Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Franklin Nobrega

@fnobrega.bsky.social

820 followers 340 following 40 posts

Phage Biology, Bacterial defense systems, CRISPR-Cas, Microbial communities, Mucus interactions http://www.fnobregalab.org http://www.klebphacol.org http://www.phage-collection.org

www.fnobregalab.org

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Pinned

Franklin Nobrega @fnobrega.bsky.social · Jul 28

Thrilled to see our Kiwa story out today! A membrane-associated supercomplex that senses infection and blocks replication and transcription.

www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Huge congratulations to Yi and Zhiying for bringing it home, to Thomas for starting us off, and to all the collaborators.

Kiwa is a membrane-embedded defense supercomplex activated at phage attachment sites

Zhang, Todeschini, and Wu et al. show that the bacterial defense system Kiwa senses phage attachment at the membrane and assembles a transmembrane complex that halts infection by blocking phage DNA re...

www.cell.com

10 48 110

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Frédérique Le Roux @fredoleroux.bsky.social · 18h

Phages evolve fast, or do they?
In oysters, some stay identical for years.
With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements.
Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Ecological constraints foster both extreme viral-host lineage stability and mobile element diversity in a marine community

Phages are typically viewed as very rapidly evolving biological entities. Little is known, however, about whether and how phages can establish long-term genetic stability. We addressed this eco-evolut...

www.biorxiv.org

35 55

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Pedro Beltrao @pedrobeltrao.bsky.social · 4d

new preprint: Ubiquitin is a protein modification linked with degradation but known to regulate other functions. Over 100k ubiquitination sites have been discovered and here we (@julianvangerwen.bsky.social + others) try to prioritize those most critical to the cell www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The functional landscape of the human ubiquitinome

Protein ubiquitination regulates cell biology through diverse avenues, from quality control-linked protein degradation to signaling functions such as modulating protein-protein interactions and enzyme...

www.biorxiv.org

2 44 100

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

DEI Virologist @kyt-thatsme.bsky.social · 2d

Anyone wanna form a viral or pathogen evolution working group ?

Society for the Study of Evolution @sse-evolution.bsky.social · 4d

Now accepting proposals for new Research Synthesis Working Groups! Each funded group will present a symposium at the Evolution meeting, collaborate on a publication, and establish a lasting research network. Submit your proposal by January 6: www.evolutionsociety.org/content/soci...

Text: Society for the Study of Evolution Call for Proposals: Research Synthesis Working Groups. Deadline: January 6.

1 11 14

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · 2d

new preprint from our group & Antoine Hocher: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
A fantastic collaboration with Antoine, with Jovana Kaljevic' initiated the collaboration and drives the project.

Versatile NTP recognition and domain fusions expand the functional repertoire of the ParB-CTPase fold beyond chromosome segregation

Nucleotide triphosphate (NTP)-dependent molecular switches regulate essential cellular processes by cycling between active and inactive states through nucleotide binding and hydrolysis. These mechanis...

www.biorxiv.org

2 33 61

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

James Briscoe @jamesbriscoe.bsky.social · 3d

The @crick.ac.uk is recruiting Early Career Group Leaders

- Lab set-up, research costs, salaries for up to 5 researchers
- Support for up to 12 years
- Access to our core facilities
- Competitive salary
- Fantastic colleagues
- All areas of biology

Deadline 27 Nov

www.crick.ac.uk/careers-stud...

Early career group leaders

We appoint researchers from across biology and biomedicine to set up their first groups at the Crick.

www.crick.ac.uk

2 150 140

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

George O'Toole (he/him/his) @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social · 2d

New in JB: Morgan, Amemiya & Freddolino explore the role of DNA methylation on gene expression and chromatin structure in E. coli.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org #JBacteriology

5 6

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Teppo Hiltunen @teppo-h.bsky.social · 2d

Evolution induced state shifts in a long-term microbial community experiment www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Evolution induced state shifts in a long-term microbial community experiment

Biological communities are complex, dynamic systems that underpin ecosystem functionality, yet their long-term dynamics and predictability remain poorly understood. Understanding how Darwinian evoluti...

