Plasmids are huge drivers of evolution in every ecosystem, allowing microbes to acquire new genes. But how much do they shape our own human microbiome? 🧬 A fantastic new review from the @lgbacteria.bsky.social summarizes the latest key findings. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How to design new synthetic microbial communities? It's a huge question we're still deeply exploring 🦠 Check out this new preprint by @tcahitch.bsky.social & @tclavel.bsky.social! They developed an function-directed approach using metagenomic to build better SynComs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

3-day 'Science meets Art' retreat ended. Thanks to Daniel Chamovitz, Pres. of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, for support & inspiring talk. His insights led to unique microbe-to-art collab. Stay tuned for exhibition date & time!🧑‍🎨 #ArtScience #BGU #Microbiology #Exhibition

We opened the final day of our #retreat with an inspiring talk by Dr. Yakov Merhishti. 📔 We concluded our mission of "seeing the invisible" by exploring microbial #fermentation from a new perspective: with a wine tasting! We toasted the tiny #microbes that make it possible 🦠🍷

Continuing work on our exhibition #microbes 🎨 Honored by a talk from Prof. Itzik Hen, director of The Institute for Advanced Studies Jerusalem and a researcher, followed by a food tour at Mahane Yehuda Market, and a recital by Ido Grinshpan and Shelly Jonathan.🎻 Stay tuned for #exhibition details! 🦠

Day 1 of our 'Science meets Art' retreat was fantastic! We had an inspiring talk from prof. Noam Mizrahi and a great visit to the The Israel Museum. Afterward, we continued our project, creating new art pieces inspired by the invisible world of microbes. 🦠 #Microbiology #ArtScience #Collaboration

Iron-respiring microbes could have a role in sulfur cycling www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Science meets art! 🔬🎨 Our lab is at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) for a 3-day retreat with amazing artists Tamara Efrat & Shaul Cohen, diving into the unseen beauty of microbial life. Get ready for our upcoming exhibition at Be'er Sheva. Stay tuned! #Microbiology #ArtScience

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) could cause 10 million deaths by 2050. At PLAS-FIGHTER, we are working to change this! 🔎 We study how plasmids spread resistance to open up new avenues for future containment and diagnostic strategies. Find out more 👇 plasmidlab.es/project/ #AntibioticResistance

a key question in microbial ecology: which community members are necessary and sufficient for survival where individual species cannot? 🤔 Misosoup, a new Python package, try addresses this problem. Nicolas Ochsner, Sebastian Bonhoeffer & Alberto Pascual-García www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Given the tremendous diversity of microorganisms in the world, why do only a small fraction cause disease? My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

The session of Microbial adaptations to changing environments chaired and organized by @sanmillan.bsky.social @javierdelafuente.bsky.social @mtoll8.bsky.social just started by extremely inspaireing talk by @saramitri.bsky.social so much fun at the @eseb2025.bsky.social

Years of research on the fundamental processes of microbial ecology have led to a new question: How can we engineer these communities? 🛠️ A review by Joy Bergelson and Lucas Henry summarizes these core principles and their application. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Yesterday, we had the honor of attending the closing concert of a Chamber music course that took place at our university !🎹 One of our PhD students, Jonathan Shelly , also participated in this course with his amazing violin—take a look!🎻

More on collective behavior: Our new Annual Review of Biophysics piece - with the stellar Danielle Chase - explores how animals sense, share information, and make group decisions. In honeybees and beyond 🐝 www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

Archaea never stop to surprise us! 🌞 @bejalab.bsky.social @galitzlil.bsky.social discovered that marine archaea use carotenoid "antennas" to capture blue light, transferring the energy to their rhodopsin pumps. A huge leap in microbial photobiology! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Discovery of NOT-GPCRs: An Archaeal Membrane Protein Family Whose AlphaFold Predictions Structurally Resemble G Protein-coupled Receptors jxiv.jst.go.jp/index.php/jx...

Final presentations in our Microbial Ecology: Theories & Contemporary Questions course 🎓🦠 Tomer chose to manifest ecological dynamics using visual props. I love it when people, especially students, color outside the lines.

#ISM2025 Was very fruitful! It was fun to connect with friends and exchange amazing scientific ideas. Also, we had the chance to present our work! Our postdoc, Omer Lavy, shared his research on "biblical poop." Our PhD student, Sarah Winkler, presented her poster on "Decoding Microbial Communities"

Engrafting a new microbe into an ecosystem remains a challenge. ⛰️ New article profiles ~15K interactions between S. epidermidis strains, showing a direct antagonism between strains - as a major barrier to coexistence. Nice work! @contaminatedsci.bsky.social @mancusosci.bsky.social shorturl.at/XTvfC

What a strike! 🎳 Our lab's bowling event was a blast! So much fun hitting the lanes and making memories with the team. #LabLife #Bowling #TeamFun #ScienceSquad

We have a new 3-year postdoc position in our group at the @hifmb.de to study plasmids and plasmids systems of the marine environment to survey their utility in microbial responses to environmental change. Please see the official job ad here, and spread the word: jobs.awi.de/Vacancies/20...

