Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Pedro Leão

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute @danafarber.bsky.social · 16h

Congratulations to Philip J. Kranzusch, Ph.D., Professor of Cancer Immunology and Virology, who was one of three scientists awarded top honors at the 2025 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists.

Watch to learn more about his work: bit.ly/4pZUDkF

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · 14d

Always a good call! 😂

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · 14d

a man in a suit and tie is standing next to a woman in a green shirt .

ALT: a man in a suit and tie is standing next to a woman in a green shirt .

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

chasingmicrobes @chasingmicrobes.bsky.social · 14d

Anecdotal, but a lot of highly trained immigrant PhD colleagues and friends have been moving back to their home countries this year.

Every one of those said the reason was safety

elmo the sesame street character is sitting on a ledge

ALT: elmo the sesame street character is sitting on a ledge

media.tenor.com

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · 14d

"Breakthroughs rarely announce themselves on the good days — they are earned quietly, by refusing to quit on the lousy ones, even when impostor syndrome tells you otherwise."

open.substack.com/pub/leaopel/...

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

Reinier Egas @raegas.bsky.social · 16d

Coincidental and exciting! Anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) do like carbon monoxide - two independent studies showcasing CO metabolism across freshwater and marine ANME (ANME-2d and -2b).

ANME-2d: doi.org/10.1101/2025... (Welte lab)
ANME-2b: reposted (Orphan lab)

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 17d

Carbon monoxide oxidation expands the known metabolic capacity in anaerobic methanotrophic consortia https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.21.677609v1

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

Sorek Lab @soreklab.bsky.social · Jul 29

Of the 10 defense systems originally discovered in Doron et al 2018, Kiwa was one of the last to be studied - until now

Kiwa is a membrane-embedded complex activated in phage attachments sites to degrade phage DNA

A nice study by the Nobrega lab

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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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · 17d

open.substack.com/pub/leaopel/...

Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · 18d

open.substack.com/pub/leaopel/...

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · 19d

open.substack.com/pub/leaopel/...

Value the People Behind the Science

Great labs aren’t defined by flashy papers — they’re defined by the culture that nurtures people.

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

Sorek Lab @soreklab.bsky.social · Jul 30

We wrote a review on the free nucleotide pool as a central playground in human, bacterial, and plant immunity – now out in Nature Reviews in Immunology

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

Was fun to write this piece with Dina Hochhauser!

Here is a thread to explain the premises

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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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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · Jul 27

Just a heads-up so people don't get caught off guard. 🔥😎🔥

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · Jul 25

YES!

Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · Jul 24

15 years later, finally, Science did the right thing at retracted the As life disaster paper! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Retraction

The Research Article “A bacterium that can grow by using arsenic instead of phosphorus” by F. Wolfe-Simon et al. (1) has been the subject of discussion and critique since its online publication in 201...

www.science.org

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

Phil Lewis @phillewis.bsky.social · Jul 24

PARIS (AP) — French President Macron announces that France will recognize Palestine as a state.

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

The Associated Press @apnews.com · Jul 24

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will recognize Palestine as a state, amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza.

French President Macron says France will recognize Palestine as a state

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced that France will recognize Palestine as a state, amid snowballing global anger over people starving in Gaza.

bit.ly

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · Jul 25

With all the memes and the drama over the CEO on the Coldplay cam...

Let me make something crystal clear:

📢 CHARACTER IS A PERSONAL TRAIL, NOT A PROFESSIONAL SKILL

Be aware of people that don't respect their partner...

Reposted by Pedro Leão

Jonathan Eisen @phylogenomics.bsky.social · Jul 12

Today's reading: Nature should be the model for microbial sciences journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... by @brettbakker.bsky.social @emilyraehyde.bsky.social and @pedroleao.bsky.social

Looks ideal for a talk I am working on on model organisms ...

Nature should be the model for microbial sciences | Journal of Bacteriology

Historically, our understanding of microbes has been based on laboratory cultures. Much of what we know at a mechanistic level is based on “model organisms” which are species that readily grow in labo...

journals.asm.org

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · Jul 22

I hope you enjoy it Jonathan! 😊

Reposted by Pedro Leão

Nature Reviews Genetics @natrevgenet.nature.com · Jul 21

New online! Viromics approaches for the study of viral diversity and ecology in microbiomes

Viromics approaches for the study of viral diversity and ecology in microbiomes

Nature Reviews Genetics, Published online: 21 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41576-025-00871-wIn this Review, Roux and Coclet outline current viromics approaches and discuss how they have contributed to our growing understanding of viral genomic diversity, focusing on uncultivated viruses of microorganisms.

www.nature.com

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · Jun 16

"In a competitive academic world, building bridges instead of walls may be our most powerful tool to accelerate discovery and rebuild public trust in science."

I'm very happy with this article piece! 🥳

www.the-scientist.com/science-thri...

Science Thrives on Trust: Why Collaboration Is Our Greatest Strength

In a competitive academic world, building bridges instead of walls may be our most powerful tool to accelerate discovery and rebuild public trust in science.

www.the-scientist.com

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · May 29

OUT NOW:

Structural insights into light harvesting by antenna-containing rhodopsins in marine #Asgard #archaea

@bejalab.bsky.social @labinoue.bsky.social

#microsky 🦠🧪

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

Structural insights into light harvesting by antenna-containing rhodopsins in marine Asgard archaea - Nature Microbiology

Uncultured open-ocean Asgard archaea can harvest light energy using rhodopsins and diverse hydroxylated carotenoid antennas.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

Arthur Charles-Orszag @acharlesorszag.bsky.social · May 29

The archaeal S-layer is not only pretty, it also carries crucial cellular functions, and the list keeps growing! @sshamphavi.bsky.social @marleenvw.bsky.social @archaellum.bsky.social and I wrote a little sheath sheet (+10 pts if you got the pun)
📖 Curr Opin Cell Biol
🔗 doi.org/10.1016/j.ce...

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Pedro Leão @pedroleao.bsky.social · Apr 15

I wish more people could understand this!

📢 "Success lies in building a career. Fulfillment lies in building character."

There is no price tag on a clean conscience. 🔥

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

Joe Bondy-Denomy @jbdsf.bsky.social · Apr 3

Interested in phage defenses that natively block lytic phage used in therapies?

Or do you want to figure out if a phage has a modified genome?

Meet the END-nucleases, an enzyme family that can broadly restrict phages with many diverse modifications. From talented post-doc Wearn-Xin Yee!

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Reposted by Pedro Leão

Alex Crits-Christoph @acritschristoph.bsky.social · Apr 3

A database of structures for ecologically relevant microbial traits - Looks cool - here's the github: github.com/timghaly/Eco...

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