Gianluca Prezza
@gprezza.bsky.social
Fan of dogs, bugs, and making bugs do stuff. Postdoc in the Ellis lab, dept of Bioengineering, Imperial College London.
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
1/9 Metagenomics lets us read microbiomes in nature without cultivation, but writing (editing) them in their native context is still a major challenge.
Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases
Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...
science.org
November 14, 2025 at 2:25 PM
1/9 Metagenomics lets us read microbiomes in nature without cultivation, but writing (editing) them in their native context is still a major challenge.
Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Meet MetaEdit: a platform for pathway-scale metagenomic editing inside the gut microbiome. science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
In the UK, SUVs accounted for 63% of new sales in 2024.
The proliferation of SUVs is one aspect of “carspreading,” whereby cars are becoming steadily larger over time and with this comes potential harms to health 🧵
www.bmj.com/content/391/...
The proliferation of SUVs is one aspect of “carspreading,” whereby cars are becoming steadily larger over time and with this comes potential harms to health 🧵
www.bmj.com/content/391/...
November 6, 2025 at 4:00 PM
In the UK, SUVs accounted for 63% of new sales in 2024.
The proliferation of SUVs is one aspect of “carspreading,” whereby cars are becoming steadily larger over time and with this comes potential harms to health 🧵
www.bmj.com/content/391/...
The proliferation of SUVs is one aspect of “carspreading,” whereby cars are becoming steadily larger over time and with this comes potential harms to health 🧵
www.bmj.com/content/391/...
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
A new review paper from our lab courtesy of @jazzsynbio.bsky.social is published in Trends in Biotechnology
In this review, we look at the many opportunities for synthetic biology to be used in the research and applications of Holobionts.
In this review, we look at the many opportunities for synthetic biology to be used in the research and applications of Holobionts.
October 23, 2025 at 10:09 AM
A new review paper from our lab courtesy of @jazzsynbio.bsky.social is published in Trends in Biotechnology
In this review, we look at the many opportunities for synthetic biology to be used in the research and applications of Holobionts.
In this review, we look at the many opportunities for synthetic biology to be used in the research and applications of Holobionts.
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
The logic of sabotaging the ability to hire trained researchers from abroad while simultaneously sabotaging the ability of US universities to train American researchers is truly baffling.
September 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM
The logic of sabotaging the ability to hire trained researchers from abroad while simultaneously sabotaging the ability of US universities to train American researchers is truly baffling.
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
Check out our new paper: a review of translational coupling, the phenomenon where translation of one prokaryotic gene can promote translation of the gene downstream. We cover the history, and delve into the mechanism, which is still not fully understood. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Translational coupling of neighboring genes in prokaryotes | Journal of Bacteriology
Prokaryotic genes are arranged in operons, with functionally related genes often located
adjacent to one another (1). There are several ways in which the operonic organization of genes facilitates
the...
journals.asm.org
September 11, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Check out our new paper: a review of translational coupling, the phenomenon where translation of one prokaryotic gene can promote translation of the gene downstream. We cover the history, and delve into the mechanism, which is still not fully understood. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
🚀 New publication alert! 🚀
We just published in @natbiotech.nature.com:
👉 Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
We just published in @natbiotech.nature.com:
👉 Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes - Nature Biotechnology
Append editing of ADP-ribosyl to thymine is used for precise modifications in bacteria and eukaryotes.
doi.org
September 4, 2025 at 6:51 PM
🚀 New publication alert! 🚀
We just published in @natbiotech.nature.com:
👉 Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
We just published in @natbiotech.nature.com:
👉 Targeted DNA ADP-ribosylation triggers templated repair in bacteria and base mutagenesis in eukaryotes
doi.org/10.1038/s415...
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
I love this diagram
August 18, 2025 at 1:29 PM
I love this diagram
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
New paper from our lab on synthetic genome work in yeast is out - Iterative SCRaMbLE for Engineering Synthetic Genome Modules and Chromosomes. Exciting project led by Jane (Xinyu) Lu in our group, now online. t.co/0LuGwgAWlA
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62356-y
t.co
August 11, 2025 at 12:36 PM
New paper from our lab on synthetic genome work in yeast is out - Iterative SCRaMbLE for Engineering Synthetic Genome Modules and Chromosomes. Exciting project led by Jane (Xinyu) Lu in our group, now online. t.co/0LuGwgAWlA
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
The Friends of the @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social have awarded Gianluca Prezza the HZI PhD Award for his outstanding doctoral thesis. In #HIRI's @westermannlab.bsky.social, he investigated #sRNAs in the gut bacterium B. theta. 🦠👨🎓 Congrats, @gprezza.bsky.social!
www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/newsroom/...
www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/newsroom/...
