Excited to share our latest work with Guanming Zhang and @stemartiniani.bsky.social in @natcomms.nature.com, where we uncover universal long-range structure in three distinct noisy particle systems spanning soft matter and machine learning. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

I am pleased to share my lab’s latest publication - Acinetobacter species lack canonical DNA repair pathway activation mechanisms, and we discovered a conserved transcriptional activator that fills this role: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Our work on understanding how Staphylococcus aureus mode of cell division contributes to pathogenesis is now available in bioRxiv

Submission open for the tenth YBM Meeting (deadline - 26th March)! Abstract submission link: forms.gle/SBeQeAp9MR2U...

It’s finally out! Together with @embopress.org and @reviewcommons.org, we conducted a structured side-by-side comparison of human peer review and our AI scientific review (see thread 👇👇👇🔥).

Come do a PhD with me and @trevor-lithgow.bsky.social at @monashuniversity.bsky.social ! We’re at the leading edge of pathogen biology using cutting edge Cryo-EM and AI-driven genetic screens to uncover the mysteries of outer membrane biology. Reach out to me for a chat! macsys.org/phd-scholars...

Exciting line up of talks for CauloCon 2026 - includes keynotes from @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social @lamasonlab.bsky.social and @thanbichlerlab.bsky.social! Hear work from Isaac Payne and Trung Nguyen, 2 students in my lab, on Weds and Thurs. 🤩

The science writing over at @asimovpress.bsky.social is fantastic! From the origin of the lab vortex, to the history of Xenopus, their content is creative, beautiful, and thoughtfully researched. Consider assigning some of their pieces in science courses. www.asimov.press/p/vortex?utm...

1/ With @maxencevincent.bsky.social, we ask: when single bacterial cells behave differently under stress, is it really just “noise”? Read more @cp-cellreports.bsky.social : Unveiling hidden variables in stressed bacteria (doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...)

Hey alpha aficionados - it's almost time for CauloCon 2026! This free, virtual meeting will feature talks from @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social @thanbichlerlab.bsky.social and @lamasonlab.bsky.social with opps for trainee talks. Register using the link below. 👇

#Addendum to 1970 paper, “CYTOPLASMIC FILAMENTS OF AMOEBA PROTEUS: I. The Role of Filaments in Consistency Changes and Movement,” includes eight video sequences originally recorded on 16-mm films. No technology was available at the time to include this data. 🎞️ rupress.org/jcb/article/... #Actin

Submission open for the eighth YB Meeting (deadline - 21st January)! Abstract submission link: forms.gle/SBeQeAp9MR2U...

Registration is open for the 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Microbial Stress Response to be held on July 19-24 2026!! Submit your abstract by February 15th to be considered for a short talk. Apply now before it fills up!! Hope to see you there!! www.grc.org/microbial-st...

Excited to see our new work published! We have established the evolutionary and ecological context of our favorite model Caulobacter and made some unexpected findings. Who would have thought that close relatives lack dimorphism? And have potential for phototrophy? www.nature.com/articles/s41...

indeed, 𝘙𝘶𝘨𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘦𝘢 𝘰𝘳𝘺𝘻𝘢𝘦 looke like fusilli, which are notably better at holding on salsa di pomodoro than spaghetti... and as pasta addicts, we fell instantly in love with the shape of this newly described alphaproteo from the Rhizobiales 🤭 #MicroSky

The bacterial #SOSresponse unfolds in a defined temporal order, but how does this arise? @adityakamat.bsky.social @anjbadri.bsky.social &co show that intrinsic #promoter strength, modulated by #SigmaFactor usage, governs timing of SOS gene activation in Caulobacter @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4oAKf0Q

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

Now published. Thank you very much to our collaborative team, and very supportive editors and reviewers!!! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

‘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...

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...

Thrilled to share our multidisiplinary work on how genome-wide DNA bridging by H-NS reshapes the stationary phase bacterial nucleoid and affects the transcriptional landscape. With Xindan Wang and @meyerroc.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

new preprint from our group & Antoine Hocher: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A fantastic collaboration with Antoine, with Jovana Kaljevic' initiated the collaboration and drives the project.

Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre. Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!

🚨🚨🚨Calling all Caulophiles and Alpha aficionados - stayed tuned for a virtual CauloCon in early 2026. And HOPEFULLY an in person alpha meeting in 2027!! DM me or @chienlab.bsky.social w questions or to stay in the know.

🚨New paper out! #MicroSky Studying obligate predators like Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is tricky—essential genes for predation are also essential for survival. We expanded its genetic toolbox: 🧬promoters to fine-tune expression 🧬IPTG-inducible system 🧬CRISPRi for rapid knockdown bit.ly/46GUn2c 1/4

N6-methyladenine modification of DNA enhances RecA-mediated homologous recombination www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

🚨 Imagine a bacterium that refuses to follow the textbook: It grows as tangled filaments, divides unevenly, reshapes its own membranes… and even builds grappling hooks. Meet Litorilinea aerophila — and here’s why it blew our minds.

