Ben Morehouse

The Panoptes system uses decoy cyclic nucleotides to defend against phage - Nature The Panoptes antiphage system defends bacteria by detecting phage-encoded counter-defences that sequester cyclic nucleotide signals, triggering membrane disruption and highlighting a broader strategy of sensing immune evasion through second-messenger surveillance.

A little late to the Panoptes party, but I’m delighted to share that our paper is published! 👁️ www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thanks very much, Luuk

My pleasure @erinedoherty.bsky.social and @benmorehouse.bsky.social - for me this was the stand-out discovery of the last year in the field

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral transcripts. Here, we discover that giant DNA virus...

Are viruses capable of regulating protein synthesis in the nuanced way of cellular organisms? Kinda! I’m excited to share some of my postdoc work that leveraged giant DNA viruses to address this question.

Thanks, Francois!

Bacteria use a decoy defence molecule to set a trap for viruses Some bacterial-infecting viruses use ‘sponges’ to mop up defence molecules, but bacteria can fight back by responding when a sponge captures decoy molecules.

And if you don’t like reading so many words, check out the summary piece kindly written by @mfwhite2.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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

We are also pleased to be published alongside our friends in the @doudna-lab.bsky.social, @erinedoherty.bsky.social, @benadler.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out how the story has expanded since the preprint back in March. Congrats to @aesully98.bsky.social, @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social, and all our co-authors! I am especially proud of this work as our new-ish lab’s first major ‘public offering’ and one where so many trainees contributed.

The Panoptes system uses decoy cyclic nucleotides to defend against phage - Nature The Panoptes antiphage system defends bacteria by detecting phage-encoded counter-defences that sequester cyclic nucleotide signals, triggering membrane disruption and highlighting a broader strategy of sensing immune evasion through second-messenger surveillance.

Our story describing the Panoptes bacterial immune defense system is now finally peer-reviewed and published today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The NSF GRFP is now limited to undergrads and first-year grads The solicitation for the 2025 submission dates for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program is out, with the first deadline of November 10 for life-sciences disciplines. The big news is that el…

The NSF GRFP is now limited to undergrads and first-year grads drugmonkey.wordpress.com/2025/09/26/t...

You’ve heard of ubiquitination, meet deazaguanylation: Doug Wassarman in our lab discovered phage defense pathways have co-opted Q nucleobase biosynthetic enzymes to catalyze a new form of protein conjugation chemistry @science.org

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

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…

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the evolutionary history of bacterial immune systems, their modes of action, and the patterns how different bacterial immune systems are distributed across different ecosystems. Read: buff.ly/Z4qdxY1

Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...

Preprint: De-novo design of proteins that inhibit bacterial defenses

Our approach allows silencing defense systems of choice. We show how this approach enables programming of “untransformable” bacteria, and how it can enhance phage therapy applications

Congrats Jeremy Garb!
tinyurl.com/Syttt
🧵

Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...

📢 New preprint alert!
We designed synthetic proteins that can block bacterial immune systems, allowing phages + plasmids to overcome natural defenses.
This could transform phage therapy + genetic engineering.
Here’s what we found 🧵
Preprint🔗: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Functional diversity of phage sponge proteins that sequester host immune signals Multiple bacterial immune systems, including CBASS, Thoeris, and Pycsar, employ signaling molecules that activate the immune response following phage infection. Phages counteract bacterial immune sign...

📢 Preprint out!
Together with @reneechang.bsky.social @kranzuschlab.bsky.social and the amazing @soreklab.bsky.social, we explored viral sponges to map their diversity and function.

Discovered huge diversity, including sponges that inhibit Pycsar & Type IV Thoeris!

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

A widespread family of viral sponge proteins reveals specific inhibition of nucleotide signals in anti-phage defense Chang et al. discover anti-CBASS 4 (Acb4), a family of viral sponges that inhibits bacterial immunity by sequestering nucleotide immune signals. Acb4 homologs in phages that infect hosts across all ma...

The beautiful, ever-expanding universe of viral proteins targeting nucleotide immune signals!

Paper by @reneechang.bsky.social in @cp-molcell.bsky.social on a nucleotide sponge www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

and preprint by @doudna-lab.bsky.social on viral nucleases www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A widespread family of viral sponge proteins reveals specific inhibition of nucleotide signals in anti-phage defense Chang et al. discover anti-CBASS 4 (Acb4), a family of viral sponges that inhibits bacterial immunity by sequestering nucleotide immune signals. Acb4 homologs in phages that infect hosts across all ma...