www.biorxiv.org

13 27

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Pilhofer Lab 🦠❄️🔬 @pilhoferlab.bsky.social · 4d

🧐Checkout our preprint revealing the stepwise firing💥 mechanism of a Contractile Injection System @xujwet.bsky.social [email protected] trapped the complex by structure-guided engineering🧪 in multiple intermediate states and imaged them by multimodal #cryoEM❄️🔬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

1 30 62

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

George O'Toole (he/him/his) @geiselbiofilm.bsky.social · 5d

Excited to be part of this collaboration with the Burrows lab exploring twitching and surface surface sensing by P. aeruginosa. This work further delineates a role for the T4P motor proteins and pili for surface sensing.
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
@asm.org

8 23

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Dr Geertje van Keulen @drgvank.bsky.social · 4d

Wow😲🤩
🧪🧫 🧬🔬⚗️

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

Direct single-molecule detection and super-resolution imaging with a low-cost portable smartphone-based microscope - Nature Communications

Loretan and colleagues present a low-cost smartphone-based microscope capable of detecting single-molecule fluorescence. This approach opens doors to personalised and widely distributed applications in diagnostics, biosensing, and science education.

www.nature.com

1 6 21

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Filip Husnik @filiphusnik.bsky.social · 6d

OIST is seeking up to four tenure-track or tenured faculty in Ecology, Environmental Science, Earth Science, and Oceanography. Application deadline: Oct 15. Please share. Thx!
www.oist.jp/careers/facu...

1 62 45

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Julia Frunzke @frunzkelab.bsky.social · 5d

Please RT:
We have an opening for a junior group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me via email for further details.

@spp2330.bsky.social; @mibinet.bsky.social

Junior Group Leader - Phage Biology & Biotechnology

As a leading research institution for microbial biotechnology the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences - Biotechnology (IBG-1, https://www.fz-juelich.de/de/ibg/ibg-1 ) at the Forschungszentrum Jülich foc...

www.fz-juelich.de

55 34

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Jelena Godrijan 🫧❾🌊🦋 @godi.bsky.social · 8d

⚠️New paper ➡️ isolating >600 freshwater microbes using dilution-to-extinction and low-nutrient, lake-mimicking media.

🤯Expands cultured diversity to ~70 % of detected genera and enables physiological studies of streamlined oligotrophs.

🔗 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
#protistsonsky

Bringing the uncultivated microbial majority of freshwater ecosystems into culture - Nature Communications

A large fraction of aquatic bacteria remains uncultured. Here, the authors cultivated 627 strains of abundant freshwater bacteria from 14 European lakes, thus generating a collection that includes many previously uncultured, oligotrophic bacteria that may serve as model organisms.

www.nature.com

1 25 65

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Erin Green @erinrgreen.bsky.social · 8d

Job alert ‼️ UChicago Micro is hiring! Open to tenured/tenure track faculty at all levels in any area of microbiology. Come join our amazing and growing department. apply.interfolio.com/174404

4 130 130

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Tung Le @tunglejic.bsky.social · 9d

Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre.

Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!

John Innes Centre @johninnescentre.bsky.social · 10d

Shortlisted candidates will be invited to give a seminar at the Fellows Conference, which will be held on 10 March 2026.

Candidates who win Fellowships will be offered a Tenure Track Group Leader position from the outset, initially for 5 years.

Find out more: www.jic.ac.uk/training-car...

Independent Research Fellowships Leading to Tenured Faculty Positions | John Innes Centre

The John Innes Centre (JIC), is a world leading centre of excellence in plant and microbial sciences based on the Norwich Research Park, UK. We are inviting applications from outstanding researchers…

www.jic.ac.uk

84 46

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 10d

DYK most P. aeruginosa carry filamentous phage(s) that don't need to kill the cell to reproduce?

We 👉🏻@nanamikubota.bsky.social show that these Pf phages can go ROGUE.

"Filamentous cheater phages drive bacterial and phage populations to lower fitness"

🔗 authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5I3QW8S...

