Melanie Blokesch
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mblokesch.bsky.social
Melanie Blokesch
@mblokesch.bsky.social
2.4K followers 360 following 120 posts
Professor of Life Sciences & Director Global Health Institute @EPFL_en. Passionate about science 🤩 Views are my own.
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Melanie Blokesch @mblokesch.bsky.social · May 22
Exciting news!! Our latest paper is out in Nat. Microbiol. @natmicrobiol.nature.com

We show that a sub-lineage of 7th pandemic V. cholerae has acquired mobile genetic elements packed with phage defense systems—rendering it multi-phage resistant 😳 ..... 1/3

www.nature.com/articles/s41...
West African–South American pandemic Vibrio cholerae encodes multiple distinct phage defence systems - Nature Microbiology
The West African–South American lineage of Vibrio cholerae contains multiple distinct anti-phage defence systems that provide resistance to various phage families, including vibriophage ICP1, a key pr...
www.nature.com
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
hansonmark.bsky.social
We wrote the Strain on scientific publishing to highlight the problems of time & trust. With a fantastic group of co-authors, we present The Drain of Scientific Publishing:

a 🧵 1/n

Drain: arxiv.org/abs/2511.04820
Strain: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
Oligopoly: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/...
A table showing profit margins of major publishers. A snippet of text related to this table is below. 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. A figure detailing the drain on researcher time. 1. The four-fold drain 1.2 Time The number of papers published each year is growing faster than the scientific workforce, with the number of papers per researcher almost doubling between 1996 and 2022 (Figure 1A). This reflects the fact that publishers’ commercial desire to publish (sell) more material has aligned well with the competitive prestige culture in which publications help secure jobs, grants, promotions, and awards. To the extent that this growth is driven by a pressure for profit, rather than scholarly imperatives, it distorts the way researchers spend their time. The publishing system depends on unpaid reviewer labour, estimated to be over 130 million unpaid hours annually in 2020 alone (9). Researchers have complained about the demands of peer-review for decades, but the scale of the problem is now worse, with editors reporting widespread difficulties recruiting reviewers. The growth in publications involves not only the authors’ time, but that of academic editors and reviewers who are dealing with so many review demands. Even more seriously, the imperative to produce ever more articles reshapes the nature of scientific inquiry. Evidence across multiple fields shows that more papers result in ‘ossification’, not new ideas (10). It may seem paradoxical that more papers can slow progress until one considers how it affects researchers’ time. While rewards remain tied to volume, prestige, and impact of publications, researchers will be nudged away from riskier, local, interdisciplinary, and long-term work. The result is a treadmill of constant activity with limited progress whereas core scholarly practices – such as reading, reflecting and engaging with others’ contributions – is de-prioritized. What looks like productivity often masks intellectual exhaustion built on a demoralizing, narrowing scientific vision. A table of profit margins across industries. The section of text related to this table is below: 1. The four-fold drain 1.1 Money Currently, academic publishing is dominated by profit-oriented, multinational companies for whom scientific knowledge is a commodity to be sold back to the academic community who created it. The dominant four are Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Taylor & Francis, which collectively generated over US$7.1 billion in revenue from journal publishing in 2024 alone, and over US$12 billion in profits between 2019 and 2024 (Table 1A). Their profit margins have always been over 30% in the last five years, and for the largest publisher (Elsevier) always over 37%. Against many comparators, across many sectors, scientific publishing is one of the most consistently profitable industries (Table S1). These financial arrangements make a substantial difference to science budgets. In 2024, 46% of Elsevier revenues and 53% of Taylor & Francis revenues were generated in North America, meaning that North American researchers were charged over US$2.27 billion by just two for-profit publishers. The Canadian research councils and the US National Science Foundation were allocated US$9.3 billion in that year. The costs of inaction are plain: wasted public funds, lost researcher time, compromised scientific integrity and eroded public trust. Today, the system rewards commercial publishers first, and science second. Without bold action from the funders we risk continuing to pour resources into a system that prioritizes profit over the advancement of scientific knowledge.
November 11, 2025 at 11:52 AM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
bjesseshapiro.bsky.social
Shout out to people routinely working in their 2nd or 3rd language.

Yesterday I gave a 1-hour research seminar in French. Afterwards, my brain was pretty much done for the day.

