I am hiring a computational postdoctoral fellow or bioinformatics scientist! Please apply here if interested, or share with anyone who may be. This position will be following up on our work studying the virus-host conflict. Reposts appreciated! aithyra.onlyfy.jobs/en/job/v2gwu...

Postdoctoral Fellow or Bioinformatics Scientist, Nomburg Lab (all genders)

About AITHYRAAITHYRA is a pioneering biomedical research institute in Vienna, Austria, where artificial intelligence meets life sciences to drive the next biological revolution. AITHYRA is an institut

aithyra.onlyfy.jobs

Jason Nomburg@jnoms.bsky.social · 2w ago

Ad forthcoming, but I am hiring for a postdoc or staff scientist to advance related investigations of the virus-host conflict. This position is ~80-100% computational, but with opportunities for experimental work if desired. If interested, shoot me an email with your CV! Reposts appreciated! 15/15

Outstanding study probing pattern recognition receptors in bacteria and beyond at an unprecedented scale 🤯 Avs-like proteins can sense pretty much any structural viral protein to trigger an immune response. Congrats to all involved 👏

Nature@nature.com · last wk.

Nature research paper: Diverse bacterial pattern recognition receptors sense the core phage proteome go.nature.com/45fpXCZ

Systematic structural analyses reveal the function of viral genes + unveil conserved immune evasion strategies shared across distant viruses. Amazing work 🤯

Jason Nomburg@jnoms.bsky.social · 2w ago

Happy to share the first preprint out of the Nomburg lab! Many aspects of cellular immunity are shared across the tree of life. Here, we show that some of these conserved aspects of cellular immunity are mirrored by conserved effectors of immune antagonism. Thread below! 1/15

Out @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social, natural products meet bacterial immunity! We used genomics to identify lanthivirins: a family of >2,000 lanthipeptide BGCs that protect Actinobacteria against phages. Led by @hshomar.bsky.social & @mariegllm.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A family of lanthipeptides with anti-phage function

Bacteria produce natural products to adapt to their environments, with phage interactions as major ecological and evolutionary drivers. While some nat…

sciencedirect.com

Grosse lassitude d'être maltraités par nos tutelles et par l'ANR @agencerecherche.bsky.social, notre principal financeur. De nombreux collègues partent établir leur laboratoire ailleurs dans le monde. Je les comprends. Pour nous ce n'est pas #chooseFrance, c'est #stayinFrance (avec un ?)

1/10 🚨Preprint! One RING to rule them all (phages)👑💍⚔️ Bacteria build giant DNA-scaffolded RNase rings (larger than the ribosome!) to shut down viral infection🧬🧵👇 biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

THE new lab to follow ! Amazing science with an amazing person, seems like a unique opportunity 🤩

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 3w ago

🚨 We're hiring! My new lab at EMBL Hamburg is looking for a Research Technician. I'm looking for someone excited by phages, metabolism, enzymes, structural biology and bacterial immunity—if you know the right person, please share this post!🧵⬇️ Apply here: embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

The type and amount of bacterial DNA carried by virus-like particles in the gut microbiome is simply mind-boggling. Amazing work by PhD candidate Jessie Maier in my group and collaborators @duerkoplab.bsky.social and Ben Callahan www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Perturbations shift the composition of bacterial DNA carried by virus-like particles in the murine gut microbiome

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a driving force in microbial evolution that allows community members to rapidly evolve to cope with environmental stressors and competition. Despite the importance of...

biorxiv.org

Thrilled to share! We present the structure of a prototypical P2 OLD and reveal that its tRNAse activity is triggered by ssDNA hairpins in phage origins or unresolved termini in RecBCD-deficient cells. Great team effort with Wang, Bikard & Nudler labs. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

OLD sentinel: an abortive tRNase surveys phage replication and DNA defects in RecBCD-compromised cells

OLD, an abortive immunity protein from prophage P2, consists of an ABC ATPase sensor and a TO-PRIM nuclease effector - a core architecture shared by a large protein family, including components of ant...

biorxiv.org

Our paper out in Science today: The Metis defense system senses molecular byproducts released when a phage degrades the bacterial genome, and then prevents replication of the phage in the infected cell Congratulations @ostermanilya.bsky.social and co-authors!

