Alfonso Santos Lopez
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asantoslopez.bsky.social
Alfonso Santos Lopez
@asantoslopez.bsky.social
Evolution of antibiotic resistance. Ramón y Cajal Fellow at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. https://amrevolution.es/
Pinned
Our new manuscript is out! A bit of everything cool:

Plasmids ✅
Insertion Sequences ✅
AMR Evolution ✅
Microbial Communities ✅
Databases analyses ✅
Mathematical modeling ✅

See the scientific thread below of Jorge Sastre, who has brilliantly led this work with @palomarodera.bsky.social
New paper out! 🔈🔈📣📣

Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation.

Combining experimental and computational approaches, we unveil how two of the most prevalent bacterial MGE accelerate the evolution of AMR. 🧵👇🏻

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a major threat to public health. Plasmids are mobile genetic elements that can rapidly spread across bacterial populations, promoting the dissemination of AMR genes i...
www.biorxiv.org
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
🚨 Excited to share our new paper is out! 🎉
We show how interactions within gut microbiomes allow certain antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains to persist even without antibiotics, helping explain how resistance is maintained in the human gut.

Now published in @natcomms.nature.com rdcu.be/eOf63
Multi-layered ecological interactions determine growth of clinical antibiotic-resistant strains within human microbiomes
Nature Communications - The role of ecological factors in modulating the spread of antibiotic-resistance bacteria in the gut remains unclear. Here, the authors use anaerobic microcosms to study the...
rdcu.be
November 7, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Do plasmids really move around that much? Well, maybe not always

Thrilled to have contributed to this story with two of my favourite microbiologists: @jrpenades.bsky.social & @sanmillan.bsky.social

This great work was led by Akshay Sabnis & @wfigueroac3.bsky.social

www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature
Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...
www.cell.com
October 22, 2025 at 5:47 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
New paper with my (amazing) friend and mentor @jrpenades.bsky.social
Really looking forward to see what plasmid aficionados think of this one!!
With @asantoslopez.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social Akshay Sabins and others
www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature
Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...
www.cell.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
✨New paper from @jrpenades.bsky.social and @sanmillan.bsky.social labs. We found that non-conjugative plasmids 🧬 tend to have low mobility to promote functional diversity ⚔️💊 in bacterial communities🦠🦠.
Brilliant work by Akshay, @asantoslopez.bsky.social and others.

www.cell.com/cell-reports...
Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature
Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...
www.cell.com
October 22, 2025 at 1:37 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
📢¡Oferta de trabajo en el CBM!
El grupo de David Ruano ofrece un contrato predoctoral para desarrollar un nuevo método diagnóstico del SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth).
Plazo hasta el 30 oct.
Info👇
www.cbm.uam.es/index.php/jo...
Predoctoral contract - Centro de Biología Molecular Severo Ochoa
Contract for the doctoral thesis project: «Development of a new diagnostic method for SIBO».   Call We are looking for a student to join our research team (https://rebrand.ly/druanogallego) at the Sev...
www.cbm.uam.es
October 17, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
🚨🚨🚨
Two super well-funded PhD grants from our MSCA Doctoral Network @evomg-dn.bsky.social at our lab at @melisupf.bsky.social, @crg.eu and the @evomg-bcn.bsky.social Program.

If you're excited about evolution, genomics and biomedical research, this is your DN! 😃

Further info: www.evomg-dn.eu and 👇
EVOMG-DN
EvoMG-DN is a European Doctoral Network funded by the Horizon Europe Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), composed of 14 beneficiaries and associated partners from both academic and non-academic sectors.
www.evomg-dn.eu
October 15, 2025 at 7:02 AM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Session 3 (Thr 09/10 in the afternoon) was dedicated to Microbes, microbiome and antibiotic resistance.
October 12, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Nuestro compañero Álvaro San Millán (@sanmillan.bsky.social), investigador en el #CNB_CSIC ha recibido el Premio María Moliner, que reconoce la labor de quienes se inician en la dirección de tesis doctorales, destacando su compromiso en el acompañamiento del talento emergente.

¡Enhorabuena!👏
csic.es CSIC @csic.es · Oct 9
🏆 El #CSIC entrega las Medallas Margarita Salas, Premios Tesis Relevante y Premios María Moliner   

🔬 Con estos galardones, la institución reafirma su compromiso con la excelencia investigadora, el aprendizaje y la formación de nuevas generaciones

👉 https://f.mtr.cool/zledhiknbb
October 9, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
New preprint!

Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠

Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare!

An epic effort by Rosanna Wright

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Resistance mutation supply modulates the benefit of CRISPR immunity against virulent phages
Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...
www.biorxiv.org
October 6, 2025 at 6:27 AM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Imagine we could travel back in time ⏪⌛️to explore the world of bacterial pathogens before humans discovered and industrialised antibiotics

We just did that to study the history of #AMR spread @science.org
doi.org/10.1126/scie...

