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Lori L. Burrows

@dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social
839 followers 557 following 48 posts

Retired microbiologist, McMaster U 🇨🇦 • type IV pili, phages, biofilms, antibiotic resistance • equestrian🐴 • cancer survivor🎗️

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Reposted by Lori L. Burrows
Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Excited to share our new paper out today in @science.org 🎉 We show that HGT via natural competence drives diversification of chromosomal integrons in V. cholerae 🤩 Below a 🧵 on key findings incl. background on natural competence in V. cholerae 1/ #microsky #phagesky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 30/03/2026
We are really interested in #phages that use the type IV pilus as receptors, and the ways in which bacteria - like #Pseudomonas - try to escape those phages without crippling themselves permanently in the process. healthsci.mcmaster.ca/hiding-in-pl... @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social
healthsci.mcmaster.ca
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Footnote: Thanks to the @guarnelab.bsky.social for solving the structure of the most common group I pilin, back in the pre-Alphafold days!! We must remember that Alphafold only works well now because people painstakingly solved experimental structures to train it in the first place 💟
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
This work shows how closely related phages can evolve to recognize a wide range of hosts using tail fibre modules tolerant of receptor modifications, and links host range to tail fibre architecture. It can inform the selection of broad-host-range phages for treating tough #Pseudomonas infections.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Ikram and Hanjeong tested additional members of the JBD26-like and DMS3-like classes and showed they followed the same pattern of sensitivity to changes in pilin sequence, with DMS3-like being tolerant of mutations as well as post-translational modifications.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Ikram did a deep bioinformatic dive and found that JBD26-like and DMS-like tails were modular, diverging sharply at the C-terminal receptor recognition domain. JBD26-like tails were conserved while DMS3-like were diverse and found in many phage families, consistent with broad receptor recognition.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Using a related pair of phages with narrow (JBD26) and broad (DMS3) pilin recognition, plus a chimeric phage (JBD26 expressing DMS3 tail fibres), we examined whether pilus electrostatics impacted recognition. Mutation of specific charged residues dramatically reduced infectivity, but only for JBD26.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
To study the implications, we built a pilin library in PAO1, and compared the ability of polyclonal #antisera vs #phages to recognize diverse pilins. While antibodies were highly selective for their cognate antigens, some phages could recognize almost all of the pilins! But how could they do that??
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
During my sabbatical I wanted to learn more bioinformatics, so spent 2 months learning Python and building a dataset from over 1360 genomes of 5 groups of highly diverse T4aP #Pseudomonas #pilins mapped to the strains' MLSTs. We identified over 50 distinct pilins and over 300 pilin-MLST combos.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
New paper showing how tailed #phages recognize diverse #Pseudomonas #T4P! Outstanding work by PhD candidate Ikram Qaderi, building on work started a decade ago during my sabbatical in the McArthur lab and in collaboration with the Guarné lab, now at #McGill. @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social
QR code to access 'Structural diversification of phage tail fibres enables recognition of diverse type IV pili'
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 12/03/2026
Cracked, but still there: the glass ceiling persists for senior women in science www.nature.com/articles/d41...
nature.com
Cracked, but still there: the glass ceiling persists for senior women in science
To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, Mangala Srinivas reminds junior colleagues that career success won’t protect you from gender-based bias.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
They don't want the link posted for security reasons but you can sign up here! docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
docs.google.com
Registration form for iVoM4
After submitting this form, you will receive the instructions to join our webinars at the email address you provide.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Aqs1's mode of binding can inform development of allosteric inhibitors of PilB-like enzymes that power important virulence traits in many bacterial pathogens. This work also revealed the stabilizing role of the PilB linker which is absent in xray and cryo structures and poorly modeled by AI. Enjoy!
