Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by David Bikard

Raphael Laurenceau @raphael-microb.bsky.social · 13h

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Another breakthrough work on the fascinating biology of Diversity Generating Retroelements by Jeff Miller’s team

Targeted protein evolution in the gut microbiome by diversity-generating retroelements

Diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs) accelerate evolution by rapidly diversifying variable proteins. The human gastrointestinal microbiota harbors the greatest density of DGRs known in nature, su...

www.science.org

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David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social · 1d

Entretien pour Brut sur la vie Miroir, l'ingénierie génétique et l'éthique de ces recherches: www.brut.media/fr/videos/sc...

Manipulations génétiques, virus créés par l’IA, bactéries miroirs : quelles limites à la recherche scientifique ?

Elles pourraient aider à lutter contre les cancers… mais aussi détruire toute trace de vie sur Terre ! Ce sont les bactéries miroirs. En avez-vous déjà entendu parler ? Et la vie miroir, ça vous dit q...

www.brut.media

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Reposted by David Bikard

Dana-Farber Cancer Institute @danafarber.bsky.social · 4d

Congratulations to Philip J. Kranzusch, Ph.D., Professor of Cancer Immunology and Virology, who was one of three scientists awarded top honors at the 2025 Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists.

Watch to learn more about his work: bit.ly/4pZUDkF

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Reposted by David Bikard

Aaron Whiteley @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social · 4d

Our work on the Panoptes antiphage system is published! Here we find that Panoptes "watches" the cytosol for phage immune evasion proteins–captured in this illustration by Clair Huffine of Insight Illustrations. A beautiful example of the effector triggered immunity paradigm.

Illustration depicting a bacterium under assault by phage. The bacterium “sees” phage immune evasion proteins and protects itself using a newly described antiphage system called Panoptes, named for the many-eyed mythical giant Argus Panoptes. Credit: Clair Huffine Insight Illustrations LLC

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Reposted by David Bikard

Roni Odai @rodai.bsky.social · 11d

Viral AlphaFold Database (VAD) is live in Science Advances

~27,000 predicted viral protein monomers & homodimers

Conserved folds across bacteria, archaea & eukaryotic viruses

New toxin–antitoxin system KreTA uncovered

Vast “functional darkness” remains uncharted

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

The Viral AlphaFold Database of monomers and homodimers reveals conserved protein folds in viruses of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes

VAD is a Viral AlphaFold Database of protein monomers and homodimers from viruses infecting hosts across the tree of life.

www.science.org

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David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social · 8d

sinon il pourrait bien cesser de s’écarter pour se dresser en une barrière solide devant le spectre qui s’élance et arrêter eux-mêmes la course folle de nos débordements afin de se sauver, eux, ainsi que la culture et la civilisation !"

David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social · 8d

Par effroi et peut-être aussi par répulsion pour elle, encore est-il heureux qu’ils s’écartent, ..

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David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social · 8d

Et si les autres peuples s’écartent encore devant la troïka qui galope à tombeau ouvert, ce n’est peut-être point par respect pour elle, comme le voulait le poète, mais simplement par effroi, notez-le bien...

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David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social · 8d

Je viens de tomber sur ce passage des Frères Karamazov au sujet de la Russie qu'on aurait dit être écrit pour aujourd'hui: "Et il y a longtemps déjà que, dans toute la Russie, on tend les mains et on supplie que soit arrêtée cette course furieuse qui n’épargne rien. ..

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Reposted by David Bikard

Jan-Willem Veening @veeninglab.com · 9d

Finally out, such an awesome piece of work, very proud of this one: www.cell.com/cell-systems... #MicroSky

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Reposted by David Bikard

Ben Adler @benadler.bsky.social · 11d

Today in @nature.com , we highlight how a cousin of CRISPR-Cas10, mCpol, establishes an evolutionary trap in anti-phage immune systems.

Check out @erinedoherty.bsky.social and my work from @doudna-lab.bsky.social lab here:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A miniature CRISPR–Cas10 enzyme confers immunity by inhibitory signalling - Nature

Panoptes, an anti-phage defence system against virus-mediated immune suppression, is revealed.

www.nature.com

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Reposted by David Bikard

Arc Institute @arcinstitute.org · 17d

For decades, human genome editing has been limited to small, localized modifications.

Today, in a new paper published in @science.org , researchers from Arc's Hsu lab show that bridge recombinase technology is capable of large-scale genomic rearrangements in human cells.

