Kranzusch Lab

Our work on bacterial Schlafens in phage defense is out today @natmicrobiol.nature.com!

Check out the final version here:
rdcu.be/e7Bmz

We are looking for postdocs and students to expand our team! Official postings are coming soon.

Please reach out if you're interested!
#phage #phagesky #microsky

🚨Preprint! Happy to share the research from my PhD “Genome delivery of a contractile tailed phage and its superinfection exclusion mechanism”. We use cryoEM to study the genome ejection of the phage T4, revealing how the tape measure protein regulates the process.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Deltaviruses spread through a viral Trojan Horse Hepatitis D-like satellite viruses, known as deltaviruses, have been recently discovered in a wide range of animals. These viruses are thought to expr…

We found a viral Trojan Horse: a virus can hide inside another virus.This one surprised us: deltaviruses don’t just borrow a helper virus. They can travel inside it.
A literal Trojan Horse “virus-in-a-virus” route into cells. 🤯 Kudos to 1st author @viroscope.bsky.social and co-authors !

Check out this new preprint discovering a cool mechanism for activation of the CBASS antiphage system-- proteolytic cleavage by the phage protease! Explains why I couldn't isolate any spontaneous phage mutants that escape CBASS.

Super cool. Can't wait to read in depth 🤓 Congrats Sam & Philip! 🥂

A must-read if you’re interested in bacterial immune system activation

See full details and thread from @hobbslabutah.bsky.social here:

Sam's results build on beautiful findings from many labs including @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social @kevincorbett.bsky.social @soreklab.bsky.social @jbdsf.bsky.social @mfwhite2.bsky.social Chen and Marraffini explaining viral escape mutations and CBASS recognition of late replication and virion assembly

Protease recognition is a dominant trigger of bacterial cGAS (CD-NTase) immune sensing that explains activation of thousands of CBASS defense operons across diverse bacteria (>24% of all known sequences) including major models of immunity like Vibrio DncV, Enterobacter CdnD, and E. coli CdnG

After >10 years of our lab studying bacterial cGAS-like enzymes, @hobbslabutah.bsky.social finally reconstitutes viral sensing in vitro and discovers how these ancient receptors sense phage protease enzymes to detect virion assembly and activate antiviral immunity

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

@nitzantal.bsky.social @romihadary.bsky.social @soreklab.bsky.social use structure prediction and in silico binding site analysis to discover viral immune evasion proteins! Exciting for our lab @reneechang.bsky.social @riveralopz.bsky.social to help with this project.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Out today: We discovered new viral proteins that target immune signaling molecules, solely based on their AlphaFold-predicted shapes

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

Congrats Nitzan Tal and coauthors! Thank you Kranzusch lab for the fun collaboration!

Linking below previous thread on our findings

Congratulations @benmorehouse.bsky.social !

Stunning new structural analysis and mechanism for Tmn anti-phage defense by @fnobrega.bsky.social

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

YouTube video by Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School Scientists Working to Prevent the Next Pandemic

Excited to share this short video about our lab's work! Thank you Harvard Medicine News Team! @harvardmicro.bsky.social @hhmi-science.bsky.social @harvard.edu
❤️🎥😃https://www.youtube.com/shorts/GFM3KLZCDps

➡️ preprint from the lab! Bacteria have loads of antiviral defences in their mobile genetic elements (MGEs). So when MGEs move between bacteria, the defences move with them, generating a fast turnover of defences in bacteria. But what about the antiviral defence turnover in the MGEs themselves? 🤔

🧵👇

Cell death is a fundamental mechanism of antiviral immunity across diverse organisms, including bacteria. As my final PhD project with @jbdsf.bsky.social, I was curious whether cell death is required for successful immunity with the ancient cGAS pathway known as ‘CBASS.’

Spoiler – the answer is no!

Elegant study from @erinhuiting.bsky.social @jbdsf.bsky.social on CBASS phage inhibition without loss of cell viability. Especially interesting to see this phenotype with a CapV membrane-targeting effector and evidence for 3'3'-cGAMP transport!

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

CBASS limits bacteriophage production while maintaining cell viability in Pseudomonas aeruginosa https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.24.707611v1

A 5-hydroxymethylcytosine DNA glycosylase provides defense against T-even bacteriophages https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.25.707755v1

SNIPE is a widespread bacterial defence system that exploits the spatial organization of phage genome injection to specifically target viral DNA, distinguishing self from non-self in prokaryotic immune systems @nature.com @mitpress.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Tomorrow at the #SystemsVirologyJournalClub, Joel Tan (@joelmjtan.bsky.social) will present his work with Philip Kranzusch (@kranzuschlab.bsky.social) on a DNA-gated molecular guard that control bacterial anti-phage defence.

Paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40306316/

1/5
Happy by a recent biorxiv pre-print about DARNA (PD-T7-3) anti-phage defense system. This system is activated by binding to ssDNA, presented by phage SSB, to cleave tRNA in the anti-codon loop.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Diversity and distribution of bacterial DNA polymerases Abstract. DNA polymerases are key players in DNA replication, repair, and maintenance. However, the overall abundance, diversity, and distribution of bacte

Check out largest scale analysis of bacterial DNA polymerases! Diversity and distribution of bacterial DNA polymerases url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Next one in a storm of preprints from our lab's amazing scientists.. Recent-ex-postdoc, #newPI @cathyhernandez.bsky.social studied thermal ecology of marine bacteria isolated near New Haven. Turns out, response of this bacterium to temperatures is shaped by prophages!

#phagesky #microsky

Amy Lee, PhD, and Max Fels, PhD, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

New research by @danafarbernews.bsky.social’s Amy Lee, PhD, and @mfels.bsky.social in @cp-cell.bsky.social reveals that giant DNA viruses encode a distinct & functional IF4F translation-initiation complex to drive protein synthesis, blurring the line between living cells and viruses. bit.ly/4rS3Uew

Sonomi Yamaguchi of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

New research featured in @nature.com from Sonomi Yamaguchi of @danafarbernews.bsky.social’s @kranzuschlab.bsky.social discovers “p3diT” as a nucleotide immune signal in bacteria and suggests similar signals may function as negative regulators in human immunity.

Read more: bit.ly/3MTjLL6

Congratulations to Ben Morehouse @benmorehouse.bsky.social and the other 2026 Michelson Prize Awardees. All five newly funded projects are incredibly exciting areas of immunology!

www.michelsonmedicalresearch.org/news/michels...

Free readcube link to her paper: rdcu.be/e4A7X

Congratulations to Sonomi Yamaguchi for her paper at @nature.com. Sonomi discovered Clover defense and explained how nucleotide signals control each step of viral sensing, immune regulation, and viral restriction – named for her beautiful "four-leaf" structures 🍀

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

News piece in Science @science.org about Max's research:

"Giant viruses hijack their hosts’ protein factories"

www.science.org/content/arti...