Was so grateful to be able to work with one of THE cryoEM gurus in Debnath Ghosal on this journey...taking this work to the next level to go from inference to actually seeing interactions with our novel Asgards. Holding up a mirror to perhaps what their microbial ancestors did on an early Earth....

‘First contact’ that may have led to complex life on Earth finally witnessed by scientists theconversation.com/first-contac... via @ConversationEDU

Immensely rewarding part of this work was working with Indigenous language experts and elders in the naming of our species of Asgard….’marumarumayae’ derived from the Malgana language from the people of Gathaagudu (#Shark Bay)

While not quite making onto the winner's stage, honoured to have been nominated as part of an amazing team in the Builds Collaboration category in this year's #UNSW Vice Chancellor's People's Awards, for our work on the Bush Tucker Trail - where Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability meet 🍃

Was thrilled to see colleague @kmichie.bsky.social awarded a prestigious #UNSW Vice Chancellors Award. Kate leads the Structural Biology Facility and has been the tour d’ force developing the computational structural biology community in Australia. Awesome achievement and throughly deserved 👏

📣 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 ⚔️🦠❄️🔬

Thrilled to have this new story out...part of our genealogy search tracking down our long lost (microbial) ancestors. Welcome the latest #Asgard to the marvel universe...Nerearchaeum marumarumayae 😎 . ...https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.22.663070v1

From humble beginnings @unswbabs.bsky.social this research has passed along multiple hands to bring together two of my greatest loves…archaea and stromatolites. Fantastic team spearheaded with fellow PIs of the ‘Asgard Dream Team' @iduggin.bsky.social @kmichie.bsky.social @debnathghosal.bsky.social

Our new preprint with a new #Asgard from stromatolites (and its Desulfobacterota companion). Complete circularised genomes of both, cool #cryoem images, protein modelling, etc Big group effort with a lot of people involved #archaeasky #archaea www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...