Please repost! #microsky🦠 The Glickman Lab at MSK is recruiting! Projects in Mtb pathogenesis, basic biology of mycobacteria, and mycobacterial cancer therapies. See our publications here: tinyurl.com/3f386f4x Send CV and cover letter to: glickmanmycolab@gmail.com

Had absolutely fabulous times this wk visiting @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and @weillcornell.bsky.social and sharing our work! Great thanks to my wonderful hosts Wei MI and @saehrt.bsky.social! Enjoyable conversations and discussions with colleagues too! Finally bk to SG after the fruitful 3 wks!

Shu-Sin Chng@figlegend.bsky.social · last mo.

I will be visiting @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and @weillcornell.bsky.social on 6 (12 pm) and 8 July (11 pm), respectively. Do come by for the seminars if you are interested and available!

Had absolutely fabulous times this wk visiting @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and @weillcornell.bsky.social and sharing our work! Great thanks to my wonderful hosts Wei MI and @saehrt.bsky.social! Enjoyable conversations and discussions with colleagues too! Finally bk to SG after the fruitful 3 wks!

Shu-Sin Chng@figlegend.bsky.social · last mo.

I will be visiting @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and @weillcornell.bsky.social on 6 (12 pm) and 8 July (11 pm), respectively. Do come by for the seminars if you are interested and available!

Interested in joining our group in Oxford? We are looking for a PDRA with single particle Cryo-EM experience to help us figure out how sphingolipids are transported to the cell surface of Gram-negative bacteria. The deadline is 31st July. Informal enquires are welcome. Please share!

🚨Join us at the University of Geneva! We're seeking an outstanding junior researcher to apply for an ERC or SNSF Starting Grant with our institutional support in host–pathogen interactions, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, or mycology. www.unige.ch/medecine/mim... Please share!

Adding to our results, another immune system was recently shown to also trigger cell death in E. coli upon plasmid conjugation, but it's targeting VirB4 rather than VirB2 or VirB8. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A recipient-based anti-conjugation factor triggers an abortive mechanism by targeting the Type IV secretion system

Many bacterial defense (immune) systems prevent the entry of foreign DNA by directly recognizing and targeting nucleic acids, effectively blocking all mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer[1][1]. How...

biorxiv.org

#microsky New preprint from the lab! Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Kudos to the extremely talented lead author Ludovic Poiré! Key contributions by @francoisrousset.bsky.social and also help from C. Lesterlin/TacC lab. 🧵⬇️

Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids

Conjugative plasmids are a class of mobile genetic elements capable of efficient transfer between bacterial cells. Although they can introduce beneficial traits such as antibiotic resistance to recipi...

biorxiv.org

I will be visiting @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and @weillcornell.bsky.social on 6 (12 pm) and 8 July (11 pm), respectively. Do come by for the seminars if you are interested and available!

Shu-Sin Chng@figlegend.bsky.social · last mo.

Intense week of science at Bacterial Cell Surfaces GRC! Best part was catching up with old/new friends! Tagging peeps in pics @paulhoskisson.bsky.social @hendersonlab.bsky.social @namurxa.bsky.social @sujeetkumar.bsky.social @weeboont.bsky.social @yeowjiang.bsky.social @siegristpalmore.bsky.social

Intense week of science at Bacterial Cell Surfaces GRC! Best part was catching up with old/new friends! Tagging peeps in pics @paulhoskisson.bsky.social @hendersonlab.bsky.social @namurxa.bsky.social @sujeetkumar.bsky.social @weeboont.bsky.social @yeowjiang.bsky.social @siegristpalmore.bsky.social

Shu-Sin Chng@figlegend.bsky.social · last mo.

Awesome visit to @jhu.edu yesterday - lots of good questions during the seminar! Besides conversations with @goleylab.bsky.social, Tamara O'Connor and Gira Bhabha, it was fun chatting with trainees! Thanks again @jiexiaolab.bsky.social for great hospitality and catch-up! On to Gordon conf next wk.