July 14, 2025 at 9:42 AM
The Friends of the @helmholtzhzi.bsky.social have awarded Gianluca Prezza the HZI PhD Award for his outstanding doctoral thesis. In #HIRI's @westermannlab.bsky.social, he investigated #sRNAs in the gut bacterium B. theta. 🦠👨🎓 Congrats, @gprezza.bsky.social!
www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/newsroom/...
www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/newsroom/...
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
Online now @ Cell is the yeast multicellular engineering paper from Fankang Meng - the fruits of his productive PhD in our group. He developed modular synthetic biology tools to bring multicellular behaviours to yeast - specific adhesion, juxtacrine signalling and more. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Engineering yeast multicellular behaviors via synthetic adhesion and contact signaling
By designing synthetic toolkits for contact-based signaling (MARS) and cell-cell adhesion
(SATURN), we program yeast to form multicellular structures and perform complex tasks,
like building logic cir...
www.cell.com
July 11, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Online now @ Cell is the yeast multicellular engineering paper from Fankang Meng - the fruits of his productive PhD in our group. He developed modular synthetic biology tools to bring multicellular behaviours to yeast - specific adhesion, juxtacrine signalling and more. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
While writing my thesis, I kept wondering why I was putting so much effort in something that "nobody will ever read". Well, someone did and thought it deserved a prize! 🤯
Many thanks to people @westermannlab.bsky.social and Alex in particular for the support, supervision and, eventually, nomination.
Many thanks to people @westermannlab.bsky.social and Alex in particular for the support, supervision and, eventually, nomination.
Congrats to Gianluca Prezza (@gprezza.bsky.social) for reveiving the 2025 PhD Award from the Friends of the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research (HZI)!👏 The award honours excellent PhD theses from the field of life sciences at HZI partner universities. His thesis focused Bacteroides' RNA biology.
Beim gestrigen Festakt wurden zudem die HZI-Promotionspreise an Wenchao Li @ciim-hannover.bsky.social und @gprezza.bsky.social aus der Gruppe von @westermannlab.bsky.social @helmholtz-hiri.bsky.social verliehen. Wir gratulieren den beiden zu ihren ausgezeichneten Doktorarbeiten!
July 11, 2025 at 2:10 PM
While writing my thesis, I kept wondering why I was putting so much effort in something that "nobody will ever read". Well, someone did and thought it deserved a prize! 🤯
Many thanks to people @westermannlab.bsky.social and Alex in particular for the support, supervision and, eventually, nomination.
Many thanks to people @westermannlab.bsky.social and Alex in particular for the support, supervision and, eventually, nomination.
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
Fantastic to see this work published, and the interest it has sparked! A tour de force by Anna Lindell and a interdisciplinary team I was honoured to contribute to.👉 PFAS are already in our environment and bodies, we urgently need ways to mitigate their impact 🧫🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/2
July 4, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Fantastic to see this work published, and the interest it has sparked! A tour de force by Anna Lindell and a interdisciplinary team I was honoured to contribute to.👉 PFAS are already in our environment and bodies, we urgently need ways to mitigate their impact 🧫🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41... 1/2
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
We're hiring for 2 postdocs to work in our lab in London on the newly announced Wellcome Trust SynHG project. If you know people looking to work on big-scale ambitious science like this, please RT and share this with them. Apply by 7/20, interviews in Aug. imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...
June 30, 2025 at 2:34 PM
We're hiring for 2 postdocs to work in our lab in London on the newly announced Wellcome Trust SynHG project. If you know people looking to work on big-scale ambitious science like this, please RT and share this with them. Apply by 7/20, interviews in Aug. imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
It's 25 yrs to the day since the Human Genome Project & Craig Venter declared joint victory in sequencing the human genome - an ideal time for @wellcometrust.bsky.social to annouce their new project, involving our lab, to begin work towards synthesising human genomes. wellcome.org/news/researc...