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Even though DMS3 is a #Pseudomonas #phage, Nathan showed that Aqs1 could inhibit the function of other #T4P family ATPases, including #T2SS GspE, PilB from #Stenotrophomonas (twitching) and PilB from #Acinetobacter (DNA uptake). These data point to a new allosteric vulnerability of PilB homologues.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Nathan found that Aqs1 binds a hydrophobic pocket on the N2 domain of PilB, displacing the poorly characterized hydrophobic linker segment connecting N1 and N2 that is important for stabilizing the hexamer. Vero Taylor (Maxwell lab) showed that adding Aqs1 causes PilB hexamers to break apart!
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
New paper alert! Outstanding work by PhD candidate Nathan Roberge, great collab with the Ellison and Maxwell labs. #Pseudomonas #phage DMS3 encodes Aqs1, an inhibitor of #T4P assembly ATPase PilB, but how it binds and leads to loss of function was unknown. @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
You're right - starts at NOON EDT!
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 11/03/2026
Correction on the start time - NOON EDT! Clearly I'm not awake because of the recent switch to daylight savings time.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 10/03/2026
Join us online tomorrow 11am EDT to catch PhD candidate Veronica Tran talking about work from her recently accepted mBio paper on #Pseudmonas mutants selected by type IV pilus-targeting #phages! @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social @mcmasternexus.bsky.social
webinar speaker descriptions
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Reposted by Lori L. Burrows
Yves Brun lab @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
🧵 Proud to present a tour de force by postdoc @gregbwhitfield.bsky.social solving the mystery of how bacterial Tad pili can extend and retract with a single motor ATPase. Great collaboration with Lynne Howell, @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social, @ianyyen.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Beautiful, now I can retire 😁
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Happy International Day for Women and Girls in Science! @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social @mcmasternexus.bsky.social @mcmasteruniversity.bsky.social
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Reposted by Lori L. Burrows
George O'Toole (he/him/his) @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social · 16/01/2026
Summer REU in biofilms! Pls share. www.binghamton.edu/centers/biof...
binghamton.edu
Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) | Biofilm Research Center | Binghamton University
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 14/01/2026
Are you trying to kill #MRSA? The Burrows & the Pinho labs are too, and we found that an old anti-inflammatory compound can resensitize it to pen G and other beta lactams in a wall teichoic acid-dependent way, but unlike other WTA adjuvants. @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
A bar graph showing the differences in fractional inhibitory concentrations of beta lactam-adjuvant combinations against MRSA versus MSSA, where synergy is lost in MSSA.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Now available - PhD student Veronica Tran reviews the importance of identifying & reporting #phage receptors to build better therapeutic cocktails with diverse #bacteriophages for tough pathogens like #Pseudomonas journals.asm.org/doi/epub/10.... @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social @mcmasternexus.bsky.social
journals.asm.org
Steering the course: targeting and exploiting surface receptors in phage therapy
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Reposted by Lori L. Burrows
Council of Canadian Academies/Conseil des académies canadiennes @cca-reports.ca · 18/11/2025
The report, issued Tuesday by the Council of Canadian Academies, takes a comprehensive look at the state of science and technology in Canada – the first such assessment since 2018. At its focus is the role that research and development plays in economic growth across the country.
theglobeandmail.com
Canada’s research and scientific spending is declining relative to other nations, report says
Low rate of R&D investment plays key role in productivity crisis, according to Council of Canadian Academies
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
New paper alert! PhD candidate Veronica Tran asked what types of resistance mutations were selected in #Pseudomonas by type IV pilus-specific #phages & whether they were reversible, Qs relevant to #phagetherapy - she got some interesting answers! Read the paper here: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 13/10/2025
New paper alert! We used our fav technique, genetic suppression, to understand how FimX controls function of the T4P PilB motor ATPase in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Great collab with the Ellison lab at U Georgia who helped with some fancy microscopy to capture pilus dynamics! doi.org/10.1371/jour...
doi.org
Twitching motility suppressors reveal a role for FimX in type IV pilus extension dynamics
Author summary Type IV pili enable Pseudomonas aeruginosa to attach to surfaces, move (twitch), and form biofilms. Pilus extension is powered by the motor protein PilB, which is regulated by other fac...
