Valerie Soo
@valeriesoo.bsky.social
MRC CDA Fellow at Imperial College London | Genotype-phenotype maps, fitness landscapes, Group A Strep, AMR | A #firstgen still learning to navigate the academic landscape
Pinned
Valerie Soo
@valeriesoo.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Archaea are often surrounded by bacteria. But is there ever active conflict between the two? Can archaea kill bacteria? If so, how do they do it?
Work by @romainstrock.bsky.social shows that some archaea can kill bacteria by secreting peptidoglycan hydrolases. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Work by @romainstrock.bsky.social shows that some archaea can kill bacteria by secreting peptidoglycan hydrolases. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria
Archaea regularly interact with bacteria but reports of archaea killing bacteria are very rare. This study shows that many archaea encode peptidoglycan hydrolases, which specifically target bacterial ...
journals.plos.org
Very happy to see this work published + getting the recognition it deserves! Archaea are very cool + understudied organisms and we are only scratching the surface! Since the preprint last year, we (@romainstrock.bsky.social) have included more evidence of bacteria getting killed by archaeal arsenal.
Reposted by Valerie Soo
Why did severe #StrepA infections in children increase after the pandemic?
Our new @jamanetworkopen paper suggests COVID restrictions delayed immunity development in young children.
tiny.cc/63vt001
Our new @jamanetworkopen paper suggests COVID restrictions delayed immunity development in young children.
tiny.cc/63vt001
Immunity to S pyogenes and Common Respiratory Viruses at Age 0 to 4 Years
This cross-sectional study examines changes in immunity to Streptococcus pyogenes and other common respiratory pathogens among young children in 10 European countries after the introduction of nonphar...
tiny.cc
October 15, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Why did severe #StrepA infections in children increase after the pandemic?
Our new @jamanetworkopen paper suggests COVID restrictions delayed immunity development in young children.
tiny.cc/63vt001
Our new @jamanetworkopen paper suggests COVID restrictions delayed immunity development in young children.
tiny.cc/63vt001
Reposted by Valerie Soo
Applications for @ukri.org Medical Research Council funded MRes+PhD studentships in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at @imperialcollege will open on Tuesday 7 October.
www.imperial.ac.uk/multisci-mrc...
#PhD #Interdisciplinaryhealthscience #Scholarships
www.imperial.ac.uk/multisci-mrc...
#PhD #Interdisciplinaryhealthscience #Scholarships
How to apply
Applications for 2026 entry will open on Tuesday 7 October 2025 at midday (BST) and close at 23:59 (GMT), Tuesday 18 November 2025.
www.imperial.ac.uk
September 29, 2025 at 8:49 AM
Applications for @ukri.org Medical Research Council funded MRes+PhD studentships in Interdisciplinary Health Sciences at @imperialcollege will open on Tuesday 7 October.
www.imperial.ac.uk/multisci-mrc...
#PhD #Interdisciplinaryhealthscience #Scholarships
www.imperial.ac.uk/multisci-mrc...
#PhD #Interdisciplinaryhealthscience #Scholarships
Reposted by Valerie Soo
The 2024 rankings of bacterial threats
August 27, 2025 at 4:19 PM
The 2024 rankings of bacterial threats
Reposted by Valerie Soo
This first-author publication is my… first! Archaea kill bacteria by targeting their Achilles’ heel: peptidoglycan. Big shoutout to @ahocher.bsky.social, @valeriesoo.bsky.social, Pauline Misson, @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social and MRC LMS Proteomics. A thread 🔽
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria
Archaea regularly interact with bacteria but reports of archaea killing bacteria are very rare. This study shows that many archaea encode peptidoglycan hydrolases, which specifically target bacterial ...
journals.plos.org
August 15, 2025 at 11:19 AM
This first-author publication is my… first! Archaea kill bacteria by targeting their Achilles’ heel: peptidoglycan. Big shoutout to @ahocher.bsky.social, @valeriesoo.bsky.social, Pauline Misson, @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social and MRC LMS Proteomics. A thread 🔽
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Valerie Soo
Archaea-on-bacteria action! @romainstrock.bsky.social @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social &co show that many #archaea encode #peptidoglycan hydrolases, which specifically target #bacterial cell walls, experimentally confirming the killing capacity of 2 of these enzymes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4lrJBBa
August 15, 2025 at 8:13 AM
Archaea-on-bacteria action! @romainstrock.bsky.social @tobiaswarnecke.bsky.social &co show that many #archaea encode #peptidoglycan hydrolases, which specifically target #bacterial cell walls, experimentally confirming the killing capacity of 2 of these enzymes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4lrJBBa
Very happy to see this work published + getting the recognition it deserves! Archaea are very cool + understudied organisms and we are only scratching the surface! Since the preprint last year, we (@romainstrock.bsky.social) have included more evidence of bacteria getting killed by archaeal arsenal.
