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 βCBASS.β
Spoiler β the answer is no!
26.02.2026 16:25 β
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π₯³ π New preprint from the lab is out!
It's time to officially introduce the world to the Nucleolar Integrity and Stress Microprotein (NISM)!
Check out the preprint in the link below
23.02.2026 15:49 β
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Somehow my mentor beat me to posting on this....thanks @kranzuschlab.bsky.social ! Very honored. And I agree- all very interesting projects from the awardees! Can't wait to see where all this new science takes us.
19.02.2026 03:56 β
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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...
18.02.2026 20:37 β
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Lastly- this wouldn't have been possible without the incredible collab with @audeber.bsky.social and @enzopoirier.bsky.social and teams (shout out @hugovaysset.bsky.social) that got this whole thing started. Thank you for welcoming protein biochemists into your world.
19.02.2026 03:54 β
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We have a lot to do- but now we are better prepared to do it! I am especially proud of my team of grad and undergrad trainees pushing hard on this project and all the bacterial immunity projects as well.
19.02.2026 03:54 β
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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 β named for her beautiful "four-leaf" structures π
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
18.02.2026 17:11 β
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The giant viruses surprised us at almost every turn of this project, but ultimately led us down a very rewarding path. Happy to share this work is now available online π§ͺ
17.02.2026 17:07 β
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A huge congratulations to Brenda Bass @bbass.bsky.social for her Lifetime Achievement Award from the RNA Society @rnasociety.bsky.social! She is being recognized for her "groundbreaking discovery of A-to-I editing and outstanding contributions to this field."
13.02.2026 13:48 β
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Bacterial defense via RES-mediated NAD+ depletion is countered by phage phosphatases
Many bacterial defense systems restrict phage infection by breaking the molecule NAD+ to its constituents, adenosine diphosphate ribose (ADPR) and nicotinamide (Nam). To counter NAD+ depletion-mediated defense, phages evolved NAD+ reconstitution pathway 1 (NARP1), which uses ADPR and Nam to rebuild NAD+. Here we report a bacterial defense system called aRES, involving RES-domain proteins that degrade NAD+ into Nam and ADPR-1β³-phosphate (ADPR-1P). This molecule cannot serve as a substrate for NARP1, so that NAD+ depletion by aRES defends against phages even if they encode NARP1. We further discover that some phages evolved an extended NARP1 pathway capable of overcoming aRES defense. In these phages, the NARP1 operon also includes a specialized phosphatase, which dephosphorylates ADPR-1P to form ADPR, a substrate from which NARP1 then reconstitutes NAD+. Other phages encode inhibitors that directly bind aRES proteins and physically block their active sites. Our study describes new layers in the NAD+-centric arms race between bacteria and phages and highlights the centrality of the NAD+ pool in cellular battles between viruses and their hosts. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. European Research Council, ERC-AdG GA 101018520 Israel Science Foundation, MAPATS grant 2720/22 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, SPP 2330, grant 464312965 Minerva Foundation with funding from the Federal German Ministry for Education and Research research grant from Magnus Konow in honor of his mother Olga Konow Rappaport Ministry of Aliyah and Immigrant Absorption, https://ror.org/05aycsg86 Clore Scholars Program
𧬠Metabolic arms race continues!
We discovered a new NADβΊ-depleting bacterial immune system aRES and phage enzymes that overcome it.
Our preprint is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
29.01.2026 11:20 β
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Hello world! I am excited to announce my lab is open at the University of Utah in the Department of Biochemistry. We are looking for scientists at all levels interested in studying host-virus interactions in both bacteria and animals. Come join us in beautiful Utah! (photo is 10 steps from lab)
22.01.2026 22:06 β
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Excited to help share that Sam Hobbs @hobbslabutah.bsky.social from our group has launched his independent lab at the University of Utah studying host-virus interactions. Congratulations Sam, we can't wait to see the new discoveries your lab will make!
hobbs.biochem.utah.edu
22.01.2026 17:43 β
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We are seeking a motivated postdoctoral fellow to investigate mechanisms of DNA damage response, APOBEC-mediated mutagenesis, innate immunity, and double-stranded RNA sensing. Located in Southern California, UCI offers an outstanding scientific environment and exceptional quality of life.
