To study the implications, we built a pilin library in PAO1, and compared the ability of polyclonal #antisera vs #phages to recognize diverse pilins. While antibodies were highly selective for their cognate antigens, some phages could recognize almost all of the pilins! But how could they do that??

QR code to access 'Structural diversification of phage tail fibres enables recognition of diverse type IV pili'

New paper showing how tailed #phages recognize diverse #Pseudomonas #T4P! Outstanding work by PhD candidate Ikram Qaderi, building on work started a decade ago during my sabbatical in the McArthur lab and in collaboration with the Guarné lab, now at #McGill. @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social

Most scientific papers are written for other scientists. We were happy to write for JoLSP, a postdoc initiative, a lay summary of our research on how a tiny viral RNA hijacks bacterial replication machinery.
www.journaloflifesciences.org/archives/157...

#RNA #phages
@hebrewuniversity.bsky.social

Open positions This year (2026), we welcome Master’s Students for a duration of minimum 4 months, ideally 6 months. To apply, please send the following documents to camille.goemans@epfl.ch CV Cover letter mentioning...

We have 3 master's projects in our lab ! 👩🏼‍🔬🧑‍🔬👨🏾‍🔬
Interested to do #microbiology, assess the impact of #antibiotics on anaerobic bacteria and work with #phages ? 🦠🧫💊
Check this link ⤵️
www.epfl.ch/labs/upgoema...

webinar speaker descriptions

Join us online tomorrow 11am EDT to catch PhD candidate Veronica Tran talking about work from her recently accepted mBio paper on #Pseudmonas mutants selected by type IV pilus-targeting #phages! @mcmasteriidr.bsky.social @mcmasternexus.bsky.social

Excited to see @dariavantyne.bsky.social and Van Tyne Lab featured on the Podovirus Podcast!

Great conversation on how translational phage work actually gets done. 🧫

Check out the links below for the full story! #pittsburghphageprogram #p3 #phages #infectiousdiseases #phagetherapy

New Antibiotics Provide a Glimmer of Hope as Older Drugs Grapple With Resistance | Infection Control Today Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is accelerating worldwide, with MRSA, carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, and drug-resistant gonorrhea threatening modern medicine. As antibiotic development lags, AI-driven discovery, soil-derived compounds like teixobactin, and phage therapy offer renewed hope.

Infection Control Today spotlights the critical role of diagnostics and stewardship in the fight against #AMR, even as new #antibiotic discoveries are made with AI, soil, and #phages.

➡️ spkl.io/63325AxE97

#Microbiology #AntimicrobialResistance

A virus hiding inside bacteria may help explain colorectal cancer Scientists found an unexpected viral hitchhiker lurking inside a common gut bacterium – and it was twice as prevalent in people with colorectal cancer.

Really enjoyed writing a piece for @uk.theconversation.com - trying to write for a general audience, you suddenly realise how much jargon is deeply embedded in your brain #Phages #Microbiome #SciComm

theconversation.com/a-virus-hidi...

My book out in english! So proud !
#AMR #PHAGES #ANTIBIOTICS

Now available! Interdisciplinary and nuanced, OUR VIRAL FUTURES poses a provocative challenge: Instead of continuing to assert that we can control and master microbes, we must learn to coexist with them. buff.ly/UXQQOHl #AMR #Phages #PublicHealth #PoliticalEcology @charlottebrives.bsky.social

#Bacteriophage cocktail in drinking water suppresses systemic avian pathogenic Escherichia coli infection and pathology in laying hens

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... #OpenAccess #Ecoli #phages #microbiology #MicroSky

New in Pathogens and Immunity! Read this exciting summary of the innovative work presented at the 2025 Conference on Bacteriophages: Biology, Dynamics, and Therapeutics. Full summary available here: bit.ly/45WeFEq #Bacteriophages #PhageTherapy #Phages

The textbooks show #phages with stumpy-tails (podo-type) or contractile-tails (myo-type) or flexible-tails. (sipho-type). Meet JS1, a flexible AND contractile phage.

