Philmus Lab @ OSU

Rethinking Natural Product Discovery: A Complex Epistemological Approach Linking Chemical Ecology and Pharmacognosy Global challenges such as health crises, biodiversity loss, and climate change demand a rethinking of natural product discovery. Despite advances in dereplication, metabolomics, and genomic sequencing...

Rethinking Natural Product Discovery: A Complex Epistemological Approach Linking Chemical Ecology and Pharmacognosy | Journal of Natural Products pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Now out in @natcomms.nature.com :
versions 2.0 of both BiG-SCAPE and BiG-SLiCE! With significant speed and accuracy increases, as well as new interactive functionalities.
Read the full paper here #openaccess:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Come join us again in a next round of this massive online open science community effort! 💪
Sign up using the link in the thread.
It’s great fun, and really helps the scientific community. What more can you ask? 🙂

The MIBiG 5.0 Annotathon is coming soon, and registration is now open!

🧬 Does your research involve biosynthetic gene clusters? Do you love natural product biosynthesis? Do you have an interest in rare & exotic enzymes? We can use your help & expertise.

Register here 👉 forms.gle/C1cWcLHtrjT2...

A set of genetic tools for use in Clostridioides difficile and related species The Clostridia are a phylogenetically diverse group of anaerobic, spore-forming bacteria that include species of medical, veterinary and industrial importance. The last two decades have seen major adv...

New paper from us.

If you're interested in genetic manipulation of Clostridia, we have a few new tools for you! 36 new plasmids - all available from @addgene.bsky.social

www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

#microsky

OK. Serious question. How many plant species do you work on? Everyday I swear I see a new leaf!

I am SO incredibly excited to announce the launch of a global list of Inspiring Black Scientists. You can use this list to nominate and connect with researchers. Please share and join us in highlighting these outstanding scientists for #BlackHistoryMonth and beyond!

www.wiley.com/en-us/resear...

I'd watch a muppet show movie where the muppets infiltrate an academic conference.

Phylogeny‐Aware Metabologenomics Accurately Assigns Natural Products to Biosynthetic Gene Clusters We report a statistical approach for associating biosynthetic gene clusters with their cognate metabolites and demonstrate its unprecedented power for scalable natural product discovery. Notably, it ...

Phylogeny-­ Aware Metabologenomics Accurately Assigns
Natural Products to Biosynthetic Gene Clusters

@microbiotech.bsky.social by Judith Boldt et al from Ulrich Nübel and @drrolfmueller.bsky.social

enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

This position is still open. The Weisberg lab is recruiting a postdoc or Ph.D. student to study horizontal gene transfer in plant-associated microbial communities. Please see the job ad for more information and feel free to contact me if you have any questions!

The image is the logo of the RABID (Research and training in global Arthropod-Borne Infectious Diseases) program.

Very proud to announce that my baby is finally here!
This new program at UTMB will support a variety of training opportunities in medical and veterinary entomology. It will also focus on developing a broad network of partners interested in vector biology and ecology across the state of Texas.

Graduate school application season: Tip #3

In the current funding climate, find a program with 3-4 people you would be happy to complete your thesis with. Changes at the NIH have created instability. Minimize your risk.

After reviewing nearly 200 applications from prospective grad students and postdocs over the past few months for a couple different 🧪⚒️ postings, here are some tips, at least as they apply to North American positions. I hope they help future applicants. Share with your networks. 🧵

a man smoking a cigarette with a speech bubble that says " chef 's kiss " Alt: Adam Driver giving a chef’s kiss

This closing paragraph ….

P450 Cyptide Synthase KwwB Catalyzes Trp-C5–Trp-N1 Cross-Linking and Accepts Diverse Precursor Peptides Cytochrome P450 enzymes install C–C, C–N, or C–O cross-links on the precursor peptides of ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs). Here, we bioinformatically mapped ...

Happy to share our work on cross-linking enzyme KwwB catalyzes Trp-C5–Trp-N1 cross-linking and accepts diverse precursor peptides | Organic Letters
doi.org/10.1021/acs....

