Excited to share our latest work with @albertomarina.bsky.social and @avigdoreldar.bsky.social labs, where we decipher the mechanism by which SPβ-like phages sense the SOS response to control the lysis–lysogeny switch. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🚨 PhD Opportunity in my lab🚨 Harnessing Phage Satellites for Next-Generation Biological Crop Protection 🗓 Deadline: 12 Jan 🔗 Apply: tinyurl.com/425x8ahj 🔗 Project : tinyurl.com/22uanm86 Interested in Structural Microbiology, Phage Biology & SynBio - Apply Now!

Arbitrium systems control lysis/lysogeny through the regulation of small antirepressor proteins https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.11.23.689978v1

Very happy to see this piece out in @plosbiology.org, on the bacterial immune systems and microbial communities. It was a great team effort with Rafael Custodio, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social , @brownlab.bsky.social, and Edze Westra! 🦠🧫 #phagesky #mevosky journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

👏 Dos proyectos del #CNB seleccionados en la convocatoria de Investigación en Salud 2025 de la @caixaresearch.bsky.social Ambos abordan un gran reto global: la resistencia a los antimicrobianos. #HealthResearch #FundaciónlaCaixa @sanmillan.bsky.social @jaescudero.bsky.social f.mtr.cool/jejatlbssz

1/ Antibiotic resistance causes ➕ than 1 M deaths each year and understanding why this happens is key to stopping it. With #HealthResearch support, @sanmillan.bsky.social#HealthResearchis investigating how different plasmids (DNA fragments) coexist in bacteria and confer resistance. https://tinyurl.com/3bysv6cr

#microsky #phagesky #phage Anyone who’s tried deleting prophages in the lab by HR knows the difficulties of the task. Here we have an example of how HR-mediated natural transformation might hit the same hurdle in a more native context. academic.oup.com/mbe/article/...

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages. Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms. A thread 1/8

The hitchhiker’s guide to cross-species DNA delivery @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social Spotlight by Kotaro Kiga and Rodrigo Ibarra-Chávez www.cell.com/trends/micro...

New paper: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Klebs can evolve resistance to Colistin through mgrB mutation or by acquiring the mcr-1 gene. Both routes have similar fitness costs against a bacterial competitor, but mgrB mutations are associated with enhanced virulence.

Preprint: Bacteria sense virus-induced genome degradation via methylated mononucleotides tinyurl.com/ch3damp We show how molecular byproducts released during virus-induced cell exploitation are used as signals to trigger host immunity Revealed by the amazing Ilya Osterman. See his thread below👇

Please RT. Post-doc opportunity alert! 💥 closing 10th December.. Come join our team (www.thelowlab.org) at Imperial, London, working on the structure and mechanism of bacterial secretion systems. For more details and to apply please see www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

@prczhaoyansong.bsky.social’s deep dive into the dark matter of compost communities is now out 🎉 Genomic islands hijack jumbo phages—whose capsids enable transfer of large tracts of DNA—shedding new light on the scale & scope of phage-mediated gene flow 😎 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Antiviral Defence is a Conserved Function of Diverse DNA Glycosylases https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.29.685425v1

New article alert: Bacterial TIR-based immune systems sense phage capsids to initiate defense Out now in Nature Microbiology by Cameron G. Roberts, Chloe B. Fishman, Zhiying Zhang, Dalton V. Banh, Dinshaw J. Patel & Luciano A. Marraffini #microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New pre-print: Plasmid dependent phage effectively eliminate AMR bacteria and block plasmid transmission in the chicken gut microbiome Fun collaboration with Tao He lab (JAAS) and @brockhurstlab.bsky.social lab (Manchester) #phagesky#microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Do plasmids really move around that much? Well, maybe not always Thrilled to have contributed to this story with two of my favourite microbiologists: @jrpenades.bsky.social & @sanmillan.bsky.social This great work was led by Akshay Sabnis & @wfigueroac3.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-reports...

New paper with my (amazing) friend and mentor @jrpenades.bsky.social Really looking forward to see what plasmid aficionados think of this one!! With @asantoslopez.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social Akshay Sabins and others www.cell.com/cell-reports...

New paper just out from #OurImperial @tcostalab.bsky.social The assembly of a hybrid type IV secretion system by a Crohn’s disease-associated Escherichia coli strain. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Two intensive sampling periods of oyster-associated vibrio and their phage, 4 years apart, and many surprises. Despite being washed by the Atlantic, wide tides, and vibrio (almost?) disappearing most of the year, we can find the exact same virulent phages 4 years later (down to 0 SNP)! preprint👇

Well, I guess I just learned that svg don't work great here. Check the figures in the preprint!

