Phage community: our plasmids for executing phage transposon mutagenesis are now on AddGene and I would love for you to try it out! It is powerful for ID'ing all essential genes and knocking out all non-essentials in a single experiment :) New exp here: www.addgene.org/browse/artic...

Gut phage Acrs Type II CRISPR-Cas systems dominate human gut w/diverse phage Acrs targeting these systems. Widespread family, GutAcraca, adopts similar structures to inhibit Cas9 & regulate its own expression, highlighting phage adaptation to gut ecology www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Discovery of human gut phage-encoded anti-CRISPR proteins unveils diverse mechanisms for phages to evade type II CRISPR immunity

Yuan and colleagues reveal that type II CRISPR-Cas systems dominate the human gut, and diverse gut phage-encoded anti-CRISPR (Acr) proteins target these systems. They identify a widespread family, Gut...

cell.com

Our lab is excited to share unpublished research on phage defense at the upcoming 2026 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria! Today is the last day for abstract submissions: sisb2026.rockefeller.edu Thank you to Marraffini @naamaaviram.bsky.social Seed @jbdsf.bsky.social labs for organizing!

Erin Huiting@erinhuiting.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Cell death is a fundamental mechanism of antiviral immunity across diverse organisms, including bacteria. As my final PhD project with @jbdsf.bsky.social, I was curious whether cell death is required for successful immunity with the ancient cGAS pathway known as ‘CBASS.’ Spoiler – the answer is no!

CBASS limits bacteriophage production while maintaining cell viability in Pseudomonas aeruginosa https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.24.707611v1

Woah love it! What a fun time Phage Phriends PhD

Adair Borges@adairb.bsky.social · 5mo ago

A decade ago my benchmate Lina Leon and I were studying viruses and CRISPR together in grad school. Now Lina’s building immune assays at @dittobio.bsky.social to test our therapeutics proteins! Maybe the real PhD is the friends you make along the way [photo cred @jbdsf.bsky.social , 2016]

Abstract submission is now OPEN for the 2026 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria! sisb2026.rockefeller.edu 🗓 May 5–7, 2026 📍 Rockefeller University, New York City ⏰ Abstract deadline: March 16, 2026 Attendance will be capped, be sure to register early and secure your spot. See you in NYC!

Abstract submission is open for the SISB2026 meeting, aka Phage Defense. sisb2026.rockefeller.edu/abstract-sub... The deadline is March 16.

Wow!

Sorek Lab@soreklab.bsky.social · 7mo ago

NLR-like immunity in bacteria A new study from the Alex Gao lab. The scope of this work is incredible!!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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

Check this out for the 2026 SISB (phage defense) meeting in NYC. Mark your calendar! (and note the Zoom option, if needed) sisb2026.rockefeller.edu

Our Department of Microbiology & Immunology at UCSF is running a faculty search this year for a new Assistant Professor! Please see the ad below for details. Searching for a great colleague, mentor, and scientist! aprecruit.ucsf.edu/JPF05807

Microbiology and Immunology – Faculty Position (Ladder Rank) – Assistant Professor

University of California, San Francisco is hiring. Apply now!

aprecruit.ucsf.edu

Don’t miss the inaugural Conference on Bacteriophages: Biology, Dynamics, and Therapeutics, October 12–14, 2025, in Washington, DC. A 2.5-day program of invited talks, symposia, workshops, and abstracts will highlight the latest advances. For more info: bit.ly/3JUKLYL

Conference on Bacteriophages: Biology, Dynamics, and Therapeutics - IAS-USA

Physical Education: Bridging Clinical Research and Patient Care

bit.ly

Interested in phage defenses that natively block lytic phage used in therapies? Or do you want to figure out if a phage has a modified genome? Meet the END-nucleases, an enzyme family that can broadly restrict phages with many diverse modifications. From talented post-doc Wearn-Xin Yee!

Wearn Xin (Edeline)@wearnxin.bsky.social · last yr.

We've identified a group of nucleases that can target multiple phages with hypermodified DNA, using a sensor domain present across many domains of life. We’ve even used this as a tool to find phages with hypermodified DNA! Really thankful to all the co-authors who have been such great help!

New to Bluesky and Science here. Are things more positive?

Thank you for moving it over here! Not yet up and running on bsky but learning :)

STCmicrobeblog@stcmicrobeblog.bsky.social · 2y ago

from 𝕏 for #phagesky #MicroSky @joeBondyDenomy The phiKZ jumbo phages build a protein based nucleus to protect their DNA(!), but what do they do before the nucleus is built? ... we identify host and phage proteins in an immediate early phage lipid vesicle. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...