Florian Tesson
@ftesson.bsky.social
PhD student at @mdmlab.bsky.social
between INSERM and Pasteur Institute
between INSERM and Pasteur Institute
Reposted by Florian Tesson
We built GenoPHI: a machine learning workflow that predicts phage-host interactions at strain level. This could help rapidly select phages to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections or for microbiome engineering without exhaustive lab testing.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org
November 16, 2025 at 11:16 PM
We built GenoPHI: a machine learning workflow that predicts phage-host interactions at strain level. This could help rapidly select phages to treat drug-resistant bacterial infections or for microbiome engineering without exhaustive lab testing.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Florian Tesson
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 Florian Tesson
Excited to finally share this work!
We noticed a pair of genes - a nuclease and a protease - shuffles between antiviral systems. We show how proteolysis activates the nuclease, triggering defense in known and unknown immune contexts.
tinyurl.com/2uwwy4ty
We noticed a pair of genes - a nuclease and a protease - shuffles between antiviral systems. We show how proteolysis activates the nuclease, triggering defense in known and unknown immune contexts.
tinyurl.com/2uwwy4ty
Recurrent acquisition of nuclease-protease pairs in antiviral immunity
Antiviral immune systems diversify by integrating new genes into existing pathways, creating new mechanisms of viral resistance. We identified genes encoding a predicted nuclease paired with a trypsin...
tinyurl.com
July 29, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Excited to finally share this work!
We noticed a pair of genes - a nuclease and a protease - shuffles between antiviral systems. We show how proteolysis activates the nuclease, triggering defense in known and unknown immune contexts.
tinyurl.com/2uwwy4ty
We noticed a pair of genes - a nuclease and a protease - shuffles between antiviral systems. We show how proteolysis activates the nuclease, triggering defense in known and unknown immune contexts.
tinyurl.com/2uwwy4ty
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Excited to share the work that’s been on my mind for the past 2 years, now on bioRxiv!
Led with Matt Walker, and my first project in the Sternberg Lab .
Check it out ⬇️
tinyurl.com/mshwjd77
Led with Matt Walker, and my first project in the Sternberg Lab .
Check it out ⬇️
tinyurl.com/mshwjd77
Temperate phages enhance host fitness via RNA-guided flagellar remodeling
Bacterial flagella drive motility and chemotaxis while also playing critical roles in host-pathogen interactions, as their oligomeric subunit, flagellin, is specifically recognized by the mammalian im...
tinyurl.com
July 28, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Excited to share the work that’s been on my mind for the past 2 years, now on bioRxiv!
Led with Matt Walker, and my first project in the Sternberg Lab .
Check it out ⬇️
tinyurl.com/mshwjd77
Led with Matt Walker, and my first project in the Sternberg Lab .
Check it out ⬇️
tinyurl.com/mshwjd77
Reposted by Florian Tesson
First preprint from the Nemudryi Lab! 🍾
In this work, we link antiviral immunity in bacteria and humans by showing that homologs of human Schlafen nucleases protect bacteria from phages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
In this work, we link antiviral immunity in bacteria and humans by showing that homologs of human Schlafen nucleases protect bacteria from phages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Bacterial Schlafens mediate anti-phage defense
Human Schlafen proteins restrict viral replication by cleaving tRNA, thereby suppressing protein synthesis. Although the ribonuclease domain of Schlafen proteins is conserved across all domains of lif...
www.biorxiv.org
July 25, 2025 at 2:52 PM
First preprint from the Nemudryi Lab! 🍾
In this work, we link antiviral immunity in bacteria and humans by showing that homologs of human Schlafen nucleases protect bacteria from phages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
In this work, we link antiviral immunity in bacteria and humans by showing that homologs of human Schlafen nucleases protect bacteria from phages.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Florian Tesson
🧬 From bacteria to humans: a new study led by @institutcurie.bsky.social, @institutpasteur.bsky.social & @inserm.fr reveals SIRal, a novel human immune protein with ancestral roots. A new path for immunotherapy?
🔗 Read: www.pasteur.fr/en/press-are...
🔗 Read: www.pasteur.fr/en/press-are...
