Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 10h

How exciting! You should come and visit us in Switzerland during your stay🤩

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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 19h

Great - where in France?

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

Tracy Palmer @proftracypalmer.bsky.social · 3d

Check it out! A proper team effort from past and present group members and a great collaboration with @sergemostowylab.bsky.social

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 3d

The Staphylococcus aureus LXG-domain toxins EsxX and SAR0287 do not promote virulence in a zebrafish larval infection model https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.04.680436v1

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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 6d

That was my first sabbatical too (after running my lab for 16 yrs).....can highly recommend 🤩

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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 6d

3rd lab meeting I’m presenting at this year! After two during my sabbatical on my experiments (Helaine & Mekalanos labs), today finally in MY OWN lab 🎉
So much fun to share new work done w/ fantastic technicians Laurie, Sandrine, Loriane & bioinformatician Alexandre.
Bonus: cake served by the lab 🍰

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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 11d

What an amazing accomplishment of my colleague/lab neighbor Andrea Ablasser & her team => Citation Laureate on their incredible work on the cGAS-STING pathway together w/ Zhijian ‘James’ Chen & Glen Barber. Big congrats 🥳!!

clarivate.com/citation-lau...

2025 Citation Laureates in Physiology or Medicine | Nobel-Class Researchers | Clarivate

Explore the 2025 Citation Laureates in Physiology or Medicine — Nobel-class researchers recognized for groundbreaking discoveries that have advanced human health and biomedical science.

clarivate.com

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nikogeldner.bsky.social @nikogeldner.bsky.social · 21d

Call for a tenure-track position at our Department of Plant Molecular Biology in Lausanne! We are searching for promising early-career researchers in the broad field of plant-organismal interactions. Deadline: November 30, 2025 - Please re-post!

career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...

Career Opportunities: DBMV: Tenure Track Assistant Professor towards Associate Professor in the field of Plant-organism (22484)

career5.successfactors.eu

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Jörg Vogel @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social · 28d

Looking for a new approach to studying or eliminating phages? Check out our study introducing anti-phage ASOs (antisense oligos) out in @Nature today. nature.com/articles/s4158…

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

José R Penadés @jrpenades.bsky.social · 28d

Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social
lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species.
@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Chimeric infective particles expand species boundaries in phage-inducible chromosomal island mobilization

Capsid-forming PICIs (cf-PICIs) produce their own capsids and exploit phage tails from unrelated species to transfer their DNA across bacterial hosts. This tail piracy enables broad dissemination and ...

www.cell.com

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Vivek Mutalik @vivekmutalik.bsky.social · Sep 8

The ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems'.

#phage #phagesky

A bunch of interesting reviews

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Preface: the ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Can't sign in? Forgot your password?

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Sep 6

Some good stuff in here 😊

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · Sep 5

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the evolutionary history of bacterial immune systems, their modes of action, and the patterns how different bacterial immune systems are distributed across different ecosystems. Read: buff.ly/Z4qdxY1

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · Sep 5

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the evolutionary history of bacterial immune systems, their modes of action, and the patterns how different bacterial immune systems are distributed across different ecosystems. Read: buff.ly/Z4qdxY1

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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · Sep 6

And as a bonus — a 2nd review in the same special issue, co-authored with Kim Seed! 🧬💥

Lineage-specific defence systems of pandemic Vibrio cholerae
royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Thanks to the editors Uri Gophna, Stineke van Houte and Edze Westra for bringing this collection together.

Lineage-specific defence systems of pandemic Vibrio cholerae | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Cholera remains a significant global health burden. The causative agent responsible for the ongoing cholera pandemic, which began in 1961, is the seventh pandemic El Tor (7PET) lineage of Vibrio chole...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · Sep 6

Excited to share my latest review, now published in the Royal Society theme issue on ‘The ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems' (available OA):

Defence systems encoded by core genomic islands of seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Defence systems encoded by core genomic islands of seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, has triggered seven pandemics, with the seventh pandemic emerging in 1961. The success of seventh pandemic El Tor (7PET) V. cholerae as a human pathogen is linked to its acquisition of mobile genetic ...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Ákos T Kovács @evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social · Sep 5

Lineage-specific defence systems of pandemic Vibrio cholerae

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B by @mblokesch.bsky.social and Kim Seed

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...

Lineage-specific defence systems of pandemic Vibrio cholerae | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

Cholera remains a significant global health burden. The causative agent responsible for the ongoing cholera pandemic, which began in 1961, is the seventh pandemic El Tor (7PET) lineage of Vibrio chole...

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

Stephan Gruber @gruberlab.bsky.social · Sep 5

Our Wadjet-II paper by @roisnehamelinf.bsky.social is out in polished form: www.cell.com/structure/fu...

With a great preview by @kevincorbett.bsky.social & @amardeeep.bsky.social highlighting the potential of Wadjets:

Wadjet—Keeping a watchful eye on circular DNA.

www.cell.com/structure/fu...

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

Sorek Lab @soreklab.bsky.social · Sep 2

Together with Melanie Blockesch and David Adams from EPFL, we show that plasmids expressing synthetic anti-defense proteins successfully transform and become retained in V. cholerae, enabling stable plasmid maintenance

7/n

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

Sorek Lab @soreklab.bsky.social · Sep 2

Preprint: De-novo design of proteins that inhibit bacterial defenses

Our approach allows silencing defense systems of choice. We show how this approach enables programming of “untransformable” bacteria, and how it can enhance phage therapy applications

Congrats Jeremy Garb!
tinyurl.com/Syttt
🧵

Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection

Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...

www.biorxiv.org

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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · Sep 2

Congrats Jeremy on this great work 🤩

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Jeremy Garb @garbjeremy.bsky.social · Sep 2

I had so much fun making this project come to life!
Huge thanks to everyone who made it happen 💙 - especially my brilliant collaborators
David W. Adams, Eliane Hadas Yardeni, @mblokesch.bsky.social‬, and of course @soreklab.bsky.social‬

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Jeremy Garb @garbjeremy.bsky.social · Sep 2

It’s not just phages either.
We designed inhibitors for DdmDE, a system in Vibrio cholerae that usually clears plasmids from transformed cells.
Two of these binders conferred the plasmids with significant resistance against DdmDE-mediated plasmid clearance even in its native bacterial strain.

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

Jeremy Garb @garbjeremy.bsky.social · Sep 2

📢 New preprint alert!
We designed synthetic proteins that can block bacterial immune systems, allowing phages + plasmids to overcome natural defenses.
This could transform phage therapy + genetic engineering.
Here’s what we found 🧵
Preprint🔗: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection

Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Melanie Blokesch

David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social · Aug 23

Congratulations Rotem Sorek @soreklab.bsky.social on receiving the Gruber prize today in Stockholm

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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · Aug 18

Once again, big congrats Luuk 🎉🍾 - indeed, very exciting times ahead!!
And don't hesitate to let us know if there is anything we can help with 🤩

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Luuk Loeff @lloeff.bsky.social · Aug 18

Exciting times ahead!

Today marks the first day of the Loeff Lab at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands 🇳🇱. I’m thrilled to begin this new adventure and continue exploring microbial defense mechanisms and their applications through an integrative structural biology approach.

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