If you like time travel & biology, this 🧵is for you👇
Pre- and postantibiotic epoch: The historical spread of antimicrobial resistance
Plasmids are now the primary vectors of antimicrobial resistance, but our understanding of how human industrialisation of antibiotics influenced their evolution is limited by a paucity of data predati...
doi.org
October 6, 2025 at 10:42 AM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Published in Current Biology! P. aeruginosa can use its filamentous phage to inhibit competitors but high phage production is susceptible to cheater miniphage invasion. Subsequent phage tragedy of the commons can lower bacteria and phage fitness. Link: authors.elsevier.com/c/1lt5I3QW8S...
October 2, 2025 at 3:54 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
October 1, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
View from the lab now. Did I mention that we are recruiting faculty microbiologists?

www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...
September 29, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols.
Thread 1/n
September 25, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
🚨 Microbiologists! We are recruiting Assistant / Associate Professors in 3 collaborative areas of our U. Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
1) MMG (my dept): fundamental research in med micro
2) Peds ID / I4Kids institute
3) Center for Vaccine Research
🔗 to all 3 w/info: www.linkedin.com/posts/vaughn...
Faculty Professor Associate - Full-Time | Vaughn Cooper
We are recruiting Faculty microbiologists in three (3) different, complementary, and collaborative areas at the University of Pittsburgh associated with the School of Medicine. 1) Fundamental researc...
www.linkedin.com
September 23, 2025 at 10:31 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
We are hiring a PhD student! Are you fascinated by microbes and evolution? Come join us in Barcelona!
September 10, 2025 at 8:39 AM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Our second paper with @tcostalab.bsky.social and GoogleDeepMind
reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
AI mirrors experimental science to uncover a mechanism of gene transfer crucial to bacterial evolution
By solving a previously unsolved biological question, the AI co-scientist predicted a complex mechanism of gene transfer and generated hypotheses that opened new research directions, illustrating AI's...
www.cell.com
September 9, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
We discovered a new horizontal gene transfer mechanism: tail-less cf-PICIs hijack free phage tails extracellularly, forming infectious chimeric virions that drive both intra- and inter-species transfer among bacteria. @jonaszpatkowski.bsky.social @tcostalab.bsky.social @jrpenades.bsky.social
September 9, 2025 at 9:10 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Check out @julielebris.bsky.social’s thread on our latest manuscript describing phenotypic heterogeneity in capsule production in Klebsiella & Acinetobacter @klebclub.bsky.social

This work started when I was still in @pasteur.fr & got finished in @cbitoulouse.bsky.social
#microsky #phagesky
September 9, 2025 at 5:11 AM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
New preprint from my lab! We describe how transposable elements are activated in Parkinson’s disease, which is linked to an interferon response. We believe this study significantly advances our understanding of transposons and their role in human brains.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Activation of transposable elements is linked to a region- and cell-type-specific interferon response in Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common age-related neurodegenerative disorder involving a neuroinflammatory response, the cause of which remains unclear. Transposable elements (TE) have been linked to i...
www.biorxiv.org
September 7, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
El próximo 5 de septiembre en nuestro #47congresosebbm tendrá lugar la entrega del Premio Fundación Lilly a la Mejor Tesis Doctoral en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular a Alberto Hipólito Carrillo por el trabajo de su tesis.

https://f.mtr.cool/rnstpoiucs
August 26, 2025 at 7:01 AM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Extremely glad to see this out!!

Wonderful work by all the lab, especially @aliciapcv.bsky.social. Don't miss her thread!!
This work is finally published! 🥳🧬
Plasmids are associated with very variable fitness costs in their different bacterial hosts. But, what is the contribution of each of the plasmid-genes in these host-specific effects? Study led by
@jorgesastred.bsky.social, @sanmillan.bsky.social and myself! 1/14
Dissecting pOXA-48 fitness effects in clinical Enterobacterales using plasmid-wide CRISPRi screens
Nature Communications - This study investigates the effects of the carbapenem resistance plasmid pOXA-48 in clinical enterobacteria. Using CRISPRi screens, the authors revealed that the...
rdcu.be
August 22, 2025 at 9:17 AM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
New prepint ‼️

We studied how the 3 T6SSs of P. putida shape the rhizobiota of tomato plants. Spoiler alert: K2- and K3-T6SS do not kill E. coli, but they are functional in the rhizosphere. In collaboration with the lab of Prof. Marta Martin & Rafael Rivilla @uam.es

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
August 15, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Our new manuscript is out! A bit of everything cool:

Plasmids ✅
Insertion Sequences ✅
AMR Evolution ✅
Microbial Communities ✅
Databases analyses ✅
Mathematical modeling ✅

See the scientific thread below of Jorge Sastre, who has brilliantly led this work with @palomarodera.bsky.social
New paper out! 🔈🔈📣📣

Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation.

Combining experimental and computational approaches, we unveil how two of the most prevalent bacterial MGE accelerate the evolution of AMR. 🧵👇🏻

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Plasmids promote antimicrobial resistance through Insertion Sequence-mediated gene inactivation
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) is a major threat to public health. Plasmids are mobile genetic elements that can rapidly spread across bacterial populations, promoting the dissemination of AMR genes i...
www.biorxiv.org
August 13, 2025 at 3:04 PM
Reposted by Alfonso Santos Lopez
Oxygen levels can affect how resistance genes work, impacting antibiotic efficacy. This can be relevant for the most used ones: for example, resistance to fosfomycin varies with oxygen.

Learn more in our latest paper 👉 bit.ly/3T8sdpp a work led by @jaescudero.bsky.social

#AntibioticResistance
August 4, 2025 at 8:52 AM