Alessia Buscaino

It s great to have finally joined the @quadraminstitute.bsky.social !

Gut fungi are associated with human genetic variation and disease risk In contrast to decades of research on gut bacteria, human genetic determinants of the gut fungal community (mycobiome) remain understudied. This investigation presents the first GWAS on the number and...

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Escherichia coli with a 57-codon genetic code The near-universal genetic code uses 64 codons to encode the 20 canonical amino acids and protein synthesis. Here we designed and generated Escherichia coli with a 4 Mb synthetic genome in which we re...

Escherichia coli with a 57-codon genetic code | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thank you!!! The beginning of a new chapter!

Thank you! Looking forward to it!

Thank you! Scary but indeed v exciting!

Thank you!! I hope that you are well!

After more than 10 years at the @kent.ac.uk , my lab will move to the @quadraminstitute.bsky.social !
I’m sad to leave behind amazing friends, but excited to start a new chapter.
The good news? My lab members will be making the move with me, and we’ll advertise several new positions.

I'm thrilled to share that I've joined the Universidad Miguel Hernández in Spain as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology! Excited for this new chapter and the opportunities ahead.

I am honoured and delighted to join the #CIFAR family as an Azrieli Global Scholar.

Looking forward to working with this fantastic community to tackle complex global challenges through interdisciplinary collaboration!

cifar.ca/cifarnews/20...

Massive experimental quantification allows interpretable deep learning of protein aggregation xAI trained on >100,000 random peptides predicts and elucidates primary sequence determinants of aggregation.

We quantify the aggregation of >100,000 random protein sequences to train CANYA, a convolution-attention hybrid neural network to predict aggregation from sequence. With @bennibolo.bsky.social www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

To Restore Your Gut Health, a Healthy Diet Matters Most To Restore Your Gut Health, a Healthy Diet Matters Most on Simons Foundation

When it comes to building a healthy community of helpful microbes in the gut, a new study in Nature from our EVP of Life Sciences Joy Bergelson and collaborators finds one factor matters most: diet. www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/05/13/t... #science #lifesciences

Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres The evolutionary origins of the genetic point centromere in the brewer's yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a member of the order Saccharomycetales, are still unknown. Competing hypotheses suggest that t...

It’s out! The evolutionary origins of yeast point centromeres uncovered!

“Ancient co-option of LTR retrotransposons as yeast centromeres”

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

An image that reads: Friedrich Schiller University Jena: Preparing your application for a MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship hosted by the University of Jena. Invitation for a Master class.

A medium sized German city. On the right is a picteruesque river in the glowing daybreak. Around the city are gently rolling, green hills.

Are you interested in a postdoc in Germany on fungal pathogen biology, genomics, or antifungal resistance? My Uni (@uni-jena.de) is hosting a free two-day masterclass in June on preparing MSCA Postdoc Fellowships with it as host.

If you are interested in writing a fellowship with me, get in touch!

Enhanced RNAi does not provide efficient innate antiviral immunity in mice Abstract. In RNA interference (RNAi), long double-stranded RNA is cleaved by the Dicer endonuclease into small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), which guide degra

1/n So, this is out in NAR, finally. The longest, the most expensive and the most challenging project in the lab. Sparked by controversy concerning mammalian antiviral RNAi and our identification of Dicer variant, which is sufficient to increase RNAi.
doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Wonderful 🚀 work on Verticillium out by the Thomma team!

The role of gene copy number variation in antimicrobial resistance in human fungal pathogens npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - The role of gene copy number variation in antimicrobial resistance in human fungal pathogens

While writing papers and grants, we received many comments on the role of CNVs in antifungal resistance. We thought we should formally assess how important they are. Here is what we found. #AMR #fungi #evolution rdcu.be/d5rbN

It was a pleasure to write a commentary on the work by @jhuang90.bsky.social and the Heitman Lab, exploring how RNAi and transposons drive intraspecies diversity in Cryptococcus. 🧬 #DrugResistance #RNAi
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Me with a chunk of live rock in Kaneohe bay

Proud of our new paper in which we force-feed plastic to marine fungi, and watch them evolve to eat it more efficiently. Plastic is the fastest growing new habitat on our planet, fungi can help recycle it.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Hereʻs a link to the PDF:
amendlab.com/wp-content/u...

A microRNA is the effector gene of a classic evolutionary hotspot locus In Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths), the genomic region around the gene cortex is a “hotspot” locus, repeatedly implicated in generating intraspecific melanic wing color polymorphisms across 100 mi...

Our miRNA story is now in @science.org ! We found a microRNA, not a protein, that finally solved a long-standing evolutionary mystery of wing coloration in butterflies and moths. (1/n)
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

GGNBP2 regulates MDA5 sensing triggered by self double-stranded RNA following loss of ADAR1 editing GGNBP2, CNOT10, and CNOT11 are required for innate immune response after the loss of ADAR1-mediated editing of self dsRNA.

Time for a 🧵 on our new paper from the Walkley lab in @scienceimmuno.bsky.social.

If you're into RNA editing by ADARs, double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) sensing, post-transcriptional gene regulation and CRISPR screening, then read on! 1/X

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#RNASky #ImmunoSky

Scientists, academics, researchers: We’re excited to share that @altmetric.com is now tracking mentions of your research on Bluesky! 🧪

How is epigenetic information inherited across generations in insects? at University of Oxford on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - How is epigenetic information inherited across generations in insects? at University of Oxford, listed on FindAPhD.com

We are advertising for a project looking at epigenetic inheritance in Drosophila at the Department of Biology, University of Oxford @oxfordbiology.bsky.social Please get in touch if you are interested! Only 1 month left to be considered for funding.

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Go red:

« The mScarlet family of fluorescent proteins keeps growing! Meet mScarlet3-H (aka mYongHong), an ultrastable RFP ideal for many advanced microscopy applications. Plasmids are now available via WeKwikGene!
wekwikgene.wllsb.edu.cn/plasmids?sea... »

Looking forward to this! Ben’s reputation as brilliant neurobiologist who made strides in glial research, as well as being a compassionate mentor, is really inspiring. Highly recommend “The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist” for anyone who’d like to learn more.

Gut physiology and environment explain variations in human gut microbiome composition and metabolism - Nature Microbiology An observational longitudinal clinical trial, incorporating a SmartPill and metabolomics, reveals the role of host factors in shaping the gut microbiome in healthy human adults.

Quite a comprehensive piece of work:

"Gut physiology and environment explain variations in human gut microbiome composition and metabolism."

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

Definitely worth checking out if you work on animal microbiomes, especially in the gut

Fungal symbiont transmitted by free-living mice promotes type 2 immunity - Nature Kazachstania pintolopesii is a highly prevalent fungal symbiont that can trigger type 2 immunity and influence the composition of the gut mycobiome, as well as immune and disease phenotypes.

Super interesting new study from the Iliev group on a natural fungal commensal of mice - really important for folks studying #microbiome in mouse models
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Trim72 is a major host factor protecting against lethal Candida albicans infection Author summary Candida albicans is an important cause of fungal infections associated with high mortality rates, and the lack of effective treatment options emphasizes the urgency to develop new antif...

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Fungal symbiont transmitted by free-living mice promotes type 2 immunity - Nature Kazachstania pintolopesii is a highly prevalent fungal symbiont that can trigger type 2 immunity and influence the composition of the gut mycobiome, as well as immune and disease phenotypes.

Fascinating new paper about how commensal #fungi can promote #type2 responses in mice, a process involving fungal induction of #IL-33 🍄 🧪 #ImmunoSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...