David Bikard

Join us at the 2026 GRC Microbial Stress Response to be held on July 19th-24th at Mount Holyoke College!! Here is the link for more information: www.grc.org/microbial-st...

Postdoctoral position - Synthetic Biology / Bacterial Immunity - Research The Bikard lab at Institut Pasteur in Paris is seeking to hire postdoctoral researchers. We are investigating bacteria / bacteriophages interactions, and the genetic innovation that happens at this in...

🚨 Hiring Alert! 🚨My lab at Institut Pasteur is recruiting several Postdocs! We have exciting open projects in: 🦠 Synthetic Biology and🛡️ Bacterial Immunity. Come do great science with us in the middle of Paris! 🇫🇷🥐 research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...

Wow! Very cool.

@institutpasteur.bsky.social

Deadline is approaching (Feb 9) to apply for a PI position at Institut Pasteur. Come join us and contribute to an amazing scientific environment!!!

A phage protein screen identifies triggers of the bacterial innate immune system - Nature Microbiology A library of 400 phage protein-coding genes is used to find a trove of antiphage systems, revealing systems that target tail fibre and major capsid proteins.

I’m thrilled to share our work on phage triggers of the bacterial immune system in its final form @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Also a big thanks to @cresslab.bsky.social and @therubinlab.bsky.social who came up with the idea to start this meeting and were instrumental in making it happen! And congratulations to @therubinlab.bsky.social and @paulwilmes.bsky.social for their elections as vice-chairs for the next one!

It was a true privilege to co-chair the inaugural GRC meeting on Microbiome Editing together with @jenniferdoudna.bsky.social . The positive energy and quality of the Science presented were truly inspiring. I look forward to the next one chaired by KC Huang and @omalleylab.bsky.social !!!

Conférence Scientifique Grand Public & Performance Artistique - "Virus contre bactéries : Une solution pour vaincre la résistance aux antibiotiques ?" - Pascale Cossart & Fabrice Hyber - Research L’Institut Pasteur vous ouvre ses portes et vous invite à une conférence scientifique pour le grand public, accompagnée d’une performance artistique ! Pascale Cossart parlera de virus et de bactéries,...

🦠🧫 Envie d'en savoir plus sur la Microbiologie et de découvrir l'Institut Pasteur ?

Rejoignez nous pour conférence scientifique grand public, accompagnée d’une performance artistique le 27 janvier à 18h! Inscrivez-vous :)

research.pasteur.fr/fr/event/con...

This is shaping up to be one of the top conferences on microbiome editing!!

Conference poster on microbiome editing

Such a privilege to share the Phage Foundry (phagefoundry.org) team’s work at the inaugural GRC meeting on Microbiome Editing 🎉🎊.

Après une thèse en microbiologie à l’Institut Pasteur sous la direction de David Bikard (2017-2020), François Rousset rejoint en 2021 l’équipe de Rotem Sorek au Weizmann Institute of Science pour son… Francois Rousset, chercheur en microbiologie | Prix Paoletti 2025

@francoisrousset.bsky.social, chercheur en microbiologie au @ciri-lyon.bsky.social est lauréat du Prix Paoletti 2025.

👋 @cnrs-rhoneauvergne.bsky.social
buff.ly/o9MCTni

Phollow reveals in situ phage transmission dynamics in the zebrafish gut microbiome at single-virion resolution - Nature Microbiology ‘Phollow’ is a live imaging-based fluorescence tagging approach that can track phage replication and spread in situ with single-virion resolution.

Live microscopy to 'phollow' phage outbreaks 🔬✳️

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

Streptomyces secretes a siderophore that sensitizes competitor bacteria to phage infection - Nature Microbiology A secondary metabolite sensitizes competitor Bacillus subtilis to a wide panel of lytic phages by sequestering iron and preventing the activation of Spo0A.

Microbes weaponizing secondary metabolites to make rivals vulnerable to phage attack 🧪🦠

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

Beyond RNA modification: a novel role for tRNA modifying enzyme in oxidative stress response and metabolism Abstract. RNA modifications play a fundamental role in regulating essential cellular processes, including translation fidelity and stress adaptation. While

Our new paper on DusB’s role in redox metabolism in V. cholerae is now out in @narjournal.bsky.social linking tRNAmodif enzymes and metabolic adaptation.

