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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Nicely executed study on phage anti-defence rdcu.be/M7mrq41uU7Ma

Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

New preprint from PhD student Yu Sun. TSR1 is a TIR effector specialised for CRISPR defence. It is an obligate dimer activated by cA3 and degrades its own activator using a ring nuclease domain. Perhaps the first confirmed dimeric TIR effector? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Our paper on type II Panoptes is now published at PLOS Biology with new data on phage escapers - quite a step up in microbiology for our lab, led by Sabine Gruschow. Thanks to @erc.europa.eu for funding dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

Tim Blower and I are guest editing a Biochemical Journal @biochemsoc.bsky.social themed collection on: The Prokaryotic Immune System It's now open for research submissions and we'd welcome submission of research and review articles. More info: portlandpress.com/biochemj/pag...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

Wonderful to hear Carl Stetter reminisce on the discovery of Archaea at MBoA2026

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 06/07/2026

Travelling to the #EMBO Molecular Biology of Archaea meeting in Cambridge. The first meeting was in St Andrews in 2008 and involved kilts. Looking forward to catching up with a lot of friends and colleagues

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 25/06/2026

We braved the unseasonal heat (23C) to play our annual lab golf competition yesterday- putting on the Himalayas (iykyk). Congrats to Stephen who retained the trophy and Sabine for two holes-in-one!

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 08/06/2026

In Heraklion, for @biochemsoc.bsky.social Harden Conference, Machines on Genes #BiochemEvent. Amazed by the Phoenician ceramics (nearly 4000 years old) in the archaeological museum - puts our pot shards into perspective!

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

Enjoying the science from #SISB2026 - albeit remotely on zoom. This works well and we have a room set up for lab members to drop in for talks. If you are there, look out for Niels Schneberger @nschneberger.bsky.social from the lab - poster C7

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

New preprint: Cyclic tri-adenylate signalling by a Panoptes anti-phage guard system with a CARF-TM effector. Great work led by Sabine Grüschow www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 09/03/2026

I'll be representing the Biochemical Journal at the @biochemsoc.bsky.social Harden Conference Machines on Genes in Heraklion, Crete. Hope to see you there - always a great conference and certainly has the best title of any conference series!

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 22/10/2025

Please tell me what I'm missing here (other than SRM):

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 15/08/2025

Ímar at the Edinburgh Festival last night 👌

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 18/07/2025

Next up from our lab - a ring nuclease with a novel fold which cleaves all cOA species involved in Type III CRISPR defence. It's also found in plasmid and phage genomes, where it presumably functions as an anti-CRISPR. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

Jo Hobbs @hobbslabmicro.bsky.social has a 12 month Postdoc available on mechanisms of antibiotic tolerance. More details here: www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 04/07/2025

It's been a great few days hosting Eugene Koonin in St Andrews @uniofstandrews.bsky.social , where he was awarded an honorary degree in recognition of his stellar contributions to molecular biology and comparative genomics. Here with @tatianadimitriu.bsky.social

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Annual lab putting competition at the “Himalayas” (THE original mini-golf course). Congrats to Stephen McMahon who won the trophy

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 12/06/2025

Great to be in Manchester for the annual @multidefence.bsky.social meeting, with Luna and Simon!

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 11/06/2025

Passing through the Borders on the train to Manchester for the annual @multidefence.bsky.social meeting

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 30/04/2025

Berth for tonight on the Caledonian sleeper after a great couple of days visiting Imperial and UCL in London, thanks to David Rueda and Finn Werner for the invites

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Watching a short film on the dangers of climate change in the Cloud Forest, Singapore. Wondering if this would still be shown in the USA?

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 12/01/2025

Congratulations to Laura Gaskell-Mew on her successful PhD defence! Thanks to the examiners Heath Murray and @ulischwarzlinek.bsky.social

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Have to admire their sense of humour

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

It was a pleasure to act as Laureator for the award of an honorary degree to Prof Dame Anne Glover @uniofstandrews.bsky.social last week. Anne was my lecturer when I was an undergraduate - an inspriational scientist

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 29/11/2024

I'm guessing 1972. I'd taken my glasses off so virtually blind!

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 26/11/2024

It's that time of year when you get the THE Global Academic Reputation Survey invite and ponder: "Do I vote for my own institution?"

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

If you work on bacterial immune systems, this founding paper by Burroughs and Aravind is a must-read (and must-cite). pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32868406/

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Quick reminder that CRISPR 2025 takes place in Christchurch, New Zealand in February next year. 🧪https://www.crispr2025.org

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Long time since I posted a cat pic, so here is Caley

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 14/03/2024

Reader, it was me. (outdoorexplore.co.uk)

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 29/01/2024

Congratulations to Haotian Chi on a successful thesis defence. Thanks to the examiners Clarissa Czekster and Sarah Coulthurst for doing the honours!

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 30/12/2023

For 2024, I'm going to use this flow-chart to prioritise requests to review papers. At the end of the year I'll let you know the numbers in each category. I thought of adding an "am I being paid?" question, but what's the point?

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 23/11/2023

Anyone really surprised by this? www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 14/11/2023

I had three colour figures, which was considered very flash. The computer used for structure visualisation was the size of a chest freezer.

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 14/11/2023

Memory lane time. A page from my PhD thesis (1989). We used a lot of lettraset back then, and did all our own photography

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 03/11/2023

A lot to take in here in this new paper from the Aravind group - many fascinating predictions...Functionally comparable but evolutionarily distinct nucleotide-targeting effectors help identify conserved paradigms across diverse immune systems doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 23/10/2023

A key paper underlying the explosion of interest in bacterial anti-phage defence: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles... From Aravind lab, 2015. Still re-pays a close read, although it can be a hard SLOG!

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 23/10/2023

The language of bacterial defences expands: a Nature N&V article about our most recent work, from Doug Wasserman and Philip Kranzusch www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 23/10/2023

And this was the sunset that evening. Arisaig is a magical place.

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Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · 23/10/2023

Hello everyone, for a first post, here's a photo from my last kayaking trip, Arisaig on the west coast (of Scotland) - with plenty of blue sky

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