A human protein inherited from bacteria reveals an overlooked aspect of human immunity
What if the study of bacteria could illuminate our understanding of human immunity? In recent years, scientists have been exploring unexpected links between human proteins involved in the body’s defen...
www.pasteur.fr
July 25, 2025 at 12:27 PM
🧬 From bacteria to humans: a new study led by @institutcurie.bsky.social, @institutpasteur.bsky.social & @inserm.fr reveals SIRal, a novel human immune protein with ancestral roots. A new path for immunotherapy?
🔗 Read: www.pasteur.fr/en/press-are...
🔗 Read: www.pasteur.fr/en/press-are...
Reposted by Florian Tesson
🦠🧍♀️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 Florian Tesson
📢Preprint out!
Excited to share my final work from the @soreklab.bsky.social!
We mined phage dark matter using structural features shared by anti-defense proteins (viral tools that help phages bypass bacterial immunity) to guide discovery.
Found 3 new families targeting immune signaling!
Excited to share my final work from the @soreklab.bsky.social!
We mined phage dark matter using structural features shared by anti-defense proteins (viral tools that help phages bypass bacterial immunity) to guide discovery.
Found 3 new families targeting immune signaling!
July 13, 2025 at 7:49 AM
📢Preprint out!
Excited to share my final work from the @soreklab.bsky.social!
We mined phage dark matter using structural features shared by anti-defense proteins (viral tools that help phages bypass bacterial immunity) to guide discovery.
Found 3 new families targeting immune signaling!
Excited to share my final work from the @soreklab.bsky.social!
We mined phage dark matter using structural features shared by anti-defense proteins (viral tools that help phages bypass bacterial immunity) to guide discovery.
Found 3 new families targeting immune signaling!
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Le Palais de la Découverte est menacé! Il a contribué à éveiller ma passion pour la science quand j'étais petit. Nous devons tout faire pour protéger ce lieu unique qui a toute sa place au cœur de Paris. Signez la pétition ici: chng.it/BnR9gZvhL2
Signez la pétition
Sauvons le Palais de la découverte
chng.it
June 17, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Le Palais de la Découverte est menacé! Il a contribué à éveiller ma passion pour la science quand j'étais petit. Nous devons tout faire pour protéger ce lieu unique qui a toute sa place au cœur de Paris. Signez la pétition ici: chng.it/BnR9gZvhL2
Reposted by Florian Tesson
The Viral AlphaFold Database of monomers and homodimers reveals conserved protein folds in viruses of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.653371v1
May 17, 2025 at 4:17 AM
The Viral AlphaFold Database of monomers and homodimers reveals conserved protein folds in viruses of bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.14.653371v1
Reposted by Florian Tesson
White smoke, we have a new pope and also 16 new anti-phages systems in sedentary integrons (SCIs) !
In collaboration with the Rocha lab, we show in our new paper that cassettes of these large platforms encode many known anti-phage defenses, and uncovered 16 new ones.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In collaboration with the Rocha lab, we show in our new paper that cassettes of these large platforms encode many known anti-phage defenses, and uncovered 16 new ones.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Sedentary chromosomal integrons as biobanks of bacterial antiphage defense systems
Integrons are genetic systems that drive bacterial adaptation by acquiring, expressing, and shuffling gene cassettes. While mobile integrons are well known for spreading antibiotic resistance genes, t...
www.science.org
May 9, 2025 at 11:41 AM
White smoke, we have a new pope and also 16 new anti-phages systems in sedentary integrons (SCIs) !
In collaboration with the Rocha lab, we show in our new paper that cassettes of these large platforms encode many known anti-phage defenses, and uncovered 16 new ones.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In collaboration with the Rocha lab, we show in our new paper that cassettes of these large platforms encode many known anti-phage defenses, and uncovered 16 new ones.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Out in Nature today: A new immune signaling molecule, His-ADPR, is produced by defensive TIR domain proteins in bacteria to protect from phage
Joint work with the Tamulaitienė and Kranzusch labs
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congrats Carmel Avraham, Dziugas Sabonis, Renee Chang and co-authors!
Joint work with the Tamulaitienė and Kranzusch labs
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congrats Carmel Avraham, Dziugas Sabonis, Renee Chang and co-authors!
April 30, 2025 at 6:44 PM
Out in Nature today: A new immune signaling molecule, His-ADPR, is produced by defensive TIR domain proteins in bacteria to protect from phage
Joint work with the Tamulaitienė and Kranzusch labs
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congrats Carmel Avraham, Dziugas Sabonis, Renee Chang and co-authors!
