Join us in Paris on April 8th-10th for the 2025 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria 🥖🍷🦠🧬. Excited to welcome these amazing speakers at Institut Pasteur, since 1887 . Registration will open beginning of November. Abstract deadline February 28. Stay tuned.

Absolutely thrilled to share our new study, co-led by Puja Majumder and myself, now online in Cell! Here, we characterize a CRISPR-associated adenosine deaminase, Cad1. Incredibly grateful for @MarraffiniLab making it possible. Synopsis below: cell.com/cell/fulltext/…

Congratulations to Dalia Smalakyte for winning first place for her research on "Regulatable CRISPR-Cas Protease" at the Lithuanian Young Scientists Conference organized by the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences! gmc.vu.lt/en/about/news/…

Very happy our paper on Zorya anti-phage defense system is now published in nature! 🥳 Big congrats to first authors haidai HU and Philipp Popp and all other authors! Wonderful collab with Marc Erhardt and SimonJackson #cryoEM CPRatUCPH Københavns Uni nature.com/articles/s4158…

Irmantas, congratulations on defending your PhD ! I wish you great success in new challenges and discoveries !

Now published Science Magazine: TIR signaling activates caspase-like immunity in bacteria We report a new immune molecule: N7-cADPR. Produced by phage-induced TIRs and activates a defensive bacterial caspase Congrats @FrancoisRousset & Ilya Osterman! science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Having a great time at the Phage-Host Interactions Symposium at Otago University hosted by Peter Fineran. Exciting discussions and solid science all around!

The sequel to our DRT2 story is here, and this one is once again full of surprises! This time around, the Sternberg Lab teamed up with the Wiedenheft Lab to study how DRT9 reverse transcriptases provide antiviral immunity. Here’s what we found: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

A step towards revolutionising #diagnostics. 🧬 Together with CasZyme and nSage, VU is developing a universal #CRISPR-based detection platform for fast, accurate, and versatile diagnostics. 🔍 🔗 Discover more: bit.ly/3YoR0s6

CRISPR continues to amaze me! Excited to share the last project from my PhD, co-led by the incredible Puja Majumder and myself! We studied the CRISPR effector Cat1, which forms beautiful filament networks to degrade NAD+. Out today in Science Magazine! science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Congratulations to Dalia Smalakyte for winning the Poster Award "The Art of Destruction: Intrinsic Control and Sigma Factor Release in the Type III CRISPR-Cas Tripartite Effector" at EMBO SISB2025 !

Excited to share our last collab paper, now out in print Science Magazine!🎉 We reveal how dITP synthesis activates a SIR2 NADase effector to block phage infection! 🛡️🧬 science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Excited to share our latest on the Type II Thoeris system! In collaboration with the Sorek and Kranzusch labs, we identify His-ADPR as a signaling molecule. Huge thanks to all involved—amazing teamwork! nature.com/articles/s4158…

A CARF-HAD phosphatase effector provides immunity during the type III-A CRISPR-Cas response | bioRxiv biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Nature research paper: A DNA-gated molecular guard controls bacterial Hailong anti-phage defence. go.nature.com/3EH5z3V

VU, Weizmann and Harvard scientists uncover a new immune signalling #molecule – the first of its kind! A major finding published in nature. 🧪 🔗 Discover more: bit.ly/42E1HK5

New pre-print(s) from the Sternberg Lab in collaboration with Leifu Chang! We uncover an unprecedented molecular mechanism of CRISPR-Cas12f-like proteins, which drive RNA-guided transcription independently of canonical promoter motifs. Full story here: tinyurl.com/mr3fd493

'Structural insights into Cas9-mediated prespacer selection in CRISPR-Cas adaptation' Check out our preprint on #bioRxiv on the #Cas9-Cas1-Cas2-Csn2 supercomplex involved in #CRISPR spacer acquisition: biorxiv.org/cgi/content/sh… Thread below.

Dalia, congratulations on defending your PhD! Wishing you exciting discoveries and success in your future career!

I enjoyed participating in the FEMS MICRO2025 session "New bacterial defense systems" with Matthieu Haudiquet, Arturo Carabias, and Dziugas Sabonis, under the guidance of Guillermo Montoya. Exploring new molecular mechanisms of bacterial defense is both inspiring and fun!