Shu-Sin Chng

Here is it! Super new science from us on horizontal gene transfer & bact defense systems! Liyana OW YONG discovered the first-of-its-kind defense factor AbjA that triggers 'abortive conjugation' as a defense mechanism, by targeting the T4SS! How neat?! #MicroSky 1/7 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Interested in #archaea, #methane, #cell-envelopes? New paper out @nature.com ! We discovered an enzyme that specifically cleaves the cell wall of methanogens, revealing a new chemical structure of archaeal peptidoglycan, 50 yrs after its first description www.nature.com/articles/s41... #MicroSky 🧵👇

How do proteins localize in bacteria? Usually by binding to a prelocalized protein-but how does that protein localize? @vanipande.bsky.social found a #Bacillus subtilis protein that localizes via a lipid cue,undecaprenyl phosphate,that guides it to sites of PG synthesis www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Great to visit both the de Duve Inst and Pasteur Inst after 10 yrs! Many thanks to Jean-François Collet and Nienke Buddelmeijer, respectively, for hosting the visits/seminars! It was a lot of fun catching up with new/old friends and discussing science! Excited for the EMBO mycobacteria mtg next wk!

Our preprint is now published!

Please repost! #microsky🦠 The Glickman Lab at MSK is recruiting! Projects in Mtb pathogenesis, basic biology of mycobacteria, and mycobacterial cancer therapies. See our publications here: tinyurl.com/3f386f4x Send CV and cover letter to: glickmanmycolab@gmail.com

Had absolutely fabulous times this wk visiting @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and @weillcornell.bsky.social and sharing our work! Great thanks to my wonderful hosts Wei MI and @saehrt.bsky.social! Enjoyable conversations and discussions with colleagues too! Finally bk to SG after the fruitful 3 wks!

Had absolutely fabulous times this wk visiting @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and @weillcornell.bsky.social and sharing our work! Great thanks to my wonderful hosts Wei MI and @saehrt.bsky.social! Enjoyable conversations and discussions with colleagues too! Finally bk to SG after the fruitful 3 wks!

Interested in joining our group in Oxford? We are looking for a PDRA with single particle Cryo-EM experience to help us figure out how sphingolipids are transported to the cell surface of Gram-negative bacteria. The deadline is 31st July. Informal enquires are welcome. Please share!

🚨Join us at the University of Geneva! We're seeking an outstanding junior researcher to apply for an ERC or SNSF Starting Grant with our institutional support in host–pathogen interactions, bacteriology, virology, parasitology, or mycology. www.unige.ch/medecine/mim... Please share!

Adding to our results, another immune system was recently shown to also trigger cell death in E. coli upon plasmid conjugation, but it's targeting VirB4 rather than VirB2 or VirB8. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

#microsky New preprint from the lab! Widespread immune systems protect bacteria against conjugative plasmids www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Kudos to the extremely talented lead author Ludovic Poiré! Key contributions by @francoisrousset.bsky.social and also help from C. Lesterlin/TacC lab. 🧵⬇️

I will be visiting @yaleschoolofmed.bsky.social and @weillcornell.bsky.social on 6 (12 pm) and 8 July (11 pm), respectively. Do come by for the seminars if you are interested and available!

Intense week of science at Bacterial Cell Surfaces GRC! Best part was catching up with old/new friends! Tagging peeps in pics @paulhoskisson.bsky.social @hendersonlab.bsky.social @namurxa.bsky.social @sujeetkumar.bsky.social @weeboont.bsky.social @yeowjiang.bsky.social @siegristpalmore.bsky.social

🚨 New in @natmicrobiol.nature.com! We reveal how the antibiotic target PBP1b fortifies the E.coli division site against osmotic rupture. Proud this was completed in our independent labs @dmf-unil.bsky.social, with @avettiger.bsky.social. Congratulations to all authors! 🦠❄️🔬 #teamtomo bit.ly/3SCbOg1 👇

Out Now! Identification of chemical features for improved outer membrane permeation in mycobacteria using machine learning #MicroSky

Awesome visit to @jhu.edu yesterday - lots of good questions during the seminar! Besides conversations with @goleylab.bsky.social, Tamara O'Connor and Gira Bhabha, it was fun chatting with trainees! Thanks again @jiexiaolab.bsky.social for great hospitality and catch-up! On to Gordon conf next wk.