Respect to the loads of scientists who do this daily (and usually a lot more effectively than me!)
November 7, 2025 at 10:25 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
snsf.ch
How can we calibrate instruments that analyse planets outside our solar system and operate the computers of the future? With chip-based optical frequency combs. 🌌 🖥️

Learn more in the profile of Tobias Kippenberg, winner of the #MarcelBenoist Swiss Science Prize 2025.
Prix scientifique Suisse Marcel Benoist 2025 - Tobias J. Kippenberg
Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.
sohub.io
November 7, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
ipbstoulouse.bsky.social
Un immense merci à nos doctorants, au comité organisateur et à nos orateurs invités @mblokesch.bsky.social, F. Mechta-Grigoriou & E. Crubezy, pour la réussite de ce superbe 10e Symposium des étudiants de l’IPBS.
Bravo à toutes et à tous !

Cap sur le 11e Symposium !
November 5, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
ipbstoulouse.bsky.social
A huge thank you to our PhD students, the organizing committee, and our guest speakers @mblokesch.bsky.social, F. Mechta-Grigoriou & E. Crubezy for making the 10th IPBS Student Symposium such a success.
Kudos to everyone involved!

On to the 11th Symposium! 🎉
November 5, 2025 at 2:07 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
msf.ca
#DRC faces one of the worst cholera outbreaks in a decade. Since January, over 58,000 suspected cases and 1,700 deaths have been reported.

MSF calls for coordinated action to ensure the provision of medical care, drinking water and proper sanitation.

www.doctorswithoutborders.ca/democratic-r...
October 27, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
theguardian.com
Cholera is spreading fast, yet it can be stopped. Why haven’t we consigned it to history? | Hakainde Hichilema and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Cholera is spreading fast, yet it can be stopped. Why haven’t we consigned it to history? | Hakainde Hichilema and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Vaccine production must be expanded to combat this ancient disease, especially in Africa, but a lack of political will is holding us back
www.theguardian.com
October 25, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
cauawest.bsky.social
I’m excited to announce the launch of my lab at EPFL in Jan 2026 🎉. We’ll combine evolution & synthetic biology to study and (re)engineer bacterial communication.
I’m recruiting PhD students to start in the first semester of 2026.
Apply via EPFL PhD programs by Nov 1
drive.google.com/file/d/1cm-t...
October 20, 2025 at 6:14 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
dmf-unil.bsky.social
Sign up for our annual Impromptu Symposium on Nov. 21 in the Biophore @unil.bsky.social organized by Christophe Keel and Jordan Vacheron, which will explore the fascinating world of microbe–plant interactions with an exciting speaker line up!
Registration (lunch included): forms.gle/t4fC8uQV5HQF...
October 20, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
natsmb.nature.com
New online: Structure and activation mechanism of a Lamassu phage and plasmid defense system
Structure and activation mechanism of a Lamassu phage and plasmid defense system
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Published online: 14 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01677-4Li et al. show that a Lamassu defense system protects bacteria from phage infection by activating a lethal tetrameric DNA-cutting enzyme. In the absence of phages, a protein clamp holds the enzyme as an inactive monomer, preventing self-damage.
go.nature.com
October 14, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
gruberlab.bsky.social
Happy that the final version of our Lamassu work @yli18smc.bsky.social is now out:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Thanks again to our awesome collaborators @mblokesch.bsky.social and David and co and Mark Szczelkun and @steven-shaw.bsky.social and the DCI Lausanne @fbm-unil.bsky.social
gruberlab.bsky.social Stephan Gruber @gruberlab.bsky.social · Mar 16
Glad to share the work of @yli18smc.bsky.social and co on Lamassu, a bacterial defense system related to Rad50/Mre11 (RM). While RM carefully trims DNA ends for repair, Lamassu chops up the host chromosome. Our study reveals how it is regulated to minimize damage, activating only during infection.
Alt : Structure of the apo Lamassu protein complex. Schematic model of the active LmuA tetramer nuclease (top right). Lamassu icon (top left).
October 14, 2025 at 9:28 AM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
antimicrobial.bsky.social
WHO reports 1 in 6 bacterial infections worldwide are antibiotic-resistant, with resistance rising sharply since 2018. Gram-negative bacteria like E. coli and K. pneumoniae pose the biggest threat. Action on #AMR surveillance and responsible antibiotic use is needed.

www.who.int/news/item/13...
WHO warns of widespread resistance to common antibiotics worldwide
One in six laboratory-confirmed bacterial infections causing common infections in people worldwide in 2023 were resistant to antibiotic treatments, according to a new World Health Organization (WHO) r...
www.who.int
October 13, 2025 at 11:09 AM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
fredoleroux.bsky.social
Phages evolve fast, or do they?
In oysters, some stay identical for years.
With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements.
Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...
Ecological constraints foster both extreme viral-host lineage stability and mobile element diversity in a marine community
Phages are typically viewed as very rapidly evolving biological entities. Little is known, however, about whether and how phages can establish long-term genetic stability. We addressed this eco-evolut...
www.biorxiv.org
October 12, 2025 at 9:16 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
gruberlab.bsky.social
How do SMC complexes load onto DNA to get ready for loop extrusion?

