It is with great sadness that we announce J. Craig Venter has died. 🧪🧬 www.jcvi.org/media-center...

Happy to take you behind the scenes of the discovery of 7 alternative #DNA structures: 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅, G-quadruplex (𝗚𝟰), 𝗶-𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳, both 3- and 4-way 𝗗𝗡𝗔 𝗷𝘂𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗥-𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗽 and the left-handed duplex 𝗭-𝗗𝗡𝗔. Hope you'll enjoy this journey back in time! In @narjournal.bsky.social 👉 doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Excited to share our discovery of a new programmable RNA-guided DNA-targeting system hiding inside bacteriophages that predates CRISPR. We call it VIPR (Viral Interference Programmable Repeat), and it uses an entirely new logic to find its targets. Thread + link below.

We present VIPR, a phage-encoded RNA-guided system that recognizes DNA with a noncontiguous code unlike CRISPR. Tiny, programmable, possibly ancestral to CRISPR immunity; VIPR is built around a striking RNA-DNA-DNA triplex.

The best thing since *before* sliced bread... VIPRs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Interested in a *staff computational scientist* position? We are looking for an experienced computational biologist (ideally with microbiology experience) to support published packages while also driving new research. Pay range $73k-$111k w excellent benefits. careers.peopleclick.com/careerscp/cl...

Finally published at long last (at least in the pre-view version). Explore the wild and woolly world of archaeal histones! Interactive archaeal histone graph incluced rdcu.be/fdFjv. Congratulations to first author Shawn Laursen

New OpenFold3 preview out! (OF3p2) It closes the gap to AlphaFold3 for most modalities. Most critically, we're releasing everything, including training sets & configs, making OF3p2 the only current AF3-based model that is functionally trainable & reproducible from scratch🧵1/9

The Social Lives of Viruses is coming to Vancouver, Canada, from 4th-8th August 2026! This is a free meeting dedicated to all aspects of virus-virus interactions & evolution. To apply: socialviruses.zoology.ubc.ca @sociovirology.bsky.social #socialviruses #evosky #lovevirology #virosky

I'm hiring my first postdoc! Apply by 20/4/26, position #20443. Seeking an environmental microbiologist with experience in metagenomics (preferably viromics) and molecular biology. Experience with targeted metabolomics is a plus. international.au.dk/about/profil...

If preparing figures please consider "colorblind friendly" approaches (www.nature.com/articles/d41...). I am missing the long-wave opsin, which manifests in strange ways: I can't discern red vs. black. This dichromacy is rare and severe, but ~300 million have more common forms addressed in link.

Excited to see the major chapter of my PhD in print! We present a massively-parallel approach for screening CRISPR edits in plants to speed up agricultural test cycles + benchmark genomic LMs. Thanks to my fantastic co-authors and advisors. Link below!

Congratulations @wshuai.bsky.social and co-authors! We’re excited to introduce MODIFI, our new scalable method for detecting DNA modifications in PacBio metagenomic data and estimating ECE-host linkage. Check out the preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Apply now to attend the next EMBO Bacterial Networks meeting #EMBOBacNet 🗓️13-18 September 2026 📍Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain 📝Program and registration info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac... 👩‍🔬Organised with co-chair @s-lab.bsky.social and ECR @coralietesseur.bsky.social #MicroSky

Proud to share the yeast telomerase structure, led by the talented @hongmiaohu.bsky.social in collaboration with the Wellinger and Chartrand labs. Discovered 37 years ago and took us nearly 7 years but totally worth the wait 😍. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFE4...

Successful AI models are built on data that is high-quality, complete, and rich in biological context. Basecamp Research is using PacBio HiFi sequencing to move beyond fragmented snapshots and build a richer map of biology. Read the blog here: bit.ly/4svvj6N #PacBio #HiFisequencing #Genomics

We now provide environmental metadata for the GlobDB genomes! 🖥️🧬🦠 More info here: globdb.org/news 🧵

HFSP Awards now have Grant DOIs, back to 1990! #DOI improves traceability, visibility, and connections between funding and research outcomes in the era of #OpenScience 🧪 #HFSP awardees: please include your grant DOI in publications and preprints! #ResearchFunding #sts

This is a step forwards into the world of accurate complex models by AI m, at scale, openly distributed. Excellent work by the consortium here !

Living patescibacterial (CPR) cells are a rare sight! Meet Strigamonas methylophilicida, a parasite of methylotrophic proteobacteria we just described in our latest paper: doi.org/10.1128/mbio...