Bacteria sense virus-induced genome degradation via methylated mononucleotides

Phages often degrade the genome of their bacterial host to individual nucleotides. Here we describe Metis, a bacterial defense system that directly senses phage-mediated host genome degradation. Metis...

science.org

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 4w ago

Excited to share that our Metis story is now published in Science! 🎉 Bacteria can sense phage-induced degradation of their genome and activate immunity. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this work. 📄 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... More details in my earlier thread 🧵⬇️

Excited to share that our Metis story is now published in Science! 🎉 Bacteria can sense phage-induced degradation of their genome and activate immunity. Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this work. 📄 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... More details in my earlier thread 🧵⬇️

Bacteria sense virus-induced genome degradation via methylated mononucleotides

Phages often degrade the genome of their bacterial host to individual nucleotides. Here we describe Metis, a bacterial defense system that directly senses phage-mediated host genome degradation. Metis...

science.org

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome — by detecting methylated mononucleotides. Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Have just seen the news about updated, stricter ANR grant rules in France @agencerecherche.bsky.social . One argument is to better support teams with 'potential towards Europe', meaning European grants. I'm not sure how much sense it makes as a policy. 1/n

Les nouvelles règles envisagées pour l'ANR sont plus qu'inquiétantes. Elles porteraient un immense coup d'arrêt à la recherche fondamentale en France, surchargeraient les jeunes chercheurs, et n'attendraient sans doute même pas leur objectif (apparent) de réduction du nombre de candidatures

Levayer Lab@levayerr.bsky.social · 4w ago

Si les nouvelles règles de l'éligibilité de l'ANR sont bien réelles, alors je ne comprends pas quelle est la logique sous jacente. Au vu de la pyramide des ages, forcer une collaboration avec chercheurs(ses) <10 ans post thèse va de facto exclure 80% des candidats.

Les nouvelles règles d'éligibilité de l'AAPG 2027 de @agencerecherche.bsky.social sont une catastrophe. Comment se fait-il qu'il n'y ait pas plus de réactions dans la communauté ? Sommes-nous à ce point résignés, ou individualistes ? #ESR

Fantastic study tackling a new aspect of bacterial immunity: defense against conjugation ! Added bonus: Mesopotamian deities are fascinating, a good reason to dive again into this civilisation.

Xavier Charpentier@labxc.bsky.social · 4w ago

#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. 🧵⬇️

Months (years ?) spent on species-wide screens, over 3.000 PCR reactions and an unbelievable amount of 10-uL tips : I'm glad to introduce the novel TAR family of anti-plasmid defenses ! The war between bacteria and their MGEs is far more complex than we expected ⚔️ Read Xavier's 🧵 for more details !

Xavier Charpentier@labxc.bsky.social · 4w ago

#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. 🧵⬇️

🚨Defense systems against conjugative plasmids can kill recipient cells, like abortive infection against phages. Massive effort from very talented Ludovic Poiré (@ludopoire.bsky.social) in the Charpentier lab at @ciri-lyon.bsky.social ! Very happy our team could contribute w @julie-bltk.bsky.social

Xavier Charpentier@labxc.bsky.social · 4w ago

#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. 🧵⬇️

Humans and bacteria share strategies to defend against viruses. We wondered: could they use each other's genes? Yes, both can! Bacteria can use human immune genes to defend against phages AND Human cells can use bacterial genes for viral defense. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Bacterial and human exonucleases mediate interkingdom antiviral immunity

All kingdoms of life have developed strategies to limit viral infection. In humans, interferons induce a suite of antiviral factors that collectively provide immunity. Some human immune genes are homo...

