A great trip to Auckland for #ISME20. I came out feeling much more like a microbial ecologist. So many connections across scales: from flagellar motors to spatial structure, communities and ecosystems. Great science, people & ideas!

Collaborative work w/ Beile Gao and team in Guangzhou & collaborators in the US @natmicrobiol.nature.com this week. Combining phylogenetics, structural biology and bioinformatics to explore new structures around the flagellar motor and their evolutionary origins. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Structural insights into the assembly and evolution of a complex bacterial flagellar motor - Nature Microbiology

Structural, genetic, functional and biochemical analyses of the complex flagellar motor of Campylobacter jejuni reveal structural adaptations with an ancient origin also found more widely across bacte...

nature.com

Our work led by PhD student James Gaston is out online at Journal of Lipid Research. We looked at how % PEG3000 affected the size and stickiness of liposomes, to work out best conditions for combining DNA and lipid nanotechnology. @unswbabs.bsky.social www.jlr.org/article/S002...

The effect of PEGylation on surface tethering of liposomes via DNA nanotechnology.

Polyethylene glycol (PEG) is widely used in liposome formulation due to its blocking properties and ability to prolong circulation in vivo, to create biomimetic liposomes and drug delivery devices. Si...

jlr.org

Fantastic talk by @phatmattbaker.bsky.social as the McAuley-Hope prize recipient for 2025! A highly entertaining and informative journey through Matt's biophysics journey and the incredible bacterial flagellar motor.

Happy to see our work featured by @aucklanduni.bsky.social Constant molecular motion is essential to life. We’re unravelling the story of how life first got moving. @phatmattbaker.bsky.social @nicholasmatzke.bsky.social @kacarlab.bsky.social www.auckland.ac.nz/en/news/2025...

Sounds like 🔝 #ASB2025 talk by James Gaston, finishing up his PhD on #lipids #DNAnano this year. Well done James! @unswbabs.bsky.social Congrats to flash talkers and all the amazing presenters that I unfortunately missed today. I will 🚲 ✈️ 6am tomorrow.

Well done @laurenceluu.bsky.social on ASMR Award tonight! Nice talk on pelvic inflammatory disease and great to celebrate @unswbabs.bsky.social colleagues' success at NSW Parliament. #asmr

Well done to Jamiema for your ECR Plenary #AES2025 yesterday @unswbabs.bsky.social A clear talk sharing our enthusiasm for flagellar diversity Uncle Billy welcome to country also awesome. AU has so much biodiversity but also raw human talent in ecology and evolution!

Some absolutely belter talks #AES2025 in the first macroevolution session. So impressed with the clarity of the talks and beautiful phylogenies and evolutionary narratives. Looking forward to second session after lunch.

@csferrie.com I thought I was going nuts but you have an error in statistical physics for babies, two of these combinations are the same... There are two combos with a blue and a purple ball on right.

We hoped to control bacteria with light, using LOV domains. Our stators were functional but light didn't impact motility. We then checked if our periplasmic tags could be useful as fluorophores. 👐 Jyoti Gurung for tenacity to get it done 🕒✈️🇦🇺➡️🇬🇧! doi.org/10.1002/mbo3... @unswbabs.bsky.social

Insertion of Fluorescent Proteins Near the Plug Domain of MotB Generates Functional Stator Complexes

We inserted small light-interacting domains at various locations in the stator complex to see what sites were amenable for labeling and how these affected flagellar rotation and switching. We observe...

doi.org

Our motAB work out now in mBio! We examined the origins of the bacterial flagellar stator ⚙️ by combining phylogenetics, ancestral reconstructions, structural predictions and motility assays. Thanks to all authors 🇳🇿🇦🇺🇺🇸 @hfspo.bsky.social @unswbabs.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Evolution and structural diversity of the MotAB stator: insights into the origins of bacterial flagellar motility | mBio

Flagellar motility allows bacteria to propel themselves and direct movement according to environmental conditions. It plays a key role in bacterial pathogenicity and survival. We investigated the molecular and structural diversity of the stator motor proteins that provide the ion motive force to power flagellar rotation. This study uses a comparative approach that integrates phylogenetics, 3D protein structure, motility assays, and ancestral state reconstruction (ASR) to provide insights into the structural mechanisms that first powered the flagellar motor. We provide the first phylogenetic and structural characterization and classification of MotAB and relatives.

journals.asm.org

📑 Programs? Printed. 🏛️ Venue? Looking amazing. 🧪 Energy? Building fast. We're almost ready to welcome the HFSP community to Melbourne for an unforgettable week of science and connection! Who's coming to the 24th HFSP Awardees Meeting? #HFSP #HFSPmtg2025

Nice @unswbabs.bsky.social UNSW write up of our paper. ✈️ Melbourne now w/ team to present this and other work at #HFSP @hfspo.bsky.social 24th awardee meeting. Looking forward to getting inspired with new biology from interdisciplinary teams across the world. www.unsw.edu.au/news/2025/06...

Bacteria were swimming from the start

New analysis shows that the last common ancestor of bacteria had a flagellar motor which enabled it to swim, indicating how important learning to swim was for life.

unsw.edu.au

Out this weekend in @ismepublications.bsky.social We looked at 10,000 species to map the diversity and history of the bacterial #flagellar motor across the tree of life. Lots of (re)analysis , especially from Jamiema Sara Philip @unswbabs.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

1st NSW #fencing comp of the year – won. Did it with UNSW club and for UNSW. Great to share my experience with current students and see the club in such good health. Impressive student-led self organisation! Otherwise trying to wrap head around #DECRA mentoring and imoendinf #arc system changes.

Haven't posted here but here's set of recent wechat posts - last time I logged in at conference zero users here but now more traction. Visit to China and talks at Peking Uni, Westlake Uni and CAS microbiology. Postdoc poster prize for Jacob Scadden in BLAST in Cancun - well done.