This was amazing team effort!

Many thanks Craig

Indeed, this is very exciting

We would love to know this. We donot know how these microbes sense their environment and partners.

Great effort from @tiltedscientist.bsky.social @dcshepherd.bsky.social @bindusmitapaul.bsky.social. Thanks to @unimelb.edu.au @FMDHS @ccemmp-outreach.bsky.social @CGCPT @bio21director.bsky.social

Really excited about this work, you can read more here: www.cell.com/current-biol.... Wonderful collaboration with Brendan Burns, Iain Duggin and Katharine Michie labs.

From these cultures, after years of effort, we captured the first direct physical interaction between an Asgard archaeon and a bacterium via nanotubes, offering a rare glimpse into an event that may have led to the emergence of the first eukaryotic cell billions of years ago.

We analysed microbial mats from stromatolites in Shark Bay, Australia – environments that resemble early Earth and act like ~living fossils or time capsules of evolutionary history. These environments host diverse microbial communities akin to those that thrived in ancient times.🔬❄️🧬 🦠

One of biggest mysteries in biology: how did complex eukaryotic cells evolve from simple microbes? ~1.8 billion years ago, an archaeal cell likely merged with a bacterium to form the first eukaryotic cell, but can we ever find direct evidence of this transformative event? 🦠 🚶‍♂️

This is amazing work! Congratulations.

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

Emma Johnston (1973–2025) - Nature Ecology & Evolution Innovative marine ecologist, passionate science communicator and visionary leader in higher education.

Emma Johnston (1973–2025) | Nature Ecology & Evolution share.google/8C3YzLRFM9QC...

Thank you so much Kate

Beautiful work Deb! Check out these structures? Biofilms are very interesting. 🧶🧬

Great collaboration with #ZavialovLab, #UhlinLab and #KnightLab. And terrific effort from our PhD student
@bindusmitapaul.bsky.social @UniMelb @CCeMMP, @UniMelbMDHS, @CGCPT. Of course, #HenriMalmi and #NataliaPakharukova are two superstars who led this project!

Cryo-EM structures of individual pilus, pilus pairs, and multi-pilus stacks revealed the structural framework of 3D biofilms, informing novel therapeutic strategies. 🦠🔬

We used electron cryo-tomography to reveal that an extensive network of thin bacterial filaments (Csu pilus/pili) forms a flat, stacked meshwork that mediates cell–cell connections and assembles drug-resistant biofilms.

Antiparallel stacking of Csu pili drives Acinetobacter baumannii 3D biofilm assembly - PubMed Many Gram-negative nosocomial pathogens rely on adhesive filaments, known as archaic chaperone-usher pili, to establish stress- and drug-resistant, multi-layered biofilms. Here, we uncover the mechanism by which these pili build three-dimensional (3D) biofilm architectures. In situ analyses of Acine …

A. baumannii is one of the most notorious multidrug-resistant pathogens, capable of forming drug-tolerant biofilms that make infections exceptionally difficult to treat. But how are these complex microbial fortresses built? Just published in Nat Comms. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41654547/

Many thanks @arianebriegel.bsky.social :-)

🌀 How do spirochete bacteria swim through thick fluids like champions?

We solved T. denticola flagella structure - asymmetric proteins expand one side, compress the other for perfect corkscrew motion!

@debnathghosal.bsky.social

🔗 doi.org/10.64898/202...

#StructuralBiology #CryoEM #Microbiology

Wonderful collaboration with #EricReynolds, #JillBanfield, and #ChrisFenno labs. Terrific effort from @lucatroman.bsky.social who drove the high-resolution work, great support from @bindusmitapaul.bsky.social and #JackKim, @CCeMMP, @UniMelbMDHS, @CGCPT.

🧬 Comparative analysis shows that FlaL proteins are conserved across several spirochetes, suggesting that asymmetric assembly is a modular solution to the mechanical demands of periplasmic flagella, providing a new structural framework for bacterial motility.

Different sheath proteins do different jobs. • FlaA1 expands the lattice on the outer curve • FlaA2/3 compress the inner curve. • FlaL1 🧩 & FlaL2 🧩 stabilize this asymmetric architecture. All of these proteins wrap around the core formed by FlaB.

Using visual proteomics (powered by AI-based ModelAngelo), we show that T. denticola flagellar filament is composed of 7 different proteins, including 2 novel ¬– flagellar lattice proteins FlaL1 and FlaL2, making this one of the most complex bacterial filament systems.

The secret is asymmetry. A conserved FlaB core is wrapped by multiple sheath proteins that decorate the filament unevenly, breaking symmetry and imposing curvature. Basically, structure → mechanics → motion! 🤯

❄️ 🔬 Using near-atomic resolution cryo-EM and visual proteomics, we solved native flagellar filament structures from Treponema denticola, a major oral pathogen. What we found is remarkable!

🦠 Spirochetes cause many diseases e.g., syphilis, Lyme disease, and periodontitis. They twist their cell body to move through viscous environments. The engine? Curved periplasmic flagella. How do they bend their flagella to drill through tissue?

📣 New paper alert! This is a story of molecular tricks that let spirochetes (spiral-shaped bacteria) drill through tissue. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Congratulations!

Wow! Mind boggling! How long did it take? Many congratulations!