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Reposted by Malcolm White

Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 2d

New preprint!

Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠

Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare!

An epic effort by Rosanna Wright

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

Resistance mutation supply modulates the benefit of CRISPR immunity against virulent phages

Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...

www.biorxiv.org

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 6d

My pleasure @erinedoherty.bsky.social and @benmorehouse.bsky.social - for me this was the stand-out discovery of the last year in the field

Erin Doherty @erinedoherty.bsky.social · 6d

And thanks to @mfwhite2.bsky.social for this great perspective on both works! www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Bacteria use a decoy defence molecule to set a trap for viruses

Some bacterial-infecting viruses use ‘sponges’ to mop up defence molecules, but bacteria can fight back by responding when a sponge captures decoy molecules.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Malcolm White

Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social · 6d

Our story describing the Panoptes bacterial immune defense system is now finally peer-reviewed and published today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The Panoptes system uses decoy cyclic nucleotides to defend against phage - Nature

The Panoptes antiphage system defends bacteria by detecting phage-encoded counter-defences that sequester cyclic nucleotide signals, triggering membrane disruption and highlighting a broader strategy of sensing immune evasion through second-messenger surveillance.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Malcolm White

Ben Adler @benadler.bsky.social · 6d

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

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Reposted by Malcolm White

Kranzusch Lab @kranzuschlab.bsky.social · 12d

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/...

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Reposted by Malcolm White

The Ramsey Lab @theramseylab.bsky.social · 16d

Do notions like “programmed #cell death” (PCD) and the endogenous–exogenous death distinction apply to microbes? In our new chapter, we argue that an evolutionary concept of PCD extends across the tree of life, including microbial taxa 👇📃 link.springer.com/chapter/10.1... #evosky #HPbio #philsci 🦠 🔬

Cover page of the book chapter titled "Conceptual Foundations of Cell Mortality" by Pierre M. Durand and Grant Ramsey.

The page includes a table of contents with sections: Introduction; Microbes, Cells, Death, and Mortality; Two Kinds of Microbial Cell Death: Endogenous and Exogenous (with subsections on distinguishing causes and endogenous microbial death); Conceptualizations of Programmed Cell Death; Endogenous Death, Programmed Cell Death, and Microbial Cell Fate (with a subsection on alternative terms for programmed cell death in microbes); and Toward an Overarching Framework of Cell Mortality, followed by References.

Durand, P.M., Ramsey, G. (2025). Conceptual Foundations of Cell Mortality. In: Current Topics in Microbiology and Immunology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/82_2025_328

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 18d

I can see I’m going to have to get a subscription to the National Observer

Reposted by Malcolm White

Jörg Vogel @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social · 27d

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 Malcolm White

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 28d

AI could be used for REF, says Royal Society president.

The president of the Royal Society has suggested that artificial intelligence could ease the burden placed on academics by the Research Excellence Framework and peer review.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-c...

AI could be used for REF, says Royal Society president - Research Professional News

Research Excellence Framework is “not best use of human brainpower”, Adrian Smith tells Lords committee

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 28d

How long before:
AIs generate hypotheses, decide on priorities, carry out experiments, analyse data and disseminate results. Each of these is already happening to some extent.
Humans do the washing up and waste disposal.
If we are good at our jobs AIs may prioritise research on AMR...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 28d

The beginning of the end for PIs?

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

Our second paper with @tcostalab.bsky.social and GoogleDeepMind
reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

AI mirrors experimental science to uncover a mechanism of gene transfer crucial to bacterial evolution

By solving a previously unsolved biological question, the AI co-scientist predicted a complex mechanism of gene transfer and generated hypotheses that opened new research directions, illustrating AI's...

www.cell.com

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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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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Sep 5

Congratulations Martin, smart decision by the ERC

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Sep 2

This area is developing at breakneck speed - big advance here

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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Reposted by Malcolm White

Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · Aug 31

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

#phagesky #phage

Gabija restricts phages that antagonize a conserved host DNA repair complex

Anti-bacteriophage systems like restriction-modification and CRISPR-Cas have DNA substrate specificity mechanisms that enable identification of invaders. How Gabija, a highly prevalent nuclease-helica...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Malcolm White

Rory White @rorywh.bsky.social · Aug 21

New story out today. I traced three anonymous Facebook pages back to the Epoch Times, which is banned by Meta. The pages were branded as 'educational research centres' and advertised surveys to collect political opinions and contact data from Canadians. They were seen over 22 million times.

