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1/11 - With Karin Mitosch and Clément Potel + colleagues in Savitski Lab Typas Lab EMBL, I’m very happy to share our discovery of a hyper-promiscuous phage protein kinase (T7K) which broadly deactivates bacterial defenses! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Protein and genomic language models chart a vast landscape of antiphage defenses 1. This study employs protein and genomic language models to map the uncharted diversity of antiphage defense systems, uncovering over 45,000 novel protein families across 30,000 bacterial genomes.

1/ Excited to share our latest work, just published in Nature Chemical Biology! We demonstrate how population-level gene regulation can be dynamically controlled and amplified using programmable gene transfer. Duke Center for Quantitative Biodesign Duke Biomedical Engineering Link to paper: doi.org/10.1038/s41589…

Excited to share that this preprint is now published Genome Research! 🎉 Check it out here: genome.cshlp.org/content/early/…

Plasmid Biologists ‼️ ⚠️4 days left ⚠️ to sign up to join the #ISPB Virtual Seminar Series and submit your abstract for a talk. See you there 💥

I'm thrilled to announce our latest work is now published in Cell! Viruses encode numerous proteins that inhibit host defenses, but identifying immune-modulatory proteins among millions of viral sequences has been nearly impossible - until now! cell.com/cell/fulltext/…

Very happy our paper on CARD domains in gasdermin anti-phage defense systems is now published in nature 🥳 Thanks to all the people involved especially the Kranzusch lab and Sorek Lab nature.com/articles/s4158…

We have an open position PhD position: 'developing novel methodologies for phylogenomic reconstruction of plasmid evolution'. Reviewing the relevant literature (see Ad) will increase your chance to write a successful application. kec.uni-kiel.de/news_events/GR…

Imagine that you are a low-copy extra-chromosomal genetic elements that invaded a host cell. What’s your best strategy to survive? Check our new study of prokaryotic #plasmid for the answer! biorxiv.org/content/10.110… led by Johannes Effe with Mario Santer Wang, Yiqing Nils Hülter

RNA-guided systems span kingdoms, from bacterial immunity to eukaryotic gene regulation. How did they evolve? We traced the origins of CRISPR-Cas13 and identified its likely ancestor: an RNA-based toxin-antitoxin (TA) system. Here’s what we uncovered: cell.com/cell/fulltext/… 1/8

My scientific career changed the day I met Fernando and my faith in science restored. In a world dominated by sequencing and LLMs, this project shows how much biology is hidden in plain sight waiting for the right person to make the connection, a must read!

Happy to share our new preprint describing prophage encoded anti-phage defense system,TERi, that targets the terminase complex of invading phages to inhibit DNA packaging. The system also encode self immunity proteins that protect the prophage. biorxiv.org/content/biorxi…

My lab’s first preprint! We used functional metagenomics to identify phage defenses in human and soil microbiomes. We scaled these selections while maintaining accuracy, enabling us to examine 9 habitats for defense elements against 7 phages. biorxiv.org/content/10.110… 1/10

Plasmid-driven strategies for clone success in Escherichia coli nature.com/articles/s4146…

Is the genome just a bag of genes? A new paper in Science Magazine now reports that for two thirds of an organisms' genes the position along the chromosome is actually very tightly constrained! Amazing work from my favorite night scientist Martin Lercher and his team!

🎙️ Excited to share my recent conversation with Ben from Ben | The SaaS CFO on his podcast! We dive into the future of biotech and our work at Converge Bio . Tune in here: 🍏 Apple Podcasts:podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/con… 🎧 Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/75wtyS…

Check out our new paper describing rAcrVIA1: an RNA anti-CRISPR that mimics guide RNAs to inhibit Cas13. Very fun project with stellar UW undergrad Victoria Hayes and collaboration with Ning Jia's group! science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

White smoke, we have not only a new pope, but also 16 new anti-phage systems in integrons ! In collaboration with the Didier Mazel lab, we show in our new paper that cassettes of these large platforms encode known anti-phage defenses and uncovered 16 new ones. science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

1/6 🚀 Delighted to see our review out online in Nature Reviews Bioengineering: CRISPR–Cas therapies targeting bacteria. Read: doi.org/10.1038/s44222…

Excited to share our newest paper, online today nature! We report the discovery of a highly unusual mechanism of antiviral immunity through the synthesis of long, homopolymeric DNA. nature.com/articles/s4158…