Researchers take first steps to creating synthetic human genomes | Wellcome
Scientists are developing technology to create the first synthetic human chromosome. The ability to write large genomes could transform our understanding of health.
wellcome.org
June 26, 2025 at 12:29 PM
It's 25 yrs to the day since the Human Genome Project & Craig Venter declared joint victory in sequencing the human genome - an ideal time for @wellcometrust.bsky.social to annouce their new project, involving our lab, to begin work towards synthesising human genomes. wellcome.org/news/researc...
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
Excited to share my PhD work!
We used a low-input RNA-seq protocol to dig into what drives cell shape differences in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.
Congrats and big thanks to all co-authors 🧫🧬.
We used a low-input RNA-seq protocol to dig into what drives cell shape differences in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.
Congrats and big thanks to all co-authors 🧫🧬.
The study was published in the journal @cp-cellreports.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Low-input RNA-seq suggests metabolic specialization underlying morphological heterogeneity in a gut commensal bacterium
Isogenic bacteria can be phenotypically diverse. This heterogeneity is evident in the Bacteroidota, a predominant phylum of the human gut microbiota. …
www.sciencedirect.com
June 17, 2025 at 4:10 PM
Excited to share my PhD work!
We used a low-input RNA-seq protocol to dig into what drives cell shape differences in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.
Congrats and big thanks to all co-authors 🧫🧬.
We used a low-input RNA-seq protocol to dig into what drives cell shape differences in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron.
Congrats and big thanks to all co-authors 🧫🧬.
Bacteroides Theta-Iota-Omicron is polymorphic already in its name. What are the differences between the morphotypes? We tried to answer this with a combination of mechanical separation of cells based on their shape and an ultra-low input RNA-seq protocol. Paper from @elisebor.bsky.social here 👇
Our latest: www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00615-1. Links Bacteroides cell size w/ gene expression. Protocol works even for single cells. 🦠
Shoutout to @elisebor.bsky.social, @emmanuel-saliba.bsky.social, @lbarquist.bsky.social, @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social, Till Strowig & KC Huang.
Shoutout to @elisebor.bsky.social, @emmanuel-saliba.bsky.social, @lbarquist.bsky.social, @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social, Till Strowig & KC Huang.
Low-input RNA-seq suggests metabolic specialization underlying morphological heterogeneity in a gut commensal bacterium
Bornet et al. investigate the morphological heterogeneity of Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron
cells observed both in laboratory culture and inside the mammalian GI tract. The authors
show that cell size i...
www.cell.com
June 18, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Bacteroides Theta-Iota-Omicron is polymorphic already in its name. What are the differences between the morphotypes? We tried to answer this with a combination of mechanical separation of cells based on their shape and an ultra-low input RNA-seq protocol. Paper from @elisebor.bsky.social here 👇
Did you think you needed a promoter for CRISPRa? Think again!
6/10 dCas12f-Sigma factors are able to recruit their native RNA polymerase (RNAP) to drive RNA-guided transcription at programmable sites. Remarkably, we were able to generate RNA (see RNA-seq) without relying on promoters in intergenic sequences, even within genes, and on either DNA strand.
June 12, 2025 at 6:07 AM
Did you think you needed a promoter for CRISPRa? Think again!
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab
May 13, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Yesterday, the NIH R35 “Outstanding Investigator” grant to fund scientists in my lab studying antibiotic resistance was terminated for reasons not related to the content of the science, or any actions taken by me or members of my lab
I'm sorry what 🤯
Madhavi Krishnans lab with an absolutely amazing new measurement technique:
Measurements of molecular size and shape on a chip | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Measurements of molecular size and shape on a chip | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Measurements of molecular size and shape on a chip
Size and shape are critical discriminators between molecular species and states. We describe a microchip-based high-throughput imaging approach offering rapid and precise determination of molecular pr...
www.science.org
May 9, 2025 at 8:20 PM
I'm sorry what 🤯
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
Here is the Bonsai visualization of a realistic dataset. In contrast to UMAP or PCA, the Bonsai tree accurately reflects the structure in the data. Not only visually, but the
correlations between the true distances and distances in the Bonsai representation are close to 1 for almost all cells.
correlations between the true distances and distances in the Bonsai representation are close to 1 for almost all cells.
