Reposted by Melanie BlokeschMalcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Nicely executed study on phage anti-defence rdcu.be/M7mrq41uU7Ma 22111
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschDorentina Humolli @humollidorentina.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Very happy to share that HIDEN-SEQ is now out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! Using this technique, we recapitulated decades of established phage genetics and uncovered new gene functions, including previously unknown anti-defense factors against several defense systems. www.nature.com/articles/s41... 38443
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschAlexander Harms @aharms485.bsky.social · 25/09/2026The final version of our manuscript on TnSeq in bacteriophages (“HIDEN-SEQ”) is out today – if you have an interesting phage phenotype and want to know the underlying genetic basis, this one is for you! 1/4 515473
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschGiovanni D’Angelo @giodang.bsky.social · 23/09/2026#lipidtime: It's a lipid universe. Today in Nature we publish the Lipid Brain Atlas, the first map of membrane lipid composition across the entire mouse brain, a layer of organisation that cell-type and transcript maps had left out. #lipidomics #neuroscience #BrainAtlas 1011952
Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Big congrats Martin @martinjinek.bsky.social 👏 - so well deserved!! 🎉 🥂 🥳 010
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschSwiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) @snsf.ch · 22/09/2026🏆 Biochemist Martin Jinek is the winner of the Swiss Science Prize #MarcelBenoist 2026, considered the Swiss #Nobel Prize. He contributed to the development of molecular scissors, namely CRISPR-Cas9 technology. Read more ➡️ sohub.io/3hs4 66321
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschZamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Yes! Wonderful! also , can't resist, we proposed the same model (we called it fusion- fragmentation) in our paper on the Murray collection, where we look at how those plasmids end up in fusions, or fragmented. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...science.orgPre- and postantibiotic epoch: The historical spread of antimicrobial resistancePlasmids are now the primary vectors of antimicrobial resistance, but our understanding of how human industrialization of antibiotics influenced their evolution is limited by a paucity of data predati... 12510
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschGc Rox @gcrox.bsky.social · 12/09/2026Postdoctoral position studying Neisseria gonorrhoeae genetics, genomics, physiology, or pathogenesis. Please email h-seifert@northwestern.edu or apply at careers.northwestern.edu/psp/hrnu_er/... Please Repostcareers.northwestern.edu 01016
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschNature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · 03/09/2026Out Now! High-throughput recovery of integron cassettes for gene discovery screens #MicroSkygo.nature.comHigh-throughput recovery of integron cassettes for gene discovery screensNature Microbiology, Published online: 03 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-026-02474-5Integron insertion sites engineered into counterselection markers allow large-scale and high-throughput capture of integron-encoded genes from genetically tractable bacteria or DNA samples. 1159
Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Super - congrats Ana 🎉👏. Glad to see you back in Switzerland 🇨🇭 010
Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Fantastic - big congrats Rafa 🎊🎉👏 So well deserved 🤩 120
Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Big congrats to Filipa @filipatr.bsky.social & @jaescudero.bsky.social & all co-authors 🎉🎊!! Beautiful study, which was nice to see evolving over time. Was a privilege to contribute natural competence/Vibrio expertise while hosting Filipa during her @embo.org short-term fellowship in my lab 🤩. 162
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschFilipa Trigo da Roza @filipatr.bsky.social · 03/09/2026It’s out! 🥹🎉 We’re so incredibly happy and proud to see this work out in the world. And once again, a huge thank you to the great mastermind @jaescudero.bsky.social and all the co-authors; this wouldn’t have been possible without you! doi.org/10.1038/s415... @natmicrobiol.nature.comdoi.orgHigh-throughput recovery of integron cassettes for gene discovery screens - Nature MicrobiologyIntegron insertion sites engineered into counterselection markers allow large-scale and high-throughput capture of integron-encoded genes from genetically tractable bacteria or DNA samples. 75129
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschJose A Escudero @jaescudero.bsky.social · 03/09/2026Filipa, you did an amazing job in the delivery. We went through a lot together to make it work, indeed. But you did great! And our collaborators took it to the next level. Thanks to @mblokesch.bsky.social @mredrejo.bsky.social and @lopezigual.bsky.social!! But Filipa, you are the star!🌟 Tiramisu!!!static.klipy.comTiramisu Bread Dessert with ForkALT: Tiramisu Bread Dessert with Fork 182
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschInstitute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) @istaresearch.bsky.social · 02/09/2026Congratulations to ISTA’s @jpkbravo.bsky.social, named a 2026 Vallee Scholar! 🎉 The award supports innovative, curiosity-driven biomedical research. Bravo’s lab studies bacterial immune systems and how they distinguish self from non-self. Read more: shorturl.at/FyLbw 1294
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschJan-Willem Veening @veeninglab.com · 26/08/2026The 2026 paper's core observation is that MapZ sets plane orientation, not midcell selection, and the chromosome supplies the underlying spatial information. This is exactly the central claim of our 2017 paper... 242
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschTracy Palmer @proftracypalmer.bsky.social · 25/08/2026Happy to see this work preprinted! Only our second foray into the mycobacterial T7SS 0187
