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Brendan Burns

@brendanburns999.bsky.social
73 followers 27 following 14 posts

Associate Prof @UNSW. Stromatolite and microbial mat enthusiast, and general lover of the small world. Especially a dash of Asgards. #Sustainability #IndigenousKnowledge 🦠 🌏

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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
@xabivc.bsky.social @juliameltzer.bsky.social
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Debnath Ghosal @debnathghosal.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Amazing to be a part of this fantastic work led by the @brendanburns999.bsky.social lab! Here, for the first time, we visualized unique viruses associated with Asgard archaea using cryoET. You can read it here: lnkd.in/gs7mztKw
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Xabier Vázquez-Campos @xabivc.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
Amazing first first-author work by @juliameltzer.bsky.social. Shout out to the lab heads @brendanburns999.bsky.social @belindaferrari.bsky.social @kmichie.bsky.social and Debnath Gosal #archaea #phage #asgard #microsky
biorxiv.org
Viruses, Proviruses and Satellites from Asgard Archaea Enrichments Reveal Complex Microbial Interactions
Asgard archaea are the closest known relatives of eukaryotes and are central to models of eukaryogenesis involving archaeal bacterial symbiosis, yet the contribution of viruses remains unexplored. Her...
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
This was an amazing multidisciplinary study driven by @juliameltzer.bsky.social, combining detailed genomic analyses, high res visualisation of viruses via TEM and cryoET, and protein structural modelling. A deep dive into many rabbit holes of the virome of Asgard archaea (and friends) in culture...
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Kate Michie @kmichie.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Archaea and bacteria reveal the ancient origins of another ‘eukaryotic’ complex. Membrane trafficking is old… check this out for an integrative approach showing how bioinformatics and computational structural methods marry with x-ray crystallography and cryo EM to reveal biology in all its beauty.🧶🧬
nature.com
The prokaryotic origins of the COMMD protein family involved in eukaryotic membrane trafficking - Nature Communications
COMMD proteins assemble into a heterodecameric ring in the Commander complex, which plays a role in endosomal membrane trafficking and signalling in eukaryotes. Here, Liu et al. identify COMMD-like pr...
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Really grateful to Malgana language experts and elders for allowing us to bring Indigenous language and culture into our work. It was an immensely rewarding experience for me as non-Indigenous to learn and engage in this space. Words do matter. #IndigenousKnowledge #Malgana #SharkBay
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Was so grateful to be able to work with one of THE cryoEM gurus in Debnath Ghosal on this journey...taking this work to the next level to go from inference to actually seeing interactions with our novel Asgards. Holding up a mirror to perhaps what their microbial ancestors did on an early Earth....
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
‘First contact’ that may have led to complex life on Earth finally witnessed by scientists theconversation.com/first-contac... via @ConversationEDU
theconversation.com
‘First contact’ that may have led to complex life on Earth finally witnessed by scientists
Stromatolites might look like rocks. But they are living relics of ancient systems that thrived on Earth billions of years ago.
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 10/04/2026
Immensely rewarding part of this work was working with Indigenous language experts and elders in the naming of our species of Asgard….’marumarumayae’ derived from the Malgana language from the people of Gathaagudu (#Shark Bay)
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 18/08/2025
While not quite making onto the winner's stage, honoured to have been nominated as part of an amazing team in the Builds Collaboration category in this year's #UNSW Vice Chancellor's People's Awards, for our work on the Bush Tucker Trail - where Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainability meet 🍃
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Was thrilled to see colleague @kmichie.bsky.social awarded a prestigious #UNSW Vice Chancellors Award. Kate leads the Structural Biology Facility and has been the tour d’ force developing the computational structural biology community in Australia. Awesome achievement and throughly deserved 👏
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Debnath Ghosal @debnathghosal.bsky.social · 02/08/2025
📣 New paper alert! Just out in Cell Reports! pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40644298/ Thrilled to share that we have discovered a brand-new anti-phage defense system! Bacteria have evolved various defense strategies (CRISPR etc) to counter phage attacks. We found a new one - fascinating and dramatic ⚔️🦠❄️🔬
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
Thrilled to have this new story out...part of our genealogy search tracking down our long lost (microbial) ancestors. Welcome the latest #Asgard to the marvel universe...Nerearchaeum marumarumayae 😎 . ...https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.22.663070v1
biorxiv.org
An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats
It has been proposed that eukaryotic cells evolved via symbiosis between sulfate-reducing bacteria and hydrogen-producing archaea. Here we describe a highly enriched culture of a novel Asgard archaeon...
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Brendan Burns @brendanburns999.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
From humble beginnings @unswbabs.bsky.social this research has passed along multiple hands to bring together two of my greatest loves…archaea and stromatolites. Fantastic team spearheaded with fellow PIs of the ‘Asgard Dream Team' @iduggin.bsky.social @kmichie.bsky.social @debnathghosal.bsky.social
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Xabier Vázquez-Campos @xabivc.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
Our new preprint with a new #Asgard from stromatolites (and its Desulfobacterota companion). Complete circularised genomes of both, cool #cryoem images, protein modelling, etc Big group effort with a lot of people involved #archaeasky #archaea www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
An Asgard archaeon from a modern analog of ancient microbial mats
It has been proposed that eukaryotic cells evolved via symbiosis between sulfate-reducing bacteria and hydrogen-producing archaea. Here we describe a highly enriched culture of a novel Asgard archaeon...
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