Structures of the QatBC complex from Angela Gao and Doug Wassarman in our group reveal an evolutionary link between QatABCD and Type IV CBASS and a role for protein deazguanylation in diverse anti-phage defense systems
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Happy to share our new work on how phages escape bacterial immunity.
We show that a phage homing endonuclease drives segmental amplification of anti-defense genes, pointing to a versatile and rapid mode of adaptation.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#PhageSky #MicroSky
I'm happy to share a review that our lab put together on innate immune responses to Rickettsia. One interesting tidbit - different Rickettsia species have distinct interactions with xenophagy, where some species co-opt ubiquitylation, while others avoid it!
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Check out this wonderful piece by @vcallier.bsky.social on how parts of the human immune system can be traced back to the conflict between bacteria and phages!
Thank you to @vcallier.bsky.social and Quanta Magazine for highlighting our lab along with the incredible research from @soreklab.bsky.social @audeber.bsky.social @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social @benmorehouse.bsky.social @teralevin.bsky.social @algao.bsky.social Eugene Koonin, L. Aravind and others!
Over two billion years, a fierce battle has raged between bacteria and the viruses that infect them. The resulting evolution has shaped the way our bodies fight disease today. @vcallier.bsky.social reports: www.quantamagazine.org/the-ancient-...
Thank you Quanta Magazine for highlighting our studies on the bacterial immune system!
‼️Please share‼️
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_...
Happy to share the final version of my postdoc work on bacterial CBASS immunity with @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social published in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
New preprint: Cyclic tri-adenylate signalling by a Panoptes anti-phage guard system with a CARF-TM effector. Great work led by Sabine Grüschow
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
I'm hiring a postgrad, a great position for someone looking for a few years of training before applying to grad school! Come join us and learn microbiology, protein purification, and mucosal immunology: postdocs.yale.edu/posts/2026-0...
Our work on bacterial Schlafens in phage defense is out today @natmicrobiol.nature.com!
Check out the final version here:
rdcu.be/e7Bmz
We are looking for postdocs and students to expand our team! Official postings are coming soon.
Please reach out if you're interested!
#phage #phagesky #microsky
After >10 years of our lab studying bacterial cGAS-like enzymes, @hobbslabutah.bsky.social finally reconstitutes viral sensing in vitro and discovers how these ancient receptors sense phage protease enzymes to detect virion assembly and activate antiviral immunity
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Out today: We discovered new viral proteins that target immune signaling molecules, solely based on their AlphaFold-predicted shapes
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Congrats Nitzan Tal and coauthors! Thank you Kranzusch lab for the fun collaboration!
Linking below previous thread on our findings
CBASS is a cyclic nucleotide-based antiviral system in bacteria that is related to cGAS-STING signaling in animals. One of the big questions is how CBASS is activated during phage infection? We made some progress on this during my final year in the Kranzusch lab.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Congratulations to Assistant Professor Benjamin Morehouse on receiving a $150,000 Michelson Prize from the Michelson Medical Research Foundation 👏
The award supports his innovative immunology research at the Dunlop School.
Read more: bit.ly/4bmmJRK
So excited to share our cryo-EM study of the nitrogenase cofactor assembly scaffold NifEN expressed in E. coli!
@ribbehulab.bsky.social @ucibiosci.bsky.social @natcatal.nature.com
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cell death is a fundamental mechanism of antiviral immunity across diverse organisms, including bacteria. As my final PhD project with @jbdsf.bsky.social, I was curious whether cell death is required for successful immunity with the ancient cGAS pathway known as ‘CBASS.’
Spoiler – the answer is no!
🥳 🎉 New preprint from the lab is out!
It's time to officially introduce the world to the Nucleolar Integrity and Stress Microprotein (NISM)!
Check out the preprint in the link below
Somehow my mentor beat me to posting on this....thanks @kranzuschlab.bsky.social ! Very honored. And I agree- all very interesting projects from the awardees! Can't wait to see where all this new science takes us.
Congratulations to Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social and the other 2026 Michelson Prize Awardees. All five newly funded projects are incredibly exciting areas of immunology!
www.michelsonmedicalresearch.org/news/michels...
Lastly- this wouldn't have been possible without the incredible collab with @audeber.bsky.social and @enzopoirier.bsky.social and teams (shout out @hugovaysset.bsky.social) that got this whole thing started. Thank you for welcoming protein biochemists into your world.
We have a lot to do- but now we are better prepared to do it! I am especially proud of my team of grad and undergrad trainees pushing hard on this project and all the bacterial immunity projects as well.
I am incredibly honored to receive this recognition from the Michelson Medical Research Foundation for our work on innate immune signaling.
www.michelsonmedicalresearch.org/news/michels...
Congratulations to Sonomi Yamaguchi for her paper at @nature.com. Sonomi discovered Clover defense and explained how nucleotide signals control each step of viral sensing, immune regulation, and viral restriction – named for her beautiful "four-leaf" structures 🍀
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The giant viruses surprised us at almost every turn of this project, but ultimately led us down a very rewarding path. Happy to share this work is now available online 🧪
A huge congratulations to Brenda Bass @bbass.bsky.social for her Lifetime Achievement Award from the RNA Society @rnasociety.bsky.social! She is being recognized for her "groundbreaking discovery of A-to-I editing and outstanding contributions to this field."
🧬 Metabolic arms race continues!
We discovered a new NAD⁺-depleting bacterial immune system aRES and phage enzymes that overcome it.
Our preprint is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Hello world! I am excited to announce my lab is open at the University of Utah in the Department of Biochemistry. We are looking for scientists at all levels interested in studying host-virus interactions in both bacteria and animals. Come join us in beautiful Utah! (photo is 10 steps from lab)