Ellinor Alseth
@ellinoralseth.bsky.social
Eco-evo with microbes. I happen to like fjords, I think they give a lovely baroque feel to a continent. The University of Tromsø. Opinions my own. She/her
Pinned
Ellinor Alseth
@ellinoralseth.bsky.social
· Apr 10
Mystique, a broad host range Acinetobacter phage, reveals the impact of culturing conditions on phage isolation and infectivity
Author summary Bacterial infections caused by Acinetobacter baumannii are a major global health concern due to high antibiotic resistance, earning it a critical priority pathogen ranking by the WHO. P...
journals.plos.org
Mystique is here! When I started my position at @cmdi.bsky.social there were no readily available phage against my A. baumannii focal strain. The solution? Finding my own phage ofc. Mystique is a broad host range Acinetobacter phage, and I'm thrilled to see this work out today #PhageSky 🧪🦠
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
@sacrozhangt.bsky.social and I wrote a commentary on Jordi van Gestel and Carol Gross's latest paper, check it out!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Sadly, the Editors at PNAS rejected our initial introduction, which was a David Attenborough style voice over of the microbial Serengeti (included below)
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Sadly, the Editors at PNAS rejected our initial introduction, which was a David Attenborough style voice over of the microbial Serengeti (included below)
November 13, 2025 at 2:54 PM
@sacrozhangt.bsky.social and I wrote a commentary on Jordi van Gestel and Carol Gross's latest paper, check it out!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Sadly, the Editors at PNAS rejected our initial introduction, which was a David Attenborough style voice over of the microbial Serengeti (included below)
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Sadly, the Editors at PNAS rejected our initial introduction, which was a David Attenborough style voice over of the microbial Serengeti (included below)
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Thank you everyone who has donated so far! This will be closing at the end of the month so still time to enter for a chance to name a phage!
This is open worldwide with all currency conversions accounted for. For GBP it is £2 an entry and all funds go directly to The Cystic Fibrosis Trust 💚
This is open worldwide with all currency conversions accounted for. For GBP it is £2 an entry and all funds go directly to The Cystic Fibrosis Trust 💚
Want to name a real virus? I have recently discovered 9 new phages which now need names! To enter, you simply need to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust on my JustGiving page (£2 = 1 entry) and share your email with me on donation (see link info). Please share 💚 www.justgiving.com/page/meaghan-c-1
November 12, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Thank you everyone who has donated so far! This will be closing at the end of the month so still time to enter for a chance to name a phage!
This is open worldwide with all currency conversions accounted for. For GBP it is £2 an entry and all funds go directly to The Cystic Fibrosis Trust 💚
This is open worldwide with all currency conversions accounted for. For GBP it is £2 an entry and all funds go directly to The Cystic Fibrosis Trust 💚
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the @biology.ox.ac.uk department - thanks so much for hosting me @annadewar.bsky.social !
And thanks to everyone who chatted to me about plasmids, genomes, and more.
I even manage to find a phage in the natural history museum before leaving :)
And thanks to everyone who chatted to me about plasmids, genomes, and more.
I even manage to find a phage in the natural history museum before leaving :)
November 7, 2025 at 5:40 PM
I thoroughly enjoyed visiting the @biology.ox.ac.uk department - thanks so much for hosting me @annadewar.bsky.social !
And thanks to everyone who chatted to me about plasmids, genomes, and more.
I even manage to find a phage in the natural history museum before leaving :)
And thanks to everyone who chatted to me about plasmids, genomes, and more.
I even manage to find a phage in the natural history museum before leaving :)
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome — by detecting methylated mononucleotides.
Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
November 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM
Bacteria can sense when a virus starts shredding their genome — by detecting methylated mononucleotides.
Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Here’s the story of how we discovered the Metis defense system 👇
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Hi everyone, a few years ago, we started a list of labs studying bacterial immunty for students, editors, conference organizers... (currently n=79).
Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#Phagesky #Microsky
Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#Phagesky #Microsky
Labs in bacterial immunity
docs.google.com
November 4, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Hi everyone, a few years ago, we started a list of labs studying bacterial immunty for students, editors, conference organizers... (currently n=79).
Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#Phagesky #Microsky
Update time ! Send me a message to 1) add your lab or others 2) Correct info
docs.google.com/spreadsheets...
