Malcolm White

In Scotland, we are familiar with Bams

Because freedom of speech is curtailed in Europe 🤔

The top 10 people of 2025 @nature.com who shaped science.
Recognizes Dr. Susan Monarez, the CDC Director who was "fired for holding the line on scientific integrity"
www.nature.com/immersive/d4...

AI protein design marches on - very cool.

Diversity is a good thing - can we still say that?

yet more depressing craziness

Phages are full of genes of unknown function that are likely adaptive in specific conditions.
New preprint: Phage TnSeq identifies essential genes rapidly and knocks all non-essentials. We would like to send a pool of phiKZ mutants to anyone wanting it! Reach out
tinyurl.com/bdcfrejh

I used to do this with courgettes to annoy my kids

Fascinating, take a look at the thread

A great opportunity for aspiring PhD students

THE conference of 2026. Very glad to hear there's a zoom option, as I ain't setting foot in the USA in the next 3 years.

Our SPARHA story is out in Nature Communications!
doi.org/10.1038/s414...
We investigated a new short pAgo-HNH defense system, showing that it assembles into filaments degrading cellular DNA, inducing abortive infection, resolved their structure, and uncovered the activation mechanism 🧵

The Biology of Nucleus-Forming Jumbo Phages Nucleus-forming jumbo bacteriophages display a surprisingly intricate replication cycle inside of bacterial host cells, challenging the long-standing paradigm of prokaryotic simplicity. The phage nucl...

The Biology of Nucleus-Forming Jumbo Phages
#phage #phagesky

www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...

@multidefence.bsky.social

a man walking in a field with an umbrella ALT: a man walking in a field with an umbrella

Come join us! Soon I will be advertising a postdoc vacancy in my group as part of my @erc.europa.eu AdG project 'DARK ROOTS'. Focus of the project will be on phylo- and metagenomic mining of novel prokaryotic lineages. I will soon post a link here - stay tuned, and please repost! #asgardarchaea

My lab is hiring postdocs! We combine AI, protein structure prediction and comparison, and high-throughput virology to study the virus-host conflict.

You can read more about my lab's research here: jasonnomburg.com/research/

Apply here to join us in lovely Vienna! aithyra.onlyfy.jobs/job/0khkxp82

Hot, but very cool!

Now online at @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social from co-first authors @erinedoherty.bsky.social & @jnoms.bsky.social

Directed evolution of phages in biofilms enhances Pseudomonas aeruginosa control through improved lipopolysaccharide recognition - Nature Communications Phage therapy holds potential against Pseudomonas aeruginosa chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. Here, the authors demonstrate that biofilm heterogeneity limits phage effectiveness an...

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

Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...

Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

🚨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

Is it a flagellate? A tiny ball with tentacles? Contamination in my ciliate culture? NEW SUPERGROUP OF EUKARYOTES? Yes to all 4! Meet Solarion - just out in #Nature doi.org/10.1038/s415... Huge congrats to Marek Valt, Cepicka Lab & the star team! Very happy to be part of this project. #ProtistsOnSky

EASTBIO: When Phages Collide: Understanding How Multiple Prophages Shape Bacterial Behaviour at University of St Andrews on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - EASTBIO: When Phages Collide: Understanding How Multiple Prophages Shape Bacterial Behaviour at University of St Andrews, listed on FindAPhD.com

🚨 PhD opportunity! 🚨
Join us at St Andrews to study how multiple prophages shape bacterial behaviour & AMR.
Co-supervised with @tatianadimitriu.bsky.social
This is a competition-based EASTBIO PhD.
Full details and the application link are in the advert 👇
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

PhD studentship opportunity! Join us at St Andrews to study the factors controlling plasmid transmission in the gut. Competition-funded as part of the EASTBIO DTP, co-supervised with Dr Jaclyn Pearson. Please share & pass on to anyone interested! 🦠🧫 Deadline 15th December👇

Building bridges – People – EMBO Meet Aude Bernheim, Institut Pasteur, Paris | EMBO Young Investigator

Meet Aude Bernheim @audeber.bsky.social, EMBO Young Investigator at @pasteur.fr #France: “The EMBO Young Investigator Programme has been developed by and for researchers,” she says. “It gives us access to some of the best #research infrastructures in the world.” 🧪 www.embo.org/people/build...

Akin to bacterial SIR2 antiphage proteins, human SIRal, also known as FAM118b, forms filaments that are essential for its NAD processing activity.

Awesome to see structures of these filaments that differ from bacterial ones.

Congrats to the authors on this beautiful study.

Just been trying out Nature Research Assistant beta, which analyses your manuscript drafts and suggests "improvements". Strong sub-editor vibes for me and I worry it will homogenise the literature - anyone else had a look?

Amazing piece of work from @rtoshiro.bsky.social
& Kim Seed at UC Berkeley. 🙌
Played a tiny role in this work.

Surviving phage attack dynamically regulates bacterial immunity to defeat counterdefenses

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

Recurrent acquisition of nuclease-protease pairs in antiviral immunity Antiviral immune systems diversify by integrating new genes into existing pathways, creating new mechanisms of viral resistance. We identified genes encoding a predicted nuclease paired with a trypsin...

Our nuclease-protease story is out! We explored a fascinating case of coevolution and modularity in prokaryotic immune systems: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks to wonderful coauthors/collaborators/friends, the whole @doudna-lab.bsky.social and everyone at @innovativegenomics.bsky.social

"incredibly humbled" is a phrase I'd hoped would have stayed over on X and not migrated to Bluesky.