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Honsworth

@drhonsworth.bsky.social

๐Ÿ‡ฌ๐Ÿ‡ง๐Ÿ‡ญ๐Ÿ‡ฐ ๐Ÿง‘๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿ”ฌ in ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ Into bacterial immunity and DNA (anti-)maintenance Proud Cantabrigian CEO, Honsworth Tours Bรผnzli Passionate about ๐Ÿฅฉ๐Ÿ“ท๐Ÿงฌ๐Ÿงณโšฝ๏ธ๐Ÿ˜ด๐Ÿ”๐Ÿทโ„๏ธ Personal acc

63 Followers  |  49 Following  |  12 Posts  |  Joined: 06.10.2023
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Posts by Honsworth (@drhonsworth.bsky.social)

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DNA Bioconjugation with Polymer Beads Using SNAP-tagยฎ Technology Polymer beads (such as Dynabeads) are commonly used to capture and isolate DNA and proteins, relevant for many applications in biochemistry and nanobiology. Current approaches to link DNA with beads i...

Also recently out: a foolproof method to stably attach DNA with polymer beads!

link.springer.com/protocol/10....

25.11.2025 14:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The SMC Hinge is a Selective Gate for Obstacle Bypass - Nature Communications SMC complexes are ring-shaped motors that fold DNA by extruding loops, but how they navigate large DNA obstacles is unclear. Here, Liu et al., show that SMC complexes bypass obstacles by threading obs...

Glad to see this out after a rather interesting review/publication process!

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

25.11.2025 14:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 9    ๐Ÿ” 3    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The mountain season is back!

23.06.2025 09:25 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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Hereโ€™s a before & after view after the village of Batten in Switzerland was destroyed by a glacial collapse.

Fortunately, the town had been evacuated long before disaster struck.

Climate change likely had a role in this.

29.05.2025 17:24 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 52    ๐Ÿ” 15    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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West Africanโ€“South American pandemic Vibrio cholerae encodes multiple distinct phage defence systems - Nature Microbiology The West Africanโ€“South American lineage of Vibrio cholerae contains multiple distinct anti-phage defence systems that provide resistance to various phage families, including vibriophage ICP1, a key pr...

Exciting news!! Our latest paper is out in Nat. Microbiol. @natmicrobiol.nature.com

We show that a sub-lineage of 7th pandemic V. cholerae has acquired mobile genetic elements packed with phage defense systemsโ€”rendering it multi-phage resistant ๐Ÿ˜ณ ..... 1/3

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

22.05.2025 18:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 196    ๐Ÿ” 69    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 8    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1
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Join the Blokesch lab (@EPFL) as a postdoc in Molecular Microbiology ๐Ÿคฉ
Study Vibrio cholerae defense systems (phage/plasmid) in a dynamic, collaborative environment in Lausanne close to Lake Geneva in ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ญ!
Please visit my lab's webpage for details about the position and how to formally apply.

25.04.2025 16:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 68    ๐Ÿ” 104    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3
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Back from the 2025 EMBO Workshop on the Bacterial Immune System in Paris. Full of awesome and inspiring (and at times crazy) science from many bright scientists! Looking forward to more collaborations that will be forged from the meeting. Thanks to the organisers (ps the cheese and wine were great).

11.04.2025 15:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Rules of Engagement
YouTube video by Johan Gibcus Rules of Engagement

Earnshaw, Goloborodko, Dekker & Mirny labs are excited to present our latest work, "Rules of engagement for condensins and cohesins guide mitotic chromosome formation" - now accepted!!
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A short clip describing the key results:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmvO...

11.04.2025 07:45 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 98    ๐Ÿ” 53    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 7    ๐Ÿ“Œ 6

And here it is, the completed BASEL collection finally published as early access in @plosbiology.org - see the thread for more details. ๐Ÿค—๐Ÿงฌ๐ŸŽฃ

08.04.2025 04:59 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 129    ๐Ÿ” 66    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 7    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2

Congratulations!

02.04.2025 18:51 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Structural basis for Lamassu-based antiviral immunity and its evolution from DNA repair machinery https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.02.646746v1

02.04.2025 16:16 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 5    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Schematic illustrating the structural changes undergone by MukBEF SMC complex during DNA capture and ingestion.

Schematic illustrating the structural changes undergone by MukBEF SMC complex during DNA capture and ingestion.

