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Chris Greening

@greening.bsky.social
1.1K followers 800 following 40 posts

Professor & NHMRC Fellow at Monash University, Melbourne. Using microbes to tackle global challenges in health and sustainability. #FirstGen 🐶🇦🇺🌈🎹🌱

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Reposted by Chris Greening
Kathryn (Katy) Appler @katyappler.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Beyond thrilled to share that our study has been published! This project encompasses years of work, including my thesis research on Asgard archaea in the @archaeal.bsky.social lab at @utmsi.bsky.social and @texasscience.bsky.social!!! #MicroSky #ArchaeaSky 1/12
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Thijs J. G. Ettema 🦠🔬🇳🇱🇸🇪🇪🇺 @ettema.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Finally out in @nature.com: a new piece of the puzzle of how complex life evolved. Lead by @archaeal.bsky.social & @katyappler.bsky.social. Great collab with @greening.bsky.social and @kassipan.bsky.social. More pieces to follow soon! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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kohtzarchaeota.bsky.social @kohtzarchaeota.bsky.social · 30/11/2025
Fortunate my DECRA fellowship 'Uncovering divergent hydrogen-dependent methane metabolism in novel Archaea' was successful! Immensely grateful to @greening.bsky.social for the continued support and all present/past collaborators, mentors, and colleagues that made this possible!! tinyurl.com/45cc9ner
monash.edu
MNHS researchers successful in receiving 2026 ARC DECRA and LIEF grants
Monash Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences researchers have been successful in receiving Australian Research Council (ARC) grants under the Discovery Early Career Research Award (DECRA) 2026 scheme ...
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Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · 05/11/2025
#NewResearch A widespread hydrogenase supports fermentative growth of gut bacteria in healthy people @greening.bsky.social #microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A widespread hydrogenase supports fermentative growth of gut bacteria in healthy people - Nature Microbiology
A previously uncharacterized microbial enzyme is responsible for the production of molecular hydrogen in the gut, which drives the growth of other bacteria and has implications for human health.
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Anne Daebeler @anne-daebeler.bsky.social · 19/11/2025
📢 Extra, extra: our collaborative study on trace gas oxidizers in a warmer soil is out as a preprint www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Big thanks to @thanh0109.bsky.social @bobpmleung.bsky.social @wutkowska.bsky.social @andreasrichter.bsky.social @mathildebio.bsky.social @greening.bsky.social ...
biorxiv.org
Soil trace gas oxidizers divergently respond to short- and long-term warming
The upland soil microbiome is dominated by aerobic bacteria that oxidize atmospheric trace gases, including CO, H2, and CH4. As a result, soils are the largest biological sink for these climate-active...
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Futurum Careers @futurumcareers.bsky.social · 22/10/2025
In our latest collection of free education resources, we explore bioconversion with Professor Esteban Marcellin, Professor @greening.bsky.social and Dr Leonie Van 't Hag from the RECARB hub. They are using bioconversion to convert greenhouse gases into proteins. futurumcareers.com/tackling-cli...
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 24/10/2025
Why can our farts ignite? Time to find out (and quite a bit more) in our new paper in Nature Microbiology led by the amazing Dr Cait Welsh. Integrating atomic-to-ecosystem level insights. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
A widespread hydrogenase supports fermentative growth of gut bacteria in healthy people - Nature Microbiology
A previously uncharacterized microbial enzyme is responsible for the production of molecular hydrogen in the gut, which drives the growth of other bacteria and has implications for human health.
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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Cool study on aerotolerant methanogens! Options they might protect themselves from O2 include biofilm formation in response to O2 exposure and antioxidants (F420-H2-oxidases, rubredoxins, thioredoxins, and peroxiredoxins). This opens up a vareity of new possible habitats for methanogens.
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Joshua Hamm @joshnhamm.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
New preprint up now! Interested in the evolution of halophily within DPANN archaea we decided to investigate the sister phylum to the Nanohaloarchaeota, GTDB phylum EX4484-52, for which we propose the name Caliditerrarchaeota www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Caliditerrarchaeota, a new sister to Nanohaloarchaeota, provides insights into the evolution of DPANN halophily
The Nanohaloarchaeota are a clade of halophilic symbionts with small cells and genomes. Originally placed within the Euryarchaeota, they are now widely thought to belong to the DPANN archaea. However,...
