Muriel Derrien

Healthy dietary patterns, longevity genes, and life expectancy: A prospective cohort study Healthy dietary patterns are linked to longer life expectancy and can be adapted to personal preferences and cultural traditions.

"Healthy dietary patterns, longevity genes, and life expectancy: A prospective cohort study" www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

TLDR:

Dietary component most associated with a longer life: dietary fiber

Dietary components most associated with shorter life: red meat and sugary drinks

Enrichment of convergent metabolic functions in microbial communities through imposed and emergent environmental niches https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.11.705344v1

Spatial structure: shaping the ecology and evolution of microbial communities Spatial structure naturally emerges in microbial communities, shaping growth, interactions, and evolution, and revealing how microscale processes scale up

Wrapping up a productive week: very glad to have contributed to this review on how spatial structure shapes microbial ecology and evolution, led by @marcelbaecker.bsky.social, @bedutilh.bsky.social, @bramvandijk.bsky.social and many others. doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Pesticide residues alter taxonomic and functional biodiversity in soils Pesticides are widely distributed in soils1,2,3, yet their effects on soil biodiversity remain poorly understood4,5,6,7. Here we examined the effects of 63 pesticides on soil archaea, bacteria, fungi, protists, nematodes, arthropods and key functional gene groups across 373 sites spanning woodlands, grasslands and croplands in 26 European countries. Pesticide residues were detected in 70% of sites and emerged as the second strongest driver of soil biodiversity patterns after soil properties. Our analysis further revealed organism- and function-specific patterns, emphasizing complex and widespread non-target effects on soil biodiversity. Pesticides altered microbial functions, including phosphorus and nitrogen cycling, and suppressed beneficial taxa, including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and bacterivore nematodes. Our findings highlight the need to integrate functional and taxonomic characteristics into future risk assessment methodology to safeguard soil biodiversity, a cornerstone of ecosystem functioning.

Amazing and super helpful paper  -> Pesticide residues alter taxonomic and functional biodiversity in soils

Meta-analysis of the uncultured gut microbiome across 11,115 global metagenomes reveals a candidate signature of health Silva et al. perform a global analysis of over 11,000 gut microbiomes and reveal that uncultured bacteria are key markers of gut health. The uncultured genus CAG-170 is strongly linked to low gut dysb...

Excited to share the newest paper from our team, where we uncovered a potential role of the uncultured gut #microbiome in health: www.cell.com/cell-host-mi.... Out now in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social @cellpress.bsky.social. With Ana C. da Silva, Jacob Lapkin, Qi Yin and Efrat Muller.

Just published: "Planetary microbiome structure and generalist-driven gene flow across disparate habitats" by @podlesny.bsky.social @chanyeong-kim.bsky.social and @jonas-bio.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

See the quoted post below for a thread on the preprint!

MIX-MB (Minimum Information about Xenobiotics-Microbiome Biotransformation) - Community Consensus Survey This survey aims to establish the Minimum Information about Xenobiotics-Microbiome Biotransformation (MIX-MB) reporting standards. As we move toward an era of AI-driven discovery, the structural and f...

🚨 Do you work on microbial-mediated biotransformation of chemical compounds?
🧪 We would value your input to help us develop a standardized reporting framework for Xenobiotics–Microbiome interactions!

👉 Take the short survey (6–8 min): forms.gle/JNATejDrV2LR...

⬇️ ⬇️ ⬇️

Last Friday, we had the pleasure of attending the very first Belgian Microbiome Network Symposium in Antwerp!

Huge shoutout to @ruvaur.bsky.social, Sarah Ahannach and Ludovica Marinelli for organizing this great new initiative and bringing the community together!✨

Mucins in health and disease 15-18 June 2026, Ghent, Belgium Supported by VIB Training & Conferences

Registration is open for Mucins in Health and Disease! 15–18 June 2026, Ghent - Belgium

All info on:
www.vibconferences.be/events/mucin...