Our Post-doc Omar Tovar rocked it at #INRAE2025! 🎉 He presented his fascinating work on "Exploring the functional patterns of the core rumen microbiome." Huge thanks to @inrae-france.bsky.social ‬for hosting!

Macroecological patterns in experimental microbial communities, led by Will Shoemaker & Jacopo Grilli journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Through the new PLASFIGHTER project, we drive significant advances in unravelling and fighting AMR. We study plasmid-bacteria interactions to answer important questions about their role in generating and maintaining superbugs. Discover the project ➡️ plasmidlab.es/project/  #AntibioticResistance

Very happy that HiBC is out: rdcu.be/ekSCO 🔥 @natcomms.nature.com Excellent team spirit, and, as always, great driving factor by @tcahitch.bsky.social ⭐⭐⭐⭐ We hope that these bacterial isolates from the human gut will facilitate many studies by others... 😀

Modeling the microbiome is complex, but metabolic interactions offer a path to better models 🦠 However, Scaling from singles to communities is still a challenge. Check this new paper about the Hits & Misses of community-scale metabolic models - rdcu.be/ehkVn @gibbological.bsky.social @cdiener.com

Microbiomes are vital for, well, everything. We're finally getting serious about cultivating them! Big implications for biotech, medicine, etc. Time to get our hands dirty (in a good way!)

Early Birds get the best deal! 🐦✨ Are you passionate about evolutionary biology? Don’t miss the chance to register for ESEB 2025 at the exclusive Early Bird rate!  Secure your spot 👉🏻https://eseb2025.com/registration/

Another step for microbiome research!🔬 New study introduces saMBA, a gut microbiome archive from South America. Understanding the full picture of gut microbiome biodiversity is crucial & saMBA is helping us get there! @bvalderrama.bsky.social @jfcryan.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Our new preprint, "Spatial constraints drive amylosome-mediated resistant starch degradation by Ruminococcus bromii in the human colon" is now on bioRxiv! Key findings in the thread below belowhttps://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.31.646359v1.full.pdf.

The context of protein expression is absolutely critical – it fundamentally changes how we understand our data, and we need to prioritize it. Nice work, @tcahitch.bsky.social & @tclavel.bsky.social

Another PhD opportunity to join the growing Microbiology community in Southampton 💪 🦠 🔬 Interested in how bacteria adapt to challenges like temperature changes and antibiotics? Join my lab at UoS to explore the role of accessory elements! tinyurl.com/PhDbacteriaUoS Apply here: tinyurl.com/MicroUoS

Our paper on vibrios isolated from Israel's coastal waters is now online in mSphere (now with a working link). We analyzed the pathogenic potential (genome sequences, toxicity, and antibiotic resistance) of 23 new isolates. 🦠 #T6SS #T3SS #MARTX journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Here's a picture taken in our lab of our staff scientist Sarah Morais working in our anaerobic lab. A truly "one picture worth a thousand words" moment! ✨

Greatly enjoyed this thought provoking, deeply researched, and extremely well written review from @saradirienzi.bsky.social and Robert Britton www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

ERC-funded PhD (infection biology) and a Postdoc (genetic engineering) position in my lab. #phagetherapy

Do not miss the opportunity to network and participate in FAIR microbiome science 😄 Upcoming @nfdi4microbiota.bsky.social event, May 19-20. Keynote by Prof. John Penders (www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/j-penders/re...)

I am excited to share our latest study, led by Svetlana Volotsky, reveals that archerfish can categorize objects using a small population of neurons in their optic tectum—an early visual processing stage www.nature.com/articles/s41.... (1/4)

This study www.nature.com/articles/s41... expands gut microbiome knowledge into African populations, uncovering lifestyle-linked taxa shifts and novel genomes. It’s a crucial resource for future work, including our own interest in the loss of cellulolytic bacteria. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The Centre for Microbiome Research @cmrqut.bsky.social is looking for a postdoc dedicated to advancing our understanding towards the microbiological, biochemical and genetic processes that cause methanogenesis in the cow rumen. More info 👇

Glad to share our latest review at @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social with Petra Schwille & Natalie Elia on ESCRT, a multi-use membrane complex found in all life. Well-known in eukaryotes, less so in prokaryotes. Check it out! www.cell.com/trends/micro...

🚀 We're expanding our digital presence! 🎉 Mizrahi Lab is now on Bluesky! Follow us for updates on our microbiome research, plasmid dynamics, and lab discoveries. We’ll also share news, conference highlights, and behind-the-scenes insights.

Join us in at #ESEB2025 Barcelona for our symposium on microbial adaptation to changing conditions. Organised by @mtoll8.bsky.social @javierdelafuente.bsky.social and me. Amazing invited speakers @saramitri.bsky.social and Itzik Mizrahi!! @eseb2025.bsky.social