Congratulations @benmorehouse.bsky.social !
04.03.2026 01:55 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0Congratulations @benmorehouse.bsky.social !
04.03.2026 01:55 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Stunning new structural analysis and mechanism for Tmn anti-phage defense by @fnobrega.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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
26.02.2026 01:17 — 👍 14 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 3A 5-hydroxymethylcytosine DNA glycosylase provides defense against T-even bacteriophages https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.25.707755v1
26.02.2026 05:18 — 👍 11 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
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...
Check out largest scale analysis of bacterial DNA polymerases! Diversity and distribution of bacterial DNA polymerases url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
23.02.2026 17:59 — 👍 15 🔁 6 💬 0 📌 0
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
20.02.2026 19:30 — 👍 6 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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
18.02.2026 17:16 — 👍 7 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0
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...
Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social from our lab discovers giant DNA viruses that infect amoeba encode eIF4E and the entire suite of 4F complex proteins to control mRNA translation, including beautiful crystal structures of viral 4E bound to modified mRNA 5' caps:
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Lokiarchaeon CBASS ❤️
14.02.2026 19:47 — 👍 17 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0
Screen of 300 chromatin regulator proteins from the Nuñez lab at UC-Berkeley @jamesknunez.bsky.social www.nunezlab.org enables universal programmable transcriptional engineering in nearly any eukaryotic cell!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Abstract submission is now OPEN for the 2026 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria!
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
🗓 May 5–7, 2026
📍 Rockefeller University, New York City
⏰ Abstract deadline: March 16, 2026
Attendance will be capped, be sure to register early and secure your spot.
See you in NYC!
🧪🧬New preprint We present cryo-EM structures of reconstituted CTCF–nucleosome complexes, showing CTCF dimerization drives nucleosome oligomerization into defined higher-order assemblies. Disrupting CTCF–CTCF interfaces in mESCs reduces looping and impairs differentiation. tinyurl.com/CTCF-nucleos...
09.02.2026 12:54 — 👍 123 🔁 52 💬 4 📌 3
Aude Bernheim @audeber.bsky.social and Eugene Koonin discuss one of most interesting questions in the field connecting bacterial and animal immunity!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Amazing findings in geometry-based immune activation! Two bacterial defence systems detect phage-encoded ring oligomers, assemble high-order molecular complexes, and trigger abortive infection.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Chemical inhibition of a bacterial immune system
Small molecules inhibit type II Thoeris anti-phage systems from diverse bacteria. One compound, IP6C, improves phage-therapy against P. aeruginosa & is effective against Thoeris in polymicrobial communities
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
Today at Cell: A new #HallmarksofCancer review by Doug Hanahan: www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
This review marks 25 years since the original seminal Cell review by Hanahan & Robert Weinberg and its impactful follow up in 2011.
@cp-cell.bsky.social @cellpress.bsky.social
New #glycotime discovery from @raflynn5.bsky.social’s lab @bostonchildrens.bsky.social @harvard.edu, cell surface glycoRNA-RBP complexes organized by heparan sulfate PG nanoclusters that modulate VEGF signaling
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
