Catherine Armbruster

biofilmmaker | assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon | opportunistic pathogens in built environment & infection

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

The Armbruster Lab is officially open in the Department of Biological Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh! We're studying how bacteria in biofilms persist in the built environment & transition into the host to cause infections. Happy to be here! 🤓

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

Thank you to the Allegheny Branch of ASM for a Peggy Cotter Travel Award to attend #asm2026 in DC! 🙏 Postdocs and early career faculty, check it out via your local ASM Branch: https://t.co/pLHOUMq10c

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

Gearing up for my first visit to @ASMicrobiology conference since 2011 in New Orleans, when it was called the General Meeting! I’m participating in a panel called: “Poster to Paper — Ask the Experts” on Sunday, June 7 from 11:15am–12:00pm ET. See you in DC! 🫡 #asm2026

[Cameron Thrash @jcamthrash]

Student-Driven Microbiome Exploration: A Low-Cost 16S rRNA Sequencing Curriculum for Undergraduate Biology Education https://t.co/YMPXEjAZb8

[ASM @ASMicrobiology]

Since its first isolation in 1935, several thousand Clostridioides difficile isolates have been collected & analyzed. In #ClinMicroRev: an overview of the current C. difficile population structure, including a summary of the 5 main clades. Read now: https://t.co/yGmV5IGOJI

[Nature Microbiology @NatureMicrobiol]

Bacteria covalently incorporate polyfluoroalkyl carboxylates into membrane lipids https://t.co/bBtlhIZASF #MicroSky

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

Congrats to Anish Pyne (@ani_mrprfct) for winning the People’s Choice Award in tonight’s 3 Minute Thesis competition @CarnegieMellon 🥳🥳🥳 @CMU_Bio

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

My lab went outside! Check out this article (and video!) about a new project in my lab @CmuScience https://t.co/YpsQmyFrsw

[mBio @mbiojournal]

🎉Congratulations to #mBio Editors Jorge Vidal (@JorgeEVidal1), Jacob Yount (@YountLabOSU), and Birgit Scharf (of @VT_Biology) and Senior Editor Tom Coenye (of @LPM_UGent) on their election to the American Academy of Microbiology! 👏 https://t.co/nz8FnglcBo

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

We call it Greenfield to confuse the Vikings. #pittsburgh

[Trends in Microbiology @TrendsMicrobiol]

Emerging advances in prokaryotic transposition: TnPedia as a promising tool https://t.co/KVzNG7no4D

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

Congrats to Erin and Betsy for passing their qualifying exams last week!!!! Officially 3 PhD candidates in the lab @CarnegieMellon now! 😎

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

Congrats to Sean, Will, and co-authors! Shoutout to
@CmuScience Quantitative Biology & Bioinformatics (QBB) MS student Isabelle D'Amico from my lab for her creative work on this cool collaboration! https://t.co/MDFpnxJ3T2

[Christian Kost @KostChristian]

Very cool paper by Jyotsna Kalathera et al. from @iamsamayp's-lab on

Bottleneck size drives the evolution of
cooperative traits in an aggregative multicellular
myxobacterium

just out @plosbiology

Congratulations to all coauthors.

https://t.co/KJB1o9es5n

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

In the same theme, TAs Betsy and Erin (PhD students in my lab) presented on thinking of migration of bacteria between upper & lower respiratory tract through the lens of island biogeography. Heavily inspired by this awesome paper & others https://t.co/vourvGUlDW

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

Our last two guest lectures in Ecology @CmuScience were part of our theme thinking of infection as an ecologist (human = environment). First, Dr. Yasmin Hilliam (Bomberger Lab at @GeiselMed) discussed how respiratory viruses change nutrients in airways, impacting microbiomes.

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

Our latest guest lecture in @CmuScience Ecology class was Dr. Gus Ramirez (@zombiephylotype) discussing research cruises, biogeochemistry, & microbe-octopi interactions at sea mounts. Stunning & mind boggling to hear how you sample this stuff that is 1000s of meters underwater.

[Anish Pyne @ani_mrprfct]

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the @2025ASMBiofilms in Portland, OR. It was an honor to be selected to present my research on the parallel evolution of a novel transcriptional regulator in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, conducted with @catarmbruster at @CarnegieMellon

[A. Murat Eren (Meren) @merenbey]

Starting this week, I set aside one hour each week to meet ECRs outside my group who want to discuss career development, mentorship, or any non-technical professional questions.

Blog post explains my motivation for this and how to schedule a meeting:

https://t.co/ZvaRZtY6QL

[Catherine Armbruster @catarmbruster]

Today’s guest speaker in Ecology @CarnegieMellon was perfect for Halloween: Arkadiy Garber @theironark from the McCutcheon Lab at ASU, discussing bacterial endosymbionts that support the junk food diets of sap-feeding insects! 😈

[Katalin Susztak @KSusztak]

Wow! A cGAS-mediated mechanism in naked mole-rats potentiates DNA repair and delays aging | @ScienceMagazine https://t.co/52glo5TvgI