#Phagesky #Microsky
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bacterial warfare is associated with virulence and antimicrobial resistance - Nature Communications
Bacteria employ a range of competition systems that deliver toxins to inhibit competing strains. This study shows that these systems are particularly important for the ecology of virulent and antibiot...
www.nature.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:32 AM
So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
#microsky #mevosky @spp2389.bsky.social
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
October 28, 2025 at 8:43 AM
#microsky #mevosky @spp2389.bsky.social
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
parents, be sure to check your kids’ candy this halloween. I just found a novel phage defense system inside this snickers
October 4, 2023 at 7:32 PM
parents, be sure to check your kids’ candy this halloween. I just found a novel phage defense system inside this snickers
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Two Senior Research Fellow jobs @biology.ox.ac.uk on fungal biology in plant and animal/human disease. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Job Details
my.corehr.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:18 PM
Two Senior Research Fellow jobs @biology.ox.ac.uk on fungal biology in plant and animal/human disease. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
@prczhaoyansong.bsky.social’s deep dive into the dark matter of compost communities is now out 🎉 Genomic islands hijack jumbo phages—whose capsids enable transfer of large tracts of DNA—shedding new light on the scale & scope of phage-mediated gene flow 😎
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Jumbo phage–mediated transduction of genomic islands | PNAS
Bacteria acquire new genes by horizontal gene transfer, typically mediated by mobile
genetic elements (MGEs). While plasmids, bacteriophages, and c...
www.pnas.org
October 28, 2025 at 6:36 PM
@prczhaoyansong.bsky.social’s deep dive into the dark matter of compost communities is now out 🎉 Genomic islands hijack jumbo phages—whose capsids enable transfer of large tracts of DNA—shedding new light on the scale & scope of phage-mediated gene flow 😎
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Good evening from the Arctic!
October 29, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Good evening from the Arctic!
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
New pre-print: Plasmid dependent phage effectively eliminate AMR bacteria and block plasmid transmission in the chicken gut microbiome
Fun collaboration with Tao He lab (JAAS) and @brockhurstlab.bsky.social lab (Manchester)
#phagesky#microsky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Fun collaboration with Tao He lab (JAAS) and @brockhurstlab.bsky.social lab (Manchester)
#phagesky#microsky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Plasmid dependent phage eliminate pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic resistance plasmids from the chicken gut microbiome
Conjugative plasmids are a key reservoir of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in commensal and pathogenic bacteria within the gut microbiome. Plasmid-dependent phage (PDPs) are a promising therapeutic op...
www.biorxiv.org
October 27, 2025 at 8:19 AM
New pre-print: Plasmid dependent phage effectively eliminate AMR bacteria and block plasmid transmission in the chicken gut microbiome
Fun collaboration with Tao He lab (JAAS) and @brockhurstlab.bsky.social lab (Manchester)
#phagesky#microsky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Fun collaboration with Tao He lab (JAAS) and @brockhurstlab.bsky.social lab (Manchester)
#phagesky#microsky
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
I saw The Blair Witch Project way too young and it made me afraid of projects
September 7, 2025 at 3:50 PM
I saw The Blair Witch Project way too young and it made me afraid of projects
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Now published in PLOS Biology! We found new retron containing bacteria in the wild, figured out defense mechanisms, and turned them into genome editors. From a cupful of dirt to new parts for genome editing in one story! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
October 23, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Now published in PLOS Biology! We found new retron containing bacteria in the wild, figured out defense mechanisms, and turned them into genome editors. From a cupful of dirt to new parts for genome editing in one story! journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Day 22, GOAT. The most iconic (if not the greatest phage of all time) in terms of looks are myovirus like phages. They look like a lunar lander and are instantly recognisable as a virus. #Drawtober #SciArt #PhageSky
October 22, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Day 22, GOAT. The most iconic (if not the greatest phage of all time) in terms of looks are myovirus like phages. They look like a lunar lander and are instantly recognisable as a virus. #Drawtober #SciArt #PhageSky
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
JOB OFFER #PhageSky
We have a postdoc position opening in my group to investigate phage-MGE interactions !
We're based in the very nice city of Lyon, France @mmsb-lyon.bsky.social
Contact me for more info !
>> Apply on the CNRS webpage emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
We have a postdoc position opening in my group to investigate phage-MGE interactions !
We're based in the very nice city of Lyon, France @mmsb-lyon.bsky.social
Contact me for more info !
>> Apply on the CNRS webpage emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Portail Emploi CNRS - Offre d'emploi - Postdoctoral researcher Microbiology (M/F)
emploi.cnrs.fr
October 22, 2025 at 9:35 AM
JOB OFFER #PhageSky
We have a postdoc position opening in my group to investigate phage-MGE interactions !
