BWF Announces the 2026 Investigators in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease www.bwfund.org/news/bwf-ann... #bwfpath

I’m thrilled to share an update to our work on bacterial NACHT domain containing proteins! In our last preprint, we reported that bNACHT11 is activated by multiple phage proteins. We’ve now expanded this work with structural insight and investigation of programmed cell death following activation.

Excited to share our new paper: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

New work from Sashi Weerawarana on how TFAM compacts mitochondrial DNA 🧬 TFAM oligomerizes on DNA to form compact, homogeneous higher-order complexes (see beautiful mass photometry data below), that still retain dynamic behavior. Congratulations Sashi and Wei. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Bacteriophages are in a constant arms race with bacteria 🦠 The Phage ORFeome pooled library from the Aaron Whiteley lab contains phage proteins that activate antiphage defense systems — a tool to dissect the mechanisms of bacterial immunity. Aaron Whiteley

I'm happy to share a review that our lab put together on innate immune responses to Rickettsia. One interesting tidbit - different Rickettsia species have distinct interactions with xenophagy, where some species co-opt ubiquitylation, while others avoid it! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Check out this wonderful piece by @vcallier.bsky.social on how parts of the human immune system can be traced back to the conflict between bacteria and phages!

Thank you to @vcallier.bsky.social and Quanta Magazine for highlighting our lab along with the incredible research from @soreklab.bsky.social @audeber.bsky.social @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social @benmorehouse.bsky.social @teralevin.bsky.social @algao.bsky.social Eugene Koonin, L. Aravind and others!

PostDoc position available! (links in post below) Feel free to share!

Postdoc position available in St Andrews for a structural biologist: www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

A welcome editorial message. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Happy to share the final version of my postdoc work on bacterial CBASS immunity with @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social published in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Out now–our work on bacterial cGAS-like enzymes making 2′,3′-cGAMP! Read Uday's thread for updates since the preprint including determining our lab's first protein structure and developing a new system to study bacterial STING homologs in phage defense👇

Abstract submission is now OPEN for the 2026 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria! sisb2026.rockefeller.edu 🗓 May 5–7, 2026 📍 Rockefeller University, New York City ⏰ Abstract deadline: March 16, 2026 Attendance will be capped, be sure to register early and secure your spot. See you in NYC!

A DNA damage-activated kinase controls bacterial immune pathway expression https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703251v1

I’m thrilled to share our work on phage triggers of the bacterial immune system in its final form @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Out Now! A phage protein screen identifies triggers of the bacterial innate immune system #MicroSky

Our Perspective article on the emerging role of retroelements in brain function and disease is now out in this week's edition of @cp-neuron.bsky.social! @alexwhiteley.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...

The EMBO Gold Medal 2025 was awarded to Tanmay Bharat and David Bikard: https://www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold-medal-2025-awarded-to-tanmay-bharat-and-david-bikard/ 🧪 At #CellBio2025, the EMBO Gold Medal was handed over to David Bikard in recognition of his pioneering work on #GeneEditing.

Check this out for the 2026 SISB (phage defense) meeting in NYC. Mark your calendar! (and note the Zoom option, if needed) sisb2026.rockefeller.edu

Last year it was discovered that a single bacterial NLR-like protein can recognize multiple, structurally unrelated phage proteins (Béchon et al, Kibby et al) Now, a new study shows the same for a plant NLR. Another example how principles of immunity remain conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes

We have a PhD opportunity available in our group @johninnescentre.bsky.social through the NRP Doctoral Training Partnership. Help us uncover the Hidden Diversity of Bacterial NLRs. Start date: October 2026. For more information and how to apply👉 biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/bey...

1/10 Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from? Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral RTs, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Thank you to the Blavatnik Family Foundation and The New York Academy of Sciences for honoring our research uniting human innate immunity and bacterial anti-phage defense at @danafarber.bsky.social @harvardmicro.bsky.social @harvard.edu bit.ly/4pZUDkF blavatnikawards.org/news/items/t...

Our work on the Panoptes antiphage system is published! Here we find that Panoptes "watches" the cytosol for phage immune evasion proteins–captured in this illustration by Clair Huffine of Insight Illustrations. A beautiful example of the effector triggered immunity paradigm.

