Eukaryotic-like microtubules and dynamic instability of Asgard archaeal tubulins www.science.org/doi/full/10....

I signed an Open Letter to @ukri.org in defense of @diamondlightsource.bsky.social funding. It's an internationally leading facility, any cuts to its funding, from operations to staff will have disastrous consequences to #UKscience. Pls sign & share! openletter.earth/open-letter-...

Very proud to see this paper out. This is an incredible collaboration with the labs of Wes Sundquist and Adam Frost. @uofubiochem.bsky.social @kingslsm.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

ESCRT-III assembles around mis-segregated DNA to protect genome stability - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology

The authors show that persistent ultrafine DNA bridges become coated by membranes and the ESCRT-III proteins CHMP1B and IST1, which protect the genome within from damage.

nature.com

New preprint! We show that the bacterial predator B. bacteriovorus deploys a unipolar Tad nanomachine for irreversible attachment to prey and invasion. @coralietesseur.bsky.social used CRISPRi+microfluidics to overcome barriers associated with essential systems in an obligate predatory lifestyle 🦠

A polarity-controlled Tad nanomachine enables prey invasion in a bacterial predator

Type IV pili are dynamic surface appendages assembled by envelope-spanning nanomachines that mediate diverse bacterial interactions, yet how these systems are adapted to predatory lifestyles remains p...

biorxiv.org

Paying peer reviewers works. Benefits authors, editors & reviewers. Hopefully other journals will try this.

Nature@nature.com · last mo.

A biology journal trialled paying their reviewers and found it led to faster first editorial decisions – and increased review quality. go.nature.com/446SaLu

New preprint. In S. sanguinis, a C5a peptidase-like protease (ScpH) polymerizes along eDNA, turning it into a catalytic biofilm scaffold. Great work from @robinanger.bsky.social in our lab, with Pelicic lab @lcbofficiel.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Extension of the deadline for latecomers. Register to the Secretion Days in Marseille !

Julien GIRAUD@juliengiraud.bsky.social · 2mo ago

👉Reminder : FIVE DAYS LEFT👈 📅 Secretion Days 2026 will take place on October 8-9 in Marseille 🌊 🎤Invited speaker : Wilbert Bitter; @wilbertbitter.bsky.social 🆓 Free, spot are limited ! 📥 Registration is open until June 15 via the following link: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

Finally, @danialv.bsky.social used CG simulations to show that VPS13A can deliver lipids to an acceptor membrane that is bound at the C-terminal of VPS13A, and that XKR1 is proximal, but not continuous, to the delivery site. (6/7)

📢 We are recruiting! I’m looking for a Research Associate in Structural Biology to join my lab at Imperial College London to study horizontal gene transfer using cryo-EM, biochemistry and microbiology. Please share with interested candidates! Apply: shorturl.at/gmJGS

Description

Please note that job descriptions are not exhaustive, and you may be asked to take on additional duties that align with the key responsibilities ment...

imperial.ac.uk

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

Open Postdoc Position - Giant E3 ligases: mysterious mechanisms & non‑protein substrates. Interested? Join us to uncover how these molecular giants tag lipids, RNAs, sugars beyond proteins, on organelles and pathogens, to defend the cell. Details & Application here www.imp.ac.at/career/open-...

New preprint! Cell division has to happen at the right place but how Archaea pick that place is unknown. We now identified a three-protein system, Dip, that positions the divisome at midcell in H. volcanii and is broadly conserved across Archaea. A thread 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🔬 PhD position at Imperial College London! Uncover how pericytes, mysterious vascular cells, drive asthma inflammation. Use spatial transcriptomics, 3D imaging & transgenic models to unlock new therapies. 3-year funded PhD | Oct 2026 start 👉 www.findaphd.com/phds/project... 📧r.joulia@imperial.ac.uk

Defining the Immune Functions of Lung Pericytes and Their Dysregulation in Asthma at Imperial College London on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Defining the Immune Functions of Lung Pericytes and Their Dysregulation in Asthma at Imperial College London, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Big thanks to This Week in Microbiology (TWiM) podcast for featuring our Enhanced Domestication (EDEN) method - designed to cultivate microbial ‘dark matter’ and discover new antibiotics 🦠 💊 Have a listen.. asm.org/podcasts/twi... And here’s the recent paper doi.org/10.1093/isme...

Applications and prospects of cryo-electron tomography in drug discovery and understanding disease Review article by @camilaclemente.bsky.social in our lab www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Applications and prospects of cryo-electron tomography in drug discovery and understanding disease

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is emerging as a transformative tool for structural biology. Unlike methods based on purified molecules, cryo-ET en…

sciencedirect.com

Wow - this is just amazing. Hui Guo and colleagues from John Briggs’ lab use cryoEM helical reconstruction to discover how filamentous influenza virion assembly is directed by multiple conformations of M1 - explaining how NA is concentrated at the proximal pole. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Dear PhD students and postdocs — we want to hear about your science firsthand at our annual Early Career Microbiologists Mini-Symposium @johninnescentre.bsky.social (UK) this September. For more information and to apply: www.jic.ac.uk/event/early-...