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
Masterpiece paper from Ning, Perran, Amelia and co! Great mix of field-based geochemistry, laboratory manipulations, methanogen cultivation, and isolate / environmental genomics. An unexpected feedback between eutrophication and climate change that could shake up how we think about methane budgets.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 08/08/2025
1/3 Electricity from air! In the top journal Nano Energy today, we report the first fuel cell that makes power from air alone. We achieved this by using the enzyme Huc to oxidize ambient hydrogen. This results in a continuous low-level power from air and higher outputs with industrial waste gases.
sciencedirect.com
Nanoengineered bioanode with oxygen-insensitive hydrogenase for sustainable energy harvesting from atmospheric hydrogen and waste gases
Enzymatic biofuel cells (EBFCs) utilizing hydrogenases to oxidize hydrogen offer a sustainable approach to energy conservation. However, the oxygen se…
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James Bradley @drbradbrad.bsky.social · 31/07/2025
Does the atmosphere harbour a resident, growing microbial ecosystem? ⛅ Here in @jgrbiogeo.bsky.social we outline how theoretical tools 📝 & modelling 💻 can bring us closer to the answer Congrats lead author @drmartinezrabert.bsky.social @mioceanologie.bsky.social 🧵 thread 👇 tinyurl.com/7pdfm7uw
tinyurl.com
Investigating the Atmospheric Microbial Ecosystem Through Theory, Bioenergetics, and Numerical Modeling: A Breath of Fresh Air for Aeromicrobiology
Aerobiology research is hindered by several technical challenges facing experimental studies, sampling, and monitoring strategies Theoretical approaches and numerical modeling tools provide power...
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Our article showing energy production from air alone is in PNAS today. This paper provides an ultimate biochemical proof that microbes can survive simply by 'making' energy from air (making two ATP per molecule atmospheric H2 consumed) and has biotech applications. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
pnas.org
ATP synthesis driven by atmospheric hydrogen concentrations | PNAS
All cells require a continuous supply of the universal energy currency, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), to drive countless cellular reactions. The un...
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Ben J Woodcroft @benjwoodcroft.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Out in @natbiotech.nature.com: Metagenome taxonomy profilers usually ignore unknown species. SingleM is an accurate profiler which doesn't, even detecting phyla with no MAGs. Profiles of 700,000 metagenomes at sandpiper.qut.edu.au. A 🧵
Logo for the Sandpiper website
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Maria Papadatou @marypapadatou.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Extraordinary keynote lecture by Prof. Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social about Microbial oxidation of atmospheric trace gases: from enzymes to ecosystems. #FEMS2025 @femsmicro.org
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Lucie Malard @microbiolul.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Getting inspired @femsmicro.org ! Thanks @greening.bsky.social for the very interesting talk !
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Cecilia G. Flocco @ceciliaflocco.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Day 3 at #fems2025 started with an exciting and inspiring keynote by Chris @greening.bsky.social on microbes living out of thin air @femsmicro.org
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Trends in Biochemical Sciences @cp-trendsbiochem.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
That's only half the issue - check out these great Reviews, too! 📝 Oxygen-adapted hydrogenases - @greening.bsky.social et al 📝 RNA processing in innate immunity - Kristen Lynch et al 📝 connexins and pannexins beyond the cell surface - Henrique Girao et al
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Our new consensus statement on reducing and reporting contamination in microbiome studies is the cover image of this month's Nature Microbiology: www.nature.com/articles/s41... In the cover photo, you can see our postdoc Sophie Holland in fully PPE sampling the atmosphere of terrestrial Antarctica.
