iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Indeed, this would be interesting to look at! Because we think the mechanism we found is not specific to bladder epithelial cells, but any epithelial cell type or even different cell types.

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Take-home: Epithelial antimicrobial pathways can be pharmacologically reinforced, making the epithelium a worse hiding place is a promising complement to antibiotics.

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Key hallmarks hold in human bladder epithelial monolayers and in a new human bladder organoid model — with species-specific differences in autophagic flux regulation.

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

Is acidification actually required? Yes. Bafilomycin A1 or chloroquine abolished the protection entirely, with regrowth back to control levels. The lysosome isn't a bystander here.

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

RNA-seq flagged the lysosomal pathway as the top OM-89-induced signature. Imaging and experiments confirmed it: expanded Rab7+/Lamp1+ compartments, lower intraorganellar pH, more cathepsin L activity, and UPEC enriched near protease-active autolysosomes.

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

In mouse bladder organoids, OM-89 didn't kill bacteria on its own. But during antibiotic treatment it improved clearance and sharply reduced post-antibiotic regrowth — across 5 UPEC strains, including primary patient isolates, and independent of antibiotic class.

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

OM-89 is an oral E. coli lysate, prescribed for recurrent UTIs for nearly 40 years. It reduces recurrence in trials, but the cellular mechanism stayed unclear. Most work looked at immune cells. We looked at the bladder epithelium — where UPEC hides from antibiotics.

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

New in PLOS Pathogens 🎉 How does OM-89 (Uro-Vaxom) protect against recurrent UTIs? 🦠 Our paper: it activates lysosomes in bladder epithelial cells, pushing intracellular E. coli into acidic, protease-active compartments and improving antibiotic killing. 🧵 10.1371/journal.ppat.1014448 #UTISky #UPEC

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Such a waste of everyone's time, as I was really looking forward to a good review based on the title 😅

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Peer-reviewed a review lately. Clearly written by LLM hallucinating about UPEC biology and UTI treatments. Recommended rejection based on clearly wrong info that would be spread otherwise. Editor invited the authors for revisions. Luckily, after revisions performed by LLM, the editor rejected it 🫩

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 16/01/2026

and least your postdoc now knows they are not insane, but the science was faulty so start with

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

New paper in Applied and Environmental Microbiology! 📢 Under the lead of Pablo Molina, we introduce SimUrine, a fully defined synthetic urine medium for growth and antibiotic susceptibility testing of uropathogens under physiologically relevant conditions 🦠 journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... #UTISky

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

👉 Host-targeted immunity meets antibiotic synergy! We show that OM-89 reprograms bladder epithelial cells to boost their lysosomal activity and antibiotic uptake, helping clear intracellular UPEC. 📖 Read more: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #UTI #InfectiousDisease #HostDefense #Organoids #UTIsky

doi.org

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 03/10/2025

Almost 4 days of learning about teaching and mentoring. What an intense experience! Was it a lot? Yes. Was it fun? Oh yes! I learned more than expected. As scientist we have the responsibility to train the next generation. Let's do it the best possible way. 🤓 #teaching #workshops #EPFL #learning

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Had a blast at the New Approaches and Concepts in Microbiology Symposiums this week 🦠 Indeed my favorite meeting and even more so when I meet old and new friends! Not to forget to mention the party 😎 #EESMicrobiology @EMBLEvents

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Reposted by Kathrin Tomasek

Sara Mitri @saramitri.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

We are recruiting a tenure-track assistant professor in molecular microbiology in our department in Lausanne! Do consider appyling!!

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 17/04/2025

It's a wrap! Incredible science, people and discussions at the "New challenges in Microbial Eco-Evolutionary Medicine" workshop. Thank you @lizscurious.bsky.social for the invitation. It was a pleasure to talk about our research on recurrent #UTI using #organoids and collaboration with OM pharma.

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Reposted by Kathrin Tomasek

Nela Nikolic @nelani.bsky.social · 02/04/2025

Another PhD opportunity to join the growing Microbiology community in Southampton 💪 🦠 🔬 Interested in how bacteria adapt to challenges like temperature changes and antibiotics? Join my lab at UoS to explore the role of accessory elements! tinyurl.com/PhDbacteriaUoS Apply here: tinyurl.com/MicroUoS

tinyurl.com

Accessory Genomes and Evolutionary Strategies of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria at University of Southampton on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Accessory Genomes and Evolutionary Strategies of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria at University of Southampton, listed on FindAPhD.com

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

I'm for example incredible grateful for Daria Siekhaus who was and still is my mentor and role model. She always advised me to follow my passion 💚

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Being a woman in science can be challenging for many reasons. Having a supportive network (family, friends, mentors) is essential! If you want to go into STEM, go for it and find yourself a mentor. Female scientists are usually more than happy to share their experiences💚 youtube.com/shorts/9XnOb...

youtube.com

Women's Day Interviews 2025

YouTube video by EPFL School of Life Sciences

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 01/02/2025

Could you please add me too? :)

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Reposted by Kathrin Tomasek

Imaging & Optics Facility @ISTA @istaustria-iof.bsky.social · 16/01/2025

The Image & Optics Facility @ Institute of Science and Technology Austria is expanding it’s image analysis services and has a vacant position for a service oriented *Image Analysis Specialist* with a strong interest for data infrastructure organization🔬🧑‍💻📈 - sharing is much appreciated!

ista.ac.at

Job details

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Reposted by Kathrin Tomasek

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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Reposted by Kathrin Tomasek

SFM Microbial Pathogenesis @sfmpathogenesis.bsky.social · 27/12/2024

A simple ex vivo bladder infection model permits study of host-pathogen interactions in UTI ✍️Rixa-Mareike Köhn, Molly A Ingersoll and colleagues @institutcochin.bsky.social @pasteur.fr @aimi-uts.bsky.social #MicroSky #Infection #UTI www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Kathrin Tomasek @ktomasek.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

Had a great time at the first ever Klebsiella meeting taking place in Paris the past days. Lots of information and great science to digest for a non-Klebsiella person. We even had the first snow since years in Paris ❄️ #Klebs2024

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