Amazing piece of work from @rtoshiro.bsky.social & Kim Seed at UC Berkeley. 🙌 Played a tiny role in this work. Surviving phage attack dynamically regulates bacterial immunity to defeat counterdefenses www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our nuclease-protease story is out! We explored a fascinating case of coevolution and modularity in prokaryotic immune systems: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Thanks to wonderful coauthors/collaborators/friends, the whole @doudna-lab.bsky.social and everyone at @innovativegenomics.bsky.social

"incredibly humbled" is a phrase I'd hoped would have stayed over on X and not migrated to Bluesky.

📣 Calling all senior microbiology postdocs! The University of St Andrews is inviting applications from outstanding visionary Research Fellow and Future Leader candidates to attend a Biomolecular Science Fellowship Day. Applications due by 12th Dec, see link for full details: tinyurl.com/4n3na8vn

Better to know, I guess - great work from the Hobbs lab @uniofstandrews.bsky.social

Thanks! It was a very enjoyable visit and I learned a lot!

Thinking about your first steps to independent research? We'd love to hear from you. More details below, or contact me directly for details - reposts appreciated! www.nature.com/naturecareer...

This is something that is within our power

This has to be one of the most subtle signals activating a DS, it blows my mind that there are two different effectors capable of achieving this molecular recognition

Hi everyone, a few years ago, we started a list of labs studying bacterial immunty for students, editors, conference organizers... (currently n=79). Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info docs.google.com/spreadsheets... #Phagesky #Microsky

Very cool.

I’m thrilled to share our Retron Eco8 paper published in Molecular Cell today. Thanks all Fu lab members and our collaborators. 👉Phage SSB detection by retron Eco8 msDNA unleashes nuclease-mediated immunity. www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

#phagesky #phage

Please tell me what I'm missing here (other than SRM):

My home department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at UC Irvine is looking to hire a new tenure-track assistant professor in the broad area of structural biology. Come be my colleague! recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09887

Perfect timing in the field for a beautiful review on NAD+ in bacterial immunity by @hugovaysset.bsky.social and @audeber.bsky.social @cp-molcell.bsky.social #MicroSky www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Rarely was an award more deserved

New preprint! Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠 Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare! An epic effort by Rosanna Wright www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

My pleasure @erinedoherty.bsky.social and @benmorehouse.bsky.social - for me this was the stand-out discovery of the last year in the field

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...

You’ve heard of ubiquitination, meet deazaguanylation: Doug Wassarman in our lab discovered phage defense pathways have co-opted Q nucleobase biosynthetic enzymes to catalyze a new form of protein conjugation chemistry @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Do notions like “programmed #cell death” (PCD) and the endogenous–exogenous death distinction apply to microbes? In our new chapter, we argue that an evolutionary concept of PCD extends across the tree of life, including microbial taxa 👇📃 link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #evosky #HPbio #philsci 🦠 🔬

Looking for a new approach to studying or eliminating phages? Check out our study introducing anti-phage ASOs (antisense oligos) out in @Nature today. nature.com/articles/s4158…

AI could be used for REF, says Royal Society president. The president of the Royal Society has suggested that artificial intelligence could ease the burden placed on academics by the Research Excellence Framework and peer review. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

The beginning of the end for PIs?

Some good stuff in here 😊

This area is developing at breakneck speed - big advance here

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #phagesky #phage

New story out today. I traced three anonymous Facebook pages back to the Epoch Times, which is banned by Meta. The pages were branded as 'educational research centres' and advertised surveys to collect political opinions and contact data from Canadians. They were seen over 22 million times.

Ever wondered why some bacteria have multiple CRISPR-Cas systems? Our new study led by Leah Smith shows how type I CRISPR systems can promote the acquisition and retention of new spacers into a co-occuring type III system. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Ímar at the Edinburgh Festival last night 👌

Feels surreal to say but: I'm hiring! If you are or know anyone interested in looking at the evolution of phage resistance using A. baumannii and natural transformation, then this might be for you www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

and not a hydrothermal vent in sight.

Interesting papers just keep coming this summer!

A timely review - so many recent discoveries in this sphere!

Thrilled to see our Kiwa story out today! A membrane-associated supercomplex that senses infection and blocks replication and transcription. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... Huge congratulations to Yi and Zhiying for bringing it home, to Thomas for starting us off, and to all the collaborators.

1/16 New pre-print from the Sternberg Lab! We uncover how temperate phages can use RNA-guided transcription factors to remodel the flagellar composition of their bacterial host and enhance their fitness. Find the preprint and full story here: tinyurl.com/mshwjd77

Next up from our lab - a ring nuclease with a novel fold which cleaves all cOA species involved in Type III CRISPR defence. It's also found in plasmid and phage genomes, where it presumably functions as an anti-CRISPR. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New role for HTH DNA binding proteins - sequestering phage DNA!

The anti-DS proteins just keep coming. Bdi1/2 particularly intriguing given the broad specificity. TadIII-1 is more peptide than protein. Fascinating stuff.

📣 We're hiring! We have a 12-month vacancy for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with skills in molecular microbiology. See the details and apply here: www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/... Please share!

Jo Hobbs @hobbslabmicro.bsky.social has a 12 month Postdoc available on mechanisms of antibiotic tolerance. More details here: www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Here we show how the type III signalling molecule SAM-AMP is bound and degraded by a specialised lyase enzyme encoded in cellular and phage genomes. More great work by @haotianchi.bsky.social and the team. @uniofstandrews.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Excited to share our latest work using AI-designed proteins to block heme-piracy by E. coli. Published in @natcomms.nature.com. A team effort between my lab and the ‪‪@knottrna.bsky.social‬ ‬lab, with experimental work led by the talented @danielrfox.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We made structural predictions of representatives of each #PHROG from #phage genomes, and put the whole lot online. You can browse through montages or go to your favourite phrog directly and download its PDB. 💻🧬 #phagesky linsalrob.github.io/PHROG_struct...

Congratulations to Simon (and Jo - my former PhD student)!

It's been a great few days hosting Eugene Koonin in St Andrews @uniofstandrews.bsky.social , where he was awarded an honorary degree in recognition of his stellar contributions to molecular biology and comparative genomics. Here with @tatianadimitriu.bsky.social

Looking forward to reading this!

Very proud to have won the Faculty of Science Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Prize. Biggest thanks goes to my nominator @francescodb.bsky.social and the awesome letters of support from current and past group members that brought a tear to my eye. It's shared with every member Taylor lab member.