Shu-Sin Chng

Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for genetic code expansion - Nature Bacterial ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters can be utilized and engineered to transport non-canonical amino acids into Escherichia coli for highly efficient synthesis of proteins with novel func...

🚨Our paper is out! 🥳
Hijacking a bacterial ABC transporter for efficient genetic code expansion.
Many congrats to everyone involved - a multi-year effort led by @taruniype.bsky.social @maxfottner.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

it all started years ago with a failed experiment
🧵👇 1/9

PhD opportunity in my lab: exploring how commensals and pathogens build biofilm communities on endotracheal (ventilator) tubes. Microbial ecology, medical microbiology and fancy imaging! Co-supervised with the fabulous Saskia Bakker and Jeremy Webb warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa... #MicroSky

Postdoctoral Research Assistant - MCDB - UOD2016 Closing date: Thursday 6 November 2025, 23:59

Attention membrane traffickers! I'm recruiting a post-doc to my lab in Dundee. We're dissecting the functions of intrinsically disordered domains of COPII coat proteins. We think they control timing of coat assembly and morphology of carriers.

www.dundee.ac.uk/work-for-us/...

Persistent LPS insertion, spatial segregation and vesicle biogenesis drive growth-independent adaptation of the Escherichia coli outer membrane https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.09.681453v1

We are back for #SGBUG for Oct, with Shaun Tan from Benson Chen's grp at GIS A*STAR, and Jason Chen from Chris Sham's grp at NUS ID-TRP, sharing about genetic manipulation in gut commensals, and glycoengineering in S. pneumoniae, respectively!

Come join us in Oxford! Two positions open right now in @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social
It’s a great place to work. Really supportive colleagues, great students, colleges provide a unique social environment - in summary, it’s a lot of fun.

Come and work with me and @ariannebabina.bsky.social on #Streptomyces evolution and antibiotic production

Origins of a tangled bank: Adaptation and evolution in antibiotic-producing Streptomyces

www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...

please repost

Now published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Very nice collaboration with Hoogenboom ( @ucl.ac.uk ) and Bonev ( @uniofnottingham.bsky.social ) labs.

Dynamics and interplay of gene expression and chromosome organization across a predatory lifecycle The obligate predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus alternates between a motile attack phase and a growth phase inside another bacterium, during which it undergoes multiple rounds of DNA repli...

📝New preprint! #MicroSky

🕰️We chart the full, synchronized lifecycle of a predatory bacterium using Hi-C, RNA-seq, ChIP-seq & microscopy.

🧬We uncover dramatic shifts in nucleoid architecture & transcription, tightly coordinated with predation.

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

Nice work on tackling genetic interactions in the pneumococcus! If you like this, you will also like our work doing the same thing using dual CRISPRi. Coming soon in @cp-cellsystems.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria Gene redundancy complicates systematic characterization of gene function as single-gene deletions may not produce discernible phenotypes. We report dual transposon sequencing (dual Tn-seq), a platform...

Dual transposon sequencing profiles the genetic interaction landscape in bacteria | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The Palmer group are interested in the mechanisms bacteria use to compete with one another during colonisation. Her group are focused on the type vii secretion system and the toxins it exports.
Follow @proftracypalmer.bsky.social for more insights.
www.ncl.ac.uk/medical-scie...

@jmarlesw.bsky.social is a structural biochemist. His group are interested in how bacteria sense and respond to their environment. Jon is Academic Lead for our Electron Microscopy Facility and is excited for our new Tundra microscope to be up and running.

www.marles-wright-lab.org

The @henrikstrahl.bsky.social group focuses on bacterial cell envelopes and envelope-targeting antibiotics.
Using cell biology, high-end fluorescence microscopy, genetics, and biochemistry, they study the function, biosynthesis and organisation of bacterial cell membranes.

strahllab.weebly.com

Dr Alistair Brown’s group is interested in mycobacterial biology, focusing on antimicrobial drug discovery and elucidation of drug mechanisms of action. They aim to understand how existing and novel compounds affect mycobacterial growth, survival, and persistence.

