Wow! Mind boggling! How long did it take? Many congratulations!

Fantastic MEL-JPN workshop on the intersections between #bacteria and #mitochondria at #Bio21 (very nice lunchtime too). Organized by Takuya Shiota and Rhys Grinter

Last week we had the CCeMMP Symposium 2025. Fantastic event with an outstanding line-up of speakers. There were 2 poster prizes and 1 oral presentation prize; thrilled that we did a clean sweep! Huge congratulations @tiltedscientist.bsky.social @somavallyd.bsky.social and @lucatroman.bsky.social

Great stuff @joshuamhardy.bsky.social ! Congratulations.

This is an amazing paper led by the Grinter lab on bacterial protein antibiotics called pyocins and the mechanism by which they inhibit the BAM outer membrane complex. @rhyswg.bsky.social, @knottrna.bsky.social, @debnathghosal.bsky.social, @doylemt1.bsky.social, @fabianmunder.bsky.social

We recently discovered a brand-new (and unique!) anti-phage defense system in bacteria. Check out this Pursuit article from @Melbourne University featuring our recent work. Terrific effort from our PhD student Somavally! lnkd.in/geXUApmK

3 months, 3 thesis orations: a hat-trick moment for the lab!! 🎓🥳. This time, Bindusmita in the spotlight! ✨ She delivered a fantastic thesis oration, packed with fascinating data and insights 🦠 ❄️ 🔬. It has been an absolute joy mentoring her. Huge congratulations @bindusmitapaul.bsky.social

My longest ever running project, all the stars finally aligned after 13 years! Thank you to Eric Reynolds group for sharing the journey. #bio21-institute, #university-of-melbourne. @sepidehv.bsky.social @craigmorton.bsky.social @debnathghosal.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our collaborative work on the T9SS is just out in Nature Communications! Fantastic work led by Dhana Gorasia and Eric Hanssen. This paper reveals the structure of the T9SS outer membrane PorKN ring complex and mechanistic insights into protein secretion. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

📣 New paper alert! Just out in Cell Reports! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40644298/ Thrilled to share that we have discovered a brand-new anti-phage defense system! Bacteria have evolved various defense strategies (CRISPR etc) to counter phage attacks. We found a new one - fascinating and dramatic ⚔️🦠❄️🔬

Thoughts from our own Tom Rapoport on the role of basic science in curing disease. magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/rev...

Amazing insights!

Great team of grad students and post docs and led together with an awesome group of PIs @debnathghosal.bsky.social @kmichie.bsky.social @iduggin.bsky.social. As something different here be a cool AI-generated artistic impression of our #Asgards hanging in their microbial mat 'ancient home'....⚔️

📣 New paper alert! One of the most exciting projects we've done in recent years is now out on BioRxiv: "An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats". Glimpse into early complex life! ❄️🦠 🔬🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... A thread...

Bacteria often hide antibiotic resistant genes in small mobile genetic elements known as plasmids. Faithful segregation of these plasmids into daughter cells is essential for bacteria to continue resistance. They don’t just resist - they pass it on. 🦠💊

Late post but we are thrilled to share that our very first PhD student, Doulin Shepherd, delivered his thesis oration just a few days ago and he absolutely smashed it!

"That telomere phages are so prevalent means that they are a selective force, one that we know little about. We now want to understand how the telomere-toxin is secreted and also understand how this ‘telocin’ wheedles its way into unsuspecting bacterial neighbors” www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Delighted to share our recent work in Nat Comms. This is a "Story of a dwarf predator" www.nature.com/articles/s41...

As always, super cool story from @cellarchlab.com

Asgard archaea have actin - but what about microtubules? Where do they come from? 🧐 Our new paper www.cell.com/cell/fulltex... by @xujwet.bsky.social & @florianwollweber.bsky.social, in collaboration with the Schleper & Wieczorek labs, describes tiny Asgard microtubules! #TeamTomo #ArchaeaSky 1/6

As a postdoc at Caltech, I attended a conference in Germany on the Bacterial Type IV Secretion System(T4SS). The T4SS is a versatile molecular weaponry used by bacteria to cause several diseases and spread AMR. I presented the first complete structure of the T4SS and won the best presentation award.

Super exciting!

Just attended the MGE Aus meeting in Melb. Fabulous program put together by Josh Ramsay, Galain Williams, Leah Roberts, Steve Petrovski and others! So many exciting talks on how AMR spreads in hospital settings, human phage-ome, phage phylogeny, T4SS, antiphage defense and more.

Another win for the lab! Due to family commitments, I missed this year's Lorne Proteins. This was 50th anniv, was sad to miss! However, delighted that our PhD student Milad won one of the poster prizes! That makes it a hattrick for our lab – 3 years 3 poster prizes! #ProudPI

Late post, but still in awe! We had a fantastic Electron Tomography Congress in Melbourne—an incredible lineup of speakers, engaging discussions on method development in both hardware and software space and cool science. A truly inspiring event!

Peptidoglycan as danger signal promotes biofilm formation - great article by the Drescher lab www.nature.com/articles/s41...

High-resolution cryo-EM using a common LaB6 120-keV electron microscope equipped with a sub–200-keV direct electron detector!