All currently approved antibiotics inhibit essential cellular processes. Ever wonder if we could kill bacteria using the opposite strategy? Here, we demonstrate an alternative antibacterial strategy: lethality through pathway over-activation. www.nature.com/articles/s41... (1 out of 3)

Our work with the Brun lab on the in situ architecture of the Caulobacter crescentus Tad pilus machine is published in mBio. Amazing collaborative effort led by James Iarocci @jamesiarocci.bsky.social

Our paper on the in situ structure of the Tad pili machine is now published in mBio journals.asm.org/eprint/D9AT2... #microsky

New in JB: Mike Cashel is known internationally for his work on "magic spot", or (p)ppGpp, that serves as a key regulator of bacteria physiology. Hinman & Gottesman remember Dr. Cashel. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org #JBacteriol

ANNOUNCEMENT! Programme now LIVE on our website for the #ProkaryoticCellBio conference! Check it out here, a reminder that the registration deadline is 13 April!➡️https://bit.ly/4rEH9KP

🚨Preprint! Happy to share the research from my PhD “Genome delivery of a contractile tailed phage and its superinfection exclusion mechanism”. We use cryoEM to study the genome ejection of the phage T4, revealing how the tape measure protein regulates the process. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A jumbo cyanophage encodes the most complete ribosomal protein set in the known virosphere www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🧵 Proud to present a tour de force by postdoc @gregbwhitfield.bsky.social solving the mystery of how bacterial Tad pili can extend and retract with a single motor ATPase. Great collaboration with Lynne Howell, @dr-lori-burrows.bsky.social, @ianyyen.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

This is a tour de force by @gregbwhitfield.bsky.social who I just convinced to join Bluesky.

Maybe a single image is worth a thousand thread words:

Working on a 🧵 Bacterial Tad pili extend and retract pili using a single motor ATPase with a unidirectional catalytic mechanism. We find that the Tad motor achieves bidirectionality by physical inversion; alternating which face of the ATPase toroid engages the IM platform complex. #microsky

Thank you for highlighting our paper on how septal PG hydrolysis licenses a second wave of PG transpeptidation during cell separation! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... I will do a thread when the page set version is out.

The demand for #ProkaryoticCellBio so far has been crazy! We received a record number of abstract & grant submissions, to which the conference chairs are busy reviewing! We predict poster slots & accommodation to begin filling up, don't wait until the deadline to register! More info ➡️ bit.ly/4raYCu

Giving a seminar in Bucharest in a few minutes. #microsky

Hey alpha aficionados - it's almost time for CauloCon 2026! This free, virtual meeting will feature talks from @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social @thanbichlerlab.bsky.social and @lamasonlab.bsky.social with opps for trainee talks. Register using the link below. 👇

It’s warming up in Montreal 🥶☃️

Very excited to be part of the amazing Gr-ADI Consortium to accelerate the discovery of new antibiotics. #microsky nouvelles.umontreal.ca/en/article/2...

Looking forward to having Dr. Xiaoquian (Annie) Yu join us in Montreal!

New Microbe Matters! @relenski.bsky.social traces the legacy of Escherichia coli and how science is evolving to use this model organism in new ways #microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

you may be interested to learn what Elio had to say in 2008 about an experiment he was involved in five decades earlier... #MicroSky smallthingsconsidered.blog/schaechter/2...

we are busy tidying up our archives during the winter holidays. we've now worked our way back to 2008, making some 1.800+ posts available again: smallthingsconsidered.blog/page/300/

Ancestral sequence reconstruction reveals CTP-dependent loading of the bacterial centromere-binding protein ParB as an ancient evolutionary feature Now published: tinyurl.com/4ddhwbb3 Thanks to the Hochberg and Bange labs for the great collaboration!

Just 4 days until our Grants, Early Bird & Talk deadline closes for #ProkaryoticCellBio! Join Heath Murray, Jie Xiao, Marc Bramkamp and Ethan Garner 13 - 16 July 2026 in Portugal, alongside our fantastic speaker line-up! More info on how to register here➡️https://bit.ly/4qCDhtw

Please repost. #microsky

Canada Research Chairs www.canada.ca/en/impact-pl...: $1M/year for 8 years, plus up to $6M in CFI infrastructure support. Looking for leading researchers abroad interested in AMR research, antibiotic discovery (Pandemicstopai.ca), phages. Email short vision + CV. Tight deadlines: March 10 & June 15

We just launched the web site for our consortium to accelerate antibiotic discovery by combining high throughput, high content approaches and AI, PandemicStop-AI. Check it out: pandemicstopai.ca

We just launched the web site for our consortium to accelerate antibiotic discovery by combining high throughput, high content approaches and AI, PandemicStop-AI. Check it out: pandemicstopai.ca

We are looking forward to sunnier days and some fantastic presentations at our #ProkaryoticCellBio meeting in Portugal next July! Grants, Early Bird pricing and Talk slots close on 12 Jan, register & submit today to join us! 🌞 👉https://bit.ly/48G29dP

A study in contrast this morning. Frost, smog, and beach.

Wow, really cool work! Congratulations!

Not funny!

As mentioned, here is the preprint by Jensen and @viollierpat.bsky.social on the in situ structure of the Tad pilus. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... Nice work and great to see that we are seeing the same thing! Our preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #microsky

Great collaboration with @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social for resolving the Tad pilus machine structure by cryo-ET. Beautiful work by graduate students James Iarocci and Ryu Williston in our lab. Preprint:https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.05.686773v1

More useful with the link #microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Great collaboration with @guo-lab.bsky.social to determine an in situ architectural model of the Tad pilus machine. Be on the lookout soon for a preprint on the same topic by Grant Jensen and @viollierpat.bsky.social. #microsky

Forgot to post the recently published version of this paper on the role of a minor pilin-like protein in surface sensing journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Light reading to distract me from the news. Yet it is strangely familiar.

Why do we always submit grant proposals at the last minute? This never ceases to amaze me.

Please repost: PhD position with my lab and @weisslab.bsky.social in a great collaboration on bacterial adhesion #microsky. See drive.google.com/file/d/1GJD4...

As I was saying, happy to be back home! Cheers!

Congratulations Marie! Immensely proud! Looking forward to seeing where you take your project on evolution of bacterial elongation.

Sabbatical is over! I really enjoyed my time in Marseille for 10 months @lcbofficiel.bsky.social but very happy to be back in Montreal and with my lab. Also, the view from my office 😀

Excited to see our automated HT growth/microscopy screening platform coming together. Pictured: the intermediate version to screen 5-10,000/day unattended. Diagrammed is the full platform due next summer after renovations @ 20,000/day and integrated with our colony picker.

Exciting news! My work with Liu Yang in the @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social, “Phenotypic plasticity in cell elongation among closely related bacterial species”, has been selected as an Editors’ Highlight in @natcomms.nature.com under Microbiology and infectious diseases! Check it out here:

How does your favorite species elongate? 🧵 "Phenotypic plasticity in bacterial elongation among closely related species". Happy to see this paper in print @natcomms.nature.com. Nice work by @mariedelaby.bsky.social, Liu Yang et al. See original 🧵, different colours, same data and conclusions.

Excited to be in Grenoble surrounded by mountains to give a seminar today at the IBS where I was on sabbatical 10 years ago.

I got hit by some rather sudden and extreme financial hardship so if anyone is in need of remote wetlab contract research, strictly BSL1, do let me know. Currently scrambling for gigs. Plant, Bacterial, Archaeal Non-model Bioeng Custom Lab Hardware Turn Key Genetic Design Please repost for reach 💚