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
New paper! Specific PilA and PilY1 sequences make PilU dispensable for T4P-dependent twitching motility in P. aeruginosa. However, most suppressors still had high cAMP levels from loss of PilU, showing that motility and surface sensing responses can be uncoupled.🧐 ⏩ journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org
Separation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa type IV pilus-dependent twitching motility and surface-sensing responses | mBio
The ability of bacteria to sense and respond to contact with surfaces is important for triggering changes in secondary messenger levels and gene expression, leading to the formation of biofilms and in...
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Reposted by Lori L. Burrows
Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 05/10/2025
@knutdrescher.bsky.social is advertising a PhD position in their group in Basel 🇨🇭 with a focus on bacterial biofilms Application deadline: 14 November 2025 www.biozentrum.unibas.ch/open-positio...
biozentrum.unibas.ch
PhD student – Bacterial biofilms
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Reposted by Lori L. Burrows
Jon Gewirtzman @jgewirtzman.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
Such a fun project & massive team effort. We sampled tree cores my 1st yr of grad school then took a year to figure out how to grind wood… ! But we were amazed to find such a complex & unexpected ecosystem inside trees. And we’ve just scratched the surface! We explored 150 trees— 3 trillion to go!
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Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Zip "prevents internalization and destruction of newly released phage progeny, a phenomenon that we call the anti-Kronos effect after the Greek god who consumed his offspring. Zip activity promotes the accumulation of free phages in bacterial lysogen communities, thereby enhancing viral spread."
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 15/07/2025
New paper alert! PhD candidate Nathan Roberge is studying regulation of the #T4P assembly ATPase PilB and identified suppressors of FimX with enhanced motility. Where did they map? Find out here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Twitching motility suppressors reveal a role for FimX in type IV pilus extension dynamics
In Pseudomonas aeruginosa, retractable protein filaments called type IV pili (T4P) facilitate surface adherence, sensing, and directional movement known as twitching motility. T4P are necessary for th...
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 24/04/2025
Lovely work by @ianyyen.bsky.social and @gregwhitfield99.bsky.social on the bifunctional ATPase that powers assembly and disassembly of #T4cP type IV pili! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Conformational changes in the motor ATPase CpaF facilitate a rotary mechanism of Tad pilus assembly - Nature Communications
The bacterial Tad pilus extends and retracts using a single bifunctional ATPase CpaF. Here, the authors employ cryo-EM, fluorescent microscopy, and AlphaFold modelling to propose how a rotary mechanis...
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Nifty - circular pilins! Cryo-EM structure of the conjugation H-pilus reveals the cyclic nature of the TrhA pilin | PNAS www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
PNAS
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a peer reviewed journal of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) - an authoritative source of high-impact, original research that broadly spans...
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
While I watch chaotic dismantling efforts in the name of efficiency: 'Few humans on their deathbed have celebrated their achievement of “Inbox Zero.”' www.forkingpaths.co/p/against-op...
forkingpaths.co
Against Optimization
We are bombarded by messages telling us to worship the gods of efficiency and optimization, life hacking our way to prosperity. It's a trap. Resilience is a smarter, sturdier goal.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 03/02/2025
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
If I was 30 years younger...awesome lab!
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davidroper2.bsky.social @davidroper2.bsky.social · 17/01/2025
Please repost!!!!! Abstraction submission for the next Great Wall Symposium is now open! Come to Sicily in September and learn the latest on bacterial cell wall biology. thegreatwall-symposium.org/abstract-sub...
thegreatwall-symposium.org
Pre-registration and Abstract Submission - The Greatwall-symposium
Registration and abstract submission open on January 15th, 2025.The organizers will select the final list of participants based on abstract submission, particularly for young scientist, and the applic...
