Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Jörg Vogel @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social · 3d

Two group leader positions available in the broader areas of RNA science, RNA technologies, and RNA medicine. Attractive packages and a great environment. Come and join us at Helmholtz RNA Würzburg, Bavaria.

1 77 65

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Julia Frunzke @frunzkelab.bsky.social · 4d

Please RT:
We have an opening for a junior group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me via email for further details.

@spp2330.bsky.social; @mibinet.bsky.social

Junior Group Leader - Phage Biology & Biotechnology

As a leading research institution for microbial biotechnology the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences - Biotechnology (IBG-1, https://www.fz-juelich.de/de/ibg/ibg-1 ) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich foc...

www.fz-juelich.de

53 34

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 10d

DYK most P. aeruginosa carry filamentous phage(s) that don't need to kill the cell to reproduce?

We 👉🏻@nanamikubota.bsky.social show that these Pf phages can go ROGUE.

"Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness"

🔗 authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5I3QW8S...

6 32 75

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Roni Odai @rodai.bsky.social · 10d

Viral AlphaFold Database (VAD) is live in Science Advances

~27,000 predicted viral protein monomers & homodimers

Conserved folds across bacteria, archaea & eukaryotic viruses

New toxin–antitoxin system KreTA uncovered

Vast “functional darkness” remains uncharted

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The Viral AlphaFold Database of monomers and homodimers reveals conserved protein folds in viruses of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes

VAD is a Viral AlphaFold Database of protein monomers and homodimers from viruses infecting hosts across the tree of life.

www.science.org

1 34 81

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Ben Adler @benadler.bsky.social · 10d

Today in @nature.com , we highlight how a cousin of CRISPR-Cas10, mCpol, establishes an evolutionary trap in anti-phage immune systems.

Check out @erinedoherty.bsky.social and my work from @doudna-lab.bsky.social lab here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A miniature CRISPR–Cas10 enzyme confers immunity by inhibitory signalling - Nature

Panoptes, an anti-phage defence system against virus-mediated immune suppression, is revealed.

www.nature.com

3 54 110

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Vivek Mutalik @vivekmutalik.bsky.social · 11d

*New preprint*
#phage #phagesky
This is a cool effort lead by Fangchao, Arkin lab, to test a new tech to study phage-host interaction mechanism at scale, in a droplet!
We benchmarked it by using a set of 2 classical coli phages to identify their receptors, impt for generatin data for AI/ML models

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 12d

Droplet-based Random Barcode Transposon-site Sequencing (Droplet RB-TnSeq) to characterize phage-host interactions https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.29.679331v1

2 14

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · 11d

Wir freuen uns, drei weitere Nachswuchsgruppenleiter:innen in unserem HUMAN-Programm zu begrüßen! 🎉
Christiane Iserman, Jakob Wirbel und Sampurna Chakrabarti @amapruns.bsky.social nehmen heute die Arbeit in ihren neuen Gruppen auf. Herzlich willkommen am HZI und alles Gute!

Collage mit Portraits von Christiane Iserman, Jakob Wirbel und Sampurna Chakrabarti

1 2 11

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

ETH Zurich @ethz.ch · 16d

Wir haben ein Krise von Antibiotika-Resistenzen. Dennoch werden Bakteriophagen - eine Virus-Art, die Bakterien abtöten kann - kaum als alternative Therapieform eingesetzt. Warum?

Das erklärt ETH-Forscher Alexander Harms im Interview. (@aharms485.bsky.social)
ethz.ch/de/news-und-...

«Bakteriophagen helfen gegen resistente Infektionen, aber in der Schweiz gibt es kaum Zugang zur Therapie»

Nicht nur Antibiotika können krankmachende Bakterien abtöten. Auch bestimmte Viren – sogenannte Bakteriophagen – können das. Um diese therapeutisch anzuwenden, fehlt in der Schweiz aber der rechtliche...

ethz.ch

1 5 18

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Kranzusch Lab @kranzuschlab.bsky.social · 16d

You’ve heard of ubiquitination, meet deazaguanylation: Doug Wassarman in our lab discovered phage defense pathways have co-opted Q nucleobase biosynthetic enzymes to catalyze a new form of protein conjugation chemistry @science.org

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

2 36 81

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · 18d

Am HZI-Standort @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social werden die Grundlagen für neuartige RNA-Therapien erforscht. Heute wurde das Richtfest für den mehr als 10.000 Quadratmeter großen HIRI-Neubau auf dem Medizincampus der @uni-wuerzburg.de gefeiert.
📷HIRI / Mario Schmitt
www.helmholtz-hzi.de/media-center...

Gruppenbild mit 16 Personen, im Hintergrund die Richtkrone.

5 18

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Jeremy Barr @jeremyjbarr.bsky.social · 18d

Excited to annouce the latest research published by our lab, which is led by Dinesh Subedi and is out today in Nature Microbiology.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Rational design of a hospital-specific phage cocktail to treat Enterobacter cloacae complex infections - Nature Microbiology

The Entelli-02 phage product containing five phages has frontline potential to address infections caused by the multidrug-resistant Enterobacter cloacae complex.

www.nature.com

3 25 67

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Martial Marbouty @mmarbout.bsky.social · 23d

You like phages ? In this publication, we use metaHiC and our new version of the MetaTOR pipeline to challenge the traditional view of phages with a narrow host range.
@rkoszul.bsky.social @natmicrobiol.nature.com @cnrs.fr @institutpasteur.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Phages with a broad host range are common across ecosystems - Nature Microbiology

Proximity-ligation-based sequencing from 111 samples and 5 environments reveals that a substantial proportion of phages infect multiple species.

