Excited to announce that I will be starting my lab in the Department of Bacteriology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison this coming January! My group will study the interface between bacterial immunity and evolution. Stay tuned for job postings and lab website!

Despite the view of PRRs as pathogen sensors, >24 PRRs in animals and plants are best-suited to detect infection failures that result from low fidelity virulence strategies (i.e. infection fidelities). science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Delighted to share our discovery of bacteriophage RNA sensing by cGAS/OAS-like cyclases in staphylococci. Hopefully our work will stimulate further progress in uncovering the elusive viral cues that trigger CBASS and other prokaryotic immune systems!

Only a year since joining the lab and already a first author paper—and what a debut discovery! It’s truly been a privilege working side by side with Cam Roberts you are a superstar and I can’t wait to see what monumental findings you come out with next!

A month ago, I had the pleasure of attending #ISB2023. While there, I had the honor of networking with leading scientists in the field and having my poster presentation receive an award 🥳 I wanted to extend a huge thanks to all the organizers of the conference.

Today we report that an engineered skin bacterium, swabbed gently on the head of a mouse, can unleash a potent immune response against a distant tumor. Y. Erin Chen, MD PhD led the charge w/ help from Djenet Bousbaine, Alessandra Veinbachs, Belkaid Lab. Science Magazine 1/26 science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…

Exciting news! I've accepted a job offer at Rockefeller University The Bonilla lab is opening this fall and is hiring at all levels! Interested in exploring RNA structure-function using #cryoEM, biophysics, computational tools, etc? Interested in viral RNAs? Join us in beautiful NYC!

Can the simplest living things coexist 🏘️ in the face of competition? We found that bacterial viruses (phages) could easily form diverse communities, even though they shared the same resource 🍝 (an isogenic host population) (1/7) biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

A new study from the @MarraffiniLab sheds light on how bacteria recognize viral invasion and activate immune defenses. Bacteria have an array of strategies to counter viral invasion, but how they first spot a stranger in their midst has long been a mystery.rockefeller.edu/news/34977-how…

It's out! This paper on phage RNA-mediated activation of bacterial CBASS systems should activate your interest in reading it 🧪🦠🪐📑 Dalton Banh Cam Roberts @MarraffiniLab nature.com/articles/s4158…

Excited to share my first work in the @MarraffiniLab, now online nature ! We show that type III CRISPR utilizes a transmembrane effector, which we call Cam1, to provide anti-phage immunity! Synopsis 🧵: nature.com/articles/s4158…

Just missing April fool's, here is something that is no laughing matter: nature.com/articles/s4156… In Nature Microbiology, we describe how a prophage avoids autoimmunity from its own defence systems

Excited to share my latest work from the @MarraffiniLab, in collaboration with Phoebe Rice, now online nature!! nature.com/articles/s4158… We report the discovery of DNA glycosylases that provide anti-phage defense in bacteria! A thread 🧵: 1/

Cam Roberts and I had a lot of fun discovering how this immune system senses a virus! Dalton Banh @MarraffiniLab biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Immense gratitude to Luciano (@MarraffiniLab) for his support, Dalton Banh for his invaluable guidance, and chloe for daily laughter and inspiration. Studying bacTIRial ;) immunity with you all has been one of the greatest joys of my life. biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

Huge congrats to Cam Roberts and chloe for cracking an incredibly challenging problem in the bacterial immunity field: how defense systems like Thoeris actually recognize cellular invasion by phages. Extremely proud of them and their amazing work! biorxiv.org/content/10.110…

The final version of our paper on anti-CRISPRs "in disguise" as Cas proteins is out today in Nature! Congrats to Mark, Edith and the whole team! nature.com/articles/s4158…

Congrats to Cam Roberts Pruneda Lab for their work on discovering new Ubi-regulating effectors! Really enjoyed hearing the sneak preview of the full story from Jonathan Pruneda at #EESImmunity this past summer.

10 years ago, my brother Brian died by suicide. It’s forever but also yesterday. RFK Jr’s lies about mental illness will cause more deaths. That's why I'll never stop fighting health disinformation. That's my promise to you, B. I wrote more here: news.immunologic.org/p/10-years-ago…