"Even after accounting for the upfront costs and delayed benefits, enrolling marginal applicants to public universities generates substantial net returns for society, the marginal students themselves, and the government budget."

Public Universities FTW!

New preprint! We found that the flavin-dependent halogenase RebH catalyzes sequence-tolerant Trp bromination in peptides 🧪https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2025.12.17.694899v1

Late job posting: My department is hiring a tenure-track faculty member in microbiology! Please share with anyone interested in working at a PUI. We have a preference for someone who can teach Medical Microbiology, but other than that the focus is open-ended. Happy to answer qs.

The other thing he “forgets” to mention is he has had multiple papers retracted.

A long standing goal in synthetic biology is ‘PURE makes PURE’ - effectively the start of self-replicating biology in a tube from just adding biochemicals and DNA instructions. This looks like a promising breakthrough from the Maerkl lab. 👀

Tell Us Your JGI Portal Stories The JGI Portal teams (IMG, Mycocosm, Phycocosm, Phytozome, and SMC) would love to sit with you (over Zoom) to hear your stories relating to your usage of the portals, your unsupported use cases, and p...

DOE's Office of Science is making a big push into AI, and that includes our work at the @jgi.doe.gov . We want to hear your thoughts (+ and -) on AI-enabled biological data. Consider joining one of our interviews or focus groups by filling out this form!
🧪🧬🦠🖥️ #secmet
jointgeno.me/PortalStorie...

R35 MIRA NOFO

NIGMS R35 Maximizing Investigator's Research Award (MIRA) for Outstanding Investigators new NOFO is available!!
Submission dates starting in January 2026 through May 2028.
See link below: simpler.grants.gov/opportunity/...

The Dept of Biology & Marine Biology at UNCW is offering 4 positions!!! A Distinguished Professor of Marine Science, an Assistant Professor of Invertebrate Biology, and two Lecturers of Biology. Plus, the UNCW Center for Marine Science is seeking a second Distinguished Professor of Marine Science!

Natural product inspired antibiotics approved for human use – 1943 to 2025 Covering literature to September 2025This review provides a comprehensive account of the 217 natural product inspired antibiotics that have been approved for human use from 1943 through to September 2...

Review article on the 217 semi-synthetic and synthetic antibiotics that have been inspired by natural products and approved for clinical use between 1943 and September 2025.

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

gutSMASH 2.0: Extended Identification of Primary Metabolic Gene Clusters From the Human Gut Microbiota Microbiota-derived metabolites serve as key messengers mediating host–microbe and microbe–microbe interactions, often through specialized primary meta…

Now available online: the new 2.0 version of gutSMASH, with capabilities to detect 12 new types of catabolic gene clusters relevant to gut microbiome ecology, as well as predictions of their regulation through transcription factor binding site detection. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Microbiology

Come and join great students and colleagues at Hofstra Biology. Please apply using the link below and/or spread the word!

hofstra.peopleadmin.com/postings/6542

Pediatric Infectious Diseases/Microbiology - Professor Series (tenure track/tenure), Open Rank University of California, Irvine is hiring. Apply now!

🚨New faculty job opportunity 🚨

Please share this ad for a faculty position in our department at UC Irvine, in the fields of microbiology and infectious disease. MD/PhDs and PhDs are desired and should apply!

recruit.ap.uci.edu/JPF09954

Taxonomic and biosynthetic diversity of the marine actinomycete Salinispora across spatial scales | Applied and Environmental Microbiology The marine actinomycete genus Salinispora has become a model organism for natural product discovery and to address actinomycete diversity and distributions in marine systems. While biogeographic patte...

Taxonomic and biosynthetic diversity of the marine actinomycete Salinispora across spatial scales

journals.asm.org/doi/full/10....

MISO: microfluidic protein isolation enables single-particle cryo-EM structure determination from a single cell colony.

Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins.

Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg

Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.

And we have a webpage!
Still in the works! But still share please!
We’ll be happy to host you next year in Mexico!

Sitios.quimica.unam.mx/unidad/sisal/manapro