We're based in the very nice city of Lyon, France @mmsb-lyon.bsky.social
Contact me for more info !
>> Apply on the CNRS webpage emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
We have a postdoc position opening in my group to investigate phage-MGE interactions !
We're based in the very nice city of Lyon, France @mmsb-lyon.bsky.social
Contact me for more info !
>> Apply on the CNRS webpage emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Interesting paper on bacteriophage genomics and bioinformatics
'Phage quest: a beginner’s guide to explore viral diversity in the prokaryotic world' by @sebwielgoss.bsky.social and colleagues
academic.oup.com/bib/article/...
'Phage quest: a beginner’s guide to explore viral diversity in the prokaryotic world' by @sebwielgoss.bsky.social and colleagues
academic.oup.com/bib/article/...
Phage quest: a beginner’s guide to explore viral diversity in the prokaryotic world
Abstract. The increasing interest in finding new viruses within (meta)genomic datasets has fueled the development of computational tools for virus detectio
academic.oup.com
October 21, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Interesting paper on bacteriophage genomics and bioinformatics
'Phage quest: a beginner’s guide to explore viral diversity in the prokaryotic world' by @sebwielgoss.bsky.social and colleagues
academic.oup.com/bib/article/...
'Phage quest: a beginner’s guide to explore viral diversity in the prokaryotic world' by @sebwielgoss.bsky.social and colleagues
academic.oup.com/bib/article/...
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
The superpower of books like Sapiens is that they require expertise in like 12 academic fields to debunk. So you get these super detailed takedowns of small sections that look to laypeople like nitpicking.
October 21, 2025 at 6:38 AM
The superpower of books like Sapiens is that they require expertise in like 12 academic fields to debunk. So you get these super detailed takedowns of small sections that look to laypeople like nitpicking.
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
#microsky #mevosky @spp2389.bsky.social
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
October 15, 2025 at 1:07 PM
#microsky #mevosky @spp2389.bsky.social
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
A PhD position is available in my lab to work on:
Emergence and self-organisation of bacterial metabolism in consortia of cross-feeding bacteria.
Please RT
Deadline: 12.11.25
More infos 👇
shorturl.at/rAKAT
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Many antiphage systems use NAD+, in many ways.
@hugovaysset.bsky.social reviewed them all!
Read to know more about all their molecular mechanisms, how phages counteract them, their distribution in bacteria and their conservation in eukaryotic immunity!
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
@hugovaysset.bsky.social reviewed them all!
Read to know more about all their molecular mechanisms, how phages counteract them, their distribution in bacteria and their conservation in eukaryotic immunity!
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
The multifaceted roles of NAD+ in bacterial immunity
In this review, Vaysset and Bernheim examine how nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide
(NAD+) is a key player in diverse and widespread bacterial antiphage defense systems
and phage counterdefense. The au...
www.cell.com
October 17, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Many antiphage systems use NAD+, in many ways.
@hugovaysset.bsky.social reviewed them all!
Read to know more about all their molecular mechanisms, how phages counteract them, their distribution in bacteria and their conservation in eukaryotic immunity!
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
@hugovaysset.bsky.social reviewed them all!
Read to know more about all their molecular mechanisms, how phages counteract them, their distribution in bacteria and their conservation in eukaryotic immunity!
www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
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!
For more information and how to apply, see below 👇
Please RT!
📢 The #HIRI is looking for a #postdoc & a #PhD student to join the research group of @jenshoer.bsky.social. His lab focuses on understanding the molecular mechanisms of #phages with #RNA genomes during infection, host takeover & anti-phage defense. 🧫🦠 More info: www.helmholtz-hiri.de/en/jobs-tale...
Working at HIRI
At the HIRI, we do not just value excellent research. Short distances, an open door policy, and a good working atmosphere—this is what distinguishes us from others. Have a look at our current job…
www.helmholtz-hiri.de
October 17, 2025 at 12:52 PM
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!
For more information and how to apply, see below 👇
Please RT!
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth
Very excited to share the latest work from our lab, which was published today in Nature!
nature.com/articles/s41...
PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.
nature.com/articles/s41...
PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.
Isolation, engineering and ecology of temperate phages from the human gut - Nature
Human host-associated cellular products may act as induction agents for bacteriophages.
nature.com
October 15, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Very excited to share the latest work from our lab, which was published today in Nature!
nature.com/articles/s41...
PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.
nature.com/articles/s41...
PhD graduate and now post-doc Sofia Dahlman, along with co-senior author Sam Forster from The Hudson and other researchers from our lab and others.
Reposted by Ellinor Alseth