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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 6h

Notably, ΦX174’s genome is tiny (5-6kb) and even this was challenging. Out of 300 generated genomes, 16 were functional and only few of them outperformed WT

For us, escalation to higher life forms seems a ways from today, even for a rapidly moving field (beyond considerable ethical implications)

Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 6h

❓ - New viruses (EVO), able to overcome ΦX174-resistance emerged after multiple passages of a GLM-phage cocktail.

The EVO genomes contained elements from GLM-phages, though the sequence itself was not GLM-generated.

So likely mixing GLM design with old-fashioned recombination would be best?

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 6h

✅ - Authors also report improved fitness in some of the GLM-phages, compared to WT ΦX174, and point to the likely reasons behind it

This suggests a very feasible use of this technology, as an additional, more targeted tool, to study viral-host interaction and eventually improve phage engineering

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 6h

🚫 - However, though different from other ΦX174 sequences, these GLM-phages were, at worst, 93% similar to the backbone sequence (but overall more like >95%)

So, this raises the question of whether there’s a threshold to consider the GLM as “generative” and, if so, what should it be?

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 6h

📝 - Using genomic language models (GLM), these teams generated new sequences of bacteriophages, capable to infect some strains of E. coli, different from those found in nature

Impressively, 16 functional GLM phages with novel sequences based on a "backbone sequence" (ΦX174) were created

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 6h

We saw this doing the rounds and we thought we'd share with you some of our thoughts and questions on it, since it's likely to be a highly impactful (and cool) work.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

📝-Premise
✅-Pros
🚫-Cons
❓-Questions

Generative design of novel bacteriophages with genome language models

Many important biological functions arise not from single genes, but from complex interactions encoded by entire genomes. Genome language models have emerged as a promising strategy for designing biol...

www.biorxiv.org

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 10d

🔵⚪🔴 Nous avons eu quelques visites intéressantes aujourd'hui au labo BBH 🎥

Le chef a fait du bon travail ; il paraît qu'il sera sélectionné pour le prochain projet Spielberg 😎

J'ai hâte de partager plus d'informations avec vous prochainement

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 10d

ENG - We had a couple on interesting visits today at the BBH lab 🎥

The boss did a pretty good job, word on the street is he'll be in line for the next Spielberg project 😎

Looking forward to share more with you in the near future

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 21d

🔵⚪🔴 - C'est la "Postdoc appreciation week"(PAW !!!) à @pasteur.fr 🥳

Nous avons actuellement deux postdoctorants au BBH lab : Nandita et Alejandro.

Ils travaillent en tandem avec des candidats au PhD et des étudiants en master tout en se préparant à la prochaine étape de leur carrière

Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 21d

ENG - It's Postdoc appreciation week (PAW!!!) at @pasteur.fr 🥳

Currently, we have 2 postdocs at the BBH lab, Nandita and Alejandro

As early career researchers, they work in tandem with PhD candidates and master students while preparing for the next stage in their careers

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 24d

ENG - It's shaping up to be a busy week at the BBH lab!

We're not sure if the boss ordered enough plates, though 🤔

Good Monday, everyone!!

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 27d

Nous somme ravis de vous avoir présenté notre équipe !

Nous partagerons d'autres actualités concernant BBH dans les semaines à venir, alors restez à l'écoute.

Les phages ne s'arrêtent jamais, alors nous non plus 😉

Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 27d

Leurs efforts collectifs, sous la direction de Laurent, ont abouti à la publication de >50 articles scientifiques et à de multiples projets internationaux.

Vous pouvez en savoir plus ici
research.pasteur.fr/fr/team/bact...

Bactériophage, bactérie, hôte - Research

Découverts à l’aube du XXème siècle les bactériophages (virus infectant les bactéries) n’ont cessé d’être exploités par les chercheurs. En premier lieu, les bactériophages ont été utilisés pour traite...

research.pasteur.fr

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 27d

Depuis sa création, notre unité a accueilli >30 membres, parmi lesquels des étudiants en master et en thèse, des postdocs, des techniciens, des ingénieurs de recherche et des assistants administratifs.

Vous avez rencontré les membres actuels cette semaine. Saurez-vous les reconnaître ?

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 27d

🔵⚪🔴 #meettheteam Pour finir en beauté, voici celui que vous attendiez tous... LE CHEF !!!

Laurent Debarbieux a relancé une activité de recherche sur la phagothérapie à @pasteur.fr depuis 2006. Une aventure qui se poursuit aujourd'hui avec toute l'équipe !

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 27d

It's been fun sharing our team with all of you!!

If you like our work (and, honestly, what's not to like? 😎) we thought it'd be good to show the people behind it

We'll be sharing more BBH updates in the coming weeks so stay tuned

Phages don't really stop so neither can we 😉

Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 27d

Their collective effort, under Laurent's leadership, has been reflected in >50 scientific papers on high impact journals, as well as participation in multiple projects with partners from different parts of the world

You can read all about it here!!

research.pasteur.fr/en/team/bact...

Bacteriophage, bacterium, host - Research

Since their discovery in the early twentieth century, researchers have exploited bacteriophages (viruses that infect only bacteria). First, bacteriophages have been used to fight against human bacteri...

research.pasteur.fr

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 27d

Since its formation, the BBH lab has hosted >30 current and former members, including master and PhD students, postdocs, technicians, research engineers and administrative assistants

But we don't need to remind you, you've been meeting some of them these past few weeks!!

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · 27d

ENG- Last, but definitely not least, in our #meettheteam series, it's the one you've all been waiting for ........... THE BOSS!!

Laurent Debarbieux has reignited a phage therapy research lab at @pasteur.fr since 2006 and it's been quite the ride (if we may say so ourselves)

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · Sep 9

🔵⚪🔴Nous ne savons pas vraiment s'il semble plus heureux lorsqu'il manipule une pipette dans son laboratoire ou une bouteille de champagne après avoir soutenu sa thèse HDR, à vous d'en juger 🤔

Récemment, il a également reçu une bourse « Groot » de @pasteur.fr

bsky.app/profile/phag...

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · Sep 9

🔵⚪🔴Si vous nous suivez depuis un certain temps, vous reconnaîtrez peut-être ce membre de notre équipe, qui figurait dans notre tout premier post

Nicolas Dufour est un chercheur associé qui partage son temps entre le laboratoire BBH et son travail clinique dans une unité de soins intensifs

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · Sep 9

We can't really tell if he seems happier when handling a pipette in the lab or a bottle of champagne after his HDR defense, you be the judge 🤔

Recently, he also received a "Groot" grant from @pasteur.fr

bsky.app/profile/phag...

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · Sep 9

#meettheteam If you've been following us for a bit, you might recognize this member of our team, who was featured on our very first post

Nicolas Dufour is an associated researcher who splits his time between the BBH lab and his clinical work at an intensive care unit

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · Sep 5

🔵⚪🔴Félicitations à notre chère Camille Sivelle, qui a soutenu son mémoire de M2 aujourd'hui! 🥳

Son travail portait sur l'étude de l'émergence de la résistance aux phages dans différentes souches de bactéries. Nous ne savons toujours pas comment elle a réussi à présenter toutes ses données en 15 min

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Bacteriophage Lab of Institut Pasteur @phagepasteur.bsky.social · Sep 5

ENG- Congratulations are in order for our very own Camille Sivelle, who had her M2 defense today!!🥳

Her work was a thorough study of the emergence of phage resistance in different strains of bacteria, using wet lab methods. We're still not quite sure how she managed to fit all her data in 15 slides

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