Chen Zhang
@zchenstory.bsky.social
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📥 312
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Bacteriologist studying S-layer 🔬🦠🧬 Postdoc at Rudner lab @harvardmed. PhD alumni @epfl
reposted by
Chen Zhang
Jan-Willem Veening
7 days ago
Now online
@natmicrobiol.nature.com
!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
add a skeleton here at some point
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Chen Zhang
anna brogan
13 days ago
Fer’s tour de force in B. anthracis is out! Fer got Tn-seq running, built an ordered knockout library, defined all essential sporulation genes, and found a peptidoglycan deacetylase inhibitor critical for engulfment. Including our first one-by-all Alphafold screen!
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
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Identification of sporulation genes in Bacillus anthracis highlights similarities and significant differences with Bacillus subtilis
How good is Bacillus subtilis as a model for the spore-forming pathogen Bacillus anthracis? Using high throughput genetics to identify B. anthracis sporulation genes and cytological analysis of the mu...
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003521
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always artist Julius!
add a skeleton here at some point
15 days ago
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Chen Zhang
Aditya Kamat
16 days ago
1/Now published! We identify a novel regulatory layer underlying SOS response dynamic. Find a short summary about our findings below.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
#MicroSky
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Variability in intrinsic promoter strength underlies the temporal hierarchy of the Caulobacter SOS response induction
The bacterial SOS response unfolds in a defined temporal order, but the determinants of this hierarchy are unclear. This study shows that intrinsic promoter strength, modulated in part by sigma factor...
https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3003557
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Chen Zhang
Jie Xiao
about 1 month ago
‘Chromosomal Topological Domain Formation Modulates Transcription and the Coupling of Neighboring Genes in Escherichia coli‘ by Drs. Nico Yehya, Christopher Bohrer, and collaborators, is now available on bioRxiv. Check it out! doi:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...
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Chromosomal Topological Domain Formation Modulates Transcription and the Coupling of Neighboring Genes in Escherichia coli
Chromosomal topology and transcription are tightly coupled, yet the quantitative impact of topological constraints on transcription, supercoiling, and the potential coupling between neighboring genes ...
https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.23.690031
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Chen Zhang
Jan-Willem Veening
about 1 month ago
Really cool paper from
@vincentdebakker.bsky.social
@jonbakerlab.bsky.social
now published
@natcomms.nature.com
#MicroSky
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Multi-omics profiling reveals atypical sugar utilization and a key membrane composition regulator in Streptococcus pneumoniae - Nature Communications
The pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae can adapt to diverse microenvironments in the human body. Here, De Bakker et al. study these adaptation responses, showing unusual sugar utilization and identifyi...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66611-0
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Chen Zhang
Vivek Mutalik
about 1 month ago
Hmmm This work has so many implications on literature 😳😬 Fluorescein-based dyes are not valid reporters of oxidative stress in bacteria, and conclusions based on their use must be reconsidered | PNAS
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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Fluorescein-based dyes are not valid reporters of oxidative stress in bacteria, and conclusions based on their use must be reconsidered | PNAS
Dihydrodichlorofluorescein derivatives have been employed as reporters of intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) in innumerable studies. Their...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2516113122
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Basler Lab
about 1 month ago
Happy to share our latest T6SS review:
nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you, Jan, Danny (
@dannyjamesward.bsky.social
), Joana (
@joanampereira.bsky.social
), as well as reviewers and editors
@natrevmicro.nature.com
!
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The type VI secretion system and associated effector proteins - Nature Reviews Microbiology
In this Review, Basler and colleagues examine the type VI secretion system (T6SS), focusing on the diversity of antibacterial T6SS effectors and the evolutionary forces that shape them. They explain h...