AlphaFold database has entered the era of complexes. Together with NVIDIA, DeepMind and EBI, we use ColabFold, OpenFold and MMseqs2-GPU to predict ~31 million complexes (homo & hetro-dimers) resulting in 1.8 million high-quality predictions 📄 research.nvidia.com/labs/dbr/ass... 🌐 alphafold.ebi.ac.uk

Our work on bacterial Schlafens in phage defense is out today @natmicrobiol.nature.com! Check out the final version here: rdcu.be/e7Bmz We are looking for postdocs and students to expand our team! Official postings are coming soon. Please reach out if you're interested! #phage #phagesky #microsky

Diversity, ecology, cell biology and evolution of the Asgard archaea www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Want epigenetic information automatically included in your sequencing runs? HiFi sequencing detects 5mC and 6mA directly from native DNA and combines multiple passes of the same molecule to generate long reads with greater than 99.9% accuracy. See how: bit.ly/3YSPBdo #PacBio #HiFisequencing

1/5 Happy by a recent biorxiv pre-print about DARNA (PD-T7-3) anti-phage defense system. This system is activated by binding to ssDNA, presented by phage SSB, to cleave tRNA in the anti-codon loop. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

“The best that I can do in terms of making the next breakthrough or discovery is not to do it by myself, but to enable other scientists to do it” — Jennifer Doudna www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

Understanding how enzymes work: the journey to ensemble–function studies febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... This is an exceptionally well written review on how enzymes work. Rather than the structure-function relationship, Herschlag & Du analyse the ensemble-function relationship

1/6) Hot off the press @natsmb.nature.com 🔥! Jasnauskaite et al. reveal how the minimal bacterial retron Eco2 defends against #phage 🛡️. Phage nucleases trigger Eco2, which cuts RNA, shuts down protein production and stops phage replication 🦠🚫. #phagesky #immunity #microbiology #cryo-em rdcu.be/e4AyH

New online: Structure and mechanism of antiphage retron Eco2

Our work is published today: ‘Oxygen metabolism in descendants of the archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor’. This was a huge effort lead by @katyappler.bsky.social. Extremely grateful to have been a part of this amazing project! 😊🦠🧬 Links: www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

😍😍😍

New paper from my team detailing a greatly expanded genomic database of Asgard archaea revealing of high energy metabolism those related to eukaryotes! Led by @katyappler.bsky.social lots of help from @jameslingford.bsky.social @valdeanda.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Beyond thrilled to share that our study has been published! This project encompasses years of work, including my thesis research on Asgard archaea in the @archaeal.bsky.social lab at @utmsi.bsky.social and @texasscience.bsky.social!!! #MicroSky #ArchaeaSky 1/12

NEW for @forbes.com: Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna’s plan to create a gene editing ecosystem to solve major problems in medicine, agriculture and climate. “I don’t want it to be a curio, a topic of academic interest,” she says. www.forbes.com/sites/amyfel...

Excited to share our discovery of archaeal circular, jumbo extrachromosomal elements (up to ~535 kb genomes). One related, 409-kb genome is integrated in CH4-eating Methanoperedens, representing the largest integrative element in Archaea so far! Curious about what they are doing? See the paper

✨New preprint! 🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al! Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬 🔗👇

I’m happy to share our new preprint! We uncovered the full diversity of bacterial TIR-based antiviral immune signaling, massively expanded the known diversity of Thoeris systems, and revealed conservation of TIR-derived immune signals across the tree of life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📢 We have multiple open PhD positions to study bacterial immune systems using cutting-edge cryo-EM, microbiology, and biochemistry in our group! Join us and uncover how bacterial defenses eliminate predators and engineer next-gen biotech tools. 🔥 Apply by Jan 8, 2026 Details: phd.pages.ista.ac.at

Happy December! Join #MVIF 44 – we will discuss diverse #microbiome topics: human urinary, gut, oral and nasal microbiomes, extreme environments, and a new sequence alignment tool.

Are you a postdoc or 4-5th year grad student working on any problem in environmental microbiology and are interested in giving a virtual seminar (via zoom) on your hard work to a crowd of interested researchers at Montana State's Thermal Biology Institute in spring? Email/DM me!

Check out our latest paper on mirusviruses, one of the most remarkable new groups of protist viruses - extremely diverse, carry lots of spliceosomal introns (including new homing introns) and are at the evolutionary crossroads between tailed phages and herpesviruses! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Officially out!

Now out in Science! Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are key regulators of the cell cycle. In @vcushing.bsky.social's magnum opus, we use #cryoEM to figure out how the CDK-activating kinase recognises CDKs to fully activate them - a key step in cell cycle control. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

omicsomics.blogspot.com/2025/10/pacb... $300 LongRead personal genome via PacBio

Most plasmids described in E. coli are small compared to the megaplasmids we identified here! Check out the preprint if you want to learn about these mysterious large elements and their potential functions 🧬. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this in @banfieldlab.bsky.social

Now online at @nature.com we show how the Panoptes defense system protects against viruses that attempt immune evasion - and expands our understanding of the role of oligonucleotides in immunity. Check out this work co-led with @benadler.bsky.social here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New paper online at @nature.com from co-leads @erinedoherty.bsky.social + @benadler.bsky.social !

Our story describing the Panoptes bacterial immune defense system is now finally peer-reviewed and published today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...