Patrick Pausch

Exciting news:
Our RNA community in @uniregensburg.bsky.social is set to grow!

We are opening a Junior Group Leader position in RNA biochemistry / ribonucleases / RNA stability. A great opportunity to start your own team within our collaborative RNA network.

Details & application 👇

Structural basis of Cas8-independent Cas3 recruitment in Type I-F2 CRISPR–Cas Abstract. CRISPR–Cas systems provide adaptive immunity in prokaryotes by targeting and degrading invasive genetic elements. Among them, the Type I-F2 syste

Great collaboration with the labs of Axel Innis and @patrick-pausch.bsky.social on Typ I-F2 CRISPR-Cas. @synmikro.bsky.social @unimarburg.bsky.social @mpimicrobiomarburg.bsky.social

Thank you, Luuk! 🥳

Thanks, Arturo!! 🤗

Thank you, Rafa!! 🥂

Structure and mechanism of antiphage retron Eco2 Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 18 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41594-026-01754-2This study shows how the bacterial retron Eco2 defends against viruses. Phage nucleases trigger activation of Eco2, which cuts RNAs, shuts down protein production and stops phage replication.

New online: Structure and mechanism of antiphage retron Eco2

Thanks Jack! 🍻

Structure and mechanism of antiphage retron Eco2 - Nature Structural & Molecular Biology This study shows how the bacterial retron Eco2 defends against viruses. Phage nucleases trigger activation of Eco2, which cuts RNAs, shuts down protein production and stops phage replication.

Now that @mftorresj.bsky.social & I are based at VU Life Sciences Center (one of the birthplaces of CRISPR tech) our publication portfolio gets extra diverse thanks to our phylogenetics & data vis skills. Here's one collaboration with @patrick-pausch.bsky.social:
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

6/6) Big thanks and congrats to Monika Jasnauskaite et al. for their relentless work 🤜🤛! On Bluesky: @jjuozapaitis.bsky.social @mftorresj.bsky.social @evogytis.bsky.social @bangebalcony.bsky.social @ingasongailiene.bsky.social. Shout out to our funders @erc.europa.eu, @embo.org, @dfg.de, and LMT.

5/6) Activated Eco2 cuts RNA promiscuously, with a preference for some tRNAs. This activity efficiently shuts down protein production for antiphage defense 🪖, likely by abortive infection.

4/6) For activation of Eco2's TOPRIM, the phage-encoded DNA nuclease DenB degrades the DNA three-way junction. Upon DNA decay, the TOPRIM active sites are exposed to the solvent and poised for substrate destruction ✂️.

3/6) Using cryo-EM, we reveal how the DNA-product of Eco2's RT enzyme regulates the TOPRIM nuclease by formation of a DNA three-way junction ⛓️✂️⛓️.

2/6) We show that Eco2 defends against multiple phage families, demonstrating its broad activity 🌈. Escapers indicate that phage-encoded DNA nucleases trigger Eco2.

Structure and mechanism of antiphage retron Eco2 Nature Structural & Molecular Biology - This study shows how the bacterial retron Eco2 defends against viruses. Phage nucleases trigger activation of Eco2, which cuts RNAs, shuts down protein...

1/6) Hot off the press @natsmb.nature.com 🔥! Jasnauskaite et al. reveal how the minimal bacterial retron Eco2 defends against #phage 🛡️. Phage nucleases trigger Eco2, which cuts RNA, shuts down protein production and stops phage replication 🦠🚫. #phagesky #immunity #microbiology #cryo-em rdcu.be/e4AyH

New preprint on Detectrons from @jihoon-han.bsky.social! These are programmable biosensors for RNA that produce DNA barcodes in the presence of their target RNA. Check out Jihoon's quoted thread and the preprint for more:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

The phage–bacteria arms race Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 18 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41594-026-01768-wIn this issue of Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, we are publishing two studies investigating the mechanisms of how bacteria fight phage invasion, and how phages fight back.

New online: The phage–bacteria arms race

📣new preprint from the phagefoundry.org team 🎉 Jessica Trinh and Catherine Mageeney (Sandia National Laboratories)!!

Systematic analysis of prophages from ~1000 Acinetobacter baumannii isolates, induction & screening. We found this 😎 looking phage with bunch of 💍💍

Get in, dorks. We're ready for round two.

RALLY TO TAKE BACK SCIENCE! 🔬🧪✊
March 7th, 2026 in Washington, DC

Learn more at www.standupforscience.net/ma... (link in our bio.)

🔔HIRI has opened a new call to recruit Group Leaders. If you are interested in opening an RNA Biology and Infection lab, join us! Deadline: February 15. More info here 👇

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...

We are looking for a junior group leader in RNA biology to join us in Würzburg at the @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social !

A generous funding package, a great collaborative environment, and a beautiful city are all included :)

Deadline for application is Feb 15; more information below 👇

To those American academics out there who have chosen to remain silent/mostly silent about the horror going on in the USA these days at every corner of the federal government, please start speaking out and fighting back.

PhD advertisement - Pausch lab | Patrick Pausch | 15 comments Please share! 📤 The Pausch lab at Vilniaus universitetas / Vilnius University is looking to recruit PhD students to work on: ⚔️ 🛡️: Bacterial Immune Systems (CRISPR, retrons, & beyond) 🧬 ✂️: De...

Great opportunity to join the lab of @patrick-pausch.bsky.social !

www.linkedin.com/feed/update/...

🚀 Excited to share that I’ve been awarded an EMBO Installation Grant to establish my research group at the EMBL Partnership Institute, Vilnius University Life Sciences Center! The grant provides €50,000/year for 5 years to build an internationally competitive lab and advance genome editing research.

This work constructed a large library of 406 vectors that individually express nearly every protein from 6 phages. We hope this resource will be broadly useful to the field and have deposited a version at Addgene (ID 249629). It should be available soon!

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...

Preprint out: We characterise PUA-Cal-HAD, a widespread bacterial antiphage defence family. An infection cue switches a preassembled complex into an immune filament that drains dNTPs via a coupled two-enzyme cascade, and phage DNA mimics can block filament assembly (anti-polymerisation).

📢 We are hiring 📢 1st round of recruiting for our ERC project BacImmune-Decode! @erc.europa.eu
We are looking for a postdoc for wet-lab work on regulation of phage defence systems in bacteria using high-throughput microbial genetics. Check it out: lnkd.in/es7AE968
#Hiring #Postdoc #Microbiology

Happy to share our recent preprint:
"DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity"

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@spp2330.bsky.social, @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de @hhu.de @fzj.bsky.social

Great to see it finally out! Congrats! :)