Widespread purine bias in bacterial genes driven by runaway transcription - www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Combination of large-scale phylogenomic analysis, mouse lethality experiments and bacterial growth assays shows sheds light on how a pandemic clone of Vibrio parahaemolyticus was able to spread worldwide www.nature.com/articles/s41...

When I started my postdoc a little over a month ago, I expressed worry to my PI about the loss of funding opportunities from the federal government to which she countered saying that "maybe the private fellowships will invest more deeply." Seems that won't be the case.

I will miss working with B. subtilis, but I adore observing Helicobacter pylori squiggle under the microscope and see their distinct helical shape. I could just sit here all day and watch them!

Love seeing science tattoos and showing off my own 😁 my first was a DNA helix, because it’s my favorite molecule, and second was a microscope/sun, an homage to my first microscope that used sunlight as a light source and helped fuel my curiosity for biology.

This article does a great job describing the lives of young American scientists: “You roll up your sleeves, try to make or discover something useful and then let the scientific community try to punch holes in your work to make sure that it’s sound”

Excited to share that my first first author paper from grad school is up now at PLOS Genetics @plos.org! dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

By age 24, I patented a cancer device, interned at top medical centers, was accepted to a university known for Nobel Laureates. Yet, being Navajo, I felt the disconnect of being a scientist vs an object of study. I am not a product of DEI. I persevered despite science ictnews.org/news/databac...

If you are interested in phage satellites, we hope you'll enjoy this. Fun collaboration with the Rocha, Seed, Bikard, and Chen labs! rdcu.be/efkvG

An antisense RNA regulates production of DnaA and affects sporulation in Bacillus subtilis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.02.18.638791v1

@asm.org this better not be anticipatory obedience. I have 5 lab members planning on going to ASM microbe this year. I will absolutely pivot to another meeting if ASM gives in to anti-DEI efforts.

ASM website screenshots from the wayback machine in December '24 (web.archive.org/web/20241211...) vs today. Pretty disappointing!! 🧪

Identification of insertion sites for the integrative and conjugative element Tn916 in the Bacillus subtilis chromosome https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.28.635231v1

I'm excited to share that my third first-author publication from grad school has been published in JBAC: doi.org/10.1128/jb.0...

DefensePredictor: A Machine Learning Model to Discover Novel Prokaryotic Immune Systems https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.08.631726v1

Excited to share that my graduate work is up on bioRxiv! I found that some SPβ-like phages of B. subtilis have a counter-defense system that inhibits NADase activity from the SpbK anti-phage defense during phage infection and activation of SpbK.

Finally #PhDone! So grateful for my research mentors and all the amazing people I met at MIT that helped me be a better scientist.

Thesis submitted to my committee! 🎉🥳 I’m still in disbelief that my thesis defense is only two weeks away

Bacillus on the Blue place, starting small, but hopefully extending to keep the conversation active [it was also gorwing slow on Twitter] go.bsky.app/BfusVyD

The last couple days I’ve had a number of new followers and folks from Twitter find me here, so I think it’s time I (re)introduce myself. My name is Christian and I’m finishing my PhD in Alan Grossman’s lab at MIT studying antiphage defense and counter-defense in B. subtilis

Transcription termination and antitermination are critical for the fitness and function of the integrative and conjugative element Tn916 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.09.05.611371v1

Anti-viral defense in Archaea! I saw this work presented at the SACNAS Conference a couple months ago and had the pleasure to meet Luis and chat MGEs with him. Really excited to see Luis' work out on BioRxiv now!

Analysis and culturing of the prototypic crAssphage reveals a phage-plasmid lifestyle https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.20.585998v1

I could watch the simulations of DNA getting packaged into a phage head all day. Really cool work. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our first paper from the lab! We find that upon exposure to lytic phages, the pathogen V. cholerae rapidly lyses, but then recovers, with surviving cells exhibiting robust biofilm formation. www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1/4)

Our review comparing bacterial and eukaryotic immune systems is out now. Check out Hannah’s thread for the highlights! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The 2024 GRC Microbial Stress meeting program is live and we have some blazin' folks - should be a little bit of something for everyone. The conference is usually oversubscribed, so please register early! Hit me up with any ?s! www.grc.org/microbial-st... #MicroSky

A phage encodes a defense system that defends against itself and others but encodes a counter-defense too, so it can still propagate while blocking other phage from doing so. Really cool stuff! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our latest on phage-plasmids(PP) is out! Two main findings. PP recombine more with (other) plasmids and phages than the latter, thereby connecting them. PP can become just phages or plasmids, which may then transition to be conjugative. All the world’s an MGE! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Hi BlueSky! This is my first post since making the switch over. Naturally I thought I'd make it a phage post showing off my agar art skills(?) and a clear plaque mutant I isolated from a temperate phage I'm working with.