Kevin Forsberg
@kvnforsberg.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, Department of Microbiology, UT Southwestern. Posts are my own.
Lab Website: forsberglab.org
Banner Art: Tamanash Bhattacharya
Lab Website: forsberglab.org
Banner Art: Tamanash Bhattacharya
Pinned
Kevin Forsberg
@kvnforsberg.bsky.social
· Jul 29
Very proud to have our lab’s first work published in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social!
In this work, we use functional metagenomics to find phage defenses from human and soil microbiomes!
Congrats to first author @luis840alberto.bsky.social !
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
(1/3)
In this work, we use functional metagenomics to find phage defenses from human and soil microbiomes!
Congrats to first author @luis840alberto.bsky.social !
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
(1/3)
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
Biology is much more complicated than most non-biologists can imagine. And AI is not going to change this anytime soon.
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...
We still can’t predict much of anything in biology
Biology is hard. Yes, even for AI.
blog.genesmindsmachines.com
October 7, 2025 at 4:11 PM
Biology is much more complicated than most non-biologists can imagine. And AI is not going to change this anytime soon.
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...
blog.genesmindsmachines.com/p/we-still-c...
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
Lab’s 1st preprint!
Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate.
@cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation.
He is on the job market!
Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate.
@cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation.
He is on the job market!
I’m thrilled to share my postdoc work and the first paper from the McKinley Lab! 🎉
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
@karalmckinley.bsky.social
We built the first transgenic model of menstruation in mice.
We used it to uncover how the endometrium organizes and sheds during menstruation. 🧪
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
🧵
Induction of menstruation in mice reveals the regulation of menstrual shedding
During menstruation, an inner layer of the endometrium is selectively shed, while an outer, progenitor-containing layer is preserved to support repeated regeneration. Progress in understanding this co...
www.biorxiv.org
October 10, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Lab’s 1st preprint!
Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate.
@cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation.
He is on the job market!
Menstruation is understudied due to societal taboos + a biological challenge: mice (a key system for research + drug discovery) don’t menstruate.
@cagricevrim.bsky.social made menstruating mice + used them to discover early events in menstruation.
He is on the job market!
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
Viral AlphaFold Database (VAD) is live in Science Advances
~27,000 predicted viral protein monomers & homodimers
Conserved folds across bacteria, archaea & eukaryotic viruses
New toxin–antitoxin system KreTA uncovered
Vast “functional darkness” remains uncharted
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
~27,000 predicted viral protein monomers & homodimers
Conserved folds across bacteria, archaea & eukaryotic viruses
New toxin–antitoxin system KreTA uncovered
Vast “functional darkness” remains uncharted
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
The Viral AlphaFold Database of monomers and homodimers reveals conserved protein folds in viruses of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes
VAD is a Viral AlphaFold Database of protein monomers and homodimers from viruses infecting hosts across the tree of life.
www.science.org
October 2, 2025 at 8:48 AM
Viral AlphaFold Database (VAD) is live in Science Advances
~27,000 predicted viral protein monomers & homodimers
Conserved folds across bacteria, archaea & eukaryotic viruses
New toxin–antitoxin system KreTA uncovered
Vast “functional darkness” remains uncharted
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
~27,000 predicted viral protein monomers & homodimers
Conserved folds across bacteria, archaea & eukaryotic viruses
New toxin–antitoxin system KreTA uncovered
Vast “functional darkness” remains uncharted
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
Join us on Friday at noon for a great seminar from Tera Levin @teralevin.bsky.social! @uwmadisonmmi.bsky.social
September 24, 2025 at 5:08 PM
Join us on Friday at noon for a great seminar from Tera Levin @teralevin.bsky.social! @uwmadisonmmi.bsky.social
Photosynthetic slugs ??!!??!
(also, I love the name 'kleptosome' for an organelle).
(also, I love the name 'kleptosome' for an organelle).
www.cell.com/cell/abstrac...
