Scientists do this purely out of self-interest

Coffee is under threat: how scientists are fighting to save it from extinction

Coffee plants are critically endangered by climate change. Researchers are finding solutions to keep scientists supplied with their favourite discovery fuel.

nature.com

À novel preprint from the lab ! In a study led by Christian Lesterlin’ s we identify a novel plasmid encoded protein, named HerB. HerB is produced upon entry of the plasmid and modifies host biology to facilitate plasmid establishments ! More here ! #Microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Plasmid-encoded host reprogramming promotes plasmid dissemination

Conjugative plasmids are major drivers of antibiotic resistance dissemination, yet how newly transferred plasmids establish in recipient cells remains poorly understood. Here we investigate YfjB, a pr...

biorxiv.org

Membrane protein solubilization and structure determination using de novo–designed proteins | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Membrane protein solubilization and structure determination using de novo–designed proteins

Developing therapies and vaccines against integral membrane proteins is hindered by their extensive hydrophobic surfaces, which complicate production and structural analysis. Here, we describe a gener...

science.org

@umeauniversitet.bsky.social is hiring! Up to 10 tenure track positions have just been announced! At the Medical Faculty you can apply either to an assistant professor position, or one with combined clinical employment. www.umu.se/en/northern-...

Northern Star Fellows

Reach research excellence with Umeå University as a young researcher.

umu.se

Happy to have been involved with this review, where we besides giving an in-depth review of G+ and G- T4SSs, we also propose a unifying nomenclature that we hope will take off!

Badreddine Douzi@badreddinedouzi.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Happy to share a new review proposing a unified nomenclature for T4SSs. Great collaboration with Peter J Christie, Gabriel Waksman, Ronnie Per-Arne Berntsson and our team. academic.oup.com/femsre/artic... #T4SS#Microbiology

I’m extremely happy that Taylor Devlin was awarded a Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions postdoctoral fellowship to work with us on the biophysical properties of bacterial adhesion to host factors! Great job Taylor! marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/news/msca-aw...

MSCA awards €404.3 million to postdoctoral researchers

1610 outstanding postdoctoral researchers were selected for funding among 17,066 applicants.

marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu

We've got ISSUES. Literally. We scraped >100k special issues & over 1 million articles to bring you a PISS-poor paper. We quantify just how many excess papers are published by guest editors abusing special issues to boost their CVs. How bad is it & what can we do? arxiv.org/abs/2601.07563 A 🧵 1/n

Martin Peterson doesn’t suffer fools gladly.

Ending the year with a new preprint out from our lab. We show that Type 4 Secretion Systems in Gram-positive bacteria use pili in conjugation. For a full recap, check out the thread from the lead author @josyterbeek.bsky.social here below ⬇️ Hope y’all get a nice end to 2025!

Josy ter Beek@josyterbeek.bsky.social · 8mo ago

📣New preprint with @rberntsson.bsky.social👇We overturn the long-standing view that Gram-positive bacteria lack conjugative pili! We identify pili-forming proteins in a wide range of bacteria and show they're essential for the spread of #antibioticresistance #AMR 🧵1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It burns. It burns. My eyes.

Jessica Tollkuhn@tollkuhn.bsky.social · 9mo ago

absolutely losing it at my 14yo's biology homework

Any climate researchers I know that can corroborate this article? Is this really where we’re going right now? worldcrunch.com/focus/green-...

Global Warming At 3 °C By 2050? What's Behind The New German Climate Warning

German scientists warn global warming is accelerating faster than expected, raising the risk of a 3 °C rise by 2050 and forcing Europe to confront unthinkable adaptation plans. German scientists warn ...

worldcrunch.com

Seems the Nordic region is doing quite good... Did I mention we will announce a new postdoc position within a month or two? :)

Our World in Data@ourworldindata.org · 10mo ago

Afghans report the lowest life satisfaction in the world— Measuring happiness is difficult, but one way to understand how satisfied people are with their lives is to simply ask them.

This is on several levels pretty amazing. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Semantic design of functional de novo genes from a genomic language model - Nature

By learning a semantics of gene function based on genomic context, the genomic language model Evo autocompletes DNA prompts to generate novel genes encoding protein and RNA molecules with defined acti...

nature.com

Vaccines do not cause autism. We know that the predominant cause of autism is genetics. It is deeply concerning that the CDC is promoting an idea that has been debunked countless times. www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/...