Archaea are often surrounded by bacteria. But is there ever active conflict between the two? Can archaea kill bacteria? If so, how do they do it?
Work by @romainstrock.bsky.social shows that some archaea can kill bacteria by secreting peptidoglycan hydrolases. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Work by @romainstrock.bsky.social shows that some archaea can kill bacteria by secreting peptidoglycan hydrolases. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Archaea produce peptidoglycan hydrolases that kill bacteria
Archaea regularly interact with bacteria but reports of archaea killing bacteria are very rare. This study shows that many archaea encode peptidoglycan hydrolases, which specifically target bacterial ...
journals.plos.org
August 15, 2025 at 9:12 AM
Very happy to see this work published + getting the recognition it deserves! Archaea are very cool + understudied organisms and we are only scratching the surface! Since the preprint last year, we (@romainstrock.bsky.social) have included more evidence of bacteria getting killed by archaeal arsenal.
Putting our deductive, problem-solving, and team-working skills to good use - we had so much fun at the Sherlock Escape Room aaand we escaped in 53 minutes! #teampbp #escaperoom
July 12, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Putting our deductive, problem-solving, and team-working skills to good use - we had so much fun at the Sherlock Escape Room aaand we escaped in 53 minutes! #teampbp #escaperoom
Reposted by Valerie Soo
The MIMIC lab is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Associate to join my team at @Cambridge_Uni!
Exploration and engineering DNA-mimicking proteins (wet-lab position.) 🧬
Details: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50652/
Please get in touch / circulate !
Exploration and engineering DNA-mimicking proteins (wet-lab position.) 🧬
Details: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50652/
Please get in touch / circulate !
Research Associate (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge
Research Associate (Fixed Term) in the Department of Genetics at the University of Cambridge.
www.jobs.cam.ac.uk
March 22, 2025 at 3:54 PM
The MIMIC lab is hiring a Postdoctoral Research Associate to join my team at @Cambridge_Uni!
Exploration and engineering DNA-mimicking proteins (wet-lab position.) 🧬
Details: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50652/
Please get in touch / circulate !
Exploration and engineering DNA-mimicking proteins (wet-lab position.) 🧬
Details: www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50652/
Please get in touch / circulate !
Reposted by Valerie Soo
With @jrpenades.bsky.social, we challenged Google AI co-scientist to generate hypotheses. In just 2 days, it recapitulated our unpublished, experimentally confirmed mechanism for how cf-PICIs spread between bacterial species! @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/3byyaeh2
tinyurl.com/3byyaeh2
AI mirrors experimental science to uncover a novel mechanism of gene transfer crucial to bacterial evolution
AI models have been proposed for hypothesis generation, but testing their ability to drive high-impact research is challenging, since an AI-generated hypothesis can take decades to validate. Here, we ...
tinyurl.com
February 20, 2025 at 1:24 PM
With @jrpenades.bsky.social, we challenged Google AI co-scientist to generate hypotheses. In just 2 days, it recapitulated our unpublished, experimentally confirmed mechanism for how cf-PICIs spread between bacterial species! @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
tinyurl.com/3byyaeh2
tinyurl.com/3byyaeh2
I volunteered at the half-term workshops focused on microbes and the immune system at the Invention Rooms, and I had great conversations with kids and families. Some parents asked sharp questions about why we wanted to become scientists in the first place! www.imperial.ac.uk/news/258715/... [1/2]
Inspiring the next generation of microbiologists at the Invention Rooms | Imperial News | Imperial College London
Workshops at Imperial's White City campus Invention Rooms have inspired youngsters from the local community to become the microbiologists of tomorrow.
www.imperial.ac.uk
December 12, 2024 at 9:19 PM
I volunteered at the half-term workshops focused on microbes and the immune system at the Invention Rooms, and I had great conversations with kids and families. Some parents asked sharp questions about why we wanted to become scientists in the first place! www.imperial.ac.uk/news/258715/... [1/2]