@mycobacterium-ncl.bsky.social

Dr Chien-Yi Chang's lab studies how Gram-negative bacteria sense and respond to different environments using molecular and bioimaging approaches.

👉 @davychang.bsky.social

chienyichang.wixsite.com/changlab

The Salgado group focuses on structural and functional characterisation of proteins involved in pathogenicity pathways in C. difficile. They are particularly interested in S-layer and sporulation proteins and their role in infection.

Follow @pssalgado.bsky.social

salgadolab.org

Next up,

Dr Kate Beckham @kshbeckham.bsky.social

The Beckham lab is interested mycobacterial membrane transport processes. They focusing on understanding the steps occurring at the mycobacterial outer membrane.

www.ncl.ac.uk/cbcb/staff/p...

Day 2 of MHD introductions 😃

Dr Lis Lowe @lislowe.bsky.social

The Lowe lab is focussed on microbial glycobiology. They work on bacterial Cazymes from commensals and pathogens, and are particularly interested in enzymes that target microbial glycans such as the cell walls of Mycobacteria.

Check out this talk on 30 Sep 2025 - Tackling the global spread of AMR using genome-resolved metagenomics and Al - by Dr Niranjan Nagarajan, and hosted by @fillouxlab.bsky.social

A colleague received proofs of an accepted manuscript, and the "proofing process" clearly involved running the text through ChatGPT. Their voice has been erased, and errors introduced. This is from a supposedly reputable publisher. Anyone else been put through this particular form of hell? #MicroSky

PPE51 modulates membrane integrity in Mycobacterium marinum | mBio The impermeable outer membrane of pathogenic mycobacteria presents a major obstacle to nutrient acquisition and antibiotic penetration. PPE51, a substrate of the ESX-5 secretion system, has previously...

PPE51 is one of the best candidates to form a MOM transport channel. However, our data indicate that it is not that simple. PPE51 mutations in Mmarinum (4 close homologs) indeed reduce the growth on glycerol & glucose, but also highly increase permeability.. and no, we do not fully understand this

A Protein Antibiotic Inhibits the BAM Complex to Kill Without Cell Entry Many antibiotics are ineffective against Gram-negative pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa because they cannot penetrate the bacterial outer membrane. Here, we show that protein antibiotics calle...

The outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria blocks many antibiotics. Our latest work reveals that L-type pyocins bypass this barrier by inactivating the BAM complex, killing Pseudomonas aeruginosa without entering the cell, providing a new blueprint for beating antibiotic resistance.

🦠 Mycobacteria aren't just tough, they're interior designers! 🦠 Check out our latest #preprint 🚨, led by our PhD student @camimille.bsky.social , where we show that #Mycobacterium tuberculosis builds secret cytoplasmic membranes to adapt its metabolism and sneak past immunity 🤫

Thread coming soon!

If you are attending the Great Wall Symposium happening this week in Sicily, do check out Wei-Chuen Poh's @skylarpoh95.bsky.social poster on very interesting TolB variants he has found, which might help us think deeper about the function of the Tol-Pal complex! Poster 93!! #MicroSky

Build on our recent work (Nature (2018) 564:77, Nat Microbiol (2021) 6:221, Nat Microbiol (2024) 9:1089, bioRxiv (2025) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...) by carrying out prot biochem, cell biol, & fluorescence imaging expts. Assoc str analysis of proteins by cryo-EM will be undertaken via collab. 2/2

Helping Ben Berks
with an ad.

Postdoc Research Associate in the Molecular Analysis of Bacterial Protein Transport

Join the group of Prof Ben Berks to study the bacterial Type 9 Secretion System.

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

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Class A PBPs reinforce the septal cell wall following initial synthesis by SEDS-bPBP pairs during bacterial cytokinesis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.12.675754v1

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 ...

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...

Postdoc position (please re-post)
A funded postdoctoral position, will open in 2026 to study aspects of Neisseria gonorrhoeae pathogenesis, antigenic variation, genetics, or physiology.
If interested in more information, please contact Hank Seifert
h-seifert@northwestern.edu
#MicroSky