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Dr Ry Holland @rythemicroguy.bsky.social · 03/07/2025
Guess who's the coverboi for @natmicrobiol.nature.com this month? 💁 A huge shout-out to Dr Rachael Lappan for entrusting me to carry out the sampling for this incredibly cool atmosphere microbiome project on her behalf, & to Braydon Moloney for capturing this moment in Antarctica last summer. [1/2]
A screenshot of the Nature Microbiology website showing the journal cover - me in a cleansuit, gloves, and dark snow goggles attaching a filter to an air sampling unit. Text reads: Guidelines for low-biomass microbiomes. Pictured here, Sophie Holland attaches a filter to an air sampler to study the atmospheric microbiome of Somoveken Glacier in Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica. The pristine environment and incredibly low atmospheric biomass require multiple precautions to avoid sample contamination, including wearing full personal protective equipment over warm weather gear. In this issue, Fierer, Greening and colleagues working on host-associated and environmental microbiomes present guidelines and best practices for studying low-biomass microbiomes in a Consensus Statement.
See Fierer et al.
Image: Braydon Moloney. Cover design: Laoise Mac Gabhann"
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Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Our paper demonstrating that within-species warfare interactions are ecologically important on human skin is now published in Nature Micro! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Intraspecies warfare restricts strain coexistence in human skin microbiomes - Nature Microbiology
About 15,000 pairwise interactions within S. epidermidis from 18 people in 6 families reveal the antagonism and molecular trade-offs that shape the skin microbiota.
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Noah Fierer @noahfierer.bsky.social · 21/06/2025
Hope this is useful - consensus statement "Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies" rdcu.be/er3Io
rdcu.be
Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies
Nature Microbiology - In this Consensus Statement, the authors outline strategies for processing, analysing and interpreting low-biomass microbiome samples, and provide recommendations to minimize...
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Atin Sharma @atinsharma.bsky.social · 25/06/2025
An editorial in @natmicrobiol.nature.com highlighted issues with reports dealing with low-biomass microbiome. A new consensus statement provides guidelines to prevent and report contamination in low-biomass studies. A step towards ensuring rigour! #MIcrobiomeSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies - Nature Microbiology
In this Consensus Statement, the authors outline strategies for processing, analysing and interpreting low-biomass microbiome samples, and provide recommendations to minimize contaminants.
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Emily White @emily-white.bsky.social · 23/06/2025
A new Consensus Statement led by @greening.bsky.social and @noahfierer.bsky.social in @natmicrobiol.nature.com Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies ❗A must-read for anyone working in this field #microsky 🧪🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Guidelines for preventing and reporting contamination in low-biomass microbiome studies - Nature Microbiology
In this Consensus Statement, the authors outline strategies for processing, analysing and interpreting low-biomass microbiome samples, and provide recommendations to minimize contaminants.
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Josy ter Beek @josyterbeek.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
After some more awesome science from amongst others @greening.bsky.social, Simon Newstead & @martinsteinegger.bsky.social and unfortunately a long drive back home, we made it back to Umeå! Thank you #Sweprot and all participants for the great company and hopefully see you next year!
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Trends in Biochemical Sciences @cp-trendsbiochem.bsky.social · 29/05/2025
Online now - the Review "Diverse lineages and adaptations of oxygen-adapted #hydrogenases" from @greening.bsky.social, @rhyswg.bsky.social‬, and colleagues. #metalloenzyme #evolution #O2Tolerant #O2Sensitive #GasChannels Read it here 👉 authors.elsevier.com/a/1lA2s3S6Gf...
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christoph_STCmicrobeblog @christophstc.bsky.social · 22/03/2025
I'm absolutely taken by your work – and your team's work – on how microbes get by living from "thin air". it's only a "paradigm shift' for microbiologists brought up with the idea that bugs live by "feast or famine", what they do not only in the lab. but the famine part is way more interesting...
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 20/03/2025
Energy from air? No problem! In our new preprint, we reconstitute the machinery that allows microbes to endure starvation. By using the trace amounts of hydrogen in air alone, they produce plenty of chemical energy (2 ATP) to get by. The only byproduct? Water. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Hydrogenase-driven ATP synthesis from air
All cells require a continuous supply of the universal energy currency, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), to drive countless cellular reactions. The universally conserved F1Fo-ATP synthase regenerates ATP...
