The culmination of almost 5 years of sampling in the North plus a large effort in isolating Arctic giant viruses! onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author... @uitnorgesarktiske.bsky.social @cansuit.bsky.social
Gabriel M.F. Almeida
@gabrielmfa.bsky.social
Brazilian virologist who ended up in the Arctic. Phage-therapy enthusiast. Opinions are my own. Associate professor of the CANS-UiT @uitnorgesarktiske.bsky.social - @cansuit.bsky.social Marine Bioprospecting group leader.
Second phage-related publication from the collaboration between the @cansuit.bsky.social - UiT and UNIFAL. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bovine serum albumin nanoparticles improve bacteriophage stability and antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa - Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports - Bovine serum albumin nanoparticles improve bacteriophage stability and antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa
nature.com
This summer me, as part of @cansuit.bsky.social , was involved in the First Brazilian Symposium on Viruses of Microorganisms. Nice to see VoM research growing in South America! doi.org/10.3390/v171...
Starting January 2026, the Abrescia Lab will move to the Biofisika Institute and maintain operations at bioGUNE until 2028 when the EU InFlame grant ends. Stay tuned for updates!
uit.no/nyheter/arti... From the Marine Bioprospecting group of the @cansuit.bsky.social @uitnorgesarktiske.bsky.social
Gammelt virus gir nytt håp mot resistente bakterier | UiT
En bakteriofag fra 1920-tallet viser seg å kunne angripe en bakterie som første gang ble funnet av UiT-forskere hundre år senere. Funnet kan bety nye behandlingsmuligheter i møte med økende antibiotik...
uit.no
We studied how exogenous mucins influence phage-bacterium interplay in human epithelial cells. This work is now available in BiorXiv www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Mucin-enriched environment shapes bacteriophage protection against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in airway epithelial cells
Mucin hypersecretion, a hallmark of chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), creates a complex microenvironment that reshapes host immunity and microbial behavior. However, its impact on bacteriophage ther...
biorxiv.org
What started as a question in a @cansuit.bsky.social seminar ended up in tying an old and clinically valuable phage to a new bacterial threat described at the UiT. Thanks Pauline Cavanagh, Rob Lavigne et al for the collaboration! virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....
A link to the past: classical phage ISP infects the recently described Staphylococcus borealis species - Virology Journal
Background Staphylococcal infections, caused by a large variety of species within the Staphylococcus genus, are a threat to human health. Although antibiotics are the current choice of treatment for these infections, bacteriophage (phage) therapy has been used with success against Staphylococcus since the dawn of phage therapy. In 2020 a new coagulase-negative species named Staphylococcus borealis was described in Norway. In this study, we focused on understanding phage infections in S. borealis. Methods: First, we predict the presence of prophages and phage-defence mechanisms in the genomes of a collection of twelve S. borealis strains by bioinformatics. We also attempted to isolate S. borealis-infecting phages from Norwegian samples and tested the host-range of three known staphylococcal phages against a panel of fifty Norwegian staphylococcal strains. Results: The presence of prophages and phage defence systems was verified in all tested S. borealis strains. No local Norwegian phages could be obtained in a phage isolation attempt targeted towards S. borealis. The host range analysis shows that phage ISP, originally isolated in the 1920s and still used for phage therapy to date, can infect S. capitis and the S. borealis Hus23 strain. Phage ISP was shown to limit S. borealis Hus23 growth in liquid cultures and lower the formation of biofilm by the bacterium. The efficiency of plating of phage ISP can be improved by repeated passages in the new S. borealis Hus23 host. Conclusions: here we expand the known host range of the traditional phage ISP by showing that it also infects S. borealis and can be adapted to the new host by serial passages, showcasing the flexibility of phages as an antimicrobial strategy.
virologyj.biomedcentral.com
Naiavirus: an enveloped giant virus with a pleomorphic, flexible tail nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63463-6
Naiavirus: an enveloped giant virus with a pleomorphic, flexible tail - Nature Communications
Rodrigues and Queiroz et al. report the discovery of Naiavirus, the largest enveloped virus, isolated from a Brazil biome. With an oval capsid and flexible tail, its giant genome holds many novel gene...
nature.com
Looking forward to what will be found!
Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology@mpimarinemicrobio.bsky.social · 12mo agoNot quite the fieldwork you expect to do at a marine research institute, but that did now stop @fischerlab.bsky.social! 🏔️ With his team, he climbed the Alps to hunt for giant #viruses – almost the size of #bacteria and have been unexplored in many aspects. #CAPSOLUTION www.mpg.de/my-science-a...
We reached over 500 people with the 1st Brazilian symposium of viruses of microbes, followed by one in Alfenas and a phage isolation course. It is rewarding to see a high interest from the younger generation! Looking forward to see the South American VoM field grow. @cansuit.bsky.social
It is not everyday that we can name a virus after a city! Long effort finally out now, adding Finland to the giant virus map. On top of this, in-depth structural data. Thanks @lrsundberg.bsky.social @abrescialab.bsky.social et al. elifesciences.org/articles/103... @cansuit.bsky.social
Genomic and structural insights into Jyvaskylavirus, the first giant virus isolated from Finland
Jyvaskylavirus, the northernmost isolate of the Marseilleviridae family, shows that giant viruses are also part of the boreal Finnish environment and brings structural information with relevance for u...
elifesciences.org
Excited to share that our paper on locus visualisation tool LoVis4u is out! Entirely driven by fantastic PhD student Artyom Egorov @egorov.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nargab/artic...
LoVis4u: a locus visualization tool for comparative genomics and coverage profiles
Abstract. Comparative genomic analysis often involves visualization of alignments of genomic loci. While several software tools are available for this task
academic.oup.com
"It is impossible to be a top-line manager and administrator and mentor and researcher and writer and outreach officer and IT expert and online instructor and pedagogical innovator and recruiter and teacher and marker and external examiner and press pundit and grant bidder and editor."
It’s Not Your Fault That Academic Life is Getting Harder by Glen O’Hara
Universities are in trouble, and it’s not just money we’re talking about. They are living through something of a crisis of confidence, even of trust and faith. More and more, I find myself, and my col...
voicesofacademia.com
We interrupt your regularly-scheduled chaos to bring you some cool microbiome science. 🦠 🖥️ 🧬 "Longitudinal phage–bacteria dynamics in the early life gut microbiome" now out in Nature Microbiology. We wanted a way to measure bacteria and phage in metagenomes 1/ www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Longitudinal phage–bacteria dynamics in the early life gut microbiome - Nature Microbiology
Reanalysis of 12,262 longitudinal infant gut microbiome samples using the Marker-MAGu pipeline revealed phage–bacteria dynamics over the first year of life.
nature.com
Did you know that by being part of The Arctic MSCA-PF program, your chance to win MSCA-PF doubles? Because we provide you with resources and guidance on how to write a successful proposal. Contact me if interested in exploring human microbiome by metagenomics. euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/309706
Call for postdoc candidates interested in applying for an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship in Human Microbiome
UiT The Arctic University of Norway has established «The Arctic MSCA-PF program» (uit.no/project/arcticmsca) to recruit excellent young researchers planning to apply for a Marie Skƚodowsk
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
A postdoctoral position is available in my lab at the CIC bioGUNE (Bilbao, Spain) to work on virus-host interactions using state-of-the-art cryoEM. The position is for a 3-year term. Preferred start date: 1 March 2025. For informal enquiries, please contact me: nabrescia@cicbiogune.es
First paper on a collaboration between the @cansuit.bsky.social of the UiT (Norway) and the UNIFAL (Brazil). This paper strengthens mucosal adaptations as the reason why prophylactic phage therapy works and also is symbolic in the revival of phage research in Brazil. rdcu.be/d5rhE
Mucosal-adapted bacteriophages as a preventive strategy for a lethal Pseudomonas aeruginosa challenge in mice
Communications Biology - Phage VAC3 adaptations to the mucosal environment (improved replication in mucin-treated hosts and retention in the respiratory tract) are mechanisms that can exploited as...
rdcu.be
Looking for a postdoc in environmental virology? Fascinated by giant viruses and their glycobiology? We have a position available at the MPI for Marine Microbiology! @mpimarinemicrobio.bsky.social @maxplanck.de career.mpi-bremen.de/jobposting/8...
Post-Doc Protist Viruses
career.mpi-bremen.de