaborators on how gene amplification generates dynamic heteroresistance to new beta-lactams, like cefiderocol. We hope drug developers will consider heteroresistance during antibiotic development rdcu.be/euijW
Reposted by Conlon Lab
For our first post on Bluesky, we're excited to share our recent work published in mBio @asm.org! Led by PhD student @madeofmicrobes.bsky.social, we show that flagellar motility and interactions with the mucus environment influence Pseudomonas antibiotic tolerance.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Flagellar motility and the mucus environment influence aggregation-mediated antibiotic tolerance of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in chronic lung infection | mBio
Antibiotic treatment failure of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection is a key driver of mortality in muco-obstructive airway diseases (MADs).
The bacterial mechanisms that contribute to antibiotic toleran...
journals.asm.org
May 15, 2025 at 2:54 PM
For our first post on Bluesky, we're excited to share our recent work published in mBio @asm.org! Led by PhD student @madeofmicrobes.bsky.social, we show that flagellar motility and interactions with the mucus environment influence Pseudomonas antibiotic tolerance.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Discovery of a new class of natural antibiotics with a new mode of action to address antimicrobial resistance, a major unmet need
@mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A broad-spectrum lasso peptide antibiotic targeting the bacterial ribosome - Nature
A new lasso peptide antibiotic exhibits broad-spectrum activity against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria by interfering with bacterial protein synthesis, is unaffected by common resistanc...
www.nature.com
March 26, 2025 at 5:48 PM
Discovery of a new class of natural antibiotics with a new mode of action to address antimicrobial resistance, a major unmet need
@mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social
@nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Research shows: Rifaximin prophylaxis drives resistance to daptomycin, an unrelated, last-resort antibiotic
Rifaximin is used for hepatic encephalopathy in liver patients at high risk for infections, including VRE treated with daptomycin. The antibiotic was thought to pose a low resistance risk
Rifaximin is used for hepatic encephalopathy in liver patients at high risk for infections, including VRE treated with daptomycin. The antibiotic was thought to pose a low resistance risk
Rifaximin prophylaxis causes resistance to the last-resort antibiotic daptomycin - Nature
Rifaximin use, particularly in patients with liver cirrhosis, may be compromising the clinical use of daptomycin.
www.nature.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:33 AM
Research shows: Rifaximin prophylaxis drives resistance to daptomycin, an unrelated, last-resort antibiotic
Rifaximin is used for hepatic encephalopathy in liver patients at high risk for infections, including VRE treated with daptomycin. The antibiotic was thought to pose a low resistance risk
Rifaximin is used for hepatic encephalopathy in liver patients at high risk for infections, including VRE treated with daptomycin. The antibiotic was thought to pose a low resistance risk
www.nih.gov/news-events/... Nice to see our recent paper highlighted in NIH - Research Matters newsletter
Diabetes boosts antibiotic resistance in mice
Researchers found that infectious bacteria in diabetic mice rapidly evolved resistance to antibiotics.
www.nih.gov
March 4, 2025 at 8:49 PM
www.nih.gov/news-events/... Nice to see our recent paper highlighted in NIH - Research Matters newsletter
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Multiple faculty positions in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in association with the Center for Immunology, and the
Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Cornell University
Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Cornell University
February 14, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Multiple faculty positions in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology in association with the Center for Immunology, and the
Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Cornell University
Center for Antimicrobial Resistance at Cornell University
Delighted to share our new study. A collaboration with the Thurlow lab. Antibiotic resistance rapidly emerges and thrives in diabetic mice. A worrying coming together of two major and growing health problems worldwide www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Diabetes potentiates the emergence and expansion of antibiotic resistance
Diabetic infections are a reservoir for the emergence and proliferation of antibiotic resistance in Staphylococcus aureus.
www.science.org
February 13, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Delighted to share our new study. A collaboration with the Thurlow lab. Antibiotic resistance rapidly emerges and thrives in diabetic mice. A worrying coming together of two major and growing health problems worldwide www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Conlon Lab
#WeekendRead! Ahn, Arthur &co show @CellHost&Microbe that pathogenic E. coli produce a metallophore that sequesters zinc in macrophages, stabilizing HIF1a & driving fibrosis in #IBD mouse models and Crohn Disease patients! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Intestinal E. coli-produced yersiniabactin promotes profibrotic macrophages in Crohn’s disease
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)-associated fibrosis causes significant morbidity. Mechanisms are poorly understood but implicate the microbiota, espe…
www.sciencedirect.com
January 11, 2025 at 3:41 PM
#WeekendRead! Ahn, Arthur &co show @CellHost&Microbe that pathogenic E. coli produce a metallophore that sequesters zinc in macrophages, stabilizing HIF1a & driving fibrosis in #IBD mouse models and Crohn Disease patients! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Conlon Lab
A new VRSA variant was found in North Carolina, raising concerns. The emergence of more VRSA variants and locations increases the risk of spread, as it expands the potential to infect different populations and environments, making it harder to control and contain.
www.idse.net/Resistance-S...
www.idse.net/Resistance-S...
