I am delighted and incredibly grateful to share that I have been awarded a NHMRC Emerging Leadership (EL1) Investigator Grant!
Debnath Ghosal
@debnathghosal.bsky.social
CryoEM, Structural Cell Biology. Group Leader@University of Melbourne. Formerly at @Caltech, @MRC_LMB, Cambridge University.
Had an amazing day at the @Sydney_Uni, presenting our work at the SABA BacChats Seminar Series! Great scientific discussions throughout the day. Thanks again for the warm hospitality, I thoroughly enjoyed the visit! @doylemt1.bsky.social and @BilgeErcan, thank you both for everything.
This Visual-omics approach is kind of amazing: "We resolved each to sufficient resolution (2.8 and 3.6 Å) to predict the amino acid composition directly from the 3D electrostatic potential map"
Debnath Ghosal@debnathghosal.bsky.social · 2mo agoBy using visual-omics, we managed to assign the molecular identity of these filaments directly from structure, without relying on sequence homology. It turned out to be a completely novel filament system, never before described in any bacteria.
Excited to be presenting this work today at the 3DEM Gordon Research Seminar and later this week at the Gordon Research Conference. Looking forward to the discussions and feedback! www.grc.org/three-dimens...
2026 Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy Conference GRC
The 2026 Gordon Research Conference on Three Dimensional Electron Microscopy will be held in Castelldefels, Barcelona Spain. Apply today to reserve your spot.
grc.org
Debnath Ghosal@debnathghosal.bsky.social · 2mo agoNew paper alert!! We just discovered a new filament system that is widespread exclusively within CPR bacteria! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... Short thread below. 🦠🔬🚀
including state-of-the-art #CryoET #CryoEM #teamtomo
Debnath Ghosal@debnathghosal.bsky.social · 2mo agoCPR bacteria form a superphylum that may account for 15–50% of all bacterial diversity (!!), yet we know remarkably little about them. Recently, we showed that the dwarf CPR bacterium JR1 entangles its host with specialized filaments and kills using a lance-like structure. 🦠⚔️
New paper alert!! We just discovered a new filament system that is widespread exclusively within CPR bacteria! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6.... Short thread below. 🦠🔬🚀
A Novel Pilus System in Candidate Phyla Radiation Bacteria
The Candidate Phyla Radiation (CPR) represents a bacterial superphylum estimated to include between 15–50% of all bacterial species, yet CPR bacteria remain challenging to culture and have been primar...
biorxiv.org
1/ Excited to share our new paper in Science @science.org: “Toward life with a 19-amino acid alphabet through generative artificial intelligence design.” A great collab w/ Sergey's group @sokrypton.org at MIT @columbiasysbio.bsky.social science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🦠🧬🛠️🖥️💥
Toward life with a 19–amino acid alphabet through generative artificial intelligence design
Because all known living organisms are made from at least 20 canonical amino acids, the feasibility of life using a more simplified alphabet remains unclear. In this work, we leveraged computational d...
science.org
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? 🦠 🚶♂️
Beautiful work Deb! Check out these structures? Biofilms are very interesting. 🧶🧬
Debnath Ghosal@debnathghosal.bsky.social · 6mo agoA. 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/
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/
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 …
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
🌀 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
📣 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...
Wow! Mind boggling! How long did it take? Many congratulations!
Andrew Ellisdon@drellisdon.bsky.social · 7mo agoAn incredibly challenging single particle cryo-EM structure. Capturing both the N and C termini was difficult enough, but the project required a major effort to resolve the full length protein structure to capture the overall architecture of the KICSTOR-GATOR1 complex. Well worth it in the end!
Fantastic MEL-JPN workshop on the intersections between #bacteria and #mitochondria at #Bio21 (very nice lunchtime too). Organized by Takuya Shiota and Rhys Grinter
Last week we had the CCeMMP Symposium 2025. Fantastic event with an outstanding line-up of speakers. There were 2 poster prizes and 1 oral presentation prize; thrilled that we did a clean sweep! Huge congratulations @tiltedscientist.bsky.social @somavallyd.bsky.social and @lucatroman.bsky.social
Great stuff @joshuamhardy.bsky.social ! Congratulations.