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 23/01/2025
Great week at BLAST XVIII in Cancún - terrific science and conversations with smart people, plus no polar vortex!
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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · 22/01/2025
Distribution of the four type VI secretion systems in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and classification of their core and accessory effectors @naturecomms.bsky.social from Daniel Unterweger www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Distribution of the four type VI secretion systems in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and classification of their core and accessory effectors - Nature Communications
Populations of a single bacterial species can possess a great diversity of type VI secretion systems (T6SSs) and secreted effectors. Here, Habich et al. apply molecular population genetics to the T6SS...
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davidroper2.bsky.social @davidroper2.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
Confirmed speakers for the next Great Wall Symposium is coming along! thegreatwall-symposium.org/program/ Abstracts will open next week 15th so start thinking! September 15-17th, Catania, Sicily Its a Microbiological opportunity you cant refuse!
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Carolyn Barber, MD @cbarbermd.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
“Now is the time to halt the spread of #H5N1 that is encroaching all around us.”—Bright 6 steps that Biden or Trump admin can take now to prevent a pandemic... fortune.com/well/2025/01... #BlueSky  #MedSky 🧪 #IDSky #scisky #medtwitter #EMSky #EMedSky #nurseSky #MedEd #fmSky #PedSky #birdflu
fortune.com
Bird flu will be the next pandemic unless health officials take 6 critical steps, experts say
The time for urgency, the experts say, is now.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
🤯
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Petra Dersch @pdersch.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
Another newly discovered mechanism of bacteria inhibiting competitors - increasing their sensitivity to phages - fascinating www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Streptomyces secretes a siderophore that sensitizes competitor bacteria to phage infection - Nature Microbiology
A secondary metabolite sensitizes competitor Bacillus subtilis to a wide panel of lytic phages by sequestering iron and preventing the activation of Spo0A.
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Lori L. Burrows @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Trojan horse peptide conjugates remodel the activity spectrum of clinical antibiotics doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
doi.org
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Knut Drescher @knutdrescher.bsky.social · 06/01/2025
We found that many bacterial species use exogenous peptidoglycan fragments - released by lysis of neighboring cells - as a general danger signal, triggering a danger response that protects bacteria against many dangers: biofilm formation. Details here 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Bacteria use exogenous peptidoglycan as a danger signal to trigger biofilm formation - Nature Microbiology
Peptidoglycan released by neighbouring kin or non-kin cell lysis induces physiological changes that protect from a range of stresses, including phage predation.
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Petra Dersch @pdersch.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Peptidoglycan as danger signal promotes biofilm formation - great article by the Drescher lab www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Bacteria use exogenous peptidoglycan as a danger signal to trigger biofilm formation - Nature Microbiology
Peptidoglycan released by neighbouring kin or non-kin cell lysis induces physiological changes that protect from a range of stresses, including phage predation.
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Thom Booth @thombooth.bsky.social · 04/01/2025
Lay abstracts are hard. It's surprisingly difficult to thread the needle between: "Streptomyces are Gram-positive actinobacteria that biosynthesise a spectrum of bioactive metabolites," and "There is a tiny magic creature that lives in the soil and will make the bad-bad go away." 🧪🦠
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Phage papers @phagepapers.bsky.social · 05/01/2025
Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Jumbo Phage HPP-Temi Infecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pa9 and Increasing Host Sensitivity to Ciprofloxacin. DOI: 10.3390/antibiotics13111006 pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39596701
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Isolation and Characterization of a Novel Jumbo Phage HPP-Temi Infecting Pseudomonas aeruginosa Pa9 and Increasing Host Sensitivity to Ciprofloxacin - PubMed
<span><i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> is a bacteria responsible for many hospital-acquired infections. Phages are promising alternatives for treating <i>P. aeruginosa</i> infections, which are often intrinsically resistant. The combination of phage and antibiotics in clearing bacterial infection holds promi</span> …
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