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Reposted by David Bikard

Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 17d

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 David Bikard

Sebastian S. Cocioba @atinygreencell.bsky.social · 19d

Most well spoken and eloquent “fuck you” I’ve ever heard.

youtu.be/2fgLtZJWNJ4?...

Poland Confronts Russia Over Estonia Airspace Violation, “Your Empire Will Not Be Rebuilt” | AC1G

YouTube video by DRM News

youtu.be

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Reposted by David Bikard

Julie Le Bris @julielebris.bsky.social · Sep 5

Delighted to share our recently published work!
Ever wondered how Klebsiella (and others) deals with capsule production’s costs ?
The paper: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Thread👇

Phenotypic heterogeneity of capsule production across opportunistic pathogens | mBio

The polysaccharidic capsule is present in ~50% of species across the bacterial phylogeny, including all ESKAPE microorganisms, the six most significant multidrug-resistant (MDR) nosocomial pathogens. It is also an important virulence factor and a major ...

journals.asm.org

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Reposted by David Bikard

Alexis Verger 🧬🧫🧪 @alexis-verger.cpesr.fr · 23d

De novo design of All-atom biomolecular interactions with RFdiffusion3 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

De novo Design of All-atom Biomolecular Interactions with RFdiffusion3

Deep learning has accelerated protein design, but most existing methods are restricted to generating protein backbone coordinates and often neglect interactions with other biomolecules. We present RFd...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by David Bikard

Martial Marbouty @mmarbout.bsky.social · 23d

You like phages ? In this publication, we use metaHiC and our new version of the MetaTOR pipeline to challenge the traditional view of phages with a narrow host range.
@rkoszul.bsky.social @natmicrobiol.nature.com @cnrs.fr @institutpasteur.bsky.social

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

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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Jörg Vogel @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social · Sep 10

Looking for a new approach to studying or eliminating phages? Check out our study introducing anti-phage ASOs (antisense oligos) out in @Nature today. nature.com/articles/s4158…

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Reposted by David Bikard

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 David Bikard

Lingchen He 何灵尘 @lingchenhe.bsky.social · Sep 9

We discovered a new horizontal gene transfer mechanism: tail-less cf-PICIs hijack free phage tails extracellularly, forming infectious chimeric virions that drive both intra- and inter-species transfer among bacteria. @jonaszpatkowski.bsky.social @tcostalab.bsky.social @jrpenades.bsky.social

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Wolfgang Huber @wkhuber.bsky.social · Sep 9

Join EMBL as a research group leader in AI in biology. EMBL AI is our new initiative aiming to exploit the full potential of ML/AI-based approaches to advance our understanding of the most complex system in the known universe - life on Earth.
embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...
(1/3)

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Reposted by David Bikard

Malcolm White @mfwhite2.bsky.social · Sep 6

Some good stuff in here 😊

Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · Sep 5

A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the evolutionary history of bacterial immune systems, their modes of action, and the patterns how different bacterial immune systems are distributed across different ecosystems. Read: buff.ly/Z4qdxY1

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David Bikard @dbikard.bsky.social · Sep 6

Exciting work! Well done @zeynepbaharoglu.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social @manonlang.bsky.social

Zeynep Baharoglu @zeynepbaharoglu.bsky.social · Sep 6

So excited our antibiotic potentiation story is out 🤩 Led by the extraordinary @manonlang.bsky.social with @fox-science.bsky.social & @amazeld.bsky.social +amazing collaborators @immunobladder.bsky.social @imaneelmeouche.bsky.social 🦠 We believe it can make a difference in #AMR infections!

Uridine as a potentiator of aminoglycosides through activation of carbohydrate transporters

Uridine boosts aminoglycoside treatment efficiency against antibiotic-susceptible as well as antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains.

www.science.org

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Reposted by David Bikard

Rayan Chikhi @rayanchikhi.bsky.social · Sep 3

🌎👩‍🔬 For 15+ years biology has accumulated petabytes (million gigabytes) of🧬DNA sequencing data🧬 from the far reaches of our planet.🦠🍄🌵

Logan now democratizes efficient access to the world’s most comprehensive genetics dataset. Free and open.

doi.org/10.1101/2024...

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Institut Pasteur | 130 years of biomedical research @pasteur.fr · Sep 2

👏 Huge congrats to @audeber.bsky.social, group leader and head of our Molecular Diversity of Microbes lab, on being named a 2025 Vallee Scholar! Her pioneering work on ancestral immunity opens new perspectives for biomedical innovation. 🔬🌍

@valleefoundation.bsky.social

#Science #Immunity

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