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschPaul Rainey @paulbrainey.bsky.social · 21/08/2026A third-year student draws poster PS3.20.305 -- far corner, farthest wall -- and commits to standing there two hours. Barely anyone makes it that far. Two floors up, a senior colleague is having the week of his life. Same conference. A new essay. academicrenewal.substack.com/p/why-we-sti...academicrenewal.substack.comWhy we still flyThe scientific conference was invented to solve a transport problem we no longer have. What is it for now? 12711
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschCell Host & Microbe @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social · 22/06/2026CBASS limits phage at no expense A CBASS type encoding a phospholipase (CapV) effector limits the late stage of phage replication while maintaining Pseudomonas aeruginosa cell viability. CBASS limits packaged phage DNA, reducing virion production www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...cell.comCBASS limits bacteriophage production while maintaining cell viability in Pseudomonas aeruginosaHuiting, Shmidov, et al. report on a CBASS type encoding a phospholipase (CapV) effector that can successfully limit the late stage of phage replication while maintaining cell viability, rather than i... 0128
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschNicole Dubilier @nicoledubilier.bsky.social · 13/08/2026Hiding in plain sight: Animals eat the natural bioplastic PHA We discovered that many animals can break down PHA. And many of these enzymes had been sitting unnoticed in genome databases. www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comAnimal degradation of microbial storage polyhydroxyalkanoates - Nature Ecology & EvolutionThis study shows that the degradation of microbial storage polyhydroxyalkanoates is not just restricted to microorganisms by finding that some animals also have the enzymes required to break down thes... 25118
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschJackie Knee @jackieknee.bsky.social · 12/08/2026Job alert! Join our fantastic cholera research team & work with colleagues at LSHTM, University of Geneva, & DRC. Closing August 30. Details and application here: jobs.lshtm.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx... @lshtm-ehg.bsky.social @gddynamics.bsky.social @lshtm.bsky.social @lshtmamrcentre.bsky.socialjobs.lshtm.ac.ukJob Opportunity at LSHTM: Research FellowThe London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is one of the world’s leading public health universities. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working i... 022
Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 06/08/2026Fantastic news - so well deserved. Big congrats Sian 🎊🍾🎉 111
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschLandon Getz @landongetz.bsky.social · 06/08/2026DNA glycosylases are repair enzymes, essential to all cellular life. They find chemically damaged bases and remove them so DNA can be repaired. Today in Nature Microbiology, we show bacteria have repeatedly repurposed them into antiviral immune systems 🧵 www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comAntiviral defence is a conserved function of diverse bacterial DNA glycosylases - Nature MicrobiologyDNA glycosylases, typically used for DNA repair, can also protect bacteria against phages that would otherwise evade host immunity by incorporating modified bases into their genomes. 38139
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschPaul Rainey @paulbrainey.bsky.social · 04/08/2026I'm not allowed to boil a kettle in my office; the electricity is public money. This rule can be justified in a sentence. Most of what lands on my desk has never had to be. New post on unnecessary bureaucracy. academicrenewal.substack.com/p/the-one-wa...academicrenewal.substack.comThe one-way auditResearchers are required to account for their time and money. Administrative procedures rarely include any account of the research time they consume. 4129
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschDr. Lucky Tran @luckytran.com · 29/07/2026Record outbreak of diarrhea-causing parasite 20M eggs recalled due to salmonella Worst air quality in world from wildfire smoke UN says world risks HIV resurgence due to funding cuts Most measles cases in 35 years They’re going after Fauci to distract you from current public health failures 251308497
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschVivek Mutalik @vivekmutalik.bsky.social · 29/07/2026🎉final print version in PLOS Genetics @sullivan-lab.bsky.social @biosci.lbl.gov journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...journals.plos.orgCross-family and phage-specific gene requirements for Klebsiella infection revealed by scalable RB-TnSeq genetic screensAuthor summary Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that infect bacteria and play central roles in shaping microbial communities across ecosystems. Despite their ecological importance, the bacterial... 01910
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschProPublica @propublica.org · 28/07/2026John Gai carried his sick father to a nearby clinic in a wheelbarrow, but he died from cholera on the way. Gai then pushed the wheelbarrow for hours through the camp to take him to the cemetery: “Nobody should have to carry a dead body among the living.” (Published December 2025)propublica.orgTrump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a re... 161007410
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschInfect-Net @infect-net.bsky.social · 27/07/2026Remember to register for our 7th Infect-Net network meeting in Würzburg. Registration Deadline is 31.08.2026 Registration link: www.hygiene.uni-wuerzburg.de/formulare/7t... 045
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschKai Kupferschmidt @kakape.bsky.social · 24/07/2026Another massive jump in Ebola cases in DRC (reflecting new cases as well as "data harmonization"). Now 2,905 cases including 1,269 deaths. I find it harder every day to square the size and speed of spread of this outbreak with the lack of attention it is getting. insp.cd/sitrep-n069-... 4203130