Our latest work reveals that arbitrium phages cross-communicate across species! These tiny viruses “listen” to signals from others, coordinating lysis-lysogeny decisions across species. Original idea from @albertomarina.bsky.social and, as usual, he was right. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

PS Simon’s tail fibre protein structure models showing the variants causing altered surface receptor binding specificity are Lovell-y

5-years in the making this paper has been a real journey! Also, a fun collaboration with @frimanscience.bsky.social @jofoth.bsky.social Edze Westra, Simon Lovell, Aras Kadioglu #mevosky #phagesky

New preprint! Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠 Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare! An epic effort by Rosanna Wright www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Check it out! A proper team effort from past and present group members and a great collaboration with @sergemostowylab.bsky.social

El proyecto "Descubrir actividades de resistencia antimicrobiana más allá de la resistencia" de @sanmillan.bsky.social (#CNB, @csic.es) y @jaescudero.bsky.social (@ucm.es) recibe una ayuda del Programa #Fundamentos de Fundación BBVA. ℹ️Lee la noticia aquí👇 bit.ly/48cvkp1

New pre-print: Eco-evolutionary responses of phage to different thermal regimes. Great work led by Sam Greenrod and fun collaboration with Kayla King's lab. 1/2 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Now published! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Very nice collaboration with Hoogenboom ( @ucl.ac.uk ) and Bonev ( @uniofnottingham.bsky.social ) labs.

Builds on pre-print posted earlier this week and gratuitously reposted here www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #Phagesky

New pre-print Competition between phage constrains adaptation to thermal fluctuating temperatures. More work led by Sam Greenrod in collaboration with @kayla-king.bsky.social lab. #Phagesky#Microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols. Thread 1/n

Now peer-reviewed, improved and published in @microbiologysociety.org Microbiology - thanks to editor and reviewers! www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

So excited to share a new paper from my lab just published in Nature Communications! We showed that vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) occupied distinct intestinal niches in the antibiotic-treated intestine. doi.org/10.1038/s414... Amazing work by first author Olivia King and colleagues!

🎉 Delighted to share the first pre-print from my lab where we demonstrate that intergenic DNA repeats mediate phase variation of the mucoid phenotype in hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #klebclub

We're looking for a technician at Institut Pasteur for experimental work on satellite-phage-bacteria interactions, working directly with @jmouradesousa.bsky.social and myself in the lab of @epcrocha.bsky.social ! ANR funded. Link to the job emploi.pasteur.fr/offre-de-emp... Thx for sharing!

Phage "satellites" that produce capsids but have no genes to produce tails have puzzled scientists for a long time. These are abundant as prophages in bacteria, but it was unclear how they can infect without tails Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!

Looking for a new approach to studying or eliminating phages? Check out our study introducing anti-phage ASOs (antisense oligos) out in @Nature today. nature.com/articles/s4158…

Thrilled to share that two of our papers with @jrpenades.bsky.social & GoogleDeepMind are now out in @cellpress.bsky.social 1️⃣Microbial piracy: tinyurl.com/yvf6t3b3 2️⃣AI co-scientist mirrors experimental science: tinyurl.com/2dym92kj @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social @imperiallifesci.bsky.social

Our second paper with @tcostalab.bsky.social and GoogleDeepMind reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species. @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Lots of heterogeneity in capsule production in Klebsiella and Acinetobacter. Given the pleiotropic impact of capsules, this provides opportunities for multiple types of phenotypical heterogeneity. Check @julielebris.bsky.social thread on our recent publication.

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

Willing to join us @pasteur.fr for a PhD for a project on how interactions between mobile genetic elements shape bacterial adaptation? Subject to be tailored to candidates with keen interest in evolution, genomics, computational biology, microbiology. Check www.pasteur.fr/en/education...

Thanks to the authors of this piece. I love reading about the work of inspiring pioneers in bacterial genetics. Crazy amount of discoveries! Pioneer of bacterial genetics: the legacy of Esther Miriam Lederberg academic.oup.com/genetics/adv...

Lineage-specific defence systems of pandemic Vibrio cholerae Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B by @mblokesch.bsky.social and Kim Seed royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Phage defence-system abundances vary across environments and increase with viral density Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B by @seanmeaden.bsky.social, Edze Westra and @peterfineran.bsky.social royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

And as a bonus — a 2nd review in the same special issue, co-authored with Kim Seed! 🧬💥 Lineage-specific defence systems of pandemic Vibrio cholerae royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/... Thanks to the editors Uri Gophna, Stineke van Houte and Edze Westra for bringing this collection together.

Excited to share my latest review, now published in the Royal Society theme issue on ‘The ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems' (available OA): Defence systems encoded by core genomic islands of seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Some good stuff in here 😊