Ian Monk
banner
ianmonknz.bsky.social
Ian Monk
@ianmonknz.bsky.social
Molecular Microbiologist at the Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne. All things Staph, Listeria, Enterococci, Phages and Sport.
Reposted by Ian Monk
📣New preprint alert! We report the alarming finding that stringent response mutations found in clinical isolates increase the frequency of donation of multiresistance plasmids in S. aureus 😱 Great team effort @microclaire.bsky.social @paulrjohnston.bsky.social

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 13, 2025 at 12:41 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Thrilled to share that the final piece of my PhD work is now on bioRxiv! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... With support from @nvidia and the @NSF, we used AlphaFold to screen 1.6M+ protein pairs, revealing thousands of potential novel PPIs. All data can be viewed at predictomes.org/hp
Proteome-wide in silico screening for human protein-protein interactions
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) drive virtually all biological processes, yet most PPIs have not been identified and even more remain structurally unresolved. We developed a two-step computational...
biorxiv.org
November 12, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have developed a new platform for vaccine delivery they say could revolutionise treatment for respiratory infections.
New whooping cough vaccine could transform respiratory disease treatment
Researchers at Trinity College Dublin have developed a new whooping cough vaccine which they say can be adapted for other respiratory infections.
www.siliconrepublic.com
November 10, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Delighted that our review on resistance to last-resort antibiotics in Enterococci has been published in FEMS Microbiology Reviews

academic.oup.com/femsre/advan... (accepted manuscript version)

TL;DR: the Enterococci are really good at evolving resistance to antibiotics in new and creative ways.
Resistance to last-resort antibiotics in enterococci
Abstract. The genus Enterococcus comprises a diverse group of species, many of which are commensal members of the gut microbiota of humans and animals. The
academic.oup.com
November 8, 2025 at 5:41 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
The rise of ‘nightmare bacteria’: antimicrobial resistance in five charts www.nature.com/articles/d41...
The rise of ‘nightmare bacteria’: antimicrobial resistance in five charts
Data reveal how the global challenge to reduce deaths and infections from drug-resistant bacteria is not going according to plan.
www.nature.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:29 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Contrast this with the response of a president who was an actual decent human being.
November 6, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
RFK Jr. Admits He Can’t Actually Tie Tylenol to Autism
newrepublic.com/post/202435/...
RFK Jr. Admits He Can’t Actually Tie Tylenol to Autism
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said there isn’t “sufficient” evidence to back up his claims.
newrepublic.com
October 30, 2025 at 3:21 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Is the human microbiome a source for hospital-associated infections (HAI) and are any genetic changes associated with HAI? In our new preprint, we longitudinally reconstruct the evolutionary processes within the human microbiome leading up to HAI: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Colonization, translocation, and evolution of opportunistic pathogens during hospital-associated infections
Many commensal bacteria that peacefully reside in the human microbiome are also able to cause acute opportunistic infections. Emerging evidence suggests that within-host evolution contributes to infec...
doi.org
October 27, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
NEWS | Professor @jayhinton.bsky.social and an international team have been awarded £4.56M Wellcome Discovery Award to investigate natural human resistance to Salmonella

🔗 bit.ly/4hujsRG

@livuninews.bsky.social | #TeamLivUni
October 27, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
ARC says Discovery Projects outcomes will be tomorrow (Tuesday). Linkage Projects (2025, round 1) on Wed. Over past ~year, it's often been at about 11am (Canberra).

My bot will pick up the change to RMS & post immediately.

ARC should email outcomes to lead CIs, but might take an 1hr or so for DPs
October 26, 2025 at 11:17 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Around 10% of your Nanopore reads (SQK-RBK114) are incorrectly trimmed. Here is why, and how our new tool Barbell solves it:

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

Want to get started? github.com/rickbeeloo/b...
October 23, 2025 at 8:16 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
🦠🔬🤖🧑‍💻 #mAIcrobe is out! With @pinholab.bsky.social's lab, we launched an open-source framework for high-throughput bacterial image analysis. By rockstars A. Brito & B. Saraiva et al, making #DeepLearning for phenotyping accessible! Easy to use, plus model training

📜 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 22, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
🧪If you are interested in #microbial growth data, you may have have a look at μGrowthDB; an open repository designed to store, visualize, analyze & share quantitative measurements of species abundances and metabolite profiles from monocultures & communities of known composition.
#microsky #mevosky
October 14, 2025 at 8:59 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Chromosome replication and cell division cycles are not synchronized in Staphylococcus aureus, with cells exhibiting two segregated origins of replication at the start of the cell cycle

#bacteria #microbiology
Chromosome segregation dynamics during the cell cycle of Staphylococcus aureus - Nature Communications
Our understanding of chromosome organization and dynamics in spherical bacteria, such as Staphylococcus aureus, remains limited. Here, the authors show that chromosome replication and cell division cycles are not synchronized in S. aureus, with cells exhibiting two segregated origins of replication at the start of the cell cycle.
bit.ly
October 21, 2025 at 2:51 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
De-DUFing the DUFs 🧩 @franznarberhaus.bsky.social lab uncovers how small DUF1127 proteins regulate #phosphate uptake by binding the sensor kinase PhoR. Their conserved role from Agrobacterium to E. coli highlights how even small DUFs can shape bacterial physiology 🦠
buff.ly/jJd9Eho
October 21, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
This is what democracy looks like. #NoKings
October 18, 2025 at 11:22 PM
Reposted by Ian Monk
chromosome segregationists - archaea branch - take note 👇
#ArchaeaSky #Archaea
October 17, 2025 at 8:21 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Growing Staphylococcus aureus in Synthetic Cystic Fibrosis Medium Promotes Colonization in a Murine Pneumonia Model https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.14.682363v1
October 15, 2025 at 3:17 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
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
Reposted by Ian Monk
I don’t know who needs to hear this but the CDC is being eviscerated right now. America is not going to have any kind of outbreak response capacity after tonight. Americans’ health data is no longer secure. Say goodbye to federal public health in any capacity. It’s a disaster. We won’t recover.
October 11, 2025 at 3:05 AM
Reposted by Ian Monk
Happy to share this new article online at #mSphere journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Human nasal organoids (HNOs) are a new model system for studying bacterial colonization and interspecies interactions. A big congratulations to the whole team, especially co-first authors: Andrea Boyd and Leah Kafer
Nasal microbionts differentially colonize and elicit cytokines in human nasal epithelial organoids | mSphere
Human nasal microbiota often includes highly pathogenic members, many of which are antimicrobial resistance threats, e.g., methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and drug-resistant Streptococcus ...
journals.asm.org
October 1, 2025 at 5:29 PM