Reposted by Melanie Blokeschsbulgheresi.bsky.social @sbulgheresi.bsky.social · 22/07/2026Our new preprint is out! We investigate chromosome organization in obligate mammalian symbionts and show that these bacteria maintain stable chromosome orientations while displaying conserved lifestyle-associated chromosome architectures across species. www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/... 1199
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschRafael Pinilla-Redondo (Rafa) @rafomics.bsky.social · 21/07/20261/4 Every good defence needs a backup! 🛡️⚔ Out now in @natrevmicro.nature.com our Comment on "𝗶𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗲 𝘀𝗮𝗳𝗲𝗴𝘂𝗮𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴"! 🎉 🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...nature.comImmune safeguarding as a conserved principle of antiviral defence - Nature Reviews MicrobiologyAll 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... 17145
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschAude Bernheim @audeber.bsky.social · 21/07/2026Out @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social, natural products meet bacterial immunity! We used genomics to identify lanthivirins: a family of >2,000 lanthipeptide BGCs that protect Actinobacteria against phages. Led by @hshomar.bsky.social & @mariegllm.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...sciencedirect.comA family of lanthipeptides with anti-phage functionBacteria produce natural products to adapt to their environments, with phage interactions as major ecological and evolutionary drivers. While some nat… 18444
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschRafael Pinilla-Redondo (Rafa) @rafomics.bsky.social · 16/07/20261/10 🚨Preprint! One RING to rule them all (phages)👑💍⚔️ Bacteria build giant DNA-scaffolded RNase rings (larger than the ribosome!) to shut down viral infection🧬🧵👇 biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 411858
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschSorek Lab @soreklab.bsky.social · 09/07/2026Our paper out in Science today: The Metis defense system senses molecular byproducts released when a phage degrades the bacterial genome, and then prevents replication of the phage in the infected cell Congratulations @ostermanilya.bsky.social and co-authors!science.orgBacteria sense virus-induced genome degradation via methylated mononucleotidesPhages often degrade the genome of their bacterial host to individual nucleotides. Here we describe Metis, a bacterial defense system that directly senses phage-mediated host genome degradation. Metis... 410353
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschGéraldine Laloux @lalouxlab.bsky.social · 09/07/2026New preprint! We show that the bacterial predator B. bacteriovorus deploys a unipolar Tad nanomachine for irreversible attachment to prey and invasion. @coralietesseur.bsky.social used CRISPRi+microfluidics to overcome barriers associated with essential systems in an obligate predatory lifestyle 🦠biorxiv.orgA polarity-controlled Tad nanomachine enables prey invasion in a bacterial predatorType IV pili are dynamic surface appendages assembled by envelope-spanning nanomachines that mediate diverse bacterial interactions, yet how these systems are adapted to predatory lifestyles remains p... 24717
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschKimberly Kline 🏔 @kimingeneva.bsky.social · 09/07/2026🚨Join us at the University of Geneva! We're seeking an outstanding junior researcher to apply for an ERC or SNSF Starting Grant with our institutional support in host–pathogen interactions, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, or mycology. www.unige.ch/medecine/mim... Please share!unige.chOpen call : MIMOL Junior Group Leader’s application for a Starting Grant - Microbiology and molecular medicine - UNIGE 22528
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschPaula Navarro @navarropaula.bsky.social · 03/07/2026🚨 New in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We reveal how the antibiotic target PBP1b fortifies the E.coli division site against osmotic rupture. Proud this was completed in our independent labs @dmf-unil.bsky.social, with @avettiger.bsky.social. Congratulations to all authors! 🦠❄️🔬 #teamtomo bit.ly/3SCbOg1 👇doi.orgThe penicillin-binding protein PBP1b fortifies the Escherichia coli division site against osmotic rupture - Nature MicrobiologyA specific isoform of PBP1b functions independently of the activator protein, LpoB, to drive generation of a wedge-like peptidoglycan structure that strengthens the division site in Escherichia coli. 39333
Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Yes!! Plus, the last few days off enjoying Vienna => sauna temperatures though 🥵 020
Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 02/07/2026Thanks to my lab for the b'day cake🎂 & gifts!🥰 Aperol🍹+chocolate🍫(they know me way too well!)-plus promising new data🤓 Tuesday was also my last day before rotating off my Institute Directorship, so hopefully more time back at the bench... assuming turning 5️⃣0️⃣ doesn't immediately come with back pain 😂 5321
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschEmma Slack @mucosalimmunology.bsky.social · 01/07/2026We are recruiting a lab manager for my group in Oxford. This is a lovely team doing great things, and you could be an important part of it! See here: www.path.ox.ac.uk/vacancy/lab-... Please spread the word!path.ox.ac.ukLab Manager - Molecular Immunology - Dunn SchoolLaboratory Manager/Senior Scientist position in the Molecular Mucosal Immunology group at Oxford 11831
Reposted by Melanie BlokeschMelanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · 29/03/2026Open postdoc position in my lab on HGT and interbacterial competition. We seek candidates with a PhD in microbiology (or related fields)+ strong 1st-author publications. Curious, highly motivated, and dedicated team players ready to contribute fully are encouraged to apply. Details: tiny.cc/cz01101tiny.ccOpen Positions- 06480