21.01.2026 03:50 β
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A methylome-derived m6-dAMP trigger assembles a PUA-Cal-HAD immune filament that depletes dNTPs to abort phage infection
Bacteria must distinguish phage attack from normal homeostatic processes, yet the danger signals that trigger many defence systems remain unknown. Here, we show that a PUA-Calcineurin-CE-HAD module from Escherichia coli ECOR28 confers broad anti-phage protection by binding Dam-methylated deoxyadenosine monophosphate (m6-dAMP) generated during phage-induced chromosome degradation. Ligand binding converts a preassembled PUA-Calcineurin-CE hexamer loaded with six HAD phosphatases into a polymerising filament. The filament acts as a high-flux dNTP sink through a two-enzyme cascade: HAD first dephosphorylates dATP to dADP, and Calcineurin-CE then converts dADP to dAMP. dNTP collapse halts phage replication and enforces abortive infection. Multiple mobile-element DNA mimic proteins block filament assembly, revealing a direct phage counter-defence. More broadly, our findings extend a conserved, cross-kingdom paradigm of immune filament assembly to nucleotide-depletion antiviral defence and suggest modified-nucleotide sensing by related PUA-Calcineurin-CE modules as a widespread, underappreciated bacterial strategy. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre, https://ror.org/01qqpzg67, Postdoctoral Bridging Fellowship F.L.N. is supported by a Wessex Health Partners (WHP) and National Institute for Health and Care Research Wessex Experimental Medicine Network (NIHR WEMN), Seed fund National Institutes of Health, GM145888, U24 GM129539) Maloris Foundation Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, P30-CA008748 Simons Foundation, SF349247 New York State Assembly
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).
17.01.2026 14:52 β
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Systematic discovery of TIR-based immune signaling systems in bacteria
Toll/interleukin-1 receptor (TIR) domains are important for immune signaling across humans, plants and bacteria. These domains were recently found to produce immune signaling molecules in plant immuni...
Iβm happy to share our new preprint! We uncovered the full diversity of bacterial TIR-based antiviral immune signaling, massively expanded the known diversity of Thoeris systems, and revealed conservation of TIR-derived immune signals across the tree of life.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
04.12.2025 09:24 β
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π§¬π‘οΈHow 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.
π @matthieu-haudiquet.bsky.social, Arpita Chakravarti & all authors!
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
27.11.2025 09:35 β
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What is the best strategy to win any contest?
Eliminate your opponents of course.
Recently, my friend @fernpizza.bsky.social showed how plasmids compete intracellularly (check out his paper published in Science today!). With @baym.lol, we now know they can fight.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
20.11.2025 22:11 β
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A human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins mediates immunity via the Toll-like receptor pathway
Key actors of mammalian immunity originated from bacterial antiphage systems. The full extent of immune system conservation between bacteria and eukaryotes is unknown. Here, we show that the silent in...
I'd also like to highlight a recent publication by @audeber.bsky.social, @enzopoirier.bsky.social, and colleagues showing FAM118B, which they term "SIRal", is essential for innate immune response in mammalian cellular models; they also have great phylogenetic analysis and insights into biochemistry.
17.11.2025 14:16 β
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Proteome-wide in silico screening for human protein-protein interactions
Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) drive virtually all biological processes, yet most PPIs have not been identified and even more remain structurally unresolved. We developed a two-step computational...
Thrilled to share that the final piece of my PhD work is now on bioRxiv! biorxiv.org/content/10.1... With support from @nvidia and the @NSF, we used AlphaFold to screen 1.6M+ protein pairs, revealing thousands of potential novel PPIs. All data can be viewed at predictomes.org/hp
12.11.2025 21:26 β
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Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome β by detecting methylated mononucleotides.
Hereβs the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system π
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
06.11.2025 04:59 β
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Preprint: Bacteria sense virus-induced genome degradation via methylated mononucleotides
tinyurl.com/ch3damp
We show how molecular byproducts released during virus-induced cell exploitation are used as signals to trigger host immunity
Revealed by the amazing Ilya Osterman. See his thread belowπ
06.11.2025 10:39 β
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Labs in bacterial immunity
Hi everyone, a few years ago, we started a list of labs studying bacterial immunty for students, editors, conference organizers... (currently n=79).
Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#Phagesky #Microsky
04.11.2025 15:06 β
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Our new preprint is out π₯³π₯³π₯³
Henipaviruses, like Nipah and Hendra, package their genomes inside helical shells built by thousands of nucleoproteins. These nucleocapsids are essential to protect the viral RNA, but how do they ever let the polymerase in to read the sequence?
π
03.11.2025 12:26 β
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Wilkinson Lab
We discover and study reverse transcriptases
The Wilkinson Lab is open for science! @mskcancercenter.bsky.social
π§¬We'll be finding funky new RNA biology, mainly by looking at reverse transcriptases (i.e. the Best Enzymes In The World)π§¬
annnd: I'm hiring - come join! Especially postdocs and PhD students - please get in touch (NYC is great)
31.10.2025 19:00 β
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Antiviral Defence is a Conserved Function of Diverse DNA Glycosylases
Bacteria are frequently attacked by viruses, known as phages, and rely on diverse defence systems like restriction endonucleases and CRISPR-Cas to survive. While phages can evade these defences by cov...
Excited to share: DNA glycosylases are diverse antiviral effectors. They recognize phage base modifications and initiate genome destruction. A structureβguided approach made the scope of this discovery possible! π§ͺ #phagesky doi.org/10.1101/2025... #phage #microbiology
30.10.2025 12:16 β
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