New paper in collaboration with @proftracypalmer.bsky.social, @lislowe.bsky.social and many more. We show that mycobacteria produce Type VII secreted anti-bacterial protein toxins. Excited to explore this new area of mycobacterial biology. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Started my 3-wk US trip with a visit to the NIH yesterday! Had a great time giving an ad-hoc Lambda lunch talk and discussing science with old/new friends @anukharelab.bsky.social! Many thanks @ramamurthilab.bsky.social for the hospitality! Next stop: @jhu.edu SOM on 25th - cya at 11 am for my talk!

Check out our latest T7SS toxin story. These reverse toxins aren’t as rare as we thought!

Excited to share our new preprint on a question that has puzzled us for a long time: How can the bacterial nano-weapon, type VI secretion system (T6SS), load and deliver so many antibacterial toxins that are completely different in structure and function? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New pre-print from the lab! Murepavedin is a Pseudomonas-specific antibiotic, but it disrupts the outer membranes of a wide range of different Gram-negatives. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

EMBO Symposium alert: Save the date: 9–12 March 2027 Join us in scenic Heidelberg for this unique meeting, covering everything about drug resistance and tolerance. Mechanisms of drug resistance and tolerance in bacteria, fungi, and cancer www.embl.org/about/info/c...

Archaea the hornets of the microbial world. Discuss. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... TLDR: Archaeon kills bacterium with secreted phospholipase. Pretty nifty way to kill bacteria if you are a microbe with a very different lipid make-up, I reckon. No need to worry about accidentally killing yourself.

@felixrl.bsky.social presenting his work at #ASMicrobe today. His preprint follows up on his recent work on orthogonal cell division in S. aureus and reports that PcdA, the division septum placement factor, is required for forming staphylococcal abscess colonies.

@vanipande.bsky.social presenting her work at #ASMicrobe today.... Check out her recent preprint about a spontaneously inserting integral membrane protein that localized by recognizing a lipid cue

A new study from the @rocklabtb.bsky.social in @natmicrobiol.nature.com finds that one of the most common drug resistance mutations in #tuberculosis creates subtle metabolic weaknesses that could be exploited with future combination therapies. 🔗: https://bit.ly/3RG6wj2

Bacterial transmembrane proteins usually localize inside the cell by "finding" a pre-localized protein, but how did the 1st protein get there? @vanipande.bsky.social found a protein in #B.subtilis that localizes by recognizing a *lipid* localization cue. #Microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Our new study reveals how bacterial toxins are physically captured through a sequential, concentration-dependent assembly mechanism before secretion via the T6SS. Fantastic collaboration with @fillouxlab.bsky.social. Congrats Patricia & Ambre for leading this work. Paper here: shorturl.at/O31Vn

How do dangerous bacteria arm themselves before attack? Scientists from NTU-SCELSE and Imperial College London uncovered a previously unknown mechanism showing how bacteria load toxins into a microscopic weapon system before firing. Nature Microbiology-> rdcu.be/fk0Bq @fillouxlab.bsky.social

'The thing that you probably learn most, are from the mistakes that you make' We caught up with the Prize Medal 2026 winner, Paul Williams and asked him how it feels to win the prize and have the chance to present and reflect on his career. Congratulations Paul!

Happy to share our new bioRxiv preprint: “To Kill or not to Kill: A Conserved Trans-Intoxication Protection Factor Blocks X-T4SS-Mediated Fratricide through Interaction with VirB5” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Very happy to see the second story from my PhD out in @currentbiology.bsky.social An exciting project where we explored the roles of secretion systems and gliding motility in predatory behavior in F. johnsoniae. www.cell.com/current-biol...

1) DNA-protein binding prediction AI (40 species' bindings coming in v1 this summer; 6k+ species' bindings coming in v2 this year! 2) Microbiome knowledge graph based on 143k literature (100% data coming in v1 this summer)! Please reach out if you are interested :) #microsky #microbiomesky

Super excited to share the final version of our story on how Enterococcus faecalis remodels membrane lipids to protect itself from daptomycin! 🥳 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Come and study for a PhD with us on antibiotic-producing Streptomyces, trying to understand the roles of primary metabolic enzymes with additional cellular roles - Details below - please repost www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Happy to share the finalized version of my paper on phage lysis in bacteria with unique envelopes! 🎉 Bacteriophages target membrane-anchored glycopolymers to promote host cell lysis and progeny release www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

We found that TIR domains in animal immune proteins, including the human TLR4, are enzymes that cleave NAD+ to produce the signaling molecule cADPR Read our new preprint by talented Bohdana Hurieva: “Conserved catalytic activity of immune TIR domains in animals” www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

My super department @warwicklifesci.bsky.social is hiring 6 assistant profs in the wake of recent retirements. We're looking for people in microbiology/infection, cellular disease / immunity; environmental biology; and plant/crop science. #MicroSky warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...