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James Lingford @jameslingford.bsky.social · 19/03/2025
Hydrogenase-driven ATP synthesis from air www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... New work from us where we put the Huc hydrogenase to work to see if it can generate a proton motive force. It can! cc: @ashleighkropp.bsky.social @rhyswg.bsky.social @greening.bsky.social
Cartoon display of the bioenergetic scenario for Huc using either bd-I oxidase or bcc-aa oxidase as pmf-generating unit, driving ATP synthesis by the F1F o-ATP synthase.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 27/02/2025
Wonderful opportunity. So excited for where Sophie and our team have taken the Antarctic program.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Our latest preprint reveals how new ecosystems form. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Combining ecological, genomic, and activity based approaches, we reveal the first colonisers are highly flexible microbes that use rock-derived and atmospheric energy sources. Photosynthesis isn't so important. 1/2
biorxiv.org
Metabolically flexible microorganisms rapidly establish glacial foreland ecosystems
An overriding question in ecology is how new ecosystems form. This question can be tested by studying colonisation of environments with little to no pre-existing life. Here, we investigated the functi...
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Fiona Whelan @freewhelan.bsky.social · 09/02/2025
#LorneProteins2025 Chris Greening - enzymatically driven ATP and electricity generation from air. Organisms that can live on air. Passive diffusion. Trace gas oxidation widespread strategy. Soil bacteria - Important for atmosphere, biodiversity and ecosystems! Amazing work supported by a great team
Man behind podium in a red Hawaiian shirt performing a rhetorical whirl gesture while giving a presentation.

Describing mycobacterium smegmatis - take up trace gases to generate protons for energy generation. Oxidises atmospheric CO during carbon starvation express CODH. Ashleigh and David purified them 👏. Huc hydrogenase catalytically efficient; CO dehydrogenase catalytically perfect. Rhys and Hari - cryoEM - Huc selects H2 over O2. HucM membrane associated but not embedded. Menaquinone/menaquinol membrane gradient. Transferred through a hydrophobic tube. Huc evolved from low affinity oxygen sensitive enzymes. Hannah Shafast interpreting the chemistry. Huc-mediated ATP synthesis from air without any by-products. Expanding feed stocks of fuel cells. Stable at 60 deg C! Poison insensitive. Robust power generation on waste feedstocks.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
Our lab has come back refreshed from our annual retreat. Blending personal/scientific talks with group discussions and team activities. I come away amazed by our team -- not just for our science, but for how mature, caring, and forward-thinking everyone is. So proud! P.S. Can you guess the microbe?
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BejaLabTechnion @bejalab.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
Methanol transfer supports metabolic syntrophy between bacteria and archaea www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Methanol transfer supports metabolic syntrophy between bacteria and archaea - Nature
Zhaonella formicivorans produces methanol, for a novel syntrophic interaction, without requiring methylated compounds as an input.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 29/01/2025
In Nature Chemical Biology today, we reveal how microbes clean our atmospheres by consuming carbon monoxide (CO) gas. A methodological tour de force from Ashleigh Kropp, Rhys Grinter, and David Gillett with broad implications for the atmosphere and bioenergetics. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Quinone extraction drives atmospheric carbon monoxide oxidation in bacteria - Nature Chemical Biology
Here, Kropp et al. use cryo-electron microscopy and structural modeling to show that the enzyme [MoCu]-CO dehydrogenase interacts with its partner, the membrane-bound quinone-binding protein CoxG, to ...