@roisnehamelinf.bsky.social & co discovered that Wadjet, an SMC complex involved in bacterial DNA immunity, performs some impressive molecular gymnastics 🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️🤸‍♂️.

Check out the new paper: www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
October 9, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
proftracypalmer.bsky.social
Check it out! A proper team effort from past and present group members and a great collaboration with @sergemostowylab.bsky.social
biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social bioRxiv Microbiology @biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · Oct 5
The Staphylococcus aureus LXG-domain toxins EsxX and SAR0287 do not promote virulence in a zebrafish larval infection model https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.04.680436v1
October 5, 2025 at 8:11 AM
mblokesch.bsky.social
3rd lab meeting I’m presenting at this year! After two during my sabbatical on my experiments (Helaine & Mekalanos labs), today finally in MY OWN lab 🎉
So much fun to share new work done w/ fantastic technicians Laurie, Sandrine, Loriane & bioinformatician Alexandre.
Bonus: cake served by the lab 🍰
October 2, 2025 at 12:34 PM
mblokesch.bsky.social
What an amazing accomplishment of my colleague/lab neighbor Andrea Ablasser & her team => Citation Laureate on their incredible work on the cGAS-STING pathway together w/ Zhijian ‘James’ Chen & Glen Barber. Big congrats 🥳!!

clarivate.com/citation-lau...
2025 Citation Laureates in Physiology or Medicine | Nobel-Class Researchers | Clarivate
Explore the 2025 Citation Laureates in Physiology or Medicine — Nobel-class researchers recognized for groundbreaking discoveries that have advanced human health and biomedical science.
clarivate.com
September 27, 2025 at 11:03 AM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
nikogeldner.bsky.social
Call for a tenure-track position at our Department of Plant Molecular Biology in Lausanne! We are searching for promising early-career researchers in the broad field of plant-organismal interactions. Deadline: November 30, 2025 - Please re-post!

career5.successfactors.eu/career?caree...
Career Opportunities: DBMV: Tenure Track Assistant Professor towards Associate Professor in the field of Plant-organism (22484)
career5.successfactors.eu
September 17, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social
Looking for a new approach to studying or eliminating phages? Check out our study introducing anti-phage ASOs (antisense oligos) out in @Nature today. nature.com/articles/s4158…
September 10, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
jrpenades.bsky.social
Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social
lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species.
@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Chimeric infective particles expand species boundaries in phage-inducible chromosomal island mobilization
Capsid-forming PICIs (cf-PICIs) produce their own capsids and exploit phage tails from unrelated species to transfer their DNA across bacterial hosts. This tail piracy enables broad dissemination and ...
www.cell.com
September 9, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
vivekmutalik.bsky.social
The ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems'.

#phage #phagesky

A bunch of interesting reviews

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Preface: the ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
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royalsocietypublishing.org
September 8, 2025 at 6:29 AM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
mfwhite2.bsky.social
Some good stuff in here 😊
royalsocietypublishing.org Royal Society Publishing @royalsocietypublishing.org · Sep 5
A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the evolutionary history of bacterial immune systems, their modes of action, and the patterns how different bacterial immune systems are distributed across different ecosystems. Read: buff.ly/Z4qdxY1
September 6, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
royalsocietypublishing.org
A new theme issue of #PhilTransB examines the evolutionary history of bacterial immune systems, their modes of action, and the patterns how different bacterial immune systems are distributed across different ecosystems. Read: buff.ly/Z4qdxY1
September 5, 2025 at 4:01 PM
mblokesch.bsky.social
Excited to share my latest review, now published in the Royal Society theme issue on ‘The ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems' (available OA):

Defence systems encoded by core genomic islands of seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Defence systems encoded by core genomic islands of seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, has triggered seven pandemics, with the seventh pandemic emerging in 1961. The success of seventh pandemic El Tor (7PET) V. cholerae as a human pathogen is linked to its acquisition of mobile genetic ...
royalsocietypublishing.org
September 6, 2025 at 1:02 PM
Reposted by Melanie Blokesch
evolvedbiofilm.bsky.social
Lineage-specific defence systems of pandemic Vibrio cholerae

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B by @mblokesch.bsky.social and Kim Seed

royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/...
Lineage-specific defence systems of pandemic Vibrio cholerae | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Cholera remains a significant global health burden. The causative agent responsible for the ongoing cholera pandemic, which began in 1961, is the seventh pandemic El Tor (7PET) lineage of Vibrio chole...
royalsocietypublishing.org
September 5, 2025 at 10:19 AM