Travel awards available from @societymucosalimm.bsky.social and @mucosalimmunol.bsky.social

#Mucins #MucosalImmunology #Microbiome #Inflammation

Fecal microbiota transplantation plus immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma: the phase 2 FMT-LUMINate trial - Nature Medicine In a phase 2 trial evaluating healthy donor fecal microbial transplantation plus either anti-PD-1 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer or anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 in patients with melanoma, en...

#NatMicroPicks

FMT for cancers in clinic! 💩🦠🦀⚕️

Three different clinical trials report activity of faecal microbiota transplant against cancer

#MicroSky #CancerSky

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

Assessment of genome evolution in Bifidobacterium adolescentis indicates genetic adaptation to the human gut | mSystems To comprehensively explore the biodiversity within a microbial species, the reconstruction of a substantial number of genomes is essential. In this study, we successfully uncovered the genetic diversi...

Comparative genomics of Bifidobacterium adolescentis (n=1.6k genomes, mostly MAGs from 44 countries) for adult-gut adaptation signatures: 203 soft-core host-interaction genes (incl adhesion/pili) +7 clades w/ some geographic structure + co-occur w/ butyrate producers
journals.asm.org/doi/full/10....

New Preprint 📢 from our team 🔎 Critical assessment of #intratumor and #low #biomass #microbiome using #longread sequencing

Some studies suggest bacteria 🦠 live inside tumors and influence cancer treatment. But there’s also been a major #debate: in these very​ low-microbe tissue samples, how much 1/

Host factors dictate gut microbiome alterations in chronic kidney disease more strongly than kidney function - Nature Microbiology A covariate-aware analysis reveals that microbiome changes in the gut of patients with chronic kidney disease are better explained by intestinal transit time than by kidney function.

Host factors dictate gut microbiome alterations in chronic kidney disease more strongly than kidney function www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Host factors dictate gut microbiome alterations in chronic kidney disease more strongly than kidney function Nature Microbiology, Published online: 05 February 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02259-wA covariate-aware analysis reveals that microbiome changes in the gut of patients with chronic kidney disease are better explained by intestinal transit time than by kidney function.

Out Now! Host factors dictate gut microbiome alterations in chronic kidney disease more strongly than kidney function #MicroSky

Proud to see this work out in the world! Papers like this are never a solo effort. Huge thanks to @arnauvich.bsky.social and @murielderrien.bsky.social for their invaluable input, feedback, and help bringing this project to life!

Host factors dictate gut microbiome alterations in chronic kidney disease more strongly than kidney function - Nature Microbiology A covariate-aware analysis reveals that microbiome changes in the gut of patients with chronic kidney disease are better explained by intestinal transit time than by kidney function.

Big congrats to our colleague @krukowskihubert.bsky.social
on the Nature Microbiology paper linking gut transit time and diet to CKD microbiome changes. Another step in microbiome research!🧫
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bacterial necromass recycling promotes diversity maintenance in bacterial communities via resource partitioning - Nature Ecology & Evolution In this study, the authors conduct experiments involving 276 soil-derived microcosms to reveal that the ecological process of necromass recycling promotes diversity maintenance in bacterial communitie...

Experiments involving 276 soil-derived microcosms reveals that the ecological process of necromass recycling promotes diversity maintenance in bacterial communities 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Integration of modern technologies to advance dietary assessment Nature Food - Accurately measuring dietary intake has long been a challenge in nutrition research. Integrating emerging tools with multisampling strategies and a dietary assessment methodology...

I joined efforts with D.A. Lucassen, @cdiener.com @gibbological.bsky.social and T. Wilson and got a really nice paper out on how to best integrate modern dietary assessment technologies to improve the accuracy of the current tools. Have a look here 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s43...

