Bacteriophages are in a constant arms race with bacteria 🦠 The Phage ORFeome pooled library from the Aaron Whiteley lab contains phage proteins that activate antiphage defense systems — a tool to dissect the mechanisms of bacterial immunity. Aaron Whiteley
Excited to share our new findings in @science.org on how the DRT3 bacterial defense system uses a reverse transcriptase that builds DNA repeats without a nucleic acid template. Microbes never cease to amaze!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
PhD student or postdoc in microbiology? 🔬🦠
We are opening a new round of our career orientation program VAAMentoring – Get matched with an experienced scientist 👨🔬👩🔬 to help you find your direction🎯
Apply by May 15, 2026
More info🔗 t1p.de/2iamo
#microbiology #mentoring #VAAM #PhDlife #Postdoc
PostDoc position available!
(links in post below)
Feel free to share!
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Nemudryi lab is looking for postdocs to join our team and study:
🦠 Bacterial phage defense mechanisms
🧬 RNA repair & CRISPR-based RNA editing
Excited about RNA, host-virus interactions & mechanistic biology?
Let's talk!
Apply: explore.jobs.ufl.edu/en-us/job/53...
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_...
A big advance in the field of bacterial immunity, from the Bernheim and Laub labs
Phage receptor prediction from genome sequencing alone. Bacterial receptor (blue) interacting with phage proteins (purple) is shown here
📣Huge preprint 🔔
Today we share something our group has been working toward for a long time, led by @lucasmoriniere.bsky.social We asked can we predict which receptor a phage targets from its genome sequence alone? For most phages, we couldn’t. So Lucas set out to do something I had only dreamed of.
Only 9 days left to apply for this post doctoral position. Please share and forward to your colleagues.
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...
Our lab is excited to share unpublished research on phage defense at the upcoming 2026 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria!
Today is the last day for abstract submissions: sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
Thank you to Marraffini @naamaaviram.bsky.social Seed @jbdsf.bsky.social labs for organizing!
Exciting news:
Our RNA community in @uniregensburg.bsky.social is set to grow!
We are opening a Junior Group Leader position in RNA biochemistry / ribonucleases / RNA stability. A great opportunity to start your own team within our collaborative RNA network.
Details & application 👇
Great collaboration with the labs of Axel Innis and @patrick-pausch.bsky.social on Typ I-F2 CRISPR-Cas. @synmikro.bsky.social @unimarburg.bsky.social @mpimicrobiomarburg.bsky.social
Thank you, Luuk! 🥳
Thanks, Arturo!! 🤗
Thank you, Rafa!! 🥂
Thanks Jack! 🍻
Now that @mftorresj.bsky.social & I are based at VU Life Sciences Center (one of the birthplaces of CRISPR tech) our publication portfolio gets extra diverse thanks to our phylogenetics & data vis skills. Here's one collaboration with @patrick-pausch.bsky.social:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
6/6) Big thanks and congrats to Monika Jasnauskaite et al. for their relentless work 🤜🤛! On Bluesky: @jjuozapaitis.bsky.social @mftorresj.bsky.social @evogytis.bsky.social @bangebalcony.bsky.social @ingasongailiene.bsky.social. Shout out to our funders @erc.europa.eu, @embo.org, @dfg.de, and LMT.
5/6) Activated Eco2 cuts RNA promiscuously, with a preference for some tRNAs. This activity efficiently shuts down protein production for antiphage defense 🪖, likely by abortive infection.
4/6) For activation of Eco2's TOPRIM, the phage-encoded DNA nuclease DenB degrades the DNA three-way junction. Upon DNA decay, the TOPRIM active sites are exposed to the solvent and poised for substrate destruction ✂️.
3/6) Using cryo-EM, we reveal how the DNA-product of Eco2's RT enzyme regulates the TOPRIM nuclease by formation of a DNA three-way junction ⛓️✂️⛓️.
2/6) We show that Eco2 defends against multiple phage families, demonstrating its broad activity 🌈. Escapers indicate that phage-encoded DNA nucleases trigger Eco2.
1/6) Hot off the press @natsmb.nature.com 🔥! Jasnauskaite et al. reveal how the minimal bacterial retron Eco2 defends against #phage 🛡️. Phage nucleases trigger Eco2, which cuts RNA, shuts down protein production and stops phage replication 🦠🚫. #phagesky #immunity #microbiology #cryo-em rdcu.be/e4AyH
New preprint on Detectrons from @jihoon-han.bsky.social! These are programmable biosensors for RNA that produce DNA barcodes in the presence of their target RNA. Check out Jihoon's quoted thread and the preprint for more:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
📣new preprint from the phagefoundry.org team 🎉 Jessica Trinh and Catherine Mageeney (Sandia National Laboratories)!!
Systematic analysis of prophages from ~1000 Acinetobacter baumannii isolates, induction & screening. We found this 😎 looking phage with bunch of 💍💍
Get in, dorks. We're ready for round two.
RALLY TO TAKE BACK SCIENCE! 🔬🧪✊
March 7th, 2026 in Washington, DC
Learn more at www.standupforscience.net/ma... (link in our bio.)
🔔HIRI has opened a new call to recruit Group Leaders. If you are interested in opening an RNA Biology and Infection lab, join us! Deadline: February 15. More info here 👇