Images of phage JS1 by EM showed that it's flexed tail. Contractile phages should be straight, JS1 isn’t.
doi.org/10.1128/mbio...

#microsky #phagesky #phage #microbiomesky

Molecular adhesins from gut #phages

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

Scientists Sent Viruses to Space and They Evolved in Surprising Ways When scientists sent bacteria-infecting viruses to the International Space Station, the microbes did not behave the same way they do on Earth. In microgravity, infections still occurred, but both viruses and bacteria evolved differently over time. Genetic changes emerged that altered how viruses attach to bacteria and how bacteria defend themselves. The findings could help improve phage therapies against drug-resistant infections. In a new study, terrestrial bacteria-infecting viruses were still able to infect their E. coli hosts in near-weightless "microgravity" conditions aboard the International Space Station, but the dynamics of virus-bacteria interactions differed from those observed on Earth. Phil Huss of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A., and colleagues present these findings January 13thin the open-access journal PLOS Biology.   Interactions between phages -- viruses that infect bacteria -- and their hosts play an integral role in microbial ecosystems. Often described as being in an evolutionary "arms race," bacteria can evolve defenses against phages, while phages develop new ways to thwart defenses. While virus-bacteria interactions have been studied extensively on Earth, microgravity conditions alter bacterial physiology and the physics of virus-bacteria collisions, disrupting typical interactions. However, few studies have explored the specifics of how phage-bacteria dynamics differ in microgravity. To address that gap, Huss and colleagues compared two sets of bacterial E. coli samples infected with a phage known as T7 -- one set incubated on Earth and the other aboard the International Space Station. Analysis of the space-station samples showed that, after an initial delay, the T7 phage successfully infected the E. coli. However, whole-genome sequencing revealed marked differences in both bacterial and viral genetic mutations between the Earth samples versus the microgravity samples. The space-station phages gradually accumulated specific mutations that could boost phage infectivity or their ability to bind receptors on bacterial cells. Meanwhile, the space-station E. coli accumulated mutations that could protect against phages and enhance survival success in near-weightless conditions.   The researchers then applied a high-throughput technique known as deep mutational scanning to more closely examine changes in the T7 receptor binding protein, which plays a key role in infection, revealing further significant differences between microgravity versus Earth conditions. Additional experiments on Earth linked these microgravity-associated changes in the receptor binding protein to increased activity against E. coli strains that cause urinary tract infections in humans and are normally resistant to T7. Overall, this study highlights the potential for phage research aboard the ISS to reveal new insights into microbial adaption, with potential relevance to both space exploration and human health. The authors add, "Space fundamentally changes how phages and bacteria interact: infection is slowed, and both organisms evolve along a different trajectory than they do on Earth. By studying those space-driven adaptations, we identified new biological insights that allowed us to engineer phages with far superior activity against drug-resistant pathogens back on Earth."   Published January 2026: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003568   

The findings open a new venue of research to understand how viral evolution under microgravity may differ as compared to earth #phages #space #bacteriophage

Aboard The International Space Station, Viruses And Bacteria Show Atypical Interplay - Astrobiology terrestrial bacteria-infecting viruses were still able to infect their E. coli hosts in near-weightless “microgravity” conditions aboard the International Space Station

#Viruses and #bacteria show atypical interplay aboard the International #Space Station ...

| #ISS | #microgravity | #phages | #ecosystems | Via @astrobiology.bsky.social

Viral and eukaryotic drivers of prokaryotic and antibiotic resistance gene diversity in wastewater microbiomes - Microbiome Background Antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) are proliferating in wastewater microbiomes, yet the biotic forces shaping their diversity remain poorly understood. Here, we integrate 14 months of metag...

