After >10 years of our lab studying bacterial cGAS-like enzymes, @hobbslabutah.bsky.social finally reconstitutes viral sensing in vitro and discovers how these ancient receptors sense phage protease enzymes to detect virion assembly and activate antiviral immunity
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Very excited to see this work out today!
Discovering viral immune antagonists directly from predicted protein structures. π€© www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Huge thanks to the amazing collaborators! π€
Out today: We discovered new viral proteins that target immune signaling molecules, solely based on their AlphaFold-predicted shapes
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Congrats Nitzan Tal and coauthors! Thank you Kranzusch lab for the fun collaboration!
Linking below previous thread on our findings
Stunning new structural analysis and mechanism for Tmn anti-phage defense by @fnobrega.bsky.social
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
The giant viruses surprised us at almost every turn of this project, but ultimately led us down a very rewarding path. Happy to share this work is now available online π§ͺ
How is Condensin II activated during mitosis? π§¬
@damlatetiker.bsky.social Samejima et al. uncover how Condensin II autoinhibition is relieved by the mitotic activator M18BP1, and reveal that M18BP1 also forms a composite DNA anchor with the NCAPG2βNCAPH2 subcomplex to stabilize DNA loops in vitro.
A DNA damage-activated kinase controls bacterial immune pathway expression https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.02.703251v1
Vibrant color portrait of Jane S. Richardson, the visionary biophysicist and artist who revolutionized structural biology with her invention of ribbon diagrams. She gazes warmly at the camera with a bright, knowing smile that radiates quiet brilliance and decades of curiosity. Her silver-blonde hair woven with gentle waves. Large, elegant dangling earrings catch the light, and she wears a richly patterned brown blouse embroidered with intricate turquoise paisley motifs and delicate beadwork that echoes the molecular elegance she has spent her life depicting. Behind her floats a luminous, dreamlike backdrop of glowing molecular structures--interlocking hexagonal and ribbon-like forms in electric blues, teals, and greens--blending science and art in a single, living canvas.
Hand-drawn and hand-colored (by Jane Richardson) scientific artwork known as a Richardson ribbon diagram (or βribbon modelβ), one of the iconic visual inventions of Jane Richardson that transformed the way we see and understand protein structures. A graceful, three-dimensional tangle of protein backbone ribbons twists and spirals through space, rendered in soft pencil lines and luminous watercolor hues. Smooth golden-brown coils represent Ξ±-helices that curl like elegant ribbons, while broad teal-green arrows trace the flat, pleated strands of Ξ²-sheets slicing through the molecule with directional purpose. Thin, looping golden threads connect the secondary structures, creating a delicate, almost dance-like choreography of biologyβs hidden architecture. The entire form is framed by a simple olive-green mat and dark border, giving the drawing the quiet dignity of both fine art and precise scientific illustrationβa timeless bridge between molecular reality and human imagination.
Jane Richardson was born #OTD in 1941
+ Developed the Richardson (ribbon) diagram to represent proteins' 3D structure (becoming a standard representation for protein structures)
+ MacArthur Fellow, 1985
+ Elected, Nat'l Academy of Sciences, 1991
+ President, Biophysical Society, 2012
#WomenInSTEM
Pleased to announce that I've joined the editorial board of the Biochemical Journal portlandpress.com/biochemj as an associate editor. I'd love to receive manuscripts focussed on CRISPR, anti-viral defence, archaean biochemistry and nucleic acid processing enzymes.
@biochemsoc.bsky.social
Congratulations to Doi Basu @dwaipayanbasu.bsky.social for publishing his first first-author paper from the lab!
The cryoEM structure of a tubulin-like protein from bacteriophage Goslar forms "microtubules" with nine protofilaments!
authors.elsevier.com/a/1mM253SNvc...
Congrats Doi and Kevin!
Now published. Thank you very much to our collaborative team, and very supportive editors and reviewers!!!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Preprint: Systematic discovery of TIR-based immune signaling systems in bacteria
Conservation of TIR-derived signals accross the tree of life! We found bacterial TIR immune systems that signal via canonical cADPR (like in humans) and 2'cADPR (a plant immune signal).
Documented 11 Thoeris types
Iβm happy to share our new preprint! We uncovered the full diversity of bacterial TIR-based antiviral immune signaling, massively expanded the known diversity of Thoeris systems, and revealed conservation of TIR-derived immune signals across the tree of life.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
π§¬π‘οΈHow are new immune mechanisms created?
We show how Lamassu antiphage system, originated from a DNA-repair complex and evolved into a compact and modular immune machine, wt Dinshaw Patel lab in @pnas.org.
π @matthieu-haudiquet.bsky.social, Arpita Chakravarti & all authors!
doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
π¨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
Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome β by detecting methylated mononucleotides.
Hereβs the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system π
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Very cool findings!!!
Youβve heard of ubiquitination, meet deazaguanylation: Doug Wassarman in our lab discovered phage defense pathways have co-opted Q nucleobase biosynthetic enzymes to catalyze a new form of protein conjugation chemistry @science.org
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Another important contribution from Sorek and Blokesch labs.
This engineering strategy with synthetic inhibitors could yield more powerful phages than natural inhibitors, since the latter sometimes trigger other defense systems..
The beautiful, ever-expanding universe of viral proteins targeting nucleotide immune signals!
Paper by @reneechang.bsky.social in @cp-molcell.bsky.social on a nucleotide sponge www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
and preprint by @doudna-lab.bsky.social on viral nucleases www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A widespread family of viral sponge proteins reveals specific inhibition of nucleotide signals in anti- #phage defense
www.cell.com/molecular-ce... #bacteriophage #MicroSky
We wrote a review on the free nucleotide pool as a central playground in human, bacterial, and plant immunity β now out in Nature Reviews in Immunology
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Was fun to write this piece with Dina Hochhauser!
Here is a thread to explain the premises
1/
π¦ π§ββοΈFrom bacterial to human immunity.
We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Preprint: βStructural modeling reveals viral proteins that manipulate host immune signalingβ
Using AI-guided structural modeling, we find new families of viral proteins that sequester or cleave host immune signaling molecules
Congrats Nitzan Tal!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Excellent study, led by @hannahledvina.bsky.social from the Whiteley lab @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social
We are all somatic mutation mosaics.
"There are trillions of cells in a human body and so the total number of somatic mutations acquired in a single individual may well exceed quadrillions, millions of times the size of the human genome."
@nature.com
nature.com/articles/s41...
Congratulations David, richly deserved!!!
Excited to share that my work in the @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social lab describing chaperone-mediated phage sensing by a bacterial NLR-related protein is out in @plosbiology.org!
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 systemsβrendering it multi-phage resistant π³ ..... 1/3
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