6 32 75

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Kristen DeAngelis 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️🍉 @kristenobacter.bsky.social · 11d

UMass Amherst Microbiology is hiring a tenure-track virologist. Come work with me! 🦠🧪
careers.umass.edu/amherst/en-u...

Details - Assistant Professor - Virology | Human Resources | UMass Amherst

careers.umass.edu

55 35

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Allison G @assemblerag.bsky.social · 12d

Most plasmids described in E. coli are small compared to the megaplasmids we identified here! Check out the preprint if you want to learn about these mysterious large elements and their potential functions 🧬. I’m very grateful to have had the opportunity to work on this in @banfieldlab.bsky.social

bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 12d

Megaplasmids associate with Escherichia coli and other Enterobacteriaceae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.30.679422v1

2 16 28

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Rosana Zenil-Ferguson @roszenil.bsky.social · 12d

The Department of Biology at the University of Kentucky is hiring a Microbiologist (broadly defined). Microbial eco-evo folks, this is your sign to come work with us. Not in the search committee, but happy to answer questions.
ukjobs.uky.edu/postings/600...
#microbiology #ecology

Assistant or Associate Professor in Microbiology

The Department of Biology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant or Associate Professor le...

ukjobs.uky.edu

51 30

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Max Fels @mfels.bsky.social · 11d

Are viruses capable of regulating protein synthesis in the nuanced way of cellular organisms? Kinda! I’m excited to share some of my postdoc work that leveraged giant DNA viruses to address this question.

Giant DNA viruses encode a hallmark translation initiation complex of eukaryotic life

In contrast to living organisms, viruses were long thought to lack protein synthesis machinery and instead depend on host factors to translate viral transcripts. Here, we discover that giant DNA virus...

www.biorxiv.org

2 14 30

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

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

3 54 110

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Tami Lieberman @contaminatedsci.bsky.social · 13d

Precisely calling mutations across hundreds of bacterial isolates has been hard, requiring manual filtering and expertise.

Until now, using AccuSNV.

Herui Liao trained an ML model based on our previous meticulously called SNVs.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

High-accuracy SNV calling for bacterial isolates using deep learning with AccuSNV

Accurate detection of mutations within bacterial species is critical for fundamental studies of microbial evolution, reconstructing transmission events, and identifying antimicrobial resistance mutati...

www.biorxiv.org

2 34 70

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Ben Engel @cellarchlab.com · 13d

EXCITING NEWS!! We're searching for a new professor colleague at the Biozentrum🇨🇭. Ideal candidates are exploring novel biological questions with structure, biophysics, or high-resolution imaging. 🧪 🧶🧬 🔬

The call closes Nov 3. Please get in touch if you would like more information. Come join us! 👩‍🔬🤓

2 61 58

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Teppo Hiltunen @teppo-h.bsky.social · 13d

Professor (full) or Associate Professor (tenure track) in Microbial Genetics of Health (U. Turku Finland). Competitive starting package included! Please share.

duunitori.fi/tyopaikat/ty...

Professor or Associate professor (Tenure Track/Full) in Microbial Genetics of Health - Turun yliopisto - Työpaikat - Duunitori

Avoin työpaikka: Professor or Associate professor (Tenure Track/Full) in Microbial Genetics of Health - Turun yliopisto, Turku. Duunitorilla lisäksi yli 30 000 muuta avointa työpaikkaa. Lue lisää nyt!

duunitori.fi

50 34

Reposted by Franklin Nobrega

Harmit Singh Malik @harmitmalik.bsky.social · 13d

When you swear to never work on phages, but phages still work on you… :)

Very cool story!!!

Feldman Lab@WashU @feldmanlab.bsky.social · 13d

I said I will never work on phages, but having @micheleleroux.bsky.social next door made me change my mind. Here is Alexis's new paper showing how different phages deal with the capsular barrier to infect Acinetobacter! A great collaboration between our labs!
journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

Acinetobacter phages use distinct strategies to breach the capsule barrier

Author summary Acinetobacter baumannii causes life-threatening and often antibiotic-resistant infections thereby posing a global threat. Accordingly, there is an urgent need for alternative treatments...

journals.plos.org

2 36