Shira Weingarten-Gabbay

Thank you for having us Akos! It was a great session.

Congratulation to all the laureate and finalists and to the brilliant Maria Cecilia Canesso 🤩

Looking forward to a terrific symposium on Synthetic Biology and it's implication in therapeutic development ✨

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...

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
🧵

SPEAR (bacterial nanosynringe) enables loading of different types of cargo (including folded ribonucleoproteins and single-stranded DNA) and targeting of defined cell types both in vitro and in vivo
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@natbiotech.nature.com @zhangf.bsky.social

Molecular organization of the New World arenavirus spike glycoprotein complex - Nature Microbiology Cryo-EM structures of the full-length Junin virus and Machupo virus spike glycoprotein complexes stabilized in the prefusion conformation. Analyses reveal features that regulate glycoprotein pH-depend...

Excited to share our new @natmicrobiol.nature.com paper revealing the most complete arenavirus glycoprotein complex (GPC) structures to date 🤩 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Super interesting insights on the evolutionary constrains on synonymous codons 🤩 "Our results suggest that cotranslational localization and translational accuracy, more than cotranslational protein folding, are major drivers of selective pressure on codon choice in eukaryotes."

The most humble scientist I know and a true legend

On my way to #ASV2025. Two flights canceled due to weather ⛈️ but should make it on time! Join us for a terrific symposium tomorrow morning on #NextGenerationVirology with
#BenhurLee #JesseBloom #LisaWagner @wchnicholas.bsky.social and #IleanaCristea. Safe travel everyone! #LoveVirology

Register 2025 | American Society for Virology The 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology! Dates: July 14 – 17, 2025 (Monday – Thursday) Palais des congrès de Montréal Host: McGill University *TEACHER TRAVEL GRANTS: Applications…

Get ready for ASV 2025! The 2025 American Society for Virology meeting will be hosted by McGill University and held at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada from July 14 - 17, 2025. Abstract submission, travel award apps, and registration are now open! asv.org/asv2025/regi...

Dr. Shira Weingarten-Gabbay (@shiraweingarten.bsky.social) from @harvardmed.bsky.social is leading the new Laboratory of Systems #Virology.

Her lab uncovers the inner workings of viruses and their interaction with the immune system to prevent current and future viral diseases: bit.ly/44peaBa

"This work by Shira highlights new dark matter in viral genomes that can influence disease and how we design vaccines," says Charles Rice. "It’s yet another layer of biology that was not appreciated but opens up exciting new opportunities for exploration."

Shining a Light on the World of Tiny Proteins

A recent study from @shiraweingarten.bsky.social, a former postdoc in the Rice laboratory, revealed 4,208 previously unknown proteins that are made by viruses such as influenza and H.I.V. using a new technique called massively parallel ribosome profiling.

Pan-viral ORFs discovery using massively parallel ribosome profiling Defining viral proteomes is crucial to understanding viral life cycles and immune recognition but the landscape of translated regions remains unknown for most viruses. We have developed massively para...

Pan-viral ORFs discovery using massively parallel ribosome profiling www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congratulation @shiraweingarten.bsky.social! Beautiful work!

Thank you Ophir!! 🙏

Thank you so much Akos! 🙏

Super exciting work! Congrats @shiraweingarten.bsky.social and everyone involved!

Graphic showing how Massively Parallel Ribosome Profiling scans numerous viruses for translated regions of their genomes.

Also pleased to learn from @shiraweingarten.bsky.social about a new way of interrogating viral genomes to find, much faster than with conventional methods, what parts of the genetics are most important to the viral life cycle. Important for finding vaccines, antivirals etc. Using ribosomes.

Super super cool!

Thank you so much Tamanash!!

Thank you Marco! ☺️

Glad to see this out in its full glory. Congrats @shiraweingarten.bsky.social and team!

Pan-viral ORFs discovery using massively parallel ribosome profiling @science.org @shiraweingarten.bsky.social @sabetilab.bsky.social @pardissabeti.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thank you for the kind words! ☺️

All that to say, I was glad to have the chance to talk about microproteins with @carlzimmer.com in this excellent NYT article, which wonderfully highlights the field and an innovative new method to study viral microproteins from Shira Weingarten-Gabbay and team at the Broad.

Shining a Light on the World of Microproteins From viruses to humans, life makes microproteins that have evaded discovery until now.

How many proteins are in the human body? Excellent question! At least 20,000. But maybe 30,000? Maybe more? Here's my story about scientists exploring the hidden world of microproteins, and what it may mean for the future of medicine. nyti.ms/3HEPQTY 🧪

Thank you so much my fellow ribosome enthusiast! 😀

Thank you Fede!!

Had a wonderful time chatting with @peaseroland.bsky.social about our study uncovering thousands viral proteins — thank you for the opportunity to share our work with the broader public! www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...
@pardissabeti.bsky.social @science.org @broadinstitute.org @harvardmed.bsky.social