A host organelle (in sea slugs) integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis
A host organelle (in sea slugs) integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis
A host organelle integrates stolen chloroplasts for animal photosynthesis
Sea slugs steal foreign chloroplasts and store them in specialized organelles that
facilitate photosynthesis and eventual digestion to mediate starvation resistance.
www.cell.com
September 17, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Photosynthetic slugs ??!!??!
(also, I love the name 'kleptosome' for an organelle).
(also, I love the name 'kleptosome' for an organelle).
Come be my colleague!
I've been very happy at UTSW Micro. Why?
Its a supportive environment full of excellent people. There's strong ambition, reflexive empathy, and excellent resources.
I've been very happy at UTSW Micro. Why?
Its a supportive environment full of excellent people. There's strong ambition, reflexive empathy, and excellent resources.
Faculty search announcement 2025: Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Microbiology at UT Southwestern. We seek candidates working in microbial pathogenesis (some preference may be given to bacterial pathogens). Come join our community! (1/5) www.utsouthwestern.edu/departments/...
August 18, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Come be my colleague!
I've been very happy at UTSW Micro. Why?
Its a supportive environment full of excellent people. There's strong ambition, reflexive empathy, and excellent resources.
I've been very happy at UTSW Micro. Why?
Its a supportive environment full of excellent people. There's strong ambition, reflexive empathy, and excellent resources.
Our lab’s 1st manuscript was also Elsevier’s first test case for complying with the new NIH Public Access Policy.
It was a bit tricky to figure out how to make everybody happy (you could put that on my epitaph...)
A🧵 on how I threaded this needle of compliance!
It was a bit tricky to figure out how to make everybody happy (you could put that on my epitaph...)
A🧵 on how I threaded this needle of compliance!
Oh, and also! We happened to be the first authors in all of Elsevier to contend with the new NIH Public Access Policy.
Stay tuned for summary thread on that experience…
(3/3)
Stay tuned for summary thread on that experience…
(3/3)
July 30, 2025 at 2:20 AM
Our lab’s 1st manuscript was also Elsevier’s first test case for complying with the new NIH Public Access Policy.
It was a bit tricky to figure out how to make everybody happy (you could put that on my epitaph...)
A🧵 on how I threaded this needle of compliance!
It was a bit tricky to figure out how to make everybody happy (you could put that on my epitaph...)
A🧵 on how I threaded this needle of compliance!
Very proud to have our lab’s first work published in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social!
In this work, we use functional metagenomics to find phage defenses from human and soil microbiomes!
Congrats to first author @luis840alberto.bsky.social !
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
(1/3)
In this work, we use functional metagenomics to find phage defenses from human and soil microbiomes!
Congrats to first author @luis840alberto.bsky.social !
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
(1/3)
July 29, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Very proud to have our lab’s first work published in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social!
In this work, we use functional metagenomics to find phage defenses from human and soil microbiomes!
Congrats to first author @luis840alberto.bsky.social !
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
(1/3)
In this work, we use functional metagenomics to find phage defenses from human and soil microbiomes!
Congrats to first author @luis840alberto.bsky.social !
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
(1/3)
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
🦠🧍♀️From bacterial to human immunity.
We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org
July 24, 2025 at 6:23 PM
🦠🧍♀️From bacterial to human immunity.
We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
We report in @science.org the discovery of a human homolog of SIR2 antiphage proteins that participates in the TLR pathway of animal innate immunity.
Co-led wt @enzopoirier.bsky.social by D. Bonhomme and @hugovaysset.bsky.social
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
1/10 New pre-print(s) from the Sternberg Lab in collaboration with Leifu Chang's Lab! We uncover the unprecedented molecular mechanism of CRISPR-Cas12f-like proteins, which drive RNA-guided transcription independently of canonical promoter motifs.
Full story here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Full story here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
June 11, 2025 at 4:03 PM
1/10 New pre-print(s) from the Sternberg Lab in collaboration with Leifu Chang's Lab! We uncover the unprecedented molecular mechanism of CRISPR-Cas12f-like proteins, which drive RNA-guided transcription independently of canonical promoter motifs.