https://nature.com/articles/s41579-025-01256-w
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Tanmay Bharat
about 1 month ago
Assembly, architecture and functional roles of microbial surface layers Review article published in
@natrevmicro.nature.com
with
@bupbuse.bsky.social
, Andriko von Kügelgen and
@vikramalva.bsky.social
. S-layers are everywhere!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Assembly, architecture and functional roles of microbial surface layers - Nature Reviews Microbiology
Surface layers (S-layers) are ubiquitous protein assemblies that coat prokaryotic cells, with their functional roles increasingly coming into focus. In this Review, Isbilir and colleagues discuss rece...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41579-025-01258-8
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"Watermelon!" this is what my 2yo son calls 😂 --bacterial biofilm photograph at Harvard museum of nature history (guess it's congo red stained and hope never appears in watermelon)
5 months ago
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Chen Zhang
anna brogan
6 months ago
Very happy to share that a large part of my thesis work is out today: B. subtilis uses the second messenger c-di-AMP to modulate its turgor pressure in response to the state of its cell envelope.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Cyclic-di-AMP modulates cellular turgor in response to defects in bacterial cell wall synthesis - Nature Microbiology
Brogan et al. uncover a signalling pathway in which levels of the nucleotide second messenger c-di-AMP increase in response to defects in cell wall synthesis. This regulatory pathway decreases turgor ...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-025-02027-2
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Tanmay Bharat
6 months ago
The mechanics of a continuous self-assembling surface-layer aids cell division in an archaeon out in
@pnas.org
Tight collaboration with Sherman Foo, Alice Cezanne and
@buzzbaum.bsky.social
, Sulfolobus cryo-ET from
@idocaspy.bsky.social
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
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A self-assembling surface layer flattens the cytokinetic furrow to aid cell division in an archaeon | PNAS
The surface layer or “S-layer” is a two-dimensional lattice of proteins that coats a wide range of archaea and bacteria in place of a cell wall or ...
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2501044122
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time to admit as a REAL bacteriologist
8 months ago
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Suliana Manley
9 months ago
Our latest preprint
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
, describes Willi Stepp’s project to make smart microscopy even gentler by doing event detection in phase contrast. We developed neural networks to detect mito-LD and mito-lysosome contacts, as well as mitochondrial pre-fission constrictions.
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Anjana Badrinarayanan
9 months ago
Happy to share Asha Joseph and Inchara Adhikashreni's latest work from the lab, describing replisome speed variation in Caulobacter!
www.cell.com/current-biol...
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Live tracking of replisomes reveals nutrient-dependent regulation of replication elongation rates in Caulobacter crescentus
Adhikashreni et al. use quantitative live-cell imaging to track cell-cycle dynamics in hundreds of individual bacteria. They observe nutrient-dependent regulation of replication elongation rates that ...
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/abstract/S0960-9822(25)00294-5?rss=yes
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Andrea Vettiger
9 months ago
It has been coming a long way... happy to share our latest work with you:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Here, we show the importance of septal fortification by the Class A Penicillin Binding Protein, PBP1b, in E. coli and provide a molecular mechanism for this function. (1/12).
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The aPBP-type cell wall synthase PBP1b plays a specialized role in fortifying the Escherichia coli division site against osmotic rupture
A multi-protein system called the divisome promotes bacterial division. This apparatus synthesizes the peptidoglycan (PG) cell wall layer that forms the daughter cell poles and protects them from osmo...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.02.646830v1
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Chen Zhang
Matt Lycas
9 months ago
Expansion microscopy of a tardigrade
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Super glad to be one of the awardees!
add a skeleton here at some point
9 months ago
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Chen Zhang
Mariana Pinho
9 months ago
We have 3 positions for students who want to start a PhD in the next 12 months. If you like advanced fluorescence microscopy techniques and S. aureus cell biology, check links and apply(April 4)
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/325394
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/325395
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/325396
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
STCmicrobeblog
9 months ago
schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2...
#MicroSky
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Wait, What? extracurricular DNA (eDNA)
by Christoph — Among biologists, DNA is a household term, the acronym for desoxyribonucleic acid, which hardly anyone pronounces in full. But can you find your way around the zoo of prefixes that are ...
https://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2025/03/wait-what-extracurricular-dna-edna.html
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Dame lab at Leiden University
10 months ago
In
@molecularmicro.bsky.social
: two special issues on Prokaryotic Chromosome Organization. Many excellent contributions, including a vision article: 'Future directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field', outcome of BioPhyChrom 2023
@biophychrom.bsky.social
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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Future Directions of the Prokaryotic Chromosome Field
In September 2023, the Biology and Physics of Prokaryotic Chromosomes meeting ran at the Lorentz Center in Leiden, The Netherlands. As part of the workshop, those in attendance developed a series of ....
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mmi.15347
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Ed Boyden
10 months ago
Expansion microscopy (ExM) of the entire mouse body (
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
), developed by the labs of Profs. Jae-Byum Chang and Young-Gyu Yoon (former SynthNeuro postdocs running labs at KAIST), could empower studies of how multiple systems (nervous, immune, etc.) interact across scales.
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Jörg Enderlein
10 months ago
I'm thrilled to share that our review article, "Molecular Level Super-Resolution Fluorescence Imaging," has now been published online (
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
)! We provide a comprehensive overview of fluorescence super-res methods that push the limits towards molecular-scale imaging.