Joint work with the Tamulaitienė and Kranzusch labs
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Congrats Carmel Avraham, Dziugas Sabonis, Renee Chang and co-authors!
Reposted by Florian Tesson
It was an honor for my lab and myself to host the meeting on the Immune Systems of Bacteria. Such a high from all the incredible science and sharing with scientists from the whole world the greatness of Paris in the spring.
Vive la science, et vive Paris!
Vive la science, et vive Paris!
April 11, 2025 at 3:46 PM
It was an honor for my lab and myself to host the meeting on the Immune Systems of Bacteria. Such a high from all the incredible science and sharing with scientists from the whole world the greatness of Paris in the spring.
Vive la science, et vive Paris!
Vive la science, et vive Paris!
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Structural basis for Lamassu-based antiviral immunity and its evolution from DNA repair machinery https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.02.646746v1
April 2, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Structural basis for Lamassu-based antiviral immunity and its evolution from DNA repair machinery https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.02.646746v1
Reposted by Florian Tesson
CBASS, CRISPR, and mCpol- oh my! What a satisfying collaboration with @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social 's lab- we uncovered a new cyclic dinucleotide signaling pathway, but it doesn't work how you'd expect! Check out the thread from @aesully98.bsky.social for an overview of the most important findings!
Excited to share that my work from the @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social lab is now on bioRxiv! With @benmorehouse.bsky.social, we discovered that the Panoptes defense system—named after the all-seeing watchman of Hera—uses decoy nucleotides to detect phage anti-defense proteins.
A minimal CRISPR polymerase produces decoy cyclic nucleotides to detect phage anti-defense proteins
Bacteria use antiphage systems to combat phages, their ubiquitous competitors, and evolve new defenses through repeated reshuffling of basic functional units into novel reformulations. A common theme ...
www.biorxiv.org
March 31, 2025 at 10:05 PM
CBASS, CRISPR, and mCpol- oh my! What a satisfying collaboration with @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social 's lab- we uncovered a new cyclic dinucleotide signaling pathway, but it doesn't work how you'd expect! Check out the thread from @aesully98.bsky.social for an overview of the most important findings!
Reposted by Florian Tesson
New online! Genetics, ecology and evolution of phage satellites
Genetics, ecology and evolution of phage satellites
Nature Reviews Microbiology, Published online: 27 March 2025; doi:10.1038/s41579-025-01156-zIn this Review, Penadés et al. explore the genetics, potential origins and life cycle of phage satellites, and they discuss the impact of these elements on the evolution of other mobile genetic elements and their host bacteria.
www.nature.com
March 27, 2025 at 11:26 AM
New online! Genetics, ecology and evolution of phage satellites
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Hello BlueSky! Inaugural post here from the Sternberg Lab. We're excited to share our latest work, in which we teamed up with the @WiedenheftLab to study how DRT9 reverse transcriptases provide antiviral immunity. Here’s what we found: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Protein-primed DNA homopolymer synthesis by an antiviral reverse transcriptase
Bacteria defend themselves from viral predation using diverse immune systems, many of which sense and target foreign DNA for degradation. Defense-associated reverse transcriptase (DRT) systems provide...
www.biorxiv.org
March 26, 2025 at 10:13 PM
Hello BlueSky! Inaugural post here from the Sternberg Lab. We're excited to share our latest work, in which we teamed up with the @WiedenheftLab to study how DRT9 reverse transcriptases provide antiviral immunity. Here’s what we found: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Florian Tesson
New version of DefenseFinder available defensefinder.mdmlab.fr (& cli)
Now encompassing 263 systems (+111 this year..!).
Thanks @ftesson.bsky.social, DefenseFinder grandmaster. Full list of systems here: defense-finder-models/List_system_article.md at master · mdmparis/defense-finder-models
Now encompassing 263 systems (+111 this year..!).
Thanks @ftesson.bsky.social, DefenseFinder grandmaster. Full list of systems here: defense-finder-models/List_system_article.md at master · mdmparis/defense-finder-models
Webservice | DefenseFinder webservice and knowledge base
On this site, you can freely use (without any login) the DefenseFinder webservice (see below) and get help to navigate the ever expanding world of defense systems.There is a collaborative knowledge ba...
defensefinder.mdmlab.fr
February 19, 2025 at 4:28 AM
New version of DefenseFinder available defensefinder.mdmlab.fr (& cli)
Now encompassing 263 systems (+111 this year..!).
