PLEASE SHARE! New job openings in my lab @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social. We have a broad interest into the mechanistic basis of how molecular complexes are rewired during cellular development in plants and during invasion by pathogens. 🌱🍄🔬 See details below 👇 #PlantSciJobs

It was great to present my postdoc work at #IAL10, the International Association for Lichenology congress in Trieste! Thanks to the organizers for the invitation!

@metalichen.bsky.social Congratulations on your award, I can for sure agree that I have also been inspired by your work on lichens! 🥳

🎉Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Buendía-Ávila @dbuendia.bsky.social, researcher from the Marí-Ordóñez lab at the GMI, who successfully defended his PhD thesis, titled “Understanding Transposon Silencing in Duckweeds”. @fwf-at.bsky.social @vbcscitraining.bsky.social

Proud that @thesainsburylab.bsky.social alumna @metalichen.bsky.social will be a keynote speaker at the IAL10 Congress presenting our effector investigation in Xanthoria. #celebratingalumni

This is very cool and a phenomenal amount of work! Great to see protein design shaping the future of disease resistance bioengineering. We now really have entered the era of truly bespoke resistance! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Programmable design of synthetic plant immune receptors for pathogen protein recognition

The limited diversity and recognition scope of natural plant immune receptors impede resistance breeding against rapidly evolving pathogens. Here we report programmable design of synthetic plant immun...

science.org

Excited to see our new preprint on bioRxiv! 🌱🤖 We used AI protein design (RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN) to build brand-new sensor domains from scratch and installed them in a rice NLR immune receptor engineering recognition of a Fusarium effector FoSSP17

@yuxuan-xi.bsky.social · 4w ago

Our new preprint is out! Using AI-guided design (RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN), we engineered a plant immune receptor to recognise non-cognate pathogen effectors. Huge thanks to our amazing co-authors for making this possible! doi.org/10.64898/202...

New Preprint: Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors (2026) www.tsl.ac.uk/publications...

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational…

The Sainsbury Laboratory Norwich, United Kingdom © 2026. All rights reserved

tsl.ac.uk

Excited to preprint this collaborative study led by @adamrbentham.bsky.social in which computationally-designed protein binders were generated that recognise pathogen effectors leading to a plant immune response when deployed within NLR immune receptors. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors.

The rapid evolution of plant pathogens poses a persistent threat to global agricultural sustainability, often outpacing the discovery and deployment of natural disease resistance genes. While bioengin...

biorxiv.org

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737686v1

This has been a great project to work on and I’m very excited to see where this technology is headed within plant pathology. Big thanks to all the contributors, especially @yuxuan-xi.bsky.social and @adamrbentham.bsky.social!

@yuxuan-xi.bsky.social · 4w ago

Our new preprint is out! Using AI-guided design (RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN), we engineered a plant immune receptor to recognise non-cognate pathogen effectors. Huge thanks to our amazing co-authors for making this possible! doi.org/10.64898/202...

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737686v1

PhD position in my group for entry in October 2026. Round 3 of the @nrpdtp.bsky.social BBSRC competition. Please RT👇 biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/van...

Vanishing Virulence: Investigating pathogenicity loss in a plant pathogenic fungus (TALBOT_S26DTP3) | Doctoral Training Partnership

What makes a plant killer lose its edge? This project will investigate why fungal pathogens lose virulence when they are grown in laboratory culture away from their host plant. Use cutting-edge…

biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk

The mycobiont of the lichen Xanthoria parietina produces the siderophore ferrichrome which enables iron acquisition and nutrient exchange with its algal photobiont. Great collaboration with my group & @metalichen.bsky.social led by Hubertus Haas 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It was fantastic to be back in Norwich! Thank you for the invitation, I was really delighted to talk about my career paths from PhD to now. @nrpdtp.bsky.social

Angus Bucknell@ahbucknell.com · 2mo ago

Our last invited speaker for the #NRPDTP26 conference is @hee-kyung-ahn.bsky.social from the @instmolplantsci.bsky.social!

Our last invited speaker for the #NRPDTP26 conference is @hee-kyung-ahn.bsky.social from the @instmolplantsci.bsky.social!

Next we have @pierrebuscaill.bsky.social from the University of Bristol. Today he will talking about how plants regulate bacterial infections. #NRPDTP26

Next we have Camila Cotrim from Better Dairy, discussing her transition into industry and her science on precision fermentation. #NRPDTP26

Next we have Simone Immler from @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social who will be discussing the molecular mechanisms of reproduction.

Our first invited speaker of the #NRPDTP26 conference is Dr Marco Catoni, from the University of Birmingham. Today he’s talking about combining genomics and plant grafting to investigate mobile RNAs.

So proud to see this story finally out!🎉 We added new data since our previous preprint—transgenic barley plants with an engineered immune receptor that fights off two fungal pathogens at once. Short 🧵 and link to the original preprint thread on X👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Molecular mimicry of a pathogen virulence target by a plant immune receptor

Plants and animals respond to pathogen attack by mounting innate immune responses that require intracellular nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) proteins. These immune receptors detect pathog...

science.org

A great day of talks and posters - looking forward to tomorrow. Especially @metalichen.bsky.social’s talk! #Mendel_ECR_26

Gregor Mendel Institute of Molecular Plant Biology@gmivienna.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Day 1 of the Mendel Early Career Symposium! 100 international researchers gathered for networking, engaging talks & posters, keynote by @emmanuellebayer.bsky.social, & workshop on ChimeraX/AlphaFold. Thanks to the sponsors for supporting expanding horizons in #PlantBiology. #Mendel_ECR_26

Super stoked to be at @gmivienna.bsky.social for MECS2026. Huge thank you to the organizers for the invitation! #Mendel_ECR_26

On the way to the Mendel Early Career Symposium at @gmivienna.bsky.social. Looking forward to some greats talks and posters at a great institute! #Mendel_ECR_26

What an amazing #Fungal26✨ Feeling very inspired– thank you to everyone who shared science and ideas! Thank you to the organisers for my poster award, @gensocuk.bsky.social for sponsoring my attendance and huge thank you @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social for these past years! I will miss the Talbot Lab.

Shout out to the myco-skeeters 🦋 at #fungal26 It's been fun live posting with you! @germhuntermd.bsky.social @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social @audreykward.bsky.social @angusb.bsky.social @hyphaltip.bsky.social @uehlinglab.bsky.social

Césarée Morier-Gxoyiya @cesaree-mg.bsky.social asks what is causing the rise of wheat 🌾 stem rust? Is the rising temperature 🥵 in the UK to blame for this increase? Unlikes the rusts, Césarée will end this cycle (aka her PhD) looking for a postdoc #fungal26

The one and only @mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social at #Fungal26 talking about ToxA’s journey throughout the stars in different Starships!

Starships in fungi are so intriguing & have clearly had enormous (& diverse) impacts on genome evolution. @mycomile.bsky.social So many questions- the catalytic mechanism of YR Captains, target-site selection, how they move between fungi? (anastomosis/ role for parasexuality?) Amazing #Fungal26

Want to hear about gene regulation driving pathogenicity in the rice blast fungus? Come to my talk this afternoon at the Cell Wall Synthesis and Remodelling session at 16:40! Or my poster tonight! 🍄 #Fungal26