My first postdoc paper with @jbdsf.bsky.social is now out! We found a nuclease that inhibits phages with wildly different base modifications, and attributed this ability to a sensor domain conserved across multiple domains of life. Huge thanks to the Weigele and Koonin labs for their help!

From my time with @jbdsf.bsky.social: Our latest CBASS story is now published! ‘CBASS’ is the ancestral origin of anti-viral cGAS immunity and encoded in diverse bacteria. For the first time, we show that CBASS enables cell survival (vs cell death) to protect bacteria from phage infection. More ⬇️

Our plasmids for phage Tn mutagenesis are now on AddGene! Featuring Tn data we've generated that shows that in a singular experiment, phage non-essential genes important for replicating in clinical/environmental isolates will be revealed :)

Big thank you to @jbdsf.bsky.social and all our collaborators for this work! It's amazing how one nuclease can detect so many modifications!

We've identified a group of nucleases that can target multiple phages with hypermodified DNA, using a sensor domain present across many domains of life. We’ve even used this as a tool to find phages with hypermodified DNA! Really thankful to all the co-authors who have been such great help!