Mizrahi Lab
@mizrahilab.bsky.social
We are involved in understanding the ecological and evolutionary forces that shape microbial communities in nature.
Visit our website - lifewp.bgu.ac.il/wp/imizrahi/
Twitter - https://x.com/LabMizrahi
Visit our website - lifewp.bgu.ac.il/wp/imizrahi/
Twitter - https://x.com/LabMizrahi
Call for 2026-27 Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship!
A top-tier opportunity for postdocs (non-Israeli) in STEM, Humanities, & Social Sciences to conduct research in Israel.
Deadline: Nov 19, 2025.
Interested in joining our lab? DM us!
azrielifoundation.org/azrieli-fell...
A top-tier opportunity for postdocs (non-Israeli) in STEM, Humanities, & Social Sciences to conduct research in Israel.
Deadline: Nov 19, 2025.
Interested in joining our lab? DM us!
azrielifoundation.org/azrieli-fell...
Call for Applications for the Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship-2026-27 - The Azrieli Foundation
azrielifoundation.org
November 9, 2025 at 5:05 PM
Call for 2026-27 Azrieli International Postdoctoral Fellowship!
A top-tier opportunity for postdocs (non-Israeli) in STEM, Humanities, & Social Sciences to conduct research in Israel.
Deadline: Nov 19, 2025.
Interested in joining our lab? DM us!
azrielifoundation.org/azrieli-fell...
A top-tier opportunity for postdocs (non-Israeli) in STEM, Humanities, & Social Sciences to conduct research in Israel.
Deadline: Nov 19, 2025.
Interested in joining our lab? DM us!
azrielifoundation.org/azrieli-fell...
We are racing to find antibiotics with AI, but what if we're ignoring the obvious? 