It has been two weeks since the unexpected death of Peer Bork, and all of us in his research group are deeply missing him. His scientific vision brought us together as a team, and we are immensely grateful for the time we spent together. 🧵

Fecal microbiota transplantation plus immunotherapy in non-small cell lung cancer and melanoma: the phase 2 FMT-LUMINate trial - Nature Medicine In a phase 2 trial evaluating healthy donor fecal microbial transplantation plus either anti-PD-1 in patients with non-small cell lung cancer or anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 in patients with melanoma, en...

First evidence that healthy donor fecal microbiota transplant, added to immunotherapy, can enhance efficacy vs cancer
3 clinical trial reports (renal, small cell lung, melanoma)
nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com/articles/s41...
Holy 💩!

Novel artificial selection method improves function of simulated microbial communities Author summary Artificial selection has been extremely powerful in improving properties of complex biological or biochemical entities. The most familiar examples come from the breeding of animals and ...

Thrilled to see this paper finally out! journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol... It was a difficult story to communicate and took us a while to get right. Big congratulations to @wbjorn.bsky.social, Pablo Guridi and Flora Arias-Sanchez!! And thank you the reviewers who helped improve it. Keep reading...

Integration of modern technologies to advance dietary assessment - Nature Food Accurately measuring dietary intake has long been a challenge in nutrition research. Integrating emerging tools with multisampling strategies and a dietary assessment methodology aligned with the rese...

Check out our review on emerging technologies for diet tracking in Nature Food. 👇

This paper was led by @catalinacuparencu.bsky.social, with @cdiener.com and others: www.nature.com/articles/s43...

@isbscience.org @uwbioe.bsky.social @uwgenome.bsky.social

Episode 1 - Jack Gilbert: "We are living in a microbial world" Spotify video

▶️ Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/1f4lBWv...

▶️ Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/m...

▶️ Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/81c...

▶️ Youtube Podcasts: www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

LAUNCH DAY🎙️

We're thrilled to share the very first episode of #MVIFconversations w/ Jack Gilbert 💫

Stefanie Malan-Müller & @cpavloud.bsky.social talked with @gilbertjacka.bsky.social about how microbes shape our health and the invisible living world around us.

Give it a listen & spread the word!

EMBL is deeply saddened by the passing of our Interim Director General Peer Bork, a pioneering scientist who left an indelible imprint on life science research in Europe and beyond.

We extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and colleagues.

www.embl.org/news/people-...

Baby-to-baby strain transmission shapes the developing gut microbiome - Nature A metagenomic survey of babies attending the first year of nursery detected extensive baby-to-baby microbial strain transmission, pointing to social interactions in infancy as crucial drivers of infan...

🥁 NEW

Our study on infant gut microbiome and #straintransmission is now published in @nature.com:

doi.org/10.1038/s415...

1/10

In remembrance of Peer Bork  | EMBL EMBL and its community are deeply saddened by the death of Peer Bork, the organisation’s Interim Director General.

very sad news. Peer Bork was one of the leaders of our field, a wonderful scientist, and he's much too young to be gone. www.embl.org/news/embl-an...

America’s new dietary guidelines ignore decades of scientific research An emphasis on fruit, vegetables, and whole foods is welcome—but it’s wrong to suggest steak and beef tallow should be prominent.

Good summary of lack of evidence and potential for harm of components of the recommended diet
www.technologyreview.com/2026/01/08/1... by @jesshamzelou.bsky.social

#NewResearch

Gut microbes can produce ethanol and contribute to auto-brewery syndrome. FMT can potentially treat individuals with this syndrome and improve symptoms.

#microsky

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

Deep-learning dive into the antimicrobial potential of Archaea The global burden of antimicrobial resistance demands the urgent development of new antibiotics. To face this threat, Torres et al. leveraged deep-learning models to identify archaeal encrypted peptides (termed ‘archaeasins’) with potential antimicrobial activity. This work highlights Archaea as an underexplored but potentially rich source of antibiotics.

Deep-learning dive into the antimicrobial potential of Archaea