Biophysics enthusiasts, do consider applying for the seventh session of YBM! Submit your abstracts by 20th August.

#MicroSky Summer read! Predatory bacteria kill and eat other bacteria. Their deadly actions come in many flavors, often via direct physical contact between predator & prey 🧛 How do they do it? Our review 📖 @coralietesseur.bsky.social @ysantin.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

And the story is published now!🍾 www.nature.com/articles/s41... Open access link: rdcu.be/exnOc Many years in the making, great collaboration with @archaellum.bsky.social & @tunglejic.bsky.social Thanks @ukri.org BBSRC & @leverhulme.ac.uk for funding, reviewers & editor!! 🙏 #microsky #archaeasky

Theoretical physics enthusiasts, do consider submitting an abstract for the upcoming sixth YBM! Submit your abstracts here: t.co/W1qGraRpAc

In @elife.bsky.social: Bacteriophage infection drives loss of β-lactam resistance in methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus doi.org/10.7554/eLif...

Happy to see our collaborative work on the contractile injection system (CIS) in Streptomyces published. We show that the membrane protein CisA gives Streptomyces CIS a licence to kill. @pilhoferlab.bsky.social & Bastien Casu, @joesallmen.bsky.social #MicroSky elifesciences.org/articles/104...

The fifth session of YBM is coming up next week. Join us for two exciting talks on Monday (7th July) at 11am (EDT). Mark your calendars🗓️: tinyurl.com/29b7yk47 Meeting link: shorturl.at/0ng5A

Finally published! Many thanks to the reviewers and editor whose comments & suggestions improved this work significantly more than the first preprint version!!! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

The excitement continues! Check out my latest preprint examining how phages have adapted to lyse different bacterial envelopes. I found a lysis gene (lysZ) that is conserved in phages that infect corynebacteria mycobacteria, and other actinos. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I'm pleased to announce that I will be starting my lab as an Assistant Professor at UMass Chan Medical School in August! My group will study phages that infect corynebacteria and mycobacteria to understand bacterial cell envelope assembly and phage gene function. Website and more info to come soon!

#PhDone! 🎓 Congratulations Dr Shivangi Verma! 🎊 @shivangiv10.bsky.social from Prof Vatsala Thirumalai's lab successfully defended her thesis! 🧵👇Check out the thread to learn more about her work on understanding how neuronal networks are sculpted in the cerebellum during development 🧠 (1/5)

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...

Some positive news in troubled times: New preprint by Vincent de Bakker, Xue Liu @jonbakerlab.bsky.social Infection-mimicking conditions+transcriptomics/proteomics/'essentialomics'/lipidomics shows many cool things! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Join us at the BPS Thematic Meeting on Spatial Organizations of Biological Functions in beautiful Bangalore, India! The early registration deadline is July 21st, 2025. www.biophysics.org/meetings-eve...

How does your favorite species elongate? 🧵 "Phenotypic plasticity in bacterial elongation among closely related species". Happy to see this paper in print @natcomms.nature.com. Nice work by @mariedelaby.bsky.social, Liu Yang et al. See original 🧵, different colours, same data and conclusions.

Starting in 15 minutes...

🚨 Very excited to finally say… 🚨 The story of Noodlococcus - the contaminant that started ContamClub - is available to read 📖🍜🦠 Check it out ➡️ doi.org/10.1101/2025... 1/15 🧵

🚀 Satyam and Guanming’s “Emergent Universal Long Range Structure in Random-Organizing Systems” shows noise correlations create long-range structure, from 🧩 hyperuniform materials to 🤖 ML, and that SGD’s flat minima bias is universal. 👇 arxiv.org/abs/2505.22933 #SoftMatter #ML

I’m excited that the work by Diego Ramirez and Lei Yin is out, where they gained several key insights into what provides the force underlying bacterial cell division doi.org/10.1101/2025.... To divide, cells must first bend the membrane inward, a process that’s energetically expensive

Deadline to apply is just around the corner!

Same genome, different shape, different outcome. SOS-independent phenotypic differences shape survival in E. coli. Very happy to share our preprint!

1/ Excited to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs) in Caulobacter crescentus, led by Emma Banks in collaboration with Pavol Bardy and Mai Nguyen from York!!! See a brief thread below. shorturl.at/o6S1w

Huge thanks to all the incredible speakers who have shared their research at the Young Biophysicists Meeting so far! Here's a glimpse. See you in the next session!