Full story here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Full story here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
Excited to share that my work in the @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social lab describing chaperone-mediated phage sensing by a bacterial NLR-related protein is out in @plosbiology.org!
Bacteria encode homologs of the human NACHT proteins that form inflammasomes and use them to defend against phage #infection. @amyconte.bsky.social @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social &co show that bNACHT25 detects diverse phages indirectly through interaction with the host chaperone DnaJ. 🧪
plos.io/4koXP60
plos.io/4koXP60
DnaJ mediates phage sensing by the bacterial NLR-related protein bNACHT25
Bacteria encode homologs of the human NACHT proteins that form inflammasomes, and use them to defend against phage infection. This study shows that the NLR-related protein bNACHT25 detects diverse pha...
plos.io
June 4, 2025 at 1:45 PM
Excited to share that my work in the @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social lab describing chaperone-mediated phage sensing by a bacterial NLR-related protein is out in @plosbiology.org!
My lab’s first preprint!
We used functional metagenomics to identify phage defenses in human and soil microbiomes. We scaled these selections while maintaining accuracy, enabling us to examine 9 habitats for defense elements against 7 phages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10
We used functional metagenomics to identify phage defenses in human and soil microbiomes. We scaled these selections while maintaining accuracy, enabling us to examine 9 habitats for defense elements against 7 phages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10
March 3, 2025 at 12:12 PM
My lab’s first preprint!
We used functional metagenomics to identify phage defenses in human and soil microbiomes. We scaled these selections while maintaining accuracy, enabling us to examine 9 habitats for defense elements against 7 phages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10
We used functional metagenomics to identify phage defenses in human and soil microbiomes. We scaled these selections while maintaining accuracy, enabling us to examine 9 habitats for defense elements against 7 phages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
1/10
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
Three must read papers for PhD students. #scisky #PhD #science #research #academicsky
1. The importance of stupidity in scientific research
Open Access
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
1. The importance of stupidity in scientific research
Open Access
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
November 24, 2024 at 1:54 PM
Three must read papers for PhD students. #scisky #PhD #science #research #academicsky
1. The importance of stupidity in scientific research
Open Access
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
1. The importance of stupidity in scientific research
Open Access
journals.biologists.com/jcs/article/...
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
Out in NAR, AntiDefenseFinder & our "systematic" analysis of inhibitors of antiphage systems wt Bondy-Denomy lab led by @ftesson.bsky.social and E. Huiting.
Not so "systematic" as very few known, fun stuff on MGE, antidefense islands and cool phages exaptations!
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Not so "systematic" as very few known, fun stuff on MGE, antidefense islands and cool phages exaptations!
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Exploring the diversity of anti-defense systems across prokaryotes, phages and mobile genetic elements
Abstract. The co-evolution of prokaryotes, phages and mobile genetic elements (MGEs) has driven the diversification of defense and anti-defense systems ali
academic.oup.com
December 16, 2024 at 8:53 AM
Out in NAR, AntiDefenseFinder & our "systematic" analysis of inhibitors of antiphage systems wt Bondy-Denomy lab led by @ftesson.bsky.social and E. Huiting.
Not so "systematic" as very few known, fun stuff on MGE, antidefense islands and cool phages exaptations!
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Not so "systematic" as very few known, fun stuff on MGE, antidefense islands and cool phages exaptations!
academic.oup.com/nar/advance-...
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
Wow - bluesky! 📈 🦠
Please help me amplify a special faculty search. We're looking for someone in "Microbial Systems Biology" to join me and @kreynoldslab.bsky.social at UTSW Sys Bio / Bioinformatics.
There is an empty lab space right next to us waiting for you!
apply.interfolio.com/154339
1/4
Please help me amplify a special faculty search. We're looking for someone in "Microbial Systems Biology" to join me and @kreynoldslab.bsky.social at UTSW Sys Bio / Bioinformatics.