Unique VRSA Strain Identified in North Carolina
The 16th confirmed case of VRSA in the United States offers new information regarding the risks posed by the drug-resistant infection.
www.idse.net
January 6, 2025 at 11:34 PM
A new VRSA variant was found in North Carolina, raising concerns. The emergence of more VRSA variants and locations increases the risk of spread, as it expands the potential to infect different populations and environments, making it harder to control and contain.
www.idse.net/Resistance-S...
www.idse.net/Resistance-S...
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Worrisome
During the 2022–23 school year, CDC reports DTaP vaccine coverage dropped to 92.3%; vaccine exceptions rose 10%
As a pediatrician, few patients were as precarious as the infant with pertussis hospitalized for weeks in the ICU with severe apnea spells requiring repeated resuscitation
During the 2022–23 school year, CDC reports DTaP vaccine coverage dropped to 92.3%; vaccine exceptions rose 10%
As a pediatrician, few patients were as precarious as the infant with pertussis hospitalized for weeks in the ICU with severe apnea spells requiring repeated resuscitation
U.S. sets Thanksgiving record for whooping cough cases
At least 364 pertussis cases were reported, marking the worst Thanksgiving week on record.
www.cbsnews.com
December 6, 2024 at 1:16 AM
Worrisome
During the 2022–23 school year, CDC reports DTaP vaccine coverage dropped to 92.3%; vaccine exceptions rose 10%
As a pediatrician, few patients were as precarious as the infant with pertussis hospitalized for weeks in the ICU with severe apnea spells requiring repeated resuscitation
During the 2022–23 school year, CDC reports DTaP vaccine coverage dropped to 92.3%; vaccine exceptions rose 10%
As a pediatrician, few patients were as precarious as the infant with pertussis hospitalized for weeks in the ICU with severe apnea spells requiring repeated resuscitation
Reposted by Conlon Lab
How do secreted and membrane-localized enzymes get appropriately metalated?
... Bixi He and I tackled this question, with a focus on the cell envelope...
Metalation of Extracytoplasmic Proteins and Bacterial Cell Envelope Homeostasis | Annual Reviews - go.shr.lc/3V0lM92
... Bixi He and I tackled this question, with a focus on the cell envelope...
Metalation of Extracytoplasmic Proteins and Bacterial Cell Envelope Homeostasis | Annual Reviews - go.shr.lc/3V0lM92
Metalation of Extracytoplasmic Proteins and Bacterial Cell Envelope Homeostasis | Annual Reviews
Cell physiology requires innumerable metalloenzymes supported by the selective import of metal ions. Within the crowded cytosol, most enzymes acquire their cognate cofactors from a buffered labile poo...
go.shr.lc
November 21, 2024 at 12:47 PM
How do secreted and membrane-localized enzymes get appropriately metalated?
... Bixi He and I tackled this question, with a focus on the cell envelope...
Metalation of Extracytoplasmic Proteins and Bacterial Cell Envelope Homeostasis | Annual Reviews - go.shr.lc/3V0lM92
... Bixi He and I tackled this question, with a focus on the cell envelope...
Metalation of Extracytoplasmic Proteins and Bacterial Cell Envelope Homeostasis | Annual Reviews - go.shr.lc/3V0lM92
Reposted by Conlon Lab
New Salmonella Persister cells Review is just out❗️
Rachel Giorgio & Sophie Helaine overview the physiology & clinical implications of antibiotic-recalcitrant Salmonella during infection
- highlighting important knowledge gaps that need to be addressed…
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Rachel Giorgio & Sophie Helaine overview the physiology & clinical implications of antibiotic-recalcitrant Salmonella during infection
- highlighting important knowledge gaps that need to be addressed…
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Antibiotic-recalcitrant Salmonella during infection - Nature Reviews Microbiology
In this Review, Giorgio and Helaine provide an overview of the physiology of antibiotic-recalcitrant Salmonella enterica during infection, discuss recent insights into the clinical implications of ant...