A little late to the Panoptes party, but I’m delighted to share that our paper is published! 👁️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

Today in @nature.com , we highlight how a cousin of CRISPR-Cas10, mCpol, establishes an evolutionary trap in anti-phage immune systems. Check out @erinedoherty.bsky.social and my work from @doudna-lab.bsky.social lab here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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 !

I wrote a Preview in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social ! A new study suggests that #curli may protect prey from bacterial predators like #Bdellovibrio. Really looking forward to seeing this model confirmed with live-cell imaging and specific reporters! www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Excited to share our new preprint co-led by @jnoms.bsky.social! Here we reveal an exceptional diversity of viral 2H phosphodiesterases (PDEs) that enable immune evasion by selectively degrading oligonucleotide-based messengers. This 2H PDE fold has evolved striking substrate breath & specificity.

📢Preprint out! Excited to share my final work from the @soreklab.bsky.social! We mined phage dark matter using structural features shared by anti-defense proteins (viral tools that help phages bypass bacterial immunity) to guide discovery. Found 3 new families targeting immune signaling!

Identifying phage proteins that activate the bacterial innate immune system https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.02.662641v1

Our new work understanding how phages are detected by the bacterial immune system is posted on bioRxiv! Check out Toni’s thread for a synopsis👇

Check out our new study on how bacteria defend themselves against a peculiar clade of organisms – predatory bacteria! This work was a monumental effort led by @hannahledvina.bsky.social (see her excellent summary👇). The bacterial immune system continues to amaze me...

We're thrilled to announce the 2025 class of Jane Coffin Childs Fellows! See our latest blog post and "look book" to learn more about our newest Fellows and their exciting research! www.jccfund.org/blog/the-jan... www.jccfund.org/wp-content/u...

Extremely excited to share I have accepted an offer to be an Assistant Professor in the MCDB department at the University of Michigan! Go Blue! The Ledvina lab will investigate the molecular interworking of the bacterial immune systems including defense against both viral and bacterial pathogens.

Bacteria encode homologs of the human NACHT proteins that form inflammasomes and use them to defend against phage #infection. @amyconte.bsky.social @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social &co show that bNACHT25 detects diverse phages indirectly through interaction with the host chaperone DnaJ. 🧪 plos.io/4koXP60

Congrats Amy! Here we characterize the sensing mechanism for one of the few defense systems that protects bacteria against RNA phages

A beautiful discovery by Joel Tan and Philip Kranzusch, out today in Nature: A DNA-gated molecular guard controls bacterial Hailong anti-phage defence Congrats Joel and Philip! Was a pleasure to contribute to this discovery together with Sarah Melamed www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Now there's a memorable stat! "Colleges and universities are among America’s most competitive international exporters. In dollar terms, last year, the United States sold more educational services to the rest of the world than it sold in natural gas and coal combined." wapo.st/3EvzMCI

Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders. But scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this ancient arms race https://go.nature.com/4lD4LOa

CBASS, CRISPR, and mCpol- oh my! What a satisfying collaboration with @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social 's lab- we uncovered a new cyclic dinucleotide signaling pathway, but it doesn't work how you'd expect! Check out the thread from @aesully98.bsky.social for an overview of the most important findings!

Stop your scrolling and read this AMAZING story from my coworker @aesully98.bsky.social in @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social's lab in collaboration with @benmorehouse.bsky.social ! An immune system which detects anti-immune mechanisms, incredible!!

Thank you to Vince Young for this beautiful highlight of our early work developing an mRNA vaccine for C. difficile (Original paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...)

Check out our new story led by @aesully98.bsky.social describing how bacteria turn immune evasion against phage! In collaboration with @benmorehouse.bsky.social lab, we discover that bacteria guard their nucleotide second messenger pool using a nucleotidyltransferase related to Cas10/CRISPR enzymes

My lab’s first preprint! We used functional metagenomics to identify phage defenses in human and soil microbiomes. We scaled these selections while maintaining accuracy, enabling us to examine 9 habitats for defense elements against 7 phages. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/10

A large portion of grants awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health cannot be funded for the foreseeable future because of an indefinite hold on submissions to the Federal Register, according to an email reviewed by The Transmitter. By @avaskham.bsky.social bit.ly/3X8ngz8

I have been talking to the media, Time, Fortune, NBC, etc., to explain how the onslaught on science and NIH will impact the health of all Americans. Everyone knows someone who has cancer, heart disease, or depression. Spread the word about how cutting science impacts all. time.com/7216299/nih-...