🚨 New in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We reveal how the antibiotic target PBP1b fortifies the E.coli division site against osmotic rupture. Proud this was completed in our independent labs @dmf-unil.bsky.social, with @avettiger.bsky.social. Congratulations to all authors! 🦠❄️🔬 #teamtomo bit.ly/3SCbOg1 👇

The penicillin-binding protein PBP1b fortifies the Escherichia coli division site against osmotic rupture - Nature Microbiology

A specific isoform of PBP1b functions independently of the activator protein, LpoB, to drive generation of a wedge-like peptidoglycan structure that strengthens the division site in Escherichia coli.

doi.org

Out Now! Identification of chemical features for improved outer membrane permeation in mycobacteria using machine learning #MicroSky

Identification of chemical features for improved outer membrane permeation in mycobacteria using machine learning

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 30 June 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02412-5Screening 1,572 compounds for mycomembrane permeation plus cheminformatic and machine learning analyses reveals features associated with improved permeation in the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis and model organism M. smegmatis.

go.nature.com

Awesome visit to @jhu.edu yesterday - lots of good questions during the seminar! Besides conversations with @goleylab.bsky.social, Tamara O'Connor and Gira Bhabha, it was fun chatting with trainees! Thanks again @jiexiaolab.bsky.social for great hospitality and catch-up! On to Gordon conf next wk.

Shu-Sin Chng@figlegend.bsky.social · last mo.

Started my 3-wk US trip with a visit to the NIH yesterday! Had a great time giving an ad-hoc Lambda lunch talk and discussing science with old/new friends @anukharelab.bsky.social! Many thanks @ramamurthilab.bsky.social for the hospitality! Next stop: @jhu.edu SOM on 25th - cya at 11 am for my talk!

New paper in collaboration with @proftracypalmer.bsky.social, @lislowe.bsky.social and many more. We show that mycobacteria produce Type VII secreted anti-bacterial protein toxins. Excited to explore this new area of mycobacterial biology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Started my 3-wk US trip with a visit to the NIH yesterday! Had a great time giving an ad-hoc Lambda lunch talk and discussing science with old/new friends @anukharelab.bsky.social! Many thanks @ramamurthilab.bsky.social for the hospitality! Next stop: @jhu.edu SOM on 25th - cya at 11 am for my talk!

Check out our latest T7SS toxin story. These reverse toxins aren’t as rare as we thought!

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · last mo.

A novel reverse lipase toxin substrate of the Staphylococcus aureus type VII secretion system https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.22.733114v1

Excited to share our new preprint on a question that has puzzled us for a long time: How can the bacterial nano-weapon, type VI secretion system (T6SS), load and deliver so many antibacterial toxins that are completely different in structure and function? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New pre-print from the lab! Murepavedin is a Pseudomonas-specific antibiotic, but it disrupts the outer membranes of a wide range of different Gram-negatives. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Murepavadin is a broad-spectrum outer membrane permeabiliser

Murepavadin is a Pseudomonas-specific antibiotic that targets LPS transport protein LptD. However, whilst the mode of action of murepavadin is well defined, the mechanism by which the drug gains acces...

biorxiv.org

EMBO Symposium alert: Save the date: 9–12 March 2027 Join us in scenic Heidelberg for this unique meeting, covering everything about drug resistance and tolerance. Mechanisms of drug resistance and tolerance in bacteria, fungi, and cancer www.embl.org/about/info/c...

Mechanisms of drug resistance and tolerance in bacteria, fungi, and cancer

embl.org

Archaea the hornets of the microbial world. Discuss. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... TLDR: Archaeon kills bacterium with secreted phospholipase. Pretty nifty way to kill bacteria if you are a microbe with a very different lipid make-up, I reckon. No need to worry about accidentally killing yourself.

A Bactericidal Phospholipase from Archaea

Archaea kill bacteria, at least on occasion. The molecular underpinnings of these lethal interactions are barely understood. Here, we describe cinquedea, an α/β hydrolase secreted by the halophilic ar...

biorxiv.org

@felixrl.bsky.social presenting his work at #ASMicrobe today. His preprint follows up on his recent work on orthogonal cell division in S. aureus and reports that PcdA, the division septum placement factor, is required for forming staphylococcal abscess colonies.

