Show Notes
This release contains only the music track from Base by Base Episode 407.
Song title: Lock the Metals Away
Original Base by Base episode: 407: SLC11A2 withholds metals from Salmonella in the gut epithelium
Article metadata:
Article title: SLC11A2 withholds divalent metals from
Salmonella
in the gut epithelium
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2532675123
Reference: Norberg ES, Knodler LA, et al. SLC11A2 withholds divalent metals from Salmonella in the gut epithelium. PNAS. 2026;123:e2532675123. doi:10.1073/pnas.2532675123
Lyrics:
Verse 1
In the gut where the neon microscopes glow,
A shadow slips in where the warm cells grow.
It thinks it can settle, it thinks it can stay,
But the pantry is closing—no feast today.
Pre-Chorus
You can hide in a bubble, build walls in the dark,
But we hear your hunger like a tiny spark.
We cut the supply lines, quiet and sure,
Starve out the storm with a natural cure.
Chorus
Lock the metals away, let the invader wait,
Iron and manganese—seal that gate.
In the vacuole night, watch the numbers fall,
No fuel for the fire when we withhold it all.
Lock the metals away, no easy win,
You can’t grow in a house you can’t eat within.
Verse 2
Some cells see the signal—low down to the bone,
Less than a whisper of iron to own.
A transporter pulls up like a guard on call,
Turns the lights down low inside the wall.
Bridge
Try to steal it back with a desperate plan,
MntH on the run, siderophores in hand.
But every bright grab meets a colder defense,
We tighten the silence with patient suspense.
Final Chorus
Lock the metals away, let the invader wait,
Iron and manganese—seal that gate.
In the vacuole night, watch the numbers fall,
No fuel for the fire when we withhold it all.
Lock the metals away, feel the pressure shift,
A hidden kind of power, a cellular gift.