Thanks @ftesson.bsky.social, DefenseFinder grandmaster. Full list of systems here: defense-finder-models/List_system_article.md at master · mdmparis/defense-finder-models
Now encompassing 263 systems (+111 this year..!).
Thanks @ftesson.bsky.social, DefenseFinder grandmaster. Full list of systems here: defense-finder-models/List_system_article.md at master · mdmparis/defense-finder-models
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Happy to share our latest piece of work on the PARIS bacterial immune system. We performed a detailed characterization of the AriB Toprim nuclease, the effector of PARIS immunity.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Specificity and Mechanism of tRNA cleavage by the AriB Toprim nuclease of the PARIS bacterial immune system
Transfer RNA molecules have been recently recognized as widespread targets of bacterial immune systems. Translation inhibition through tRNA cleavage or modification inhibits phage propagation, thereby...
www.biorxiv.org
February 5, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Happy to share our latest piece of work on the PARIS bacterial immune system. We performed a detailed characterization of the AriB Toprim nuclease, the effector of PARIS immunity.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Huge thanks to my sister for helping put these together.
February 2, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Huge thanks to my sister for helping put these together.
Reposted by Florian Tesson
I'm thrilled to announce our latest work is now published in Cell! Viruses encode numerous proteins that inhibit host defenses, but identifying immune-modulatory proteins among millions of viral sequences has been nearly impossible - until now! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
January 23, 2025 at 3:35 PM
I'm thrilled to announce our latest work is now published in Cell! Viruses encode numerous proteins that inhibit host defenses, but identifying immune-modulatory proteins among millions of viral sequences has been nearly impossible - until now! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Phage defence system abundances vary across environments and increase with viral density www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs
January 17, 2025 at 2:26 PM
Phage defence system abundances vary across environments and increase with viral density www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #jcampubs
Reposted by Florian Tesson
The Institut Pasteur has decided to leave X (formerly Twitter) to join BlueSky! 🦋
The Institut Pasteur made this decision due to several serious issues observed on the X platform since its acquisition. Join us here to continue advocating for science. www.pasteur.fr/en/home/pres...
The Institut Pasteur made this decision due to several serious issues observed on the X platform since its acquisition. Join us here to continue advocating for science. www.pasteur.fr/en/home/pres...
Institut Pasteur decides to leave X
The Institut Pasteur, a research organization which for more than 130 years has been committed to tackling infectious diseases, sharing knowledge and defending science, has decided to leave X because ...
www.pasteur.fr
January 16, 2025 at 9:18 AM
The Institut Pasteur has decided to leave X (formerly Twitter) to join BlueSky! 🦋
The Institut Pasteur made this decision due to several serious issues observed on the X platform since its acquisition. Join us here to continue advocating for science. www.pasteur.fr/en/home/pres...
The Institut Pasteur made this decision due to several serious issues observed on the X platform since its acquisition. Join us here to continue advocating for science. www.pasteur.fr/en/home/pres...
Reposted by Florian Tesson
👋 Hi antiphage defense community, we are soon releasing an update of DefenseFinder.
We are doing our best to include all the great discoveries from the community, but with so much going on we might miss things.
Please answer wt preprints/papers with new systems or mail/git them to us. 🙏
We are doing our best to include all the great discoveries from the community, but with so much going on we might miss things.
Please answer wt preprints/papers with new systems or mail/git them to us. 🙏
January 13, 2025 at 1:54 PM
👋 Hi antiphage defense community, we are soon releasing an update of DefenseFinder.
We are doing our best to include all the great discoveries from the community, but with so much going on we might miss things.
Please answer wt preprints/papers with new systems or mail/git them to us. 🙏
We are doing our best to include all the great discoveries from the community, but with so much going on we might miss things.
Please answer wt preprints/papers with new systems or mail/git them to us. 🙏
Reposted by Florian Tesson
Excited to share our work using machine learning to predict anti-phage defense systems!
1/n
1/n
DefensePredictor: A Machine Learning Model to Discover Novel Prokaryotic Immune Systems https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.01.08.631726v1
January 9, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Excited to share our work using machine learning to predict anti-phage defense systems!
1/n
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