Meta banned the Epoch Times from advertising. Then it accepted $300k in new ads targeting Canadians

In the past 12 months, The Epoch Times has spent over $300,000 on Facebook and Instagram ads promoting political surveys to collect the emails of Canadians using a series of anonymous pages.

www.nationalobserver.com

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Reposted by Malcolm White

Peter Fineran @peterfineran.bsky.social · Aug 18

Ever wondered why some bacteria have multiple CRISPR-Cas systems? Our new study led by Leah Smith shows how type I CRISPR systems can promote the acquisition and retention of new spacers into a co-occuring type III system. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Type I CRISPR-Cas immunity primes type III spacer acquisition

CRISPR-Cas systems are diverse, with microbes harboring multiple classes and subtypes. Type I DNA-targeting and type III RNA-targeting systems often c…

www.sciencedirect.com

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Aug 15

Ímar at the Edinburgh Festival last night 👌

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Reposted by Malcolm White

Ellinor Alseth @ellinoralseth.bsky.social · Aug 8

Feels surreal to say but: I'm hiring! If you are or know anyone interested in looking at the evolution of phage resistance using A. baumannii and natural transformation, then this might be for you
www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139) | UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Job title: Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139), Employer: UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Deadline: Wednesday, August 27, 2025

www.jobbnorge.no

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Aug 1

and not a hydrothermal vent in sight.

Dr Nick Higgs 🇧🇸🇬🇧 @nickdhiggs.bsky.social · Jul 31

Deepest know chemosynthesis-based ecosystems!

Nature @nature.com · Jul 31

This surprisingly relaxing footage is from SIX MILES under the ocean – and it’s the deepest ecosystem yet discovered

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Aug 1

Giant bacteria!

Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Jul 30

Interesting papers just keep coming this summer!

Kevin Forsberg @kvnforsberg.bsky.social · Jul 29

Very proud to have our lab’s first work published in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social!

In this work, we use functional metagenomics to find phage defenses from human and soil microbiomes!

Congrats to first author @luis840alberto.bsky.social !

www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

(1/3)

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Jul 30

A timely review - so many recent discoveries in this sphere!

Dina Hochhauser @dinahoch.bsky.social · Jul 29

Read my review with @soreklab.bsky.social on the nucleotide pool as a central playground in antiviral immunity across humans, bacteria and plants! 🧍‍♀️🦠🌿

& how viruses overcome these nucleotide-based immune mechanisms 🗡️

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

Manipulation of the nucleotide pool in human, bacterial and plant immunity - Nature Reviews Immunology

Modification of the nucleotide pool is emerging as key to innate immunity in animals, plants and bacteria. This Review explains how immune pathways conserved from bacteria to humans manipulate the nuc...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Malcolm White

Franklin Nobrega @fnobrega.bsky.social · Jul 28

Thrilled to see our Kiwa story out today! A membrane-associated supercomplex that senses infection and blocks replication and transcription.

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Huge congratulations to Yi and Zhiying for bringing it home, to Thomas for starting us off, and to all the collaborators.

Kiwa is a membrane-embedded defense supercomplex activated at phage attachment sites

Zhang, Todeschini, and Wu et al. show that the bacterial defense system Kiwa senses phage attachment at the membrane and assembles a transmembrane complex that halts infection by blocking phage DNA re...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Malcolm White

Sternberg Lab @sternberglab.bsky.social · Jul 24

1/16 New pre-print from the Sternberg Lab!
We uncover how temperate phages can use RNA-guided transcription factors to remodel the flagellar composition of their bacterial host and enhance their fitness.
Find the preprint and full story here: tinyurl.com/mshwjd77

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