Beyond RNA modification: a tRNA-modifying enzyme shaping oxidative stress resilience and metabolism in V. cholerae #rnasky #rnabiology

😊🦠💫

Incredibly greatful to the EMBO for the recognition and to all my past and current colleagues @institutpasteur.bsky.social and Eligo Bioscience!

The EMBO Gold Medal 2025 was awarded to Tanmay Bharat and David Bikard: https://www.embo.org/press-releases/embo-gold-medal-2025-awarded-to-tanmay-bharat-and-david-bikard/ 🧪

At #CellBio2025, the EMBO Gold Medal was handed over to David Bikard in recognition of his pioneering work on #GeneEditing.

✨New preprint!

🧵1/4 Excited to share our work on AI-guided design of minimal RNA-guided nucleases. Amazing work by @petrskopintsev.bsky.social @isabelesain.bsky.social @evandeturk.bsky.social et al!
Multi-lab collaboration @banfieldlab.bsky.social @jhdcate.bsky.social @jacobsenucla.bsky.social🧬

🔗👇

🧬🛡️How are new immune mechanisms created?

We show how Lamassu antiphage system, originated from a DNA-repair complex and evolved into a compact and modular immune machine, wt Dinshaw Patel lab in @pnas.org.
👏 @matthieu-haudiquet.bsky.social, Arpita Chakravarti & all authors!

doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

🚀New preprint from our lab!
I am very excited to finally share what has been the main focus of my PhD for the past almost 3 years! It is about viral dark matter and a powerful tool we built to shed light on it. 🧬💡
Continue reading (🧵)

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.

Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.

A thread 1/8

Structure-guided design of a synthetic bile acid that inhibits Clostridioides difficile TcdB toxin - Nature Microbiology A bile acid-bound structure of toxin TcdB revealed the mechanism of inhibition and guided the design of a synthetic bile acid that alleviated Clostridioides difficile infection in mice.

#NewResearch

A bile acid-bound structure of toxin TcdB revealed the mechanism of inhibition and guided the design of a synthetic bile acid that alleviated C. difficile infection in mice.

#MicroSky 🦠💊

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

Bacterial natural transformation drives cassette shuffling and simplifies recombination in chromosomal integrons Abstract. Integrons act as biobanks of gene cassettes conferring functions crucial for bacterial defense, including protection against phages and antibioti

Our new paper is out in @narjournal.bsky.social We show that natural transformation enables bacteria to shuffle integron cassettes, boosting their phenotypic diversity.
academic.oup.com/nar/article/... 1/5

Phylogeny-agnostic strain-level prediction of phage-host interactions from genomes Bacteriophages offer promising alternatives to antibiotics for treating drug-resistant infections and engineering microbiomes, but applications are limited by inability to select phages infecting spec...

#microsky #phagesky

Predicting host- #phage interactions from genomics.

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

Don't forget to register for the first Microbiome Editing GRC: www.grc.org/microbiome-e... We have an exciting lineup of speakers!

We are hiring PhD & Postdocs in this space so please reach out if interested. Also check out the Gordon Research Conference on Microbiome Editing in Jan 11-16, 2026.
www.grc.org/microbiome-e...

Recurrent acquisition of nuclease-protease pairs in antiviral immunity Antiviral immune systems diversify by integrating new genes into existing pathways, creating new mechanisms of viral resistance. We identified genes encoding a predicted nuclease paired with a trypsin...

Our nuclease-protease story is out! We explored a fascinating case of coevolution and modularity in prokaryotic immune systems: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks to wonderful coauthors/collaborators/friends, the whole @doudna-lab.bsky.social and everyone at @innovativegenomics.bsky.social

Assembly, architecture and functional roles of microbial surface layers - Nature Reviews Microbiology Surface layers (S-layers) are ubiquitous protein assemblies that coat prokaryotic cells, with their functional roles increasingly coming into focus. In this Review, Isbilir and colleagues discuss rece...

Assembly, architecture and functional roles of microbial surface layers

Review article published in @natrevmicro.nature.com with @bupbuse.bsky.social, Andriko von Kügelgen and @vikramalva.bsky.social.

S-layers are everywhere!

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

Programmable DNA insertion in native gut bacteria A gene-editing approach enables modification of bacteria within the mouse gut

also, an excellent perspective by @dbikard.bsky.social summarizing the work! 🙏
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...

Very excited to share our latest work in Science on metagenomic editing (MetaEdit) of the gut microbiome in vivo & directly modifying unculturable immune-modulatory SFB bug in the small intestine. 🦠🧬🛠️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...