Excited to share my PhD work in the @kranzuschlab.bsky.social, out now in Molecular Cell @cp-molcell.bsky.social

We discover Acb4, a new family of viral sponges that sequesters nucleotide immune signals and defines molecular features that enable ligand specificity.

www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

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.

Characterization of an amyloid-based antiphage defence system in Escherichia coli - Nature Microbiology Prion-like proteins in Escherichia coli trigger an abortive infection mechanism in response to phage infection—a process similar to amyloid-mediated immune signalling in fungi and animals.

Read the adjoining research paper here:

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

Amyloids in bacterial antiphage defence - Nature Microbiology Bacterial prions form amyloids in response to phage infection and induce cell death to prevent viral replication, similar to the processes in fungi and across the tree of life.

#News&Views

Bacterial prions form amyloids in response to phage infection and induce cell death to prevent viral replication, similar to the processes in fungi and across the tree of life.

#MicroSky

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

Amyloids in bacterial antiphage defence Nature Microbiology - Bacterial prions form amyloids in response to phage infection and induce cell death to prevent viral replication, similar to the processes in fungi and across the tree of life.

Very interesting work from Ibarlosa and colleagues regarding functional amyloid forming proteins in prokaryotic immunity.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out our News & Views summary of the work as well!
rdcu.be/eBHxh

Cholera toxin-induced disease generates epithelial cell-derived L-lactate that promotes Vibrio cholerae growth in the small intestine Cholera toxin (CT) promotes Vibrio cholerae colonization by altering gut metabolism to favor pathogen growth. We have previously found that CT-induced disease leads to increased concentrations of L-la...

1/ Excited to share the first preprint from my lab! 🎉

My postdoc Paz asked how cholera toxin (CT) helps Vibrio cholerae thrive in the gut.

Turns out, CT rewires epithelial metabolism toward L-lactate production—fueling pathogen growth in the small intestine during disease

congrats!

Manipulation of the nucleotide pool in human, bacterial and plant immunity - Nature Reviews Immunology Modification of the nucleotide pool is emerging as key to innate immunity in animals, plants and bacteria. This Review explains how immune pathways conserved from bacteria to humans manipulate the nuc...

Read my review with @soreklab.bsky.social on the nucleotide pool as a central playground in antiviral immunity across humans, bacteria and plants! 🧍‍♀️🦠🌿

& how viruses overcome these nucleotide-based immune mechanisms 🗡️

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

Bacterial Schlafens mediate anti-phage defense Human Schlafen proteins restrict viral replication by cleaving tRNA, thereby suppressing protein synthesis. Although the ribonuclease domain of Schlafen proteins is conserved across all domains of lif...

First preprint from the Nemudryi Lab! 🍾

In this work, we link antiviral immunity in bacteria and humans by showing that homologs of human Schlafen nucleases protect bacteria from phages.

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

🦠🧍‍♀️From bacterial to human immunity.

We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social

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

Endolysosomal damage surveillance enables rapid inflammasome sensing of pathogens Shivcharan et al. report that endosomal damage sensing by the danger receptor galectin-8 licenses noncanonical inflammasome activation and pyroptosis during intracellular bacterial infections in human...

We are excited to have our new paper out: Tethering of the pathogen sensor caspase-4 to the endomembrane damage sensor galectin-8 poises the host to rapidly detect pathogens that breach the endolysosomal network.
www.cell.com/cell-reports... #innate_immunity #inflammasome #celldeath #immunoSky 1/2

Nuclease-NTPase systems use shared molecular features to control bacterial anti-phage defense Bacteria encode an enormous diversity of defense systems including restriction-modification and CRISPR-Cas that cleave nucleic acid to protect against phage infection. Bioinformatic analyses demonstra...

Starting the lab Bluesky account to share a preprint from @aragucci.bsky.social and @sadieantine.bsky.social‬ that reveals molecular principles shared across diverse nuclease-NTPase anti-phage defense systems in bacterial immunity (1/7)

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

Junior, Assistant, or Associate Specialist – Xue Lab University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

The Xue lab at UC Irvine is looking for a staff scientist to support our work investigating how microbes interact and evolve in the gut microbiome! Open to a wide range of previous experience levels, see ad for more.
recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09601