Early Career Microbiologists Mini-Symposium 2026 | John Innes Centre

The Department of Molecular Microbiology is organising a one and a half day Early- Career Microbiologists Mini-Symposium. The symposium will be held from Tuesday 22nd – Wednesday 23rd September 2026.

jic.ac.uk

Time-resolved tmFRET reveals GTP-coupled conformational changes in Mfn1 rupress.org/jcb/article-...

Time-resolved tmFRET reveals GTP-coupled conformational changes in Mfn1

Hurwitz et al. leverage a novel FRET-based approach to quantify conformational dynamics of Mfn1, a member of the dynamin superfamily that mediates mitochon

rupress.org

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:

Come and work with us on #cryoEM of alpha-synuclein amyloid filaments from #Parkinsons disease! 🥳 fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid...

Postdoctoral Scientist | Neurobiology | Dr Michel Goedert | LMB 2253

£42,694 per annum | Fixed-term for 3 years | Full-time | Closing date: 17 May 2026

fa-evzn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com

We have a PhD studentship open! (UK only sadly) but if you are or know a student keen to work on some *really* weird mycobacterial enzymes then get in touch! #glycotime Advert below www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Uncovering a new class of toxins in pathogenic mycobacteria at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Uncovering a new class of toxins in pathogenic mycobacteria at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Latest paper from the lab - particularly glad that we managed to get this one out, after getting scooped several times over… more spectacular work from PhD students extraordinaire, Kailin and Rosa, in close collaboration with Marc Erhardt’s group.

The structure of the Vibrio alginolyticus flagellar filament suggests molecular mechanism for the rotation of sheathed flagella - Nature Communications

Most bacteria use a flagellum, to swim and disseminate in their environment, and it is essential for virulence. In Vibrio, the flagellum is surrounded by a sheath, a membrane-like shield that protects...

nature.com

Don’t miss the 20th Graduate Student Symposium at the LMB in July, organised by students from the LMB and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) School of Life Sciences. Registration is open now ➡️ www3.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/sites/gsasym... Follow @lmbphdsymposium.bsky.social for updates!

Excited to share our paper about copick, a dataset API and toolkit for collaborative annotation and analysis of #cryoET data! Whether you're picking particles or curating segmentations, copick reduces friction and brings #OME-Zarr to cryoET without breaking pipelines. 🧵👇 doi.org/10.1002/pro.70578

🚨Hear, hear, fellow microbial cell biologists!🚨 🦠 Bacterial and Archaeal Cell Biology will be represented again at this year’s CELL BIO (ASCB-EMBO) meeting! The deadline to be considered for a talk in our Minisymposium is June 9. Help us spread the word! www.ascb.org/cellbio2026/

Cell Bio 2023-An ASCB|EMBO Meeting

Network, learn, and collaborate with top cell biologists from around the globe.

ascb.org

Most bacteria remain uncultured with vast microbial ‘dark matter’ awaiting discovery.. to address this am excited to share EDEN - an enhanced domestication method to grow uncultured bacteria & new diversity. Using EDEN we isolate a new species active against MDR pathogens.. doi.org/10.1093/isme...

An enhanced domestication method for uncultured bacteria

Abstract. When environmental bacteria transition to laboratory conditions, a process termed domestication, the shift from the native habitat to a culture m

doi.org

Finally published. Many thanks to a wonderful collaborative team and scientific platforms!!! And thanks to editors and reviewers for enthusiasm and a great review. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A bacterial CARD–NLR-like immune system controls the release of gene transfer agents - Nature Microbiology

An immunity-like system functions as a lysis control hub to promote gene transfer agent particle release from host bacterial cells, suggesting that bacterial immune systems may be co-opted to promote ...

nature.com

Tung Le@tunglejic.bsky.social · last yr.

1/ Excited to share our latest work on gene transfer agents (GTAs) in Caulobacter crescentus, led by Emma Banks in collaboration with Pavol Bardy and Mai Nguyen from York!!! See a brief thread below. shorturl.at/o6S1w

An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats: Current Biology https://www.cell.com/current-biology/fulltext/S0960-9822(26)00330-1?rss=yes

An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats

A novel Asgard archaeon, Nerearchaeum marumarumayae, is present in microbial mats in Shark Bay, Australia. Combining genomic and structural analyses, together with high-resolution electron cryotomography, Nobs et al. reveal that these archaea possess unique cellular features that reflect their ancestry as progenitors of the earliest eukaryotic cells.

cell.com

👀 a tad pilus machine feast.. 👏

Shuaiqi Guo@guo-lab.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Our work with the Brun lab on the in situ architecture of the Caulobacter crescentus Tad pilus machine is published in mBio. Amazing collaborative effort led by James Iarocci @jamesiarocci.bsky.social

1/11 In our story out today in @nature.com , we showcase the molecular mechanisms that enable Cas9 to bind and cleave negatively supercoiled ((-)SC) off-targets! 🧬🧵 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41... #CRISPR #Cas9 #DNATopology #AFM #CryoEM #SingleMolecule #Biophysics

Structural basis of supercoiling-induced CRISPR–Cas9 off-target activity - Nature

Cas9 structures explain topology sensing and off-target activation.

nature.com