Who’s really in charge of #wastewater treatment🤔?
Viral infection and protistan predation provide a "top-down" control that structures bacterial communities.
#MicroSky #Protists #Eukaryotes #Viruses #Phages
@microbiomej.bsky.social
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Bacteriophage therapy in ICU: Inhaled Phages for multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae | Bacteriophage.news MicroMir shares the first comparative clinical evaluation of inhaled phages for multidrug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae as an adjunct to antibiotics for ventilator-associated Pneumonia.

MicroMir shares the first comparative clinical evaluation of inhaled #phages for multidrug-resistant #Klebsiellapneumoniae as an adjunct to antibiotics for ventilator-associated #Pneumonia.

www.bacteriophage.news/inhaled-phag...

Microbiology in space aboard the International Space Station!!!

Surely astronauts contributed enough to get authorship?!
#science #MicroSky #ClinMicro #phages #UTISky

I think the #phages are spelling something.

Phage + bacterial droplets as a way to quantify infectious titer. This is work from Stefan Vermeulen from HO Gent. This is a salmonella phage infecting after 180 minutes.

The PMD4U platform with patented methodology.

PhD student bioinformatics: Phage genomic modules: data mining, visualisation, and databasing

PhD position in Jena! Unique German-French collaboration to work on integrating phage genomic modules into VirJenDB.org - make sense of #phages, #big_data, #front_end, #back_end, #database. Please apply here 👇
jobs.uni-jena.de/jobposting/c...

Metagenomics reveals potential interactions between Patescibacteriota and their phages in groundwater ecosystems | mSystems Here, we sought phages that were capable of infecting Patescibacteriota metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), and further explored the diversity and novelty of Patescibacteriota phages, as well as the ...

Metagenomics reveals potential interactions between Patescibacteriota and their phages in groundwater ecosystems
#microbiology #viruses #phages #MicroSky
@asm.org
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Bacterial resistance and co-existence with temperate bacteriophages in the human gut Our understanding of the eco-evolutionary dynamics and consequences of bacteria-phage interactions in nature is limited. By combining longitudinal sampling and analysis of Enterobacterales and associa...

New year->New preprint showcasing mechanisms underpinning patterns of bacterial #resistance and #coexistence with #temperate #phages in the #human #gutmicrobiome www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thanks to all involved and @researchireland.ie @royalsociety.org for funding @uccmicrobiology.bsky.social

Characterization of five environmental phages infecting Escherichia coli K-12 isolated during a phage biology training course | Microbiology Spectrum Bacterial anti-phage defense systems are central to microbiology and have applications in biotechnology and medicine. Phage collections are key tools for uncovering and studying these systems. By isol...

New article: Shyrokova et al. isolate and characterize five environmental phages infecting E. coli K-12. A detailed look at phage genomics and host interactions from a phage biology training course.

#InfectLU #Phages #Microbiology led by M. J. O. Johansson

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

#genomic #phages

Metagenomics reveals potential interactions between Patescibacteriota and their phages in groundwater ecosystems | mSystems Here, we sought phages that were capable of infecting Patescibacteriota metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), and further explored the diversity and novelty of Patescibacteriota phages, as well as the ...

#microsky #phagesky

Metagenomics suggests temperate #phages contribute auxiliary metabolic genes to small genome bacteria

journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

High-throughput transposon mutagenesis defines the essential genome of diverse phages Phages are important drivers of bacterial evolution with therapeutic potential as antimicrobials. However, gaps in our understanding of phages and our inability to rapidly engineer them with new genet...

#microsky #phagesky

The 3rd (? Lost track!) manuscript on a CRISPR/anti-CRISPR -based transposon tool to study gene essentiality in #phages

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

Long-read metagenomics reveals phage dynamics in the human gut microbiome. #GutMicrobiome #Phages #LongReads #Sequencing #Genomics @nature.com 🧪🧬 🖥️
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Reversible phenotypic resistance to phage infection via capsule downregulation in Klebsiella pneumoniae Molecular biology; Microbiology; Cell biology

