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George Birchenough

@gobletcellguy.bsky.social

790 followers 1.2K following 47 posts

Updates from the Birchenough Lab, one of the Mucin Biology Groups based at the University of Gothenburg. All things goblet cell, mucus and mucin. Check us out: www.birchenoughlab.org https://www.medkem.gu.se/mucinbiology/

www.medkem.gu.se

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 11

Just in case any new #mucus, #Goblet cell or #mucin folks have joined up recently, we have a small but growing starter pack for this area - let me know if you want in 🫡
go.bsky.app/7Z84CmG

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Biomedical Picture of the Day BPoD @bpodaily.bsky.social · May 15

Microbiota colonising the new born colon prime goblet cells producing the gut-protective mucus

📷 Åsa Johansson et al @gobletcellguy.bsky.social
University of Gothenburg in @jem.org

➡️ bpod.org.uk/archive/2025...

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · May 5

Happy to see this finally published 🙌 Thanks to the editors and reviewers for the constructive process 😎

Journal of Experimental Medicine @jem.org · May 5

The colonic mucus barrier & sentinel goblet cells protect the distal gut from microbial challenges. Johansson, @gobletcellguy.bsky.social et al show that microbial colonization drives sequential development of both of these barrier mechanisms in the pre-weaning intestine. rupress.org/jem/article/...

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Apr 19

Here is black mirror's creator Charlie Brooker guest hosting a long running British satirical news show the same week that Trump was first elected, enjoy 🫠
youtu.be/LZIDgYEvDn4?...

Charlie Brooker HIGNFY Intro - 11/11/2016

YouTube video by BluebackHotrod

youtu.be

Reposted by George Birchenough

Lars Vereecke @larsvereecke.bsky.social · Mar 24

Abstract deadline for #GGIG2025 is approaching fast! Don’t miss your chance to share your research at the 5th Ghent Gut Inflammation Group Meeting! 🧬🦠 www.vibconferences.be/events/5th-g...

5th Ghent Gut Inflammation Group Meeting

15-16 May 2025, Ghent, Belgium Host-microbiota interactions in health and disease

www.vibconferences.be

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Mucosal Immunology @mucosalimmunol.bsky.social · Mar 28

Which cells use Myd88 to control Segmented Filamentous Bacteria colonization? Here work explores the hematopoietic MyD88/IL-22 axis during SFB growth. www.mucosalimmunology.org/article/S193...

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Mar 22

My colleague Sjoerd van der Post just quietly dropped a preprint defining the interaction of the #ETEC SPATE family enzyme EatA with intestinal Muc2, providing some fascinating insights into host specific #mucus degradation 🤯. Check it out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Degradation of the intestinal mucus layer by the ETEC protease EatA is species specific determined by the structure of the MUC2 mucin

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) infections are a leading cause of diarrheal illness, responsible for an estimated 100,000 deaths annually. ETEC pathogenesis is driven by various virulence fact...

www.biorxiv.org

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Mar 20

Nice discussion around the ongoing #glycoRNA debate, check out the comments

Chris Ashwood @cashwood.proteaglyco.com · Mar 18

Second preprint casting doubt on glycoRNA.
“we further demonstrate that recombinant soluble LAMP1 can be purified following the glycoRNA isolation method… thus representing a considerable source of glycans in samples of glycoRNA”
Still waiting for a journal publication of either preprint.

$Proteomics results from “glycoRNA” fraction analysis. The glycans bound to proteins are released by PNGase-F, which is suspiciously similar to proposed glycans bound to RNA.$

Reposted by George Birchenough

Lars Vereecke @larsvereecke.bsky.social · Mar 11

In our lates review, we explore new insights into the gut-joint axis, a connection is not absolute. A causal role for the microbiota is context-dependent, and arthritis can also arise independently through sterile mechanisms: authors.elsevier.com/a/1kkn55Eb0R...

#GutJointAxis

authors.elsevier.com

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 26

Say what now?!

Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · Feb 26

Happy to share this new #glycotime work with collaborator Tony Wyss-Coray, led by grad student Sophia Shi, mucin loss at the BBB is associated with aging and cognitive decline, can be reversed by restoration with with gene therapy. Aging is a mucinopathy!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Glycocalyx dysregulation impairs blood–brain barrier in ageing and disease - Nature

Disruption of mucin-domain glycoprotein expression and function in the endothelial glycocalyx are associated with ageing and Alzheimer’s disease, leading to dysregulated blood–brain barrier function.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by George Birchenough

RuthLeyMicro @microbiome.bsky.social · Feb 25

So excited to share this latest work by @kelseyhuus.bsky.social !!!
She shows that flagellin in the human gut affects whether or not people develop fever in response to vaccine, and the amount of flagellin reflects diet

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 23

Fair point, but I think there are issues with the paper itself - missing methods regarding enzymatic treatment of colonic mucus, amongst others.