www.nature.com
November 20, 2024 at 6:35 PM
New Salmonella Persister cells Review is just out❗️
Rachel Giorgio & Sophie Helaine overview the physiology & clinical implications of antibiotic-recalcitrant Salmonella during infection
- highlighting important knowledge gaps that need to be addressed…
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Rachel Giorgio & Sophie Helaine overview the physiology & clinical implications of antibiotic-recalcitrant Salmonella during infection
- highlighting important knowledge gaps that need to be addressed…
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Arginine Regulates the Mucoid Phenotype of Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.20.624485v1
Arginine Regulates the Mucoid Phenotype of Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.20.624485v1
Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae is associated with severe community-acquired infections. Hypervi
www.biorxiv.org
November 20, 2024 at 6:23 PM
Arginine Regulates the Mucoid Phenotype of Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.20.624485v1
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Research, prevention, awareness -
Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections
Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections
🌍 World Antimicrobial Awareness Week! 🦠
Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to global health. Misuse of antibiotics fuels resistance and makes infections harder to treat.
Be part of the solution: Follow medical advice and help spread awareness!
#WAAW #AMR #GoBlue #OneHealth
youtu.be/_Qy3aTKiVLE
Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to global health. Misuse of antibiotics fuels resistance and makes infections harder to treat.
Be part of the solution: Follow medical advice and help spread awareness!
#WAAW #AMR #GoBlue #OneHealth
youtu.be/_Qy3aTKiVLE
WAAW 2024 - World Antimicrobial Awareness Week
YouTube video by CMFI - Cluster of Excellence
youtu.be
November 18, 2024 at 6:22 PM
Research, prevention, awareness -
Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections
Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Here‘s the start of a list of some researchers on Bluesky who are working with (or who have worked with) inoculation theory, a theory of resistance to influence built on a biological inoculation/vaccine analogy, with applications in mis/disinformation, politics, health…
go.bsky.app/7E6pFc4
go.bsky.app/7E6pFc4
November 17, 2024 at 1:22 AM
Here‘s the start of a list of some researchers on Bluesky who are working with (or who have worked with) inoculation theory, a theory of resistance to influence built on a biological inoculation/vaccine analogy, with applications in mis/disinformation, politics, health…
go.bsky.app/7E6pFc4
go.bsky.app/7E6pFc4
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Excited to see many in the bacterial pathogenesis community joining here in the last few weeks, so here's a Starter Pack to help make connections. Reply/DM to be added to this or future Packs. #Microsky go.bsky.app/VH64BaY
November 17, 2024 at 1:46 AM
Excited to see many in the bacterial pathogenesis community joining here in the last few weeks, so here's a Starter Pack to help make connections. Reply/DM to be added to this or future Packs. #Microsky go.bsky.app/VH64BaY
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Finally, someone speaks some sense at @nytimes.com. Thank you Zeynep Tufekci. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/o...
Opinion | Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Could Do Almost Limitless Harm
Our public health system is imperfect, but it’s also a miracle that can be easily broken.
www.nytimes.com
November 16, 2024 at 3:05 PM
Finally, someone speaks some sense at @nytimes.com. Thank you Zeynep Tufekci. www.nytimes.com/2024/11/16/o...
Congratulations Lauren! Great work!
Salmonella invades the ileal mucosa to trigger lysine malbsorption, creating a a wave of lysine entering the cecum. Decarboxylation of lysine buffers the cytosol to protect against short-chain fatty acids, enabling the pathogen to invade the cecal ecosystem.
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
November 16, 2024 at 12:24 AM
Congratulations Lauren! Great work!
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Calling all microbiologists! Registration is open for the Mid-Atlantic Microbial Pathogenesis Meeting, February 2-4, 2025.! Abstract deadline is 12/8/2024, but don't wait, filling fast. Check it out at mampm.org.
MAMPM
February 2-4, 2025 Wintergreen Resort, Virginia
mampm.org
November 9, 2024 at 2:20 PM
Calling all microbiologists! Registration is open for the Mid-Atlantic Microbial Pathogenesis Meeting, February 2-4, 2025.! Abstract deadline is 12/8/2024, but don't wait, filling fast. Check it out at mampm.org.
Reposted by Conlon Lab
Publication Alert! Happy to share our new work published in CellReports of a collaboration with the Zychlinsky Lab (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology). "Histone H1 kills MRSA". cell.com/cell-reports.... Enjoy!
Histone H1 kills MRSA
Marsman et al. detect histone H1 in MRSA in human abscesses and demonstrate that it
kills MRSA under physiological conditions. They identify through selective evolution
and a genome-wide screen that h...
cell.com
November 15, 2024 at 12:28 PM
Publication Alert! Happy to share our new work published in CellReports of a collaboration with the Zychlinsky Lab (Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology). "Histone H1 kills MRSA". cell.com/cell-reports.... Enjoy!