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UW Microbiology

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  • southlakia epibionticum

    Interspecies Interactions

    The tiny obligate parasitic bacterium Southlakia epibionticum(yellow) cultured on its host bacterium, Actinomyces israelii (blue)

    Image credit: Drs. Larry Gallagher and Joseph Mougous

  • listeria infecting cells

    Cell Biology of Bacterial Infection

    Listeria monocytogenes (green) interacting with macrophages (red/blue). 

    Credit: Michelle Reniere

  • Bacterial Self-Organization

    Bacterial Self-Organization

    Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells that engage (magenta) or don’t (green) in collective behavior spontaneously self organize in cellular aggregates (3D image acquired by confocal laser scanning microscopy).

    Credit: Jeffrey Carey and Matt Parsek

  • phage antagonize CRISPR

    Phage antagonize CRISPR-Cas Immunity

    Cryo-EM structure of a phage-encoded anti-CRISPR protein (blue) in complex with the RNA-targeting CRISPR effector Cas13 (gray) and its guide RNA (red).

    Credit: Alex Meeske

  • uropathogenic

    Emergence of Highly Pathogenic Clones of Escherichia coli

    Genetic typing of uropathogeic E. coli reveals strong association of some clones with high sensitivity or extreme resistance to multiple antibiotics.

    Courtesy: Sokurenko Lab

  • greenberg

    Quorum sensing in Vibrio fischeri

    Lux genes coding for light production are activated by quorum sensing at high cell density. The light produced by the bacteria exposed the film for the image.

    Courtesy: Greenberg Lab

  • Pseudomonas aeruginosa in co-culture

    Pseudomonas aeruginosa in co-culture

    Structural component of bacterial targeting type VI secretion system P. aeruginosa (green) assembled in presence of competitor organism (red).

    Courtesy of: Mougous Lab

  • envelope

    HIV-1 Envelope Evolution

    Reconstructed phylogenetic network of HIV-1 envelope sequences (C2-V5) from subtype B.

    Courtesy of: Mullins Lab

  • biofilm

    Pseudomonas aeruginosa

    Colonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa expressing different amounts of exopolysaccharides.

    Courtesy of: Harwood Lab

  • yopm

    YopM Crystal Structure

    Crystal structure of the Yersinia virulence protein YopM

    Courtesy of: Cookson Lab

News & Updates

Dr. Jordan

Assistant Professor Tristan Jordan has been awarded 5 years of funding through the prestigious NIH DP2 New Innovator Award. Congratulations Dr. Jordan!

Dr. Meeske - immunologist, virologist

Congratulations to Dr. Alex Meeske on being named a 2024 Rita Allen Foundation Scholar for his work demistifying the genomic 'dark matter' of bacterial immune systems. Click here to learn more about the award the Rita Allen Foundation.

Prof. Lagunoff

Professor Michael Lagunoff has been selected as Co-Director of the Seattle Molecular & Cell Biology PhD program, spanning research labs at UW, FHCC and beyond. Congratulations Dr. Lagunoff!

Prof. Staley

The Department mourns the loss of Jim Staley, who served on the faculty from 1982 until his retirement in 2008. During that time, he wrote and published Microbial Life and Microbiology Dynamics & Diversity, and served as the Founding Director of the Astrobiology Program from 1998-2005. He became a Bergey’s Manual Trustee in 1976, Chair of Bergey’s Trust in 2000, and retired from the Trust at the mandatory age of 70 in 2008, the same year he received the Bergey Medal. During his chairmanship, he initiated and served as President of Bergey's International Society for Microbial Systematics (BISMiS) from 2009 - May 2011. Jim was a member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) for more than 50 years and received the US Federation of

Upcoming Events

Seminar
Journal Club
Brotman Auditorium
Speaker:
Sarina Kao
Seminar
Dr. Carrie Harwood
Orin Smith Auditorium
Speaker:
Dr. Carrie Harwood

Recent Publications

Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology
Jan, 2025
Smith JG, Lopazanski C, Free CM, Brun J, Anderson C, Carr MH, Claudet J, Dugan JE, Eurich JG, Francis TB, Gill DA, Hamilton SL, Kaschner K, Mouillot D, Raimondi PT, Starr RM, Ziegler SL, Malone D, Marraffini ML, Parsons-Field A, ...
Nature genetics
Jan, 2025
Weng LC, Rämö JT, Jurgens SJ, Khurshid S, Chaffin M, Hall AW, Morrill VN, Wang X, Nauffal V, Sun YV, Beer D, Lee S, Nadkarni GN, Duong T, Wang B, Czuba T, Austin TR, Yoneda ZT, Friedman DJ, Clayton A, ...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
Dec, 2024
Aditham AK, Radford CE, Carr CR, Jasti N, King NP, Bloom JD
Journal of virology
Dec, 2024
Arnold EA, Smith JR, Leung K, Nguyen DH, Kelnhofer-Millevolte LE, Guo MS, Smith JG, Avgousti DC
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
Dec, 2024
Malladi SK, Jaiswal D, Ying B, Alsoussi WB, Darling TL, Dadonaite B, Civljak A, Horvath SC, Zhou JQ, Kim W, Turner JS, Schmitz AJ, Han F, Scheaffer SM, Farnsworth CW, Nachbagauer R, Nestorova B, Chalkias S, Klebert MK, Edwards DK, ...
bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology
Dec, 2024
Keener RM, Shi S, Dalapati T, Wang L, Reinoso-Vizcaino NM, Luftig MA, Miller SI, Wilson TJ, Ko DC
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Dec, 2024
Srinivas P, Peterson SB, Gallagher LA, Wang Y, Mougous JD
Viruses
Nov, 2024
Wu EY, Robertson AM, Zhu HH, Stasiak C, Murray-Nerger LA, Romanoff E, Woon J, Bromme BA, Smith JG

Fast Facts

More than 175 undergraduate majors and 40 graduate students
Five National Academy of Sciences Members
Twelve American Academy of Microbiology Fellows
2023 publications