Josh Hardy@joshuamhardy.bsky.social · 10mo agoI am thrilled to release ProteinDJ: a high-performance and modular protein design pipeline. Our open-source workflow incorporates #RFdiffusion, #ProteinMPNN, #FAMPNN, #AlphaFold2 and #Boltz-2. It is a fast, free, and fun way to design proteins (1/5) doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.24.678028 #proteindesign
This is an amazing paper led by the Grinter lab on bacterial protein antibiotics called pyocins and the mechanism by which they inhibit the BAM outer membrane complex. @rhyswg.bsky.social, @knottrna.bsky.social, @debnathghosal.bsky.social, @doylemt1.bsky.social, @fabianmunder.bsky.social
A Protein Antibiotic Inhibits the BAM Complex to Kill Without Cell Entry
Many antibiotics are ineffective against Gram-negative pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa because they cannot penetrate the bacterial outer membrane. Here, we show that protein antibiotics calle...
biorxiv.org
We recently discovered a brand-new (and unique!) anti-phage defense system in bacteria. Check out this Pursuit article from @Melbourne University featuring our recent work. Terrific effort from our PhD student Somavally! lnkd.in/geXUApmK
3 months, 3 thesis orations: a hat-trick moment for the lab!! 🎓🥳. This time, Bindusmita in the spotlight! ✨ She delivered a fantastic thesis oration, packed with fascinating data and insights 🦠 ❄️ 🔬. It has been an absolute joy mentoring her. Huge congratulations @bindusmitapaul.bsky.social
My longest ever running project, all the stars finally aligned after 13 years! Thank you to Eric Reynolds group for sharing the journey. #bio21-institute, #university-of-melbourne. @sepidehv.bsky.social @craigmorton.bsky.social @debnathghosal.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Insights into type IX secretion from PorKN cogwheel structure bound to PorG and attachment complexes - Nature Communications
Type IX secretion system (T9SS) is required for protein export in the Bacteroidota. Here, the authors obtain structure of T9SS PorKN ring which resembles a cogwheel that may have a rotational movement...
nature.com
Our collaborative work on the T9SS is just out in Nature Communications! Fantastic work led by Dhana Gorasia and Eric Hanssen. This paper reveals the structure of the T9SS outer membrane PorKN ring complex and mechanistic insights into protein secretion. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
📣 New paper alert! Just out in Cell Reports! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40644298/ Thrilled to share that we have discovered a brand-new anti-phage defense system! Bacteria have evolved various defense strategies (CRISPR etc) to counter phage attacks. We found a new one - fascinating and dramatic ⚔️🦠❄️🔬
Thoughts from our own Tom Rapoport on the role of basic science in curing disease. magazine.hms.harvard.edu/articles/rev...
“Revolutionary Science Comes from Unexpected Angles”
magazine.hms.harvard.edu
Great team of grad students and post docs and led together with an awesome group of PIs @debnathghosal.bsky.social @kmichie.bsky.social @iduggin.bsky.social. As something different here be a cool AI-generated artistic impression of our #Asgards hanging in their microbial mat 'ancient home'....⚔️
📣 New paper alert! One of the most exciting projects we've done in recent years is now out on BioRxiv: "An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats". Glimpse into early complex life! ❄️🦠 🔬🧬 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1.... A thread...
An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats
It has been proposed that eukaryotic cells evolved via symbiosis between sulfate-reducing bacteria and hydrogen-producing archaea. Here we describe a highly enriched culture of a novel Asgard archaeon...
biorxiv.org
Bacteria often hide antibiotic resistant genes in small mobile genetic elements known as plasmids. Faithful segregation of these plasmids into daughter cells is essential for bacteria to continue resistance. They don’t just resist - they pass it on. 🦠💊