www.nature.com

6 36 77

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz Institute Würzburg @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social · 24d

Recent study in @natbiotech.nature.com: A team led by #HIRI’s Beisel lab introduced a new way to fine-tune genetic material. They describe an innovative technique where chemical tags are attached directly to DNA, opening new possibilities in medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology.
➡️ rdcu.be/eG4fk

Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes

Nature Biotechnology - Append editing of ADP-ribosyl to thymine is used for precise modifications in bacteria and eukaryotes.

rdcu.be

1 3 11

Milan Gerovac @gerovac.bsky.social · Sep 11

No Genetics? Try ASOs – A non-genetic approach to silence genes at the phage-host interface. We use it to study jumbo phage biology and anti-phage defence.
@jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social
@uni-wuerzburg.de @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social
published now in @nature.com

Programmable antisense oligomers for phage functional genomics - Nature

Establishing antisense oligomers as versatile, non-genetic tools to silence phage mRNAs opens applications in basic research and biotechnology, as shown by identifying essential factors for propagatio...

www.nature.com

20 65

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · Sep 3

Es war uns eine große Ehre, Yasmine Belkaid, Präsidentin des @pasteur.fr, heute am HZI begrüßen zu dürfen. Vielen Dank für die wertvollen wissenschaftlichen Diskussionen und den inspirierenden Vortrag über die Immunität gegenüber der Mikrobiota und die Auswirkungen auf die Impfstoffentwicklung.

1 2 9

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · Apr 11

RNA-basierte Medizin hat das Potenzial viele Krankheiten zu heilen. Am @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social arbeiten Forscher:innen unter anderem an programmierbaren #Antibiotika und diagnostischen Werkzeugen auf RNA-Basis. Mehr dazu findet ihr in unserem Wissensportal. www.helmholtz-hzi.de/wissen/wisse...

HZI-Wissensportal: RNA-Biologie

RNA-Forschung eröffnet ein breites Spektrum an Möglichkeiten für Therapeutika und Diagnosemethoden und hat das Potenzial viele Krankheiten zu heilen.

www.helmholtz-hzi.de

1 2 6

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Jörg Vogel @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social · Apr 9

If you want to do single-cell RNA-seq on your favourite bacterium, here‘s our detailed Nature Protocol for microbial MATQ-seq. It profiles up to 600 genes in a single bacterial cell!

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Transcriptomic profiling of individual bacteria by MATQ-seq - Nature Protocols

Bacterial single-cell sequencing via MATQ-seq combines index sorting, random priming and rRNA depletion, and offers high cell retention and transcript capture rates, making it ideal for experiments wi...

www.nature.com

2 34 59

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Aude Bernheim @audeber.bsky.social · Apr 8

The EMBO workshop on the Immune System of Bacteria just started in sunny Paris in the Institut Pasteur.
So excited for three days of awesome science.

1 7 86

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Apr 7

Deazaguanylation is a nucleobase-protein conjugation required for type IV CBASS immunity https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.06.647259v1

6 10

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · Apr 7

„Gesunde Anfänge, hoffnungsvolle Zukunft“ ist Thema des #Weltgesundheitstags @who.int, der die Gesundheit von Müttern & Neugeborenen fokussiert. Auch wir am HZI arbeiten auf diesem Gebiet. So erforscht @ntorow.bsky.social bspw. das frühkindliche Immunsystem. www.helmholtz-hzi.de/media-center...

1 4

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · Apr 3

🔬The application deadline in our program "CURIOSITY IS INFECTIOUS" is less than a month away!
👉 Apply by April 20 for one of 16 exciting PhD projects - from host-pathogen interactions and novel antiinfectives to molecular mechanisms of infection and immunity.
www.helmholtz-hzi.de/en/career/jo...

3 4

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · Apr 1

#Lungenentzündungen mit Staph. aureus zählen zu den gefährlichsten Infektionen, die im Krankenhaus auftreten können. Eine Forschungsgruppe unter Leitung des HZI hat nun einen neuen Wirkstoffkandidaten gegen Lungeninfektionen durch den Krankenhauskeim entdeckt. www.helmholtz-hzi.de/media-center...

Neuer Wirkstoff hemmt Staphylococcus aureus-Toxin

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung entwickelt innovative Wirkstoffklasse zur Hemmung von Krankenhauskeimen

www.helmholtz-hzi.de

2 11

Milan Gerovac @gerovac.bsky.social · Mar 31

CURIOUS ABOUT PHAGE BIOLOGY!?
CPIC lab at @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social
is recruiting in the call
+++ CURIOSITY IS INFECTIOUS +++
helmholtz-hzi.de/en/career/jo...
Did you spot the phage? Please share!

1 10 13

Reposted by Milan Gerovac

Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung (HZI) @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social · Mar 5

🔬 "CURIOSITY IS INFECTIOUS" – PhD Positions in Infection Research at HZI!
We are looking for the next generation of pioneers in infection research! 🧬🦠💊
Explore exciting projects - from host-pathogen interactions and novel antiinfectives to molecular mechanisms of infection and immunity.

Ankündigung des PhD Programms "Curiosity is Infectious" des HZI. Der Titel des Programms steht oben im Bild, im Hintergrund sind verschiedene Viren und Bakterien abgebildet. Über einen QR-Code unten in der Mitte kann die Stellenanzeige aufgerufen werden.

1 14 11

Milan Gerovac @gerovac.bsky.social · Jan 29

Join our team as a doctoral researcher, impact science and go viral. We illuminate protein-RNA complexes at the interface between phages and bacterial pathogens @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social www.helmholtz-hzi.de/en/career/jo...

12 10