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Molecular Level Super-Resolution Fluorescence Imaging | Annual Reviews
Over the last 30 years, fluorescence microscopy, renowned for its sensitivity and specificity, has undergone a revolution in resolving ever-smaller details. This advancement began with stimulated emis...
https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-biophys-071524-105321
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Luciano A. Masullo
11 months ago
ÅNGSTRÖM-RESOLUTION IMAGING OF CELL-SURFACE GLYCANS 🧬🎨🍬 The glycocalyx, our cells' sugar coat, holds secrets in immunology, cancer, viral infections, and more. Visualizing its molecular architecture was impossible… until now.
#glycotime
#microscopy
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Chen Zhang
Boston Bacterial Meeting
11 months ago
SAVE THE DATE ‼️ 📆 📢 BBM 2025 will be held on June 9-10th at the Harvard Science Center feat. the one and only Dr. Petra Levin as keynote! We can't wait to see you there. Registration and scholarship applications open next week.
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Chen Zhang
Evelina Tutucci
11 months ago
Awesome data from the Moffit lab!
#spatialbiology
www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1...
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Highly multiplexed spatial transcriptomics in bacteria
Single-cell decisions made in complex environments underlie many bacterial phenomena. Image-based transcriptomics approaches offer an avenue to study such behaviors, yet these approaches have been hin...
https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adr0932?af=R
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Chen Zhang
STCmicrobeblog
11 months ago
STC is back
schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2...
#MicroSky
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Is there a future for STC?
by Roberto – The short answer to that question is an enthusiastic YES! Of course, there is a future for STC, and I think it is bright. The long answer, well... that's what this post is all about It r...
https://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2025/01/is-there-a-future-for-stc.html
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Séamus Holden 🔬🦠🧫
12 months ago
Interested in a single molecule bacteriology PhD? Deadline 16th Jan. Location Warwick, UK Broad topic is the physical biology of the bacterial cell wall. Could suit almost any scientific background, eg biology, physics, biochemistry, chemistry, computer science.
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
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Single molecule biology of bacterial cell wall remodelling at University of Warwick on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Single molecule biology of bacterial cell wall remodelling at University of Warwick, listed on FindAPhD.com
https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/single-molecule-biology-of-bacterial-cell-wall-remodelling/?p179557
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Tom Ellis
12 months ago
Exciting new
#synbio
engineered living materials work from Chao Zhong, Peng Huang and Bolin An's team in Shenzhen has just come out on bioRxiv. Lovely demonstration of how engineered E.coli can sense and treat in vivo.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Ákos T Kovács
12 months ago
Bacteria use exogenous peptidoglycan as a danger signal to trigger biofilm formation
#Vibriocholerae
@naturemicrobiol.bsky.social
from
@knutdrescher.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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Bacteria use exogenous peptidoglycan as a danger signal to trigger biofilm formation - Nature Microbiology
Peptidoglycan released by neighbouring kin or non-kin cell lysis induces physiological changes that protect from a range of stresses, including phage predation.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-024-01886-5
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Jan-Willem Veening
about 1 year ago
I had some help 🎶 Teamwork makes the dream work! Checkout our latest preprint spearheaded by Jessica Burnier in a great collaboration with the labs of Waldemar Vollmer,
@nizet.bsky.social
& Malcolm Winkler
#MicroSky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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A bacterial cell wall repair and modification system to resist host antibacterial factors
Pathogenic bacteria have acquired the ability to resist antibacterial defense mechanisms of the host. Streptococci are common in animal microbiota and include opportunistic pathogens like Group A Stre...
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.08.622053v1
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Chen Zhang
Saloni
about 1 year ago
Many people talk about the "Golden Age of Antibiotics", but I hadn't seen it visualized properly. Just how many types of antibiotics were discovered during that time? So, I visualized it myself!
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HARIBO bacter for happy holidays
about 1 year ago
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add a skeleton here at some point
about 1 year ago
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reposted by
Chen Zhang
Mark A. Hanson
about 1 year ago
PLOS to move away from APC model. PLOS moves designed to make publishing equitable.
plos.org/redefining-p...
#ScientificPublishing
#AcademicSky
#AcademicChatter
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Redefining Publishing: PLOS, supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation & Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is launching an important new initiative
PLOS believes in a better future where science is open to all, for all. We are redefining publishing by demonstrating that new solutions are feasible and deliver tangible benefits for the entire resea...
https://plos.org/redefining-publishing/
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Chen Zhang
Drew Bridges
about 1 year ago
Excited to share our latest, "Biofilm dispersal patterns revealed using far-red fluorogenic probes."
@plos.bsky.social
We developed a cell-labeling strategy using far-red dyes to image dense microbial communities (where fluorescent proteins often do not work well)
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
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