My @i2sysbio.es colleagues Lucas Mora, Rafael Sanjuan @rafa-sanjuan.bsky.social and Pilar Domingo Calap @pilardomingoc.bsky.social published a paper about reversible phenotypic resistance to phages in Klebsiella. 👏👏 Congratulations! 🧬🖥🧪🦠🧫 #microsky #viruses #phages
www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Biomining Viruses Deliver Rare Earth Elements Learn how scientists use an engineered virus for biomining rare earth elements, a green alternative to destructive, toxic mining methods. They’re gorgeous, dazzling, passionately pursued, and worth billions. No, not Hollywood starlets and hunks and the stars of K-Pop. Well, OK, yes – they are gorgeous, dazzling, passionately pursued, and worth billions – but they’re nowhere near as useful to the world as rare earth elements (REEs). And thanks to bioengineering professor Seung-Wuk Lee and his team at UC Berkeley, there’s a brand new way to make viruses that can extract REEs without causing horrific, ecosystem-killing pollution and destruction. (No word yet whether the virus can do the same for starlets, hunks, and pop-stars). In a paper recently published in the journal Nano Letters, Lee and his team describe genetically engineering a harmless virus that acts like a microscopic aquatic miner by retrieving REEs from mine drainage water, and following a temperature and pH change, delivers them for harvest. Such a method could mean an eventual replacement of the pervasive and hyper-destructive methods of modern mining. “This is a significant move toward more sustainable mining and resource recovery,” said principal investigator Seung-Wuk Lee, who is also faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. “Our biological solution offers a greener, low-cost, and recyclable way to secure the critical materials we need for a clean energy future while helping to protect the environment.”   Any country with REE reserves deploying such technology domestically would reduce its reliance on international sources of REEs, thus increasing its economic, industrial, and political independence. Currently, no country produces more REEs than does China, mining an estimated 240,000 tons of REEs and refining 189,179 tons in 2023. That’s 70% of the world’s REE mining and 87% of its REE refining. In their various states of oxidation, the shiny, metallic REEs can form a range of colorful compounds. While precious, the REEs aren’t exactly atomic celebrities sipping martinis and eating caviar around a glamorous periodic table. So, forget the attention-getting elements such as gold, iron, and platinum, and fix your eyes instead on this substantial crew of exotic refinement: the two transition metals scandium and yttrium, and the 15 lanthanides including promethium, europium, and gadolinium.   So, how does the virus work? Lee’s team transformed a bacteriophage (a type of virus that attacks bacteria without harming humans or the rest of the biosphere) into a micro-mining machine by adding two specialized proteins. One is a lanthanide-binding peptide on the phage’s surface acting as a claw for collecting REEs, and the other, an elastin motif peptide that, when temperature-activated, exits the solution and delivers its REEs. For an outstanding bonus, the biomining viruses remain effective even after completing their “shift,” meaning they can come back to work whenever they’re needed. They’re easy and inexpensive to grow at industrial scale, too – simply add them to bacteria, and when the bacteria replicate, the virus replicates with them. According to Lee, the new biomining method is “not only eco-friendly, but also incredibly simple, requiring little more than a mixing tank and a heater.” With it, scientists “can use a programmable, biological tool to perform a complex industrial task that currently requires toxic chemicals and a lot of energy.” Because of REEs’ ability to enhance miniaturization, efficiency, durability, and performance, the world craves them. Used in consumer electronics such as mobile phones, computers, televisions and monitors, LEDs, camera lenses, fluorescent lights, REEs are also indispensable for countless industrial applications including glass-colourants, lasers, weaponry, MRIs, catalytic converters, polishing powders used in semiconductor manufacturing, fuel cells, rechargeable batteries, and vehicles for land, air, and space. REEs’ most widespread function in 2023 – about 45%, as the Government of Canada reports – is the manufacture of permanent magnets which make wind turbines and EVs (and the vibrating magnet in your cellphone) possible.

A recent study describes the engineering of genetically modified bacteriophages to recover rare-earth elements (REEs) under aqueous conditions through temperature modulation. #phages #nanobiotechnology