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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 5d

Three Bicentenary research fellowships on offer at @officialuom.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social for exceptional ECRs with <3y postdoc experience

3yrs salary + £30k pa research expenses

Do you have a great idea & want to join @mermanchester.bsky.social?

www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/research/sup...

Bicentenary Early Career Research Fellowships | Biology, Medicine and Health | University of Manchester

Find out about and apply for a Bicentenary Early Career Research Fellowship.

www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

José R Penadés @jrpenades.bsky.social · 1d

Our latest work reveals that arbitrium phages cross-communicate across species! These tiny viruses “listen” to signals from others, coordinating lysis-lysogeny decisions across species.
Original idea from @albertomarina.bsky.social and, as usual, he was right.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Phages communicate across species to shape microbial ecosystems

Arbitrium is a communication system that helps bacteriophages decide between lysis and lysogeny via secreted peptides. In arbitrium, the AimP peptide binds its cognate AimR receptor to repress aimX ex...

www.biorxiv.org

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Antonia Sagona @antoniasagona.bsky.social · 23h

I have various PhD projects to offer via Midland Integrative Biosciences Training Partnership for candidates that they wish to come to @warwicklifesci.bsky.social. Please check lnkd.in/gQTPnk6W for more info, under the Microbiology section!

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · 4d

www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

#microsky #microbiome from the @gavinhthomas.bsky.social lab in York in collab with Hull

High-resolution Staphylococcus profiling reveals intra-species diversity in a single skin niche

The skin microbiome is dominated by a few key genera, among which Staphylococcus is one of the most well characterized. Recent studies have examined the roles of various Staphylococcus species such as...

www.microbiologyresearch.org

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Ellie Jameson @elliejameson.bsky.social · 7d

Day 7, Share. Inoviruses are filamentous single stranded DNA phages that can be produced continuously and exported by their host without lysis and killing their host. They have a single repeating major coat protein that covers their length and specialised spike proteins. #Drawtober #SciArt #Phagesky

Black and white ink drawing of two long filamentous phages. The one in the background is all the same distance away. In the foreground is a close up of the spike proteins of the closer phage with 5 repeated protein complexes forming what looks almost like a flower, the rest of the inovirus loops around into the background

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Ellie Jameson @elliejameson.bsky.social · 9d

Day 5, Moon. The physical structures of phages are often compared to the shape and landing action of a lunar lander, with tail fibres reminiscent of the landing struts, to gently settle on the surface of its host. #Drawtober #SciArt #Phagesky

Black and white ink drawing of the moon, with a giant phage on the top right that is half the width of the moon. The moon and phage are white, surrounded by a black circular background of messy, overlapping concentric circles

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Tracy Palmer @proftracypalmer.bsky.social · 10d

Check it out! A proper team effort from past and present group members and a great collaboration with @sergemostowylab.bsky.social

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 10d

The Staphylococcus aureus LXG-domain toxins EsxX and SAR0287 do not promote virulence in a zebrafish larval infection model https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.04.680436v1

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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 9d

New preprint!

Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠

Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare!

An epic effort by Rosanna Wright

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Resistance mutation supply modulates the benefit of CRISPR immunity against virulent phages

Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · 12d

www.cell.com/current-biol...

#phagesky #phage

Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness

Kubota et al. show that bacteria can use their filamentous phage to outcompete other bacteria, but increased phage production enables the evolution of cheater miniphages with truncated genomes. Miniph...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Zamin Iqbal @zaminiqbal.bsky.social · 19d

Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols.
Thread 1/n

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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 19d

Now peer-reviewed, improved and published in @microbiologysociety.org Microbiology - thanks to editor and reviewers!

www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20d

Recent paper from the lab studying predictors of phage cocktail efficacy against complex clinical Pseudomonas populations

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10....

Led by Rosanna Wright with extraordinary MSc (PhD) student Maisie Czernuska

Bacteria–phage infection network structure and genomic defence system content predict efficacy of a phage therapy cocktail against Pseudomonas aeruginosa from chronic lung infections

royalsocietypublishing.org

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · 20d

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#phagesky #phage defence

The co-localizing Zorya II, Druantia III, and ARMADA II defense systems on O-island 172 confer synergistic anti-phage defense in enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli

In this study, we show that the enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) strain EDL933 Δ stx1/2 is highly resistant to phages. The genes encoding the three phage defense systems Zorya II, Druantia II...

www.biorxiv.org

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Antonia Sagona @antoniasagona.bsky.social · 20d

Great work!

