Patrick Pausch

📢 We have multiple open PhD positions to study bacterial immune systems using cutting-edge cryo-EM, microbiology, and biochemistry in our group! Join us and uncover how bacterial defenses eliminate predators and engineer next-gen biotech tools.

🔥 Apply by Jan 8, 2026

Details: phd.pages.ista.ac.at

Check this out for the 2026 SISB (phage defense) meeting in NYC. Mark your calendar! (and note the Zoom option, if needed)
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu

🚀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

IT'S HAPPENING! 💥 I'm psyched to launch the collaboration between @qedscience.bsky.social & @openrxiv.bsky.social @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social! Preprint + q.e.d = your science is out there, and anyone can appreciate it. Let's care about making discoveries, and not on “getting published” (1/3) 👇

An updated evolutionary classification of CRISPR–Cas systems including rare variants - Nature Microbiology An exploration of previously undescribed variants from the long tail of the CRISPR–Cas distribution.

After 5 years of waiting, the new #CRISPR classification by Makarova et al. is out @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Use antisense oligomers to silence phage genes and discover new biology.
@jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social @uni-wuerzburg.de
print: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
highlight: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
briefing: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

E15 Groups The Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Researchopens a call for

🚨 The #HIRI invites applications for 2 JUNIOR GROUP LEADER POSITIONS in the areas of:

🔵 RNA Biology
🔵 RNA Medicine
🔵 RNA Technology

Apply by October 31 at www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/jobs-tale...

Find an overview in this thread. 🧵👇

(1/6)

Been working on a really strange retron bacterial immune system, here's the preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Type VI retrons are unlike any other. Phage infection triggers reverse transcription of a DNA fragment that activates translation of a toxin to kill the infected cell.

Now published in PLOS Biology! We found new retron containing bacteria in the wild, figured out defense mechanisms, and turned them into genome editors. From a cupful of dirt to new parts for genome editing in one story! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

I'm hiring a lab technician to help me explore some exciting new questions about virus-host interactions! Biochemistry and/or mammalian cell culture experience is desired.

Are you interested in studying RNA phages? We are looking for a PhD student and a postdoc to join the lab!

For more information and how to apply, see below 👇

Please RT!

Genome maintenance by telomerase is a fundamental process in nearly all eukaryotes. But where does it come from?

Today, we report the discovery of telomerase homologs in a family of antiviral reverse transcriptases, revealing an unexpected evolutionary origin in bacteria.

doi.org/10.1101/2025...

PhD-positie Bacteriële Verdedigingssystemen tegen Virussen | LUMC Wij zoeken een getalenteerde en gemotiveerde PhD-kandidaat om het onderzoeksteam van Luuk Loeff te versterken. In dit project maak je gebruik van geavanceerde technologieën om te ontrafelen hoe bacter...

Hiring! 🧬🔬

Ever wondered how bacteria fight off viruses? We’re looking for a PhD student to dive into the molecular basis of newly discovered microbial immune systems, an area of biology where much remains to be uncovered.

RT/share to help us find our next team member!
www.lumc.nl/en/about-lum...

Please RT:
We have an opening for a junior group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me via email for further details.

@spp2330.bsky.social; @mibinet.bsky.social

Very interesting talk by our invited speaker @patrick-pausch.bsky.social on how retron Eco 2 breaks tRNAs for antiphage defense!

Two group leader positions available in the broader areas of RNA science, RNA technologies, and RNA medicine. Attractive packages and a great environment. Come and join us at Helmholtz RNA Würzburg, Bavaria.

A miniature CRISPR–Cas10 enzyme confers immunity by inhibitory signalling - Nature Panoptes, an anti-phage defence system against virus-mediated immune suppression, is revealed.

Now online at @nature.com we show how the Panoptes defense system protects against viruses that attempt immune evasion - and expands our understanding of the role of oligonucleotides in immunity.

Check out this work co-led with @benadler.bsky.social here:

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

I am happy to share our work on the mechanism of prokaryotic immunity by a reverse transcriptase associated with an SMC-family ATPase, now published in @natcomms.nature.com
🔗 nature.com/articles/s4146…
(🧵 on the bioRxiv version ⬇️)

Programmable antisense oligomers for phage functional genomics - Nature Establishing antisense oligomers as versatile, non-genetic tools to silence phage mRNAs opens applications in basic research and biotechnology, as shown by identifying essential factors for propagatio...

No Genetics? Try ASOs – A non-genetic approach to silence genes at the phage-host interface. We use it to study jumbo phage biology and anti-phage defence.
@jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social
@uni-wuerzburg.de @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social
published now in @nature.com

Looking for a new approach to studying or eliminating phages? Check out our study introducing anti-phage ASOs (antisense oligos) out in @Nature today. nature.com/articles/s4158…

The cat is out of the bag! Congrats ;) 🥳

Congrats, Jens! 💪

Awesome!!! Congrats! 🍻

Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes - Nature Biotechnology Append editing of ADP-ribosyl to thymine is used for precise modifications in bacteria and eukaryotes.

🚀 New publication alert! 🚀

We just published in @natbiotech.nature.com:
👉 Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Divergent viral phosphodiesterases for immune signaling evasion Cyclic dinucleotides (CDNs) and other short oligonucleotides play fundamental roles in immune system activation in organisms ranging from bacteria to humans. In response, viruses use phosphodiesterase...

Excited to share our new preprint co-led by @jnoms.bsky.social!

Here we reveal an exceptional diversity of viral 2H phosphodiesterases (PDEs) that enable immune evasion by selectively degrading oligonucleotide-based messengers. This 2H PDE fold has evolved striking substrate breath & specificity.

🚀 Today we're launching the 'Night Science Institute', a non-for-profit organization to lead a cultural shift in science! You may say we're dreamers 😉, but we think we're not the only ones. Perhaps today you will join us to make the Day Science and Night Science parts of the process live as one!

Congrats and good luck with your start! 🥳

I am super excited to announce that I will be starting my lab at the Department of Pharmacology of the University of Zurich in Switzerland next year!

A new preprint led by Sonomi Yamaguchi in our lab describes a bacterial anti-phage defense system named Clover that uses nucleotide signals to both activate and inhibit host immunity.

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