May 9, 2025 at 10:49 AM
Here is the Bonsai visualization of a realistic dataset. In contrast to UMAP or PCA, the Bonsai tree accurately reflects the structure in the data. Not only visually, but the
correlations between the true distances and distances in the Bonsai representation are close to 1 for almost all cells.
correlations between the true distances and distances in the Bonsai representation are close to 1 for almost all cells.
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
It seems there are no free-living organisms known to rely exclusively on one other organism for their survival
Until perhaps now
Check out our latest publication in @natmicrobiol.nature.com to see how we designed an exclusive microbial reliance using GCE
rdcu.be/ekepI
1/2
Until perhaps now
Check out our latest publication in @natmicrobiol.nature.com to see how we designed an exclusive microbial reliance using GCE
rdcu.be/ekepI
1/2
Engineered orthogonal and obligate bacterial commensalism mediated by a non-standard amino acid
Nature Microbiology - A genetically engineered microbial symbiosis based on synthetic auxotrophy is created, with potential implications as a biocontainment strategy.
rdcu.be
May 1, 2025 at 10:30 AM
It seems there are no free-living organisms known to rely exclusively on one other organism for their survival
Until perhaps now
Check out our latest publication in @natmicrobiol.nature.com to see how we designed an exclusive microbial reliance using GCE
rdcu.be/ekepI
1/2
Until perhaps now
Check out our latest publication in @natmicrobiol.nature.com to see how we designed an exclusive microbial reliance using GCE
rdcu.be/ekepI
1/2
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
Very happy to share our newly published work! We engineered phages for intercellular communication in multicellular consortia and integrated it with CRISPR-based gene regulation for biocomputing. Congratulations to @astrikusuma.bsky.social @dmf-unil.bsky.social @fbm-unil.bsky.social
rdcu.be/ehORO
rdcu.be/ehORO
Engineering intercellular communication using M13 phagemid and CRISPR-based gene regulation for multicellular computing in Escherichia coli
Nature Communications - Engineering multicellular consortia, where information processing is distributed across specialized cell types, offers a promising strategy for implementing sophisticated...
rdcu.be
April 15, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Very happy to share our newly published work! We engineered phages for intercellular communication in multicellular consortia and integrated it with CRISPR-based gene regulation for biocomputing. Congratulations to @astrikusuma.bsky.social @dmf-unil.bsky.social @fbm-unil.bsky.social
rdcu.be/ehORO
rdcu.be/ehORO
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
PRETTY AWESOME
Sidor et al. PNAS take a single enzyme from a marine sponge and express it in E. coli, conferring the ability to self-assemble bioglass from silica precursors present in ocean water
End result? Living, light-focusing microlenses that persist for months
Cheap, durable photonics
Sidor et al. PNAS take a single enzyme from a marine sponge and express it in E. coli, conferring the ability to self-assemble bioglass from silica precursors present in ocean water
End result? Living, light-focusing microlenses that persist for months
Cheap, durable photonics
Engineered bacteria that self-assemble bioglass polysilicate coatings display enhanced light focusing | PNAS
Cutting-edge photonic devices frequently rely on microparticle components to focus
and manipulate light. Conventional methods used to produce these...
www.pnas.org
April 14, 2025 at 12:43 PM
PRETTY AWESOME
Sidor et al. PNAS take a single enzyme from a marine sponge and express it in E. coli, conferring the ability to self-assemble bioglass from silica precursors present in ocean water
End result? Living, light-focusing microlenses that persist for months
Cheap, durable photonics
Sidor et al. PNAS take a single enzyme from a marine sponge and express it in E. coli, conferring the ability to self-assemble bioglass from silica precursors present in ocean water
End result? Living, light-focusing microlenses that persist for months
Cheap, durable photonics
Reposted by Gianluca Prezza
If you want to do single-cell RNA-seq on your favourite bacterium, here‘s our detailed Nature Protocol for microbial MATQ-seq. It profiles up to 600 genes in a single bacterial cell!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Transcriptomic profiling of individual bacteria by MATQ-seq - Nature Protocols
Bacterial single-cell sequencing via MATQ-seq combines index sorting, random priming and rRNA depletion, and offers high cell retention and transcript capture rates, making it ideal for experiments wi...
www.nature.com
April 9, 2025 at 9:15 AM
If you want to do single-cell RNA-seq on your favourite bacterium, here‘s our detailed Nature Protocol for microbial MATQ-seq. It profiles up to 600 genes in a single bacterial cell!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...