Cyclic oligonucleotide–based antiphage signaling systems (CBASS) are bacterial immune pathways evolutionarily related to cGAS-STING (cyclic GMP-AMP synthase–stimulator of interferon genes) in humans. ...

Empowering Curious Researchers at the Vienna BioCenter PhD Program Are you a curious and motivated student looking to launch a successful scientific career? Look no further than the Vienna BioCenter P...

Microscopy underpins modern biology, but acquiring high-quality data from complex experiments at scale remains challenging. Smart microscopy can standardize and automate data collection, but each expe...

Recent discoveries on bacterial immunity have revealed that several protein domains involved in anti-phage defense are conserved in eukaryotes, such as SIRim, TIR, PNP and gasdermin. Bacterial immune ...

We treat viral antagonism as a discovery tool for host biology to reveal fundamental mechanisms of immune signaling and new opportunities for therapeutic intervention.

A genomic screen reveals homologues of ESCRT components in mirusviruses that infect unicellular aquatic eukaryotes.

CRISPR-associated transposons mediate RNA-guided DNA integration, but the molecular basis of transposase function remains poorly understood. Here, the authors uncover the mechanism of a highly active ...

Many bacterial immune defenses transmit recognition of phage infection via the generation of diverse cyclic nucleotide second messengers. Phage have evolved to subvert this kind of immunity by sequest...

The Review describes shared ancient, conserved mechanisms between human antiviral immunity and bacterial anti-phage systems, outlining universal principles of pathogen sensing, signalling and effector...

The mammalian liver possesses a regenerative capacity that is unmatched by any other organ. Following injury, liver epithelial cells can proliferate or even change their identity, enabling the organ t...

The bacteriophage ΦX174 was the first genome to be sequenced and the first to be chemically synthesised. Here we present a complete map of the consequences of changing every nucleotide in the ΦX174 ge...

Proteome-wide prediction and structural modeling of disordered protein interaction interfaces advance characterization of disease-associated variants in disordered protein regions.

About AITHYRAAITHYRA is a pioneering biomedical research institute in Vienna, Austria, where artificial intelligence meets life sciences to drive the next biological revolution. AITHYRA is an institut

Systematic analysis of prokaryotic STAND NTPases — relatives of animal and plant immune receptors — uncovers diverse antiviral sensors that detect most of the core structural and replicative proteins of bacteriophages.

All organisms defend against viral infections through active immunity mechanisms that clear the virus or population-level mechanisms that cause regulated cell death. Recent research increasingly shows...

Bacteria produce natural products to adapt to their environments, with phage interactions as major ecological and evolutionary drivers. While some nat…

Innate immune recognition of bacteria is thought to center on cell-surface or endosomal pattern recognition receptors such as TLRs. Ragland et al. identify an intraphagosomal cyclic dinucleotide (CDN)...

High mutation rates erode viral sequence similarity, obscuring deep evolutionary history. While protein structure is far more conserved than sequence, its use in evolutionary studies has historically ...

Predicting gene function is a pivotal and challenging step in genomic and metagenomic data analysis. Current automatic annotation tools typically rely on the single most similar sequence from the quer...

A scalable library of ∼13,000 barcoded viral open reading frames from >500 viral species enables functional genomic screens across the virome. Applying this platform identified viral regulators of cellular proliferation, antigen presentation, and interferon signaling. This platform enables systematic exploration of viral protein function.

All kingdoms of life have developed strategies to limit viral infection. In humans, interferons induce a suite of antiviral factors that collectively provide immunity. Some human immune genes are homo...