CDC in turmoil after agency backpedals on debunking vaccines-autism link

The CDC’s website now says health authorities ignored evidence of a potential connection between vaccines and autism, despite dozens of studies showing no link.

washingtonpost.com

Today I’m starting a new position as Professor in Molecular Medicine at Umeå University I’m happy and proud, but also extremely thankful to all people in the group, both current and past members!

Skrattade högt.

Please RT. Post-doc opportunity alert! 💥 closing 10th December.. Come join our team (www.thelowlab.org) at Imperial, London, working on the structure and mechanism of bacterial secretion systems. For more details and to apply please see www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

I love AlphaFold—but please include PAE (Predicted Aligned Error) plots for every “interaction.” Pretty PDBs ≠ proof. If the PAE doesn’t show an interface, it ain’t one. Show the plots. Structural biology's reputation is on the line.

This is really cool! If you want to get a card game that explains microorganisms - now's your chance! www.umu.se/en/news/rese...

Researchers' card game teaches children about microorganisms

Hope to spark curiosity about life beneath the water’s surface – with playful game cards.

umu.se

Seems like a very handy tool!

Lucas Farnung@lucas.farnunglab.com · 11mo ago

New week, new tool: Find our Protein Domain Designer tool to generate publication-ready protein domain diagrams here: domaindesigner.farnunglab.com

Visit PDB-101 to learn more about Antimicrobial Resistance

PDB101: Global Health: Antimicrobial Resistance: About: Bacteria and Antibiotics

PDB-101: Training, Outreach, and Education portal of RCSB PDB

pdb101.rcsb.org

Exciting to see our protein binder design pipeline BindCraft published in its final form in @Nature ! This has been an amazing collaborative effort with Lennart, Christian, @sokrypton.org, Bruno and many other amazing lab members and collaborators. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Archaea are often surrounded by bacteria. But is there ever active conflict between the two? Can archaea kill bacteria? If so, how do they do it? Work by @romainstrock.bsky.social shows that some archaea can kill bacteria by secreting peptidoglycan hydrolases. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria

Archaea regularly interact with bacteria but reports of archaea killing bacteria are very rare. This study shows that many archaea encode peptidoglycan hydrolases, which specifically target bacterial ...

journals.plos.org

Interesting that they could put a number on it. And yes, that's a reindeer seeking shade behind a concrete wall. Not their usual place to hang out...

World Weather Attribution@wwattribution.bsky.social · last yr.

Climate change made the relentless heatwave in Norway, Sweden and Finland about 2°C hotter and at least ten times more likely. Our latest study was published this morning. “This event should be taken as another reminder that no country is safe from climate change” - @frediotto.bsky.social 🧵

Cryo-EM ligand building using AlphaFold3-like model and molecular dynamics pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40788932/ #cryoEM

Here's our new broad review on the extended mobility of plasmids, about all mechanisms driving and limiting their transfer. From conjugation to conduction, phage-plasmids to hitchers, molecular to evolutionary dynamics, ecology to biotech. The state of affairs. 1/9 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

💥 Excited to introduce Bacformer 🦠 - the first foundation model for bacterial genomics. Bacformer represents genomes as sequences of ordered proteins, learning the “grammar” of how genes are arranged, interact and evolve. Preprint 📝: biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧵 1/n

😳😱 not a smart move…🧬🧶

Science Magazine@science.org · last yr.

Exclusive: An international scientific competition widely credited with spurring the development of artificial intelligence for biology appears to be on its deathbed. scim.ag/44ukS90

I'm today starting as pro-dean at the medical faculty at @umeauniversitet.bsky.social. Looking forward to exciting years ahead, together with the new dean Katrine Riklund and the others in the faculty leadership!

Finally! ERC is reducing the length of part II of their application form. 'The length of this section is now limited to seven pages for Starting, Consolidator, and Advanced Grant applications and ten pages for Synergy Grant applications'

European Research Council (ERC)@erc.europa.eu · last yr.

Planning to apply for #research #funding from the ERC? From the next application rounds, expect changes to the: • proposal structure • evaluation process • extra funding you can request • eligibility for Starting & Consolidator #Grants (from 2027) More 👇 europa.eu/!RPHWvv