Kumaran Ramamurthi@ramamurthilab.bsky.social · 5mo ago

@felixrl.bsky.social reported that PcdA mediates orthogonal cell division in #Staphylococcus aureus: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... But what’s the point? Well, forming staphylococcal abscess communities to evade host immune responses requires this mode of division: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

@vanipande.bsky.social presenting her work at #ASMicrobe today.... Check out her recent preprint about a spontaneously inserting integral membrane protein that localized by recognizing a lipid cue

Kumaran Ramamurthi@ramamurthilab.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Bacterial transmembrane proteins usually localize inside the cell by "finding" a pre-localized protein, but how did the 1st protein get there? @vanipande.bsky.social found a protein in #B.subtilis that localizes by recognizing a *lipid* localization cue. #Microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

A new study from the @rocklabtb.bsky.social in @natmicrobiol.nature.com finds that one of the most common drug resistance mutations in #tuberculosis creates subtle metabolic weaknesses that could be exploited with future combination therapies. 🔗: https://bit.ly/3RG6wj2

Bacterial transmembrane proteins usually localize inside the cell by "finding" a pre-localized protein, but how did the 1st protein get there? @vanipande.bsky.social found a protein in #B.subtilis that localizes by recognizing a *lipid* localization cue. #Microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our new study reveals how bacterial toxins are physically captured through a sequential, concentration-dependent assembly mechanism before secretion via the T6SS. Fantastic collaboration with @fillouxlab.bsky.social. Congrats Patricia & Ambre for leading this work. Paper here: shorturl.at/O31Vn

How do dangerous bacteria arm themselves before attack? Scientists from NTU-SCELSE and Imperial College London uncovered a previously unknown mechanism showing how bacteria load toxins into a microscopic weapon system before firing. Nature Microbiology-> rdcu.be/fk0Bq @fillouxlab.bsky.social

'The thing that you probably learn most, are from the mistakes that you make' We caught up with the Prize Medal 2026 winner, Paul Williams and asked him how it feels to win the prize and have the chance to present and reflect on his career. Congratulations Paul!

Happy to share our new bioRxiv preprint: “To Kill or not to Kill: A Conserved Trans-Intoxication Protection Factor Blocks X-T4SS-Mediated Fratricide through Interaction with VirB5” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very happy to see the second story from my PhD out in @currentbiology.bsky.social An exciting project where we explored the roles of secretion systems and gliding motility in predatory behavior in F. johnsoniae. www.cell.com/current-biol...

Type VI and type IX secretion systems and gliding motility contribute to facultative predation by Flavobacterium johnsoniae

Paillat et al. show that Flavobacterium johnsoniae combines type VI and type IX secretion systems with gliding motility to efficiently kill diverse bacterial competitors. They demonstrate that nutrien...

cell.com

1) DNA-protein binding prediction AI (40 species' bindings coming in v1 this summer; 6k+ species' bindings coming in v2 this year! 2) Microbiome knowledge graph based on 143k literature (100% data coming in v1 this summer)! Please reach out if you are interested :) #microsky #microbiomesky

AnniZLab: [🦠, 🧬 , ✨]@annizlab.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Speaking on Apr 29 at global-engage.com/product/micr... about latest work: 1) Biology-informed AI for bacterial DNA-protein binding prediction (demo: known + new bindings in E.coli); 2) microbiome knowledge graph for druggable target prediction (1% data demo)! genomiverse.net See you there :) 🦠🧪🧬🖥️✨

Super excited to share the final version of our story on how Enterococcus faecalis remodels membrane lipids to protect itself from daptomycin! 🥳 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

A two-component system signaling hub controls enterococcal membrane remodeling in response to daptomycin | PNAS

Daptomycin is a last resort antibiotic used to treat vancomycin-resistant enterococcal infections, but daptomycin resistance (DAPR) arises quickly ...

pnas.org