Hoong Chuin Lim

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... New preprint from my lab revealing molecular conflicts between host replication and antiviral defense. RecBCD prevents this conflict by clearing immunogenic DNA ends produced during normal replication termination. #MicroSky #PhageSky

1/5 Telomerase has long been linked to chromosome maintenance in eukaryotes. Now, we show that telomerase-like activity is also present in bacteria, shedding new light on its ancient origins. Excited to share that our work on DRT10 is now out in @nature.com! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Retron biology keeps surprising us. Type VI does things VERY differently! 🧬 Check the paper to see how it works👇 Fun working with the @seth-shipman.bsky.social lab on this story!

How fast can speciation be? In less than 100 years, certain strains of lab mice have already (partly) lost the ability to hybridize with each others. The molecular mechanism has just been worked out - read below for a genetics detective story ⬇️

Very happy that this work found a good home at @pnas.org Thanks to the reviewers for their constructive comments. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

#plasmidbiology #plasmid Just out! 🚀 Thrilled by our discovery: the function of the C-terminal domain of MOBH1 relaxases! We uncovered this thanks to a fertility inhibitor encoded by a parasitic mobile genetic element. Congrats to Florence on a great piece of work! 👏 academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Earlier this month, NEB hosted the 2026 Boston Phage Symposium on our Ipswich campus! We are thrilled to have supported a shared interest in phage research and great talks from four labs from MIT and @harvard.edu !

How do archaeal cells coordinate DNA replication? NEB and Colorado State University scientists tracked DNA polymerase activity in living archaeal cells using genetics, biochemistry, and RADAR-seq to learn more: https://doi.org/10.1093/nar/gkag395

In a Molecular Cell paper, NEB scientists describe the identification of a deaminase that converts 5mC to T, enabling direct sequencing of the human methylome and genome. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2026.03.027

Cheap and easy method for nanopore sequencing phage DNA directly from plaques. Proud of lab members Brenna and Patrick for doing this work *with absolutely no help from me* !! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Out now in Nature Biotechnology! Alejandro González-Delgado and a fantastic team of collaborators worked across nine labs to get retron recombineering up-and-running in fifteen bacterial species. Molecular parts on addgene: www.addgene.org/browse/artic... Happy editing!

Happy to share our new work on how phages escape bacterial immunity. We show that a phage homing endonuclease drives segmental amplification of anti-defense genes, pointing to a versatile and rapid mode of adaptation. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #PhageSky #MicroSky

Open postdoc position in my lab on HGT and interbacterial competition. We seek candidates with a PhD in microbiology (or related fields)+ strong 1st-author publications. Curious, highly motivated, and dedicated team players ready to contribute fully are encouraged to apply. Details: tiny.cc/cz01101

Excited to share the first preprint from the lab! We show that ApeA defends against RNA phage infection by cleaving the phage genome: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

After >10 years of our lab studying bacterial cGAS-like enzymes, @hobbslabutah.bsky.social finally reconstitutes viral sensing in vitro and discovers how these ancient receptors sense phage protease enzymes to detect virion assembly and activate antiviral immunity www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

On this fabulous day celebrating André Citroën's birthday 🥖🚗, I’m happy to share my main paper from my postdoc in @jrpenades.bsky.social Lab. If you want to hear about how plasmid evolution is driven by mobile genetic elements, please come and read this preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Looking for a breakthrough in #bacteriophage engineering? NEB and Yale University researchers used HC-GGA to engineer a fully synthetic P. aeruginosa phage, paving the way for faster, simpler and safer therapeutic development: https://nebiolabs.com/3O1DacT

Check out our latest preprint from @jnvmartinson.bsky.social and @leosong.bsky.social! 🌟🦠 We found that conjugative plasmids can actively eliminate recipient bacteria that resist plasmid acquisition. 🧵

Published version of our work on diversity-generating retroelements! We reconstituted a phage DGR in E. coli and deployed high-throughput methods to identify factors influencing the activity of this system. #microsky journals.plos.org/plosgenetics...

Are you interested in studying RNA phages? We are looking for a PhD student and a postdoc to join the lab! For more information and how to apply, see below 👇 Please RT!

One week left to apply!!

A recent cool preprint by John Whitney's lab on a new family of antibacterial proteins secreted by Gram-positive bacteria that enter and kill a broad spectrum of bacteria. Cell entry is receptor-independent and relies on cleavage by a co-secreted protease and the PMF. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

This is insanely cool!!

The outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria blocks many antibiotics. Our latest work reveals that L-type pyocins bypass this barrier by inactivating the BAM complex, killing Pseudomonas aeruginosa without entering the cell, providing a new blueprint for beating antibiotic resistance.

Diversity-generating retroelements are a fascinating class of targeted gene editing system. How DGRs function within cells remains incompletely understood. In this preprint (www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... ), we report identification of factors influencing DGR activity in E. coli. #MicroSky

🚨👉 Please check our recent work on bacterial cell division. In situ Cryo-ET reveals the cellular function of the penicillin binding protein 1b supported by AFM, live-cell imaging, in silico AlphaFold proteome screen and TIRFM. Hope you enjoy the read! #teamtomo #cryo-ET ❄️🔬🐎 big thanks to the team!

🚨New paper out! #MicroSky Studying obligate predators like Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus is tricky—essential genes for predation are also essential for survival. We expanded its genetic toolbox: 🧬promoters to fine-tune expression 🧬IPTG-inducible system 🧬CRISPRi for rapid knockdown bit.ly/46GUn2c 1/4

How do cells sort which RNAs to keep or destroy? New preprint from THJ, Brenneke and Plaschka labs shows that export and decay machineries (TREX2/PAXT) both recognise UAP56-bound RNAs. Whether they’re exported or degraded depends on where in the nucleus this happens. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

PIWI clade Argonautes are essential for transposon silencing. Without them, animals are sterile due to massive transposon activity. But how does piRNA-guided target interaction translate into silencing? PhD student Júlia Portell Montserrat has an intriguing answer www.cell.com/molecular-ce...

Bacterial cell wall & periplasm paradigm shift - important read #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...