iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Call for manuscripts on bacterial chemotaxis and swimming! I'm partnering with JoVE to assemble a new collection of method, reviews, and research. ➡️Abstracts due Nov. 23rd. I invite you to share your love (and knowledge) of swimming bacteria! www.jove.com/topical-coll... 🧪 🦠 🧫 #microsky

01011

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

The video shows our Chemosensory Injection Rig Assay (CIRA) with atmospheric control. Salmonella Typhimurium cultured at 1% O₂ swim toward an injected source of 21% O₂ over 5 min. Study led by Kailie Franco, and big thanks to contributions from Clara Shin, Kendal Cooper, and Olivia Steele-Mortimer.

Researcher Kailie Franco using the chemosensory injection rig assay (CIRA) with atmospheric control to study CZB function and aerotaxis.

000

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Early Earth was an anoxic world. How did bacteria first learn to sense oxygen and use it to their advantage? In our new study, we show that bacterial CZB proteins mediate aerotaxis and redox taxis by monitoring extracellular bioavailable Zn²⁺. #microsky 🧪🦠🔬🧫 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

1122

Reposted by Baylink Lab

Tessa Solomon-Lane @tksolomonlane.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

Please share! I'm hiring a new NSF-funded Lab Technician, ideally to start in June at the Claremont Colleges. We study the development of social behavior and its regulation by behavioral, endocrine, and neural mechanisms using a highly social cichlid fish 🐠🧠🧪 +info TessaSolomonLane.com/Hiring

A white, blue, and purple flyer advertising that the Solomon-Lane Lab is hiring an NSF-funded Lab Technician. Apply by May 8th!

About the Lab
• We study the development of social behavior and its regulation by behavioral, endocrine, and neural mechanisms using a highly social cichlid fish model - Burton’s Mouthbrooder (Astatotilapia burtoni).
• Our lab group is comprised entirely of undergraduate researchers! We are a part of the Department of Natural Sciences of Pitzer College and Scripps College, within the Claremont Colleges consortium.
• We are a welcoming and collaborative group committed to an inclusive, honest, and fair environment for research and learning.

About the Position
• In collaboration with the PI and undergraduate researchers, the technician will be actively involved in all aspects of the research process, from designing experiments to disseminating results.
• Learn key and cutting-edge scientific techniques in behavioral neuroendocrinology.
• Gain experience in mentoring undergraduates, leadership, and research independence.

Job details & eligibility
• Ideal start date in June 2026 (flexibility possible)
• NSF-funded, full-time, 1-year (with possibility for extension) position with benefits. See job ad for pay.
• Bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, biology, psychology, or a related field required.
• At least 1 year of relevant research experience.

Learn more at: TessaSolomonLane.com/Hiring

21317

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 03/03/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Bruce Redden for being accepted into the @harvard.edu Medical School MD/PhD Summer Program! This summer, Bruce will work on a mentored research project at HMS and train with clinicians at Massachusetts General Hospital. www.hms.harvard.edu/md_phd/heart...

000

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

Lots of great vector-borne disease research in our department here at #WSU in Pullman, WA. Come join the team! Borrelia, Anaplasma, and more! Veterinary Microbiology & Pathology Dept within the College of Veterinary Medicine. #lymedisease #microsky #idsky 🧪🦠🧫

044

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

Scientists: scale of 1-10 how do you feel about the new required SciENcv biosketch format? 10=love 5=no difference to old 1=deep hatred 🧪🦠🧫🧬

131

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 20/01/2026

Enjoying the great science at STiM in Ventura, CA!

010

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

12+ years & multiple generations of scientists. We are excited to share a new preprint describing structure(s) of H. pylori transducer-like protein D (TlpD), a key chemotaxis protein and a model for a widespread class of soluble chemoreceptors. ▶️ Preprint: lnkd.in/gUw67dU8 🦠 🧪 #microsky #idsky

182

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 17/01/2026

Heading to the Sensory Transduction in Microorganisms meeting shortly - looking forward to hearing the latest and greatest on bacterial motility and #chemotaxis www.grc.org/sensory-tran... 🦠 #microsky 🧪

grc.org

2026 Sensory Transduction in Microorganisms Conference GRC

The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Sensory Transduction in Microorganisms will be held in Ventura, California. Apply today to reserve your spot.

161

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

First major snowfall of the year in #CougarCountry! Perfect for writing papers and grants.

