Valdivia Lab
@ValdiviaLab
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Durham, North Carolina
Joined August 2019
The @DukeU Light Microscopy Core Facility (LMCF) is hiring a microscopy specialist to assist w users & trainings. Experience and/or interest in speciality tech welcome - esp for our new LUMICKS C-trap. Lots of confocal / time lapse / super-res too. Apply:
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Read Heran Darwins and co-authors new piece on confusion! @HeranDarwin @AldridgeLab @jcslab @ShenLabTufts -> https://t.co/5PozKe70rV
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The Brodsky lab is looking for a senior research investigator! If you have 5+ yrs post-PhD research experience, are interested in innate immunity/host-pathogen interactions & want an exciting, collaborative environment with great colleagues, please apply:
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Universities can help by allowing us to pay postdocs more competitive salaries
The NIH Advisory Committee to the Director is starting a working group on “Re-envisioning NIH-supported Postdoctoral Training.” Slide deck here has some data and details: https://t.co/CL1TocMbAP What would you like them to know? What would you like them to do?
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We bid farewell to @eldoles and @durstingly, two outstanding scientists and colleagues. The positive impact of their contributions, both as mentors to junior lab members and in their research projects, will be felt for years. Best of luck with the next adventure!
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My lab is hiring at all levels. We are looking for talented and motivated people to work on Chlamydia-host interaction related projects. Please RT and email me directly if interested.
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Wonderful program!
Please share broadly: The BioCoRE application for the 2023-2024 school year is now live! Prospective students can apply here: https://t.co/D9kyraZwYR If you'd like to learn more about our program before applying, you can visit our webpage:
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Bittersweet day as we wish @lauren282012 a safe trip to 🇨🇦 to start her own lab at @uvic Her work on #Akkermansia genetics has been foundational. In her honor we had 🥞 and celebrated all things Canadian
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Useful guidelines! The Dos and Don'ts of Text Recycling | https://t.co/3Mj1gxrcHa
asm.org
To avoid text recycling in scientific writing, authors often rework text, which may deceptively frame content as original and create inconsistencies. Standard guidelines for text recycling are needed.
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My #microbiology students prepare an infographic on a microbe for their final project. They can choose virus, eukaryote, archaeon or bacterium... What is your favorite microbe? Does not need to be a pathogen!
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So what does this mean? It is possible that metabolites produced during mucin consumption dampen the expression of lipid metabolism genes. Whether this contributes to the positive effects of Akkermansia on metabolic health remains TBD. Lots to do but stoked that we now have tools
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Finally, we asked how does the GI respond to mucin consumption by Akkermansia? We used GF mice mono-colonized with wt or Mul mutants and did RNAseq from colons. One of the strongest differences was the repression of mevalonate/cholesterol biosynthetic genes in WT Akkermansia
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MUL mutants were perfectly capable of colonizing GF animals. But they failed miserably if there were other microbes around. Therefore, the ability to use mucins gives Akkermansia a competitive edge
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We identified two loci encoding genes that may be distantly related to PUL systems of Bacteroides- we named these MULs for mucin utilization loci. One of the predicted proteins in one of these loci is Amuc1100, a factor previously associated with immunomodulation
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IN/TnSeq in mice confirmed that the same genes needed for growth in mucin were also needed to colonize GF and CONV mice... and Muc2KO mice (lack major GI mucin). So food sources in the GI are more diverse
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We next applied IN/TnSeq to probe the genetic requirements for mucin use. Bottom line: Akkermansia needs to synthesize many of their own AA to grow only in mucin, lots of redundancy among glycoside hydrolases, and most genes are of unknown function 🙄
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Using FITC-labeled mucin we watched the process in live cells: it is selective, dynamic, and involves the formation of mucin-rich foci at the bacterial surface, pili, and eventual accumulation in "mucinosomes" (blame @valdi001 for the term). Are these paryphoplasms? TBD...
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What did we learn? Akkermansia can internalize chunks of mucin glycans that accumulate in internal compartments not unlike what has been seen in marine Verrucomicrobiae that eat glycans. The genetics points to "selfish" eating with most of the processing occurring within bacteria
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Finally! The culmination of almost 5 yrs of work by the brave Akkermaniacs team @DukeMGM. @lauren282012 developed genetics for Akkermansia, an important member of the human microbiota that was until recently considered genetically intractable
researchsquare.com
Akkermansia muciniphila, a prominent member of the gastrointestinal tract (GI) microbiota, uses mucins as a sole source of carbon and nitrogen. A. muciniphila is considered a next-generation probio...
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