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Jeremy Barr @jeremyjbarr.bsky.social · 21d

Excited to annouce the latest research published by our lab, which is led by Dinesh Subedi and is out today in Nature Microbiology.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Rational design of a hospital-specific phage cocktail to treat Enterobacter cloacae complex infections - Nature Microbiology

The Entelli-02 phage product containing five phages has frontline potential to address infections caused by the multidrug-resistant Enterobacter cloacae complex.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

José R Penadés @jrpenades.bsky.social · Sep 9

Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social
lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species.
@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Chimeric infective particles expand species boundaries in phage-inducible chromosomal island mobilization

Capsid-forming PICIs (cf-PICIs) produce their own capsids and exploit phage tails from unrelated species to transfer their DNA across bacterial hosts. This tail piracy enables broad dissemination and ...

www.cell.com

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Evelien Adriaenssens @evelienadri.bsky.social · 23d

Incredibly proud of Dr Revathy who is inspiring the next generation of scientists around the world. And even though we can't see them through a foldscope, bacteriophages are still our favourite microbes 🤩

quadram.ac.uk/blogs/inspir...

Inspiring the next generation: exploring the invisible microbial world with students in Koothanoor, India - Quadram Institute

Research Scientist Dr Revathy Krishnamurthy reflects on her visit to the village where she grew up in India and inspiring the next generation to discover the world of science.

quadram.ac.uk

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Mojgan Rabiey @mojganrabiey.bsky.social · 23d

So proud of my MBio student Kieran and my team for this exciting work @DrShannonGreer @warwicklifesci.bsky.social #phage #Pseudomonas #biocontrol doi.org/10.1111/1751...

Understanding Bacterial Antiviral Defence Systems and Phage Receptors to Better Inform Rational Phage Cocktail Design to Treat Bacterial Canker

Correlation between phage host range, antiviral defence systems, and phage receptors revealed the importance of genetic mechanisms underlying phage-bacterial interactions in designing more effective ...

doi.org

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · 25d

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#phagesky #phage

Phages with a broad host range are common across ecosystems - Nature Microbiology

Proximity-ligation-based sequencing from 111 samples and 5 environments reveals that a substantial proportion of phages infect multiple species.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Alexis Jaramillo Cartagena, PhD, D(ABMM) @alexclinmicro.bsky.social · Sep 13

On #WorldSepsisDay, huge thanks to all the clinicians, nurses, lab professionals & researchers working to detect, treat & prevent #Sepsis. Your advances in diagnostics & therapies save lives every day. 💙 #PatientSafety #GlobalHealth #Infection #CriticalCare #MedTwitter

WHO @who.int · Sep 13

It’s World #Sepsis Day
Sepsis kills 11 million people each year.

Symptoms incl.:
🔸Fever or shivering
🔸Confusion
🔸Shortness of breath
🔸Rash that does not fade when pressed
🔸Extreme discomfort
🔸Sweaty skin

Seek medical care as soon as possible when an infection is not getting better.

What is sepsis?
Sepsis arises when a person has an infection, and the body's reaction to it injures tissues and organs

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Belgian Society for Viruses of Microbes @bsvom.bsky.social · Sep 12

It begins the 4th annual BSVoM conference with Karen Northshield a survivor of major infection of K. pneumoniae that occurred due to the #Brussles bombings.

Thanks to the group @jeanpaulpirnay.bsky.social and her doctor Anaïs Eskenazi she received life-saving #phage therapy.

Amazing story!

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Hannelore Longin @hannelorelongin.bsky.social · Jul 21

📣 New preprint alert!

Happy to share the first results from our effort to reannotate Pseudomonas #phage proteins of unknown function, using structural bioinformatics.

📄 doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Fold first, ask later: structure-informed function annotation of Pseudomonas phage proteins

Phages, the viruses of bacteria, harbor an incredibly diverse repertoire of proteins capable of manipulating their bacterial hosts, inspiring many medical and biotechnological applications. However, t...

doi.org

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · Aug 31

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

#phagesky #phage

Gabija restricts phages that antagonize a conserved host DNA repair complex

Anti-bacteriophage systems like restriction-modification and CRISPR-Cas have DNA substrate specificity mechanisms that enable identification of invaders. How Gabija, a highly prevalent nuclease-helica...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · Aug 22

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#microsky

Discovery of a widespread chemical signalling pathway in the Bacteroidota - Nature

The N-acyl-cyclolysine system regulates the expression of co-localized operons encoding diverse secreted molecules in Bacteroidota.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Antonia Sagona

Alexander Harms @aharms485.bsky.social · Aug 19

Phages on the big screen! 🎬 Premiere of a brilliant film about phage therapy by our friend Thomas Häusler - powerful story, a great panel discussion, and inspiring conversations over the apero. 🧬🥂 #PhageTherapy

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