020

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 01/12/2025

A big congratulations to future #IDsky physician-scientist Bruce Redden for his research presentation award at this year's ABRCMS. Lots of time and practice went into that presentation! Such a great meeting for the next generation of researchers to network & share discoveries! 🦠🧪 #medsky #medsky

092

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 12/11/2025

ASM NW was wonderful this year! In addition to the great science, this trainee-focused meeting plays such an important role in providing the next generation of scientists, microbiologists, and clinicians an opportunity to learn, network, and share their own research. 🧪🦠

Photo of the Baylink lab group that attended ASMNW.

091

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 28/10/2025

#BLAST A great lab to investigate bacterial locomotion and signal transduction! #microsky #idsky 🧪🦠🧫

021

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 28/09/2025

You can also stop reviewing for that journal and not publish there yourself. Of course there will be real scientific disagreements that an editor will need to make a judgement call for the appropriate course of action. Yours doesn’t sound like such a case.

020

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 25/09/2025

Good question. It is a cycle. Ticks feed on an infected animal and acquire the bacteria (from ingesting the blood), and then pass it on to other animals/humans.

000

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Absolutely! In general, motile bacteria can literally swim circles around phagocytes...

010

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

Unfortunately (as I am sure you know) many people are affected - a great reason for us to keep investigating potential new and more effective treatments.

020

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

The video captures frames every 1 s over a few minutes. The attached image shows a 'max' projection over 30 minutes that illustrates the path of their movement similar to a time-lapse.

An image that shows white wiggly lines that illustrate the paths of swimming bacteria.

020

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 24/09/2025

You’ve heard of #Lymedisease, but have you ever seen the bacteria that causes it? 🦠 Borrelia burgdorferi, the spiral-shaped culprit transmitted by ticks, swims with a creepy wriggling motion and uses #chemotaxis to navigate. Both fascinating... and disgusting #Microsky 🧪 #IDsky @shawlab.bsky.social

76915

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

🚨 Postdoctoral Position 🚨 Investigate molecular mechanisms of protein homeostasis in Salmonella during infection! Strong background in biochemistry/molecular biology encouraged. 📩 Send CV, publications, and statement to Eduardo A. Groisman at Yale: eduardo.groisman@yale.edu 🧪 #microsky 🦠 #BLAST

088

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 21/08/2025

I’m Arden, and my lab is trying to develop new antibiotics to treat bacterial infections! The lab is based at Washington State University in Pullman - Go Cougs!

0153

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Lots of new-to-protein-structure folks are using AF3, which is great! However, non-experts might be inclined to feed AF3 incorrect information, such as modeling a monomer when the biologically-relevant state is a dimer. We found this can decrease model accuracy due to missing tertiary interactions.

Impact of erroneous user input on AlphaFold 3 modeling of variant sites. Overlays show variant sites between the KatASS1 crystal structure (yellow) and AlphaFold three models generated with: (A–D) single-site mutations (green); (E–H) a single distant Trp insertion at the N-terminus (light purple) or C-terminus (dark purple); and (I–L) the correct sequence modeled with incorrect oligomeric states: monomer (light orange), dimer (orange), and trimer (dark orange). (M–P) Root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) calculations for all heavy atoms when comparing the AlphaFold three models to the crystal structure.

010

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Antibiotic resistance and immunogenicity are impacted by small variations in protein sequence but it isn't feasible to experimentally determine structures for the many thousands of variants that exist in nature. In this particular system AF3 generated extremely accurate models for variant sites.

000

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

We had a crystal structure of Helicobacter catalase collecting dust, so decided to turn it into an Alphafold test case for modeling natural protein variants, i.e. proteins with small sequence differences. Study published here: journals.asm.org/eprint/J45UR...

journals.asm.org

AlphaFold 3 accurately models natural variants of Helicobacter pylori catalase KatA | Microbiology Spectrum

Experimental structure determination is rarely performed for natural protein variants possessing only minor amino acid differences from published structures, even though small substitutions can signif...