George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 22

I think it's safe to say that the reviewers were not into glycobiology, which is a shame because it's the mechanistic basis of the paper.. 🫠

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 21

Here's another for you, also a Nature family journal funnily enough 😅:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Daniel Bojar @dbojar.bsky.social · Feb 18

glycowork v1.5 is now released! We're excited to see the cool things you'll be doing with it:-)

Lots of new & improved functionality, check out the Release notes for the full change log:

Release v1.5.0 · BojarLab/glycowork

Changelog [1.5.0] Added ✨ Added type hints to all functions (e6721a1) Added CodeCov shield to track PyTest test code coverage (23d6456) Added more PyTest unit tests (e.g., 0c94995, 23d6456, 5a99d6...

github.com

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Christian Diener @cdiener.com · Feb 18

Happy to announce that MEDI, our method to quantify dietary intake through metagenomics is out now. 🧬 🧪🧫🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s42...

#metagenomics #microbiome #microbiomesky

So what is MEDI? A combination of two things:

Metagenomic estimation of dietary intake from human stool - Nature Metabolism

Diener et al. present a method that allows the estimation of dietary intake from human stool by detecting food-derived DNA in faecal metagenomes.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Olivia Coleman @ocoleman.bsky.social · Feb 17

For all the #mucus fans out there who believe in our knight in slimy armour and want to join the starter pack 👇 contact @gobletcellguy.bsky.social
#mucusmatters

George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 11

Just in case any new #mucus, #Goblet cell or #mucin folks have joined up recently, we have a small but growing starter pack for this area - let me know if you want in 🫡
go.bsky.app/7Z84CmG

1 2

Reposted by George Birchenough

Hall Lab @halllab.bsky.social · Jan 11

1/ 🚨 New preprint alert! 🚨 We’re thrilled to share our latest work exploring microbiome & genomic #Bifidobacterium co-evolutionary & functional signatures across diverse animal hosts. This has been a long time coming, & huge credit to Magda for her incredible hard work as first author! 🐾✨👇

Host-specific microbiome and genomic signatures in Bifidobacterium reveal co-evolutionary and functional adaptations across diverse animal hosts

Animal hosts harbour divergent microbiota, including various Bifidobacterium species and strains, yet their evolutionary relationships, and functional adaptions remain understudied. By integrating tax...

doi.org

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 17

This was ultimately traced back to significant flagellar upreg in the FimH KO bugs, but I think that an important moral of the story here is that for highly motile bugs, the mucus "barrier" really isn't 🫣

George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 17

Interestingly loss of the #FimH adhesin disrupted UPEC mucosal associations in vivo, but weirdly dramatically increased its capacity to penetrate the mucus barrier ex vivo

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 17

This was a fun study from Scott Hultgrens lab that we contributed to, led by Philippe Azimzadeh, looking at #UPEC interactions with colonic #mucus:
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Mechanisms of uropathogenic E. coli mucosal association in the gastrointestinal tract

Inverse regulation of flagella and type 1 pili facilitates access to colon mucus by uropathogenic E. coli.

www.science.org

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Lucy Crouch @lucyicm.bsky.social · Jan 31

New paper out today from the lab on Akkermansia muciniphila 🦠and how it breaks down host glycans! Very proud of my group, especially @cassiebakshani.bsky.social who did an amazing job. @naturemicrobiol.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Carbohydrate-active enzymes from Akkermansia muciniphila break down mucin O-glycans to completion - Nature Microbiology

Biochemical characterization of 66 carbohydrate-active enzymes from the gut microorganism Akkermansia muciniphila reveals that these enzymes can break down a range of host glycans, including mucin, wh...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Maryse Berkhout @maryseberkhout.bsky.social · Feb 12

#microsky

Maryse Berkhout @maryseberkhout.bsky.social · Dec 11

📚 I am happy to share that our latest paper is out in Glycobiology!

🦠 We developed a synthetic community of human gut microbes that completely degrades mucin glycans.

🔬 We studied its enzymes and ecological interactions in vitro.

#glycotime #mucin #microbiome

academic.oup.com/glycob/artic...

Mucin-driven ecological interactions in an in vitro synthetic community of human gut microbes

Abstract. Specific human gut microbes inhabit the outer mucus layer of the gastrointestinal tract. Certain residents of this niche can degrade the large an

academic.oup.com

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Carolyn Bertozzi @carolynbertozzi.bskyverified.social · Feb 13

Discovery of a new Cu-dependent cellulose degrading enzyme for biomass conversion #glycotime (trying to overlook the extraneous proton, see if you can find it)

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A metagenomic ‘dark matter’ enzyme catalyses oxidative cellulose conversion - Nature

A metalloenzyme capable of oxidatively cleaving cellulose, found in a microbial community specialized in lignocellulose degradation, could enable sustainable biofuel production.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by George Birchenough

Kathryn Knoop, PhD @kknoop.bsky.social · Feb 14

Don’t miss #ASRI2025 in St. Paul Minnesota May 17-21. Check out fantastic talks on the Maternal, Fetal, and Neonatal Immunology and submit your abstract by 2/15! theasri.org/Abstracts-Po...

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George Birchenough @gobletcellguy.bsky.social · Feb 17

Huh, not sure why that link didn't work... anyway it's pinned to my profile 😆