Somewhat late for a German, but here we are: First BBQ this spring.

How diverse is bacterial immunity ?

We report in @science.org how language models allowed us to predict 2.4M antiphage proteins spanning >23K novel potential systems.
👏 @emordret.bsky.social, @alexhv.bsky.social & al doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Explore them here defensefinder.mdmlab.fr/wiki/refseq_...

Apply now to attend the next EMBO Bacterial Networks meeting #EMBOBacNet

🗓️13-18 September 2026
📍Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain

📝Program and registration info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac...

👩‍🔬Organised with co-chair @s-lab.bsky.social and ECR @coralietesseur.bsky.social

#MicroSky

2 x Assistant Professor in Chemistry University of Warwick - Department of Chemistry.

📍 Location: University of Warwick, UK
📅 Start date: AY 2026/2027
⏰ Deadline to apply: 8th April 2026

warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/appcentre...

2 year fellowship available in AMR research www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/grants/antim...

Excited to share the first preprint from the lab! We show that ApeA defends against RNA phage infection by cleaving the phage genome:

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Little is known about bacterial immunity to RNA phages. The @jenshoer.bsky.social lab discovers ApeA recognition of phage RNA stem loops. With RNA viruses dominating emerging pathogens in humans, a very exciting area of comparison in host antiviral immunity!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New preprint of our friend Aritz Roa @aritz-roa.bsky.social with Nicholas Taylor @nmitaylorlab.bsky.social - even if phage mechanics are not your thing, check out their MAGNIFICENT video of T4 host recognition + infection directly im the post! 🎬🧬🔥

@nitzantal.bsky.social @romihadary.bsky.social @soreklab.bsky.social use structure prediction and in silico binding site analysis to discover viral immune evasion proteins! Exciting for our lab @reneechang.bsky.social @riveralopz.bsky.social to help with this project.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating).

A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)

New post-doctoral research position in my phage-host interactions (Phi) laboratory in @otagomicroimmuno.bsky.social at @universityofotago.bsky.social New Zealand. The project is focused on defences against jumbo phages. Please share and if interested apply using the link in the comments.

Save the date for the next International Conference on Gram-Positive Bacteria which will take place between 29 June–2 July 2027. The organizers (@annadragos.bsky.social, @polonca32.bsky.social, and Ines Mandic-Mulec) look forward to welcoming you to Ljubljana, Slovenia

Unraveling posttranscriptional regulatory networks in phage infection Phages employ sophisticated transcriptional regulatory networks to optimize replication. Recently, Silverman et al. used RIL-seq (RNA interaction by l…

Like bacteria, phages use sRNAs to regulate gene expression! Out today in @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social, @mvelascogomariz.bsky.social and I highlight a recent RIL-seq study from the @saharmelamed.bsky.social lab that looked into posttranscriptional regulation of lambda!

tinyurl.com/lambda-RIL-seq

Join us as Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Computational Biology at Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) / @leidenscience.bsky.social / @unileiden.bsky.social

Application deadline on 15 March 2026
👇
careers.universiteitleiden.nl/job/Assistan...

‪
Please RT:
Looking forward to our International Symposium on "Microbial Networking - from organelles to cross-kingdom communities".
Highlight of our first funding period of our Collaborative Researc Center @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de

www.sfb1535.hhu.de/mibinet

@hhu.de , @fz-juelich.de

What’s holding back clinical use of phage therapy in the UK?

Our workshop last year brought together international experts, biotech and regulators to find out

Meeting Report out now in Nature Microbiology with our take on the challenges and opportunities facing the UK phage therapy sector

We found a new mode by which bacteria deplete NAD+ to protect from phages. And then we found how phages overcome this defense

Discovered by talented biochemist Dr Ilya Osterman, read the preprint: tinyurl.com/Narp-ap

A thread 🧵

Postdoctoral position - Synthetic Biology / Bacterial Immunity - Research The Bikard lab at Institut Pasteur in Paris is seeking to hire postdoctoral researchers. We are investigating bacteria / bacteriophages interactions, and the genetic innovation that happens at this in...

🚨 Hiring Alert! 🚨My lab at Institut Pasteur is recruiting several Postdocs! We have exciting open projects in: 🦠 Synthetic Biology and🛡️ Bacterial Immunity. Come do great science with us in the middle of Paris! 🇫🇷🥐 research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...

We are looking for a junior group leader in RNA biology to join us in Würzburg at the @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social !

A generous funding package, a great collaborative environment, and a beautiful city are all included :)

Deadline for application is Feb 15; more information below 👇

PhD advertisement - Pausch lab | Patrick Pausch | 15 comments Please share! 📤 The Pausch lab at Vilniaus universitetas / Vilnius University is looking to recruit PhD students to work on: ⚔️ 🛡️: Bacterial Immune Systems (CRISPR, retrons, & beyond) 🧬 ✂️: De...

Great opportunity to join the lab of @patrick-pausch.bsky.social !

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Characterising antibacterial toxins in the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Characterising antibacterial toxins in the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

www.findaphd.com/phds/project... interested in bacterial antagonism? PhD opportunity in our team, see below. Please repost!

Our new publication in #ISMEJournal (@isme-microbes.bsky.social) describes how Bacillus and Trichoderma works together to fight against the plant pathogen Fusarium, a superb collaboration with Zhihui Xu at Nanjing Agricultural University, including the experiments by @jiyuxie.bsky.social at #IBL
1/7

A pentose, as a cytosine nucleobase modification in Shewanella phage Thanatos genomic DNA, mediates enhanced resistance toward host restriction systems | Applied and Environmental Microbiology Several phages extensively decorate their DNA building blocks, providing an effective protection against various host and phage-produced restriction systems. These modifications allow the phages to di...

Old and mighty: A novel cytosine nucleobase modification in phage genomic DNA renders the majority of restriction-based host defence systems useless. Great collaboration with the Bielefeld Gang. | Applied and Environmental Microbiology journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Are you a long-time fan of Archaea, an extremophile-phile, or are you simply curious?

Either way, we have good news.
We’re delighted to announce the 2026 EMBO Workshop on Archaea, 6–10 July.

Sign up: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc...

We look forward to seeing you in Cambridge, UK.

Please repost!

Just got word that we are a go for the Bacterial Cell Biology and Development GRS and GRC at Southern New Hampshire University!

GRS will be on June 5-6, 2027

GRC will be from June 6-11, 2027

Block off your calendars Prokaryotic Cell Biologists!

More details to come! Please repost!

Just realising again on my way to work: AI will never ever be able to bring the joy @eliza-coli.bsky.social images bring to me whenever I walk through my Institute's hallway. Thanks so much, Eliza!

Phage-induced lysis may only be the beginning of something else. Great effort by Antonio (first and corresponding author) showing the occurrence of extracellular DNA synthesis and structuring!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

So happy to announce our new preprint, “A geothermal amoeba sets a new upper temperature limit for eukaryotes.” We cultured a novel amoeba from Lassen Volcanic NP (CA, USA) that divides at 63°C (145°F) 🔥 - a new record for euk growth!
#protistsonsky 🧵

Testrun underway.

We have wondered what a complex archaeal cell might look like ever since 2014. It’s been a long road (and the journey is far from over), but it’s a good time to pause for breath and look. These Asgard archaeal cells are a surprise! And that is the joy of being a cell biologist.