There is an empty lab space right next to us waiting for you!
apply.interfolio.com/154339
1/4
November 22, 2024 at 5:49 PM
Wow - bluesky! 📈 🦠
Please help me amplify a special faculty search. We're looking for someone in "Microbial Systems Biology" to join me and @kreynoldslab.bsky.social at UTSW Sys Bio / Bioinformatics.
There is an empty lab space right next to us waiting for you!
apply.interfolio.com/154339
1/4
Please help me amplify a special faculty search. We're looking for someone in "Microbial Systems Biology" to join me and @kreynoldslab.bsky.social at UTSW Sys Bio / Bioinformatics.
There is an empty lab space right next to us waiting for you!
apply.interfolio.com/154339
1/4
Oh boy! @harmitmalik.bsky.social is on bluesky?!? It's getting real! I can feel the added gravitas.
November 15, 2024 at 12:41 AM
Oh boy! @harmitmalik.bsky.social is on bluesky?!? It's getting real! I can feel the added gravitas.
Come be my colleague!
I've been very, very happy at UTSW Micro.
Supportive environment. Strong ambition. Strong empathy. Excellent resources.
jobs.utsouthwestern.edu/job/20847915...
I've been very, very happy at UTSW Micro.
Supportive environment. Strong ambition. Strong empathy. Excellent resources.
jobs.utsouthwestern.edu/job/20847915...
Job Details
Discover Assistant Professor in Microbial Pathogenesis and other Faculty and Physicians jobs in Dallas, TX and apply online today!
jobs.utsouthwestern.edu
September 3, 2024 at 9:22 PM
Come be my colleague!
I've been very, very happy at UTSW Micro.
Supportive environment. Strong ambition. Strong empathy. Excellent resources.
jobs.utsouthwestern.edu/job/20847915...
I've been very, very happy at UTSW Micro.
Supportive environment. Strong ambition. Strong empathy. Excellent resources.
jobs.utsouthwestern.edu/job/20847915...
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
🚨My department is HIRING🚨
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine invites applicants for tenure-track microbiology faculty at the Assistant or Associate Professor level. Our scope is broad, we seek creative colleagues! More info: tinyurl.com/PittMMG-Jobs
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine invites applicants for tenure-track microbiology faculty at the Assistant or Associate Professor level. Our scope is broad, we seek creative colleagues! More info: tinyurl.com/PittMMG-Jobs
October 9, 2023 at 5:06 PM
🚨My department is HIRING🚨
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine invites applicants for tenure-track microbiology faculty at the Assistant or Associate Professor level. Our scope is broad, we seek creative colleagues! More info: tinyurl.com/PittMMG-Jobs
Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine invites applicants for tenure-track microbiology faculty at the Assistant or Associate Professor level. Our scope is broad, we seek creative colleagues! More info: tinyurl.com/PittMMG-Jobs
Come be my colleague! The Bioinformatics Dept at UT Southwestern has a new TT faculty position open in microbial systems biology, broadly defined: apply.interfolio.com/132461
Apply - Interfolio
{{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
apply.interfolio.com
September 19, 2023 at 11:58 PM
Come be my colleague! The Bioinformatics Dept at UT Southwestern has a new TT faculty position open in microbial systems biology, broadly defined: apply.interfolio.com/132461
Reposted by Kevin Forsberg
I’m really excited to share our new pre-print “Genome-wide Characterization of Diverse Bacteriophages Enabled by RNA-Binding CRISPRi”, with co-first author Muntathar Al-Shimary from the Doudna and the newly-minted Cress labs!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
September 19, 2023 at 8:13 PM
I’m really excited to share our new pre-print “Genome-wide Characterization of Diverse Bacteriophages Enabled by RNA-Binding CRISPRi”, with co-first author Muntathar Al-Shimary from the Doudna and the newly-minted Cress labs!
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...