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Extensive new preprint with Ying Teng's lab on how carbon monoxide affects soil communities and activities. Contrary to popular belief, CO at biologically relevant concentrations mainly stimulates rather than inhibits growth. Diverse bacteria grow and fix CO2 with it. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 27/01/2025
Completely agree. The field also critically needs biochemists, biogeochemists, and true ecologists too. To become more mechanistic rather than observational, and bounded in biogeochemical principles and ecological frameworks. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Microbiome science needs more microbiologists - Nature Microbiology
Microbiome science is a multi-disciplinary field, but classical microbiologists are needed to ensure advances are grounded in our understanding of basic microbiological concepts.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 19/01/2025
Melbourne Pride (Midsumma) started yesterday. Very thankful to live in such a cosmopolitan and progressive city.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
I apologise for HydDB being down. Aarhus University decided to stop hosting it at quite short notice. However, we plan to relaunch first thing next year and are in the midst of creating a much-needed HydDB 2.0. HydDB 1.0 is good for hydrogenase information, but our HMMs best for classification. 1/2
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
New life goal unlocked! Getting to work on marsupials, including kangaroos, koalas, and my all time faves, wombats. Privileged to help on this great UQ-led study showing differences in hydrogen cycling and electron flow explain low methane emissions in marsupials. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
biorxiv.org
Metagenomic analysis of marsupial gut microbiomes provides a genetic basis for the low methane economy
The potent greenhouse gas methane is an end-product of plant biomass digestion by gut microbiota, though the amount produced and/or released varies among herbivorous animals. On a per unit of feed bas...
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Dr Ry Holland @rythemicroguy.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
GRWM to fly to #Antarctica tomorrow! Our flight from Cape Town aims to land in the coldest part of the "night", for the best runway conditions, so this is everything I'll be wearing when I step off the plane and onto the ice ❄️ #SAEFgoesSouth
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Huge congrats to Cait Welsh for submitting her PhD thesis today. As reflected in the preprint below, Cait has bridged methods to understand gas cycling in the human gut in health and disease. Also a huge source of enthusiasm, innovation and support over the years. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
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Steve Turner @sjturn.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
One of the joys of my HoD role is to see the excellence of our PhD students being recognised. Very proud of Dr Bob Leung, recipient of the Mollie Holman award for excellence in graduate research, @monashuniversity.bsky.social supervised by @greening.bsky.social, Congrats to all the award recipients
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Enormous congratulations to Bob (Pok Man) Leung for receiving the Mollie Holman Award for Thesis Excellence. Bob was an exceptionally visionary, collaborative, and productive PhD student valued by all. He received an ARC DECRA Fellowship earlier this year to develop an independent program.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
Nature Communications are constantly threatening me with a $9000+ invoice for a journal article that didn't even involve me. Told their editorial and debt team multiple times, but it continues and have been referred to debt collection agency. I'm not involved in any way. 😲
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
You hear about our successes a lot on here, but I don't talk enough about the rejections. As of today, 10 out of the 12 grants members of our lab put in this year didn't get up. Most grants were led by early-career researchers in/with our team as a way for them to lead independent programs. 1/3
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Chris Lupton @luptoncj.bsky.social · 21/11/2024
Great to see our work on the #cryoem structure of the human TSC:WIPI3 lysosomal recruitment complex! Awesome effort from co-authors @charlesbj.bsky.social and Laura D'Andrea with @drellisdon.bsky.social doing the heavy lifting leading the project. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
science.org
Structure of the human TSC:WIPI3 lysosomal recruitment complex
The complete TSC structure reveals how lysosomal targeting proteins and phosphoinositides coordinate mTORC1 inhibition.
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Chris Greening @greening.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Honoured to receive Monash University's inaugural Researcher of the Year award last night. Since starting my group eight years ago, the university has enabled us to do creative, impactful, often programmatic research. This award recognises a huge collective effort from our team and collaborators.
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Roland Hatzenpichler @environmicrobio.bsky.social · 25/07/2024
Methanogenesis outside the Euryarchaeota experimentally demonstrated by three cultivation-driven studies (two from my lab)! A long🧵.🐻with me tinyurl.com/4v4fkda6 tinyurl.com/yr4p7js6 tinyurl.com/mtsrj6b9
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Alex Crits-Christoph @acritschristoph.bsky.social · 01/07/2024
The atmosphere: a transport medium or an active microbial ecosystem? From @greening.bsky.social et al. academic.oup.com/ismej/articl...
academic.oup.com
The atmosphere: a transport medium or an active microbial ecosystem?
Abstract. The atmosphere may be Earth’s largest microbial ecosystem. It is connected to all of Earth’s surface ecosystems and plays an important role in mi
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