122

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 12/08/2025

Wonderful how Alphafold has opened up protein structure prediction to non-experts but you still have to feed it correct information (like oligomeric state!). A small test case shows AF3 makes excellent guesses on natural variants but inaccuracies occur from dubious user inputs. #microsky #IDsky 🧪🦠

Comparisons of crystal structure and AlphaFold 3 models of KatASS1. (A) Overlay of crystal structure KatASS1 (two chains, yellow) and crystal structures of KatA26659 (light gray, four chains). Variant sites are noted in pink. (B–E) Poses of variant residues within KatASS1, as indicated. KatASS1 crystal structure chains are shown in yellow and KatA26995 crystal structure chains in light gray. Green mesh is mFo-DFc omit map electron density at 3.5 σ averaged over the two non-crystallographic symmetry (NCS) chains, and dark blue mesh is 2mFo-DFc NCS-averaged electron density at 1.0 σ of the final model. (F) Overlay of the KatASS1 crystal structure (yellow) with three AlphaFold 3 models (light blue, blue, and dark blue) using native sequence and tetramer oligomerization as input parameters. (G–J). Overlay of each variant residue comparing crystal structure (yellow) positions to AlphaFold three predictions (blue). (K). Global root-mean-square-deviation (RMSD) values for each structure and model in relation to crystal structure KatASS1 chain A.

240

Reposted by Baylink Lab

Christine Moissl-Eichinger @chmoei.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

🚨 2 funded #PhD positions (ERC Adv Grant) in the Moissl-Eichinger Lab, Graz! Study Methanobrevibacter as a keystone in the gut microbiome. 💡 Omics, modeling, synthetic consortia 📅 Deadline: Sept 10, 2025 🌍 Int’l applicants welcome! Application link below. #microbiomesky #archaeasky #microsky

11917

Reposted by Baylink Lab

Smriti Mallapaty @smritimallapaty.bsky.social · 30/07/2025

Talent recruitment programmes have enticed many researchers to return to China. But how successful have they been? I spoke with several researchers who have analysed these trends and assessed their impact on China's research ecosystem 🧪

nature.com

How China’s bold talent recruitment has shaped science

Many Chinese researchers have received enviable benefits and positions after returning from training abroad.

1155

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Well now Im learning new things about indole! When we work with the bottle in dry format it is a bit pungent but not so bad as 💩

110

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

Some behind-the-scenes insight on the research for non-experts. And FYI, the 'stinky' indole for poo we studied here is actually a major ingredient in lots of perfumes. Turns out it smells better at low concentrations! news.wsu.edu/press-releas...

news.wsu.edu

Disease-causing bacteria can deal with stink as long as they get a meal

New WSU research shows gut pathogens like Salmonella will brave a toxic chemical to reach nutrients, offering insights for treating infections.

000

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 15/07/2025

In our new study in @elife.bsky.social with the cheeky title "Navigating Contradictions" we used these tiny glass needles to study chemotaxis & learn how Salmonella and other gut pathogens make decisions when they encounter conflicting stimuli. #microsky #IDsky 🦠🧪 #gastrosky tinyurl.com/yckdn8v6

Shown is Dr. Baylink holding a tiny glass needle known as a microcapillary. This was used to study chemotaxis by injecting chemical effectors into a pond of motile bacteria and monitoring their responses through microscopy.

3121

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Lab website: sites.rutgers.edu/ann-stock-lab/. Applicants can apply at jobs.rutgers.edu/postings/254... and by email to stock@cabm.rutgers.edu

sites.rutgers.edu

Ann Stock Laboratory

020

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

🚨 Postdoc Opportunity – Rutgers University! Join Ann Stock’s lab to study how Bacteroides regulate fiber and glycan metabolism via hybrid two-component systems. Structural + regulatory biology | CryoEM, crystallography, gene regulation 🔗 Apply | 🔬 Lab 📧 stock@cabm.rutgers.edu #postdoc #microsky 🧪🦠

21010

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 26/06/2025

And this also biases the directions and priorities of science in ways that don’t necessarily reflect the values of the broader public.

030

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Do yours ever resemble much of the finished product?

100

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 24/06/2025

Scientists: anyone else's first draft of manuscript figures look like these? 🧪 #chemotaxis #microsky #motility

4271

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

Thank you - your point is made. Any specifics? Genuinely asking and collecting different perspectives on this.

100

Baylink Lab @baylinklab.bsky.social · 21/06/2025

At @wsuvetmed.bsky.social we are launching a new program to help students bridge the gap to careers in the biomedical industry. What skills and experiences should we focus on to better prepare and connect our trainees with industry opportunities? 🧪🦠 #microsky #medsky #WSU

a crowd of students and mentors at the Esch LEAD advisory retreat

261