How do SMC complexes capture DNA? ๐Ÿงช

Led by Frank Bรผrmann, Jan Lรถweโ€™s & Mark Dillinghamโ€™s groups have identified the directional loading mechanism the bacterial SMC complex MukBEF uses to capture & ingest DNA, & found a phage inhibitor to this pathway.

Read more: tinyurl.com/4s8nrrkk

#LMBResearch

31.03.2025 14:40 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 68    ๐Ÿ” 36    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 2
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Absolutely lucked out with this shot of the #partialsolareclipse with snowflakes - during a winter hike in Valais when I got a notif from a London-based friend, in effect "look up". Did not expect this at all - was snowing/overcast the whole morning and still snowing when the shot was taken!

29.03.2025 11:53 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 4    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Many thanks Madhu for your suggestions/input and overall enthusiasm about the story!

18.03.2025 12:02 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Many thanks Luuk!

18.03.2025 08:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 1    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Yet another preprint from the labโ€”this one is personal. During my PhD, I ended up working on the cohesin SMC hinge, showing its role in sister chromatid cohesion and proposing it as a DNA entry gate in the SMC ring. But the details have remained mysterious and controversial.

18.03.2025 07:55 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 44    ๐Ÿ” 10    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 3    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Happy to share our latest work. Wadjet-I SMC hinges are gates allowing selective bypass of obstacles connected through ssDNA BUT are dispensable for extrusion of naked DNA.

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

18.03.2025 08:14 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 3    ๐Ÿ” 2    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
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The SMC Hinge is a Selective Gate for Obstacle Bypass DNA loop-extruding SMC complexes play vital roles in genome maintenance and DNA immunity. However, the ability of these ring-shaped DNA motors to navigate large DNA-bound obstacles, such as DNA/RNA po...

Check it out here. Featuring of course ecJET โœˆ๏ธ

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

18.03.2025 08:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 0    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Very pleased to share our new story on SMC complexes, a great team effort from @roisnehamelinf.bsky.social, @taschner.bsky.social in the GruberLab and James of @dnatopologylab.bsky.social We find that SMC hinge domains are ssDNA gates to facilitate obstacle bypass during DNA loop extrusion!

18.03.2025 08:03 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 15    ๐Ÿ” 5    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 2    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

The SMC Hinge is a Selective Gate for Obstacle Bypass https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.17.643644v1

18.03.2025 05:20 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 6    ๐Ÿ” 6    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Alt : Structure of the apo Lamassu protein complex. Schematic model of the active LmuA tetramer nuclease (top right). Lamassu icon (top left).

Alt : Structure of the apo Lamassu protein complex. Schematic model of the active LmuA tetramer nuclease (top right). Lamassu icon (top left).

Glad to share the work of @yli18smc.bsky.social and co on Lamassu, a bacterial defense system related to Rad50/Mre11 (RM). While RM carefully trims DNA ends for repair, Lamassu chops up the host chromosome. Our study reveals how it is regulated to minimize damage, activating only during infection.

16.03.2025 09:15 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 63    ๐Ÿ” 31    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 4    ๐Ÿ“Œ 3

Structure and Activation Mechanism of a Lamassu Phage Defence System https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.14.643221v1

16.03.2025 03:19 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 11    ๐Ÿ” 7    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 1

Happy to be part of this fantastic collaboration between the Gruber, Blokesch and Szczelkun Labs to elucidate the activation mechanism of the Lamassu defence system, all spearheaded by the brilliant @yli18smc.bsky.social with her beautiful structures! Teamwork makes the dream work!

16.03.2025 09:21 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 5    ๐Ÿ” 1    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0

Happy to have helped out with this!

11.03.2025 10:12 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 2    ๐Ÿ” 0    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 0    ๐Ÿ“Œ 0
Structures of JetABCD complex on kinked plasmid DNA.

Structures of JetABCD complex on kinked plasmid DNA.

First preprint ๐Ÿ“ข on bsky: New work on the Wadjet defence system by @roisnehamelinf.bsky.social & @drhonsworth.bsky.social revealing beautiful & exciting structures of JET on plasmid DNA. With loop extrusion, obstacles, DNA bending, kinking, cleavage ๐Ÿฆ ๐Ÿงซ ๐Ÿงช
t.co/RaO7IO3zDkย 
With help from @DCI_Lausanne

04.11.2023 07:39 โ€” ๐Ÿ‘ 42    ๐Ÿ” 22    ๐Ÿ’ฌ 1    ๐Ÿ“Œ 4