biorxiv.org

Bacterial and human exonucleases mediate interkingdom antiviral immunity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.30.735675v1

Phagothérapie : des virus qui sauvent des vies ! L'ANSM autorise pour la 1ère fois un établissement public à produire des phages pour lutter vs l’antibiorésistance. Frédéric LAURENT, PU-PH aux HCL & au CIRI, répond à France Inter : urlr.me/F7kSJD 💡 Plus d’informations sur le sujet : urlr.me/3WJNxB

Le journal de 7h30 : écouter le podcast et replay | France Inter

Le rendez-vous d'information de 7h30 sur France Inter.

urlr.me

Our paper is out in Nature Microbiology: functional analysis of 80 phage sponges, revealing new sponges that inhibit bac immunity by binding the immune signals cCMP, cUMP and N7-cADPR Thanks to all coauthors and our collaborators at the Kranzusch Lab. Congrats Romi! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Functional diversity of phage sponge proteins that sequester host immune signals - Nature Microbiology

A functional screen reveals phage sponge proteins that bind Pycsar, Thoeris and CBASS signalling molecules to inhibit bacterial immunity.

nature.com

Romi Hadary@romihadary.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Excited to see our work out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We uncovered broad functional diversity within phage sponge families🧽. Huge thanks to all coauthors and brilliant collaborators @kranzuschlab.bsky.social @reneechang.bsky.social ! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Our aRES story is finally out 😀 Beyond what was reported in the preprint, we found that aRES is activated by direct binding of the phage DNA polymerase. Another NAD-degrading defense system — and multiple phage strategies to overcome it. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Bacterial defense via RES-mediated NAD+ depletion is countered by phage phosphatases

Many bacterial defense systems restrict phage infection by breaking down the molecule nicotinamide (Nam) adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) into adenosine di…

sciencedirect.com

Osterman Ilya@ostermanilya.bsky.social · 6mo ago

🧬 Metabolic arms race continues! We discovered a new NAD⁺-depleting bacterial immune system aRES and phage enzymes that overcome it. Our preprint is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

(1/6) Thrilled to share this story! In our preprint from my PhD in the @kranzuschlab.bsky.social, with help from the Hatfull lab and @soreklab.bsky.social, we discover RyDEP, a phage-encoded RyR-domain glycosidase that allows phages to evade Thoeris defense. Highlights below! doi.org/10.64898/202...

Phage RyR-domain proteins degrade ADPR-based immune signals and fuel NAD synthesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.28.727677v1

📢 Registration for our International Symposium on “New Concepts in Prokaryotic Virus-Host Interactions” is now open! 🗓️ 5–7 October 2026 📍 Harnack House, Berlin, Germany ➡️ Information and registration: spp2330.de/symposium-20...

Happy to share our latest pre-print on the Druantia defense system. We find that Type III Druantia uses a cooperative helicase-nuclease mechanism to sense and degrade replication-associated forked DNA structures. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... A🧵

I’ve started my SNSF Ambizione Group Leader position at the University of Zurich 🧬 We will study plasmid evolution, plasmid interactions, and CRISPR-Cas systems to better understand antibiotic resistance spread. Very grateful to everyone who supported me along the way.

That's a wrap on three days of incredible science at #SISB2026! Special thanks to @rockefeller.edu for hosting us on their beautiful campus, to our speakers and poster presenters, and most of all to this community that never fails to inspire. Can't wait for #SISB2027 🫶

Enjoying a nice morning walk to #SISB2026 ! Can't wait to hear the amazing science 🙌

Wow seems like one of the coolest discoveries of the year 🤯

Kenneth Loi@kenjmloi.bsky.social · 3mo ago

Excited to share our discovery of a new programmable RNA-guided DNA-targeting system hiding inside bacteriophages that predates CRISPR. We call it VIPR (Viral Interference Programmable Repeat), and it uses an entirely new logic to find its targets. Thread + link below.