Excited to share our paper with @savitski-lab.bsky.social, led by @tarabartolec.bsky.social, Karin Mitosch & Clément Potel, out now in @nature.com. We show that T7 phage broadly disables bacterial defenses using a unique ‘loose cannon’ protein kinase. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Pervasive phosphorylation by phage T7 kinase disarms bacterial defences - Nature

The T7 bacteriophage deactivates bacterial defence systems through T7K phosphorylation of nearly all host and phage proteins during infection.

nature.com

Typas Lab@typaslab.bsky.social · 2y ago

Excited to share our preprint with @savitski_lab led by @tarabartolec.bsky.social, @KMitosch & Clément Potel! We uncovered a mechanism by which the T7 phage broadly counteracts DNA-targeting bacterial defenses by deploying a loose cannon kinase in its genome @embl.org www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Starting with the DNA sequence of a #phage genome, #PholdAPhage will create a 3D reconstruction of the complete phage, almost like you did cryoEM on it! Check out Renee's awesome software github.com/reneegreen81... to assemble unknown phage particles one protein at a time

#VoM2026 has started! 🎉 We were delighted to hear welcoming remarks from ISVM President Lone Brøndsted as we begin a week of exciting science, collaboration, and new connections. Here's to a fantastic week of science and networking in Prague! #VoM2026 #ISVM #Microbiology #Virology

Die HZI-Projekte #PROTON & #ENDURIVAC sind für den Science Breakthrough of the Year von #FallingWalls nominiert. Die Teams entwickeln eine neue Antibiotika-Technologie bzw. eine Plattform für langwirksame Impfstoffe. Herzlichen Glückwunsch an alle Beteiligten! www.helmholtz-hzi.de/media-center...

What is the impact of phage biocontrol on plant immune responses and bacterial virulence? Very happy that this is out @cp-cellreports.bsky.social! @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de, @fz-juelich.de, @hhu.de, @spp2330.bsky.social

Borjana Arsova@borjana-a.bsky.social · 2mo ago

‪ #Bacteriophages help sustainable plant protection ✅#Phages restore 🌱 growth during 🦠 infection. ✅🧬 shows ⬇️🌱immunity & ⬇️bacterial virulence. #Biocontroll #PlantSci 🧪 #PMI @frunzkelab.bsky.social @guidogrossmann.bsky.social @mibinet.bsky.social @fz-juelich.de www.cell.com/cell-reports...

1/4 Excited to share our new preprint on phage genome editing: Targeted DNA nicking enables efficient, single-step and counterselection-free editing of bacteriophage genomes Preprint: lnkd.in/dv4g5kW6

Mit dem deutschlandweit einmaligen Master-Studienschwerpunkt #Bioentrepreneurship läuten die @tu-braunschweig.de und das HZI die Zukunft der Innovation ein. Die Vertiefungsrichtung steht Studierenden aus den Biowissenschaften und Wirtschaftswissenschaften offen. youtu.be/UqNEKTdyNmU?...

Bioentrepreneurship studieren in Braunschweig

YouTube video by Technische Universität Braunschweig

youtu.be

Rapid diagnosis of common, undetected, and uncultivable bloodstream infections from positive blood cultures using Oxford Nanopore sequencing: a metagenomic pipeline analysis - The Lancet Microbe www.thelancet.com/journals/lan... #microsky

Rapid diagnosis of common, undetected, and uncultivable bloodstream infections from positive blood cultures using Oxford Nanopore sequencing: a metagenomic pipeline analysis

These findings show that metagenomic sequencing has the potential to rapidly and comprehensively detect pathogens and AMR in bloodstream infections. Integration into clinical practice could help to cl...

thelancet.com

Now out in @pnas.org 🥳 "DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity" --> bad timing can kill you, even as a virus. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... @spp2330.bsky.social, @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de

Julia Frunzke@frunzkelab.bsky.social · 8mo ago

Happy to share our recent preprint: "DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @spp2330.bsky.social, @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de @hhu.de @fzj.bsky.social

🛠️💉It's time for engineering contractile injection systems! @chipericson.bsky.social & @davidschaumann.bsky.social introduce programmable CIS - PROCIS, combining tail length control, non-native cargo loading, and cell retargeting all in one system! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 🧵 1/5

🚨After 4 fantastic years in the Sorek lab @soreklab.bsky.social, I’ll be starting my own group at EMBL @embl.org bl.org Hamburg. www.embl.org/groups/oster... Metabolism-driven immunity: phages, metabolites, and discovery of new enzymes, molecules, and pathways 🦠🧬

Out Now! Temperate phages enhance bacterial host fitness via RNA-guided flagellar remodelling #MicroSky

Temperate phages enhance bacterial host fitness via RNA-guided flagellar remodelling

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 27 May 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02355-xThe prophage of a clinical Enterobacter isolate uses an RNA-guided transcription factor to alter flagellar composition, leading to enhanced bacterial motility and improved gut colonization in a mouse model.

go.nature.com

Great piece and cover @science.org about how our field is uncovering the evolutionary and mechanistic connections between bacterial and eukaryotic immunity ! www.science.org/content/article/ancient-wars-between-microbes-gave-us-key-immune-defenses

Very happy to share our recent preprint: “An Lsr2-like xenogeneic silencer confers immunity against AT-rich bacteriophage infection” www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-9... @fz-juelich.de; @hhu.de; @spp2330.bsky.social

MissAlignment is out!!! Our new software that improves reference-free tilt series alignment by mimicking human intuition. Check out Dimitry's beautiful thread for a quick summary! And the preprint for more details: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... The program: github.com/warpem/miss-...

Dimitry Tegunov@dtegunov.bsky.social · 4mo ago

We're super excited to share MissAlignment: a new ML-based approach to reference-free tilt series alignment, spearheaded by @martenchaillet.bsky.social. We think it's going to make your cryo-ET life a lot better. Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Code: github.com/warpem/miss-... 🧶 Thread:

Our lab is proud to present our latest work harnessing Bridge Recombinase for genome-scale editing in diverse bacteria, microbiome editing, and programmable horizontal gene transfer.

bioRxiv Synthetic Biology@biorxiv-synthbio.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Bridge recombinase enables versatile rewriting of bacterial genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.29.721476v1

We found that TIR domains in animal immune proteins, including the human TLR4, are enzymes that cleave NAD+ to produce the signaling molecule cADPR Read our new preprint by talented Bohdana Hurieva: “Conserved catalytic activity of immune TIR domains in animals” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#microsky #phagesky Jumbo #phage PhiKZ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congrats to Chase Morgan @phagemorgan.bsky.social and the phage team!

Vivek Mutalik@vivekmutalik.bsky.social · 5mo ago

The phage nucleus synergizes with an anti-defense protein to resist bacterial immunity: Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports...

🚀 Just 5 days left to apply! We’re hiring — and we’d love for you to join our team. If you’re passionate about AI, health and infection research, this is your moment to start an independent junior research group at HZI in one of Europe's most research-rich regions. ⏰ Deadline: March 30

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI)@helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · 6mo ago

We're hiring junior research group leaders for our HUMAN program to push the boundaries of science! 📍Braunschweig | 💼 5-year funding + tenure path | 📅Apply by March 30 🔗 Infection biology: jobs.helmholtz-hzi.de/job/Braunsch... 🔗AI in Health and Infection Biology jobs.helmholtz-hzi.de/job/Braunsch...

Excited to share the first preprint from the lab! We show that ApeA defends against RNA phage infection by cleaving the phage genome: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

My time in @martinsteinegger.bsky.social's group is ending, but I’m staying in Korea to build a lab at Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine. If you or someone you know is interested in molecular machine learning and open-source bioinformatics, please reach out. I am hiring! mirdita.org

Mirdita Lab - Laboratory for Computational Biology & Molecular Machine Learning

Mirdita Lab builds scalable bioinformatics methods.

mirdita.org

Think outside the box and address the most pressing challenges in infection research with us!🧑‍🔬 We're offering 10 PhD positions at five HZI sites across Germany. 👉Don’t miss out—apply by February 28, 2026 and contribute to shaping the future of infection research jobs.helmholtz-hzi.de/job/Braunsch...

I’m thrilled to share our work on phage triggers of the bacterial immune system in its final form @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A phage protein screen identifies triggers of the bacterial innate immune system - Nature Microbiology

A library of 400 phage protein-coding genes is used to find a trove of antiphage systems, revealing systems that target tail fibre and major capsid proteins.

nature.com

Happy to share our recent preprint: "DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @spp2330.bsky.social, @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de @hhu.de @fzj.bsky.social

#microsky #phagesky #phage defence www.cell.com/cell-reports...

A prophage-expressed type IV pilus component provides anti-phage defense

Sztanko et al. demonstrate that Pseudomonas aeruginosa prophages encode proteins resembling the type IV pilus minor pilin protein, FimU. These prophage-expressed FimU proteins are incorporated into th...

cell.com

3′UTR-derived small RNA couples acid resistance to metabolic reprogramming of Salmonella within macrophages url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

3′UTR-derived small RNA couples acid resistance to metabolic reprogramming of Salmonella within macrophages

Abstract. Acid resistance is crucial for enterobacteria to withstand host acidic environments during infection, including the gastrointestinal tract and ma

academic.oup.com

Phages go persistent, what does it mean for phage therapy and how can this special feature be leveraged? Take a look at the work of @emggroupucph.bsky.social, to which we contributed @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social: www.nature.com/articles/s41... N&V www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Persistent virulent phages exist across bacterial isolates - Nature Microbiology

The long-term existence of diverse virulent phages within cultures of Escherichia coli and others challenges the virulent–temperate dichotomy and points to non-canonical phage lifestyles.

nature.com

@emggroupucph.bsky.social · 8mo ago

[1/3] Is your favorite bacterial isolate hiding a surprise lytic virus with a VERY different lifestyle? Finally I can proudly say that our paper on persistent phages is out in Nature Microbiology. rdcu.be/eWJEp. Well done @peterdoug.bsky.social

Bakterielle Infektionen können uns krank machen oder sogar zum Tod führen. Zudem wirken Antibiotika durch zunehmende Resistenzen immer schlechter. @quarkswdr.bsky.social zeigt, wie rasant sich Bakterien vermehren & welche Rolle #Antibiotikaresistenzen dabei spielen. www.quarks.de/gesundheit/m...

Bakterien gegen Mensch: Wer wird gewinnen?

quarks.de

Phages are full of genes of unknown function that are likely adaptive in specific conditions. New preprint: Phage TnSeq identifies essential genes rapidly and knocks all non-essentials. We would like to send a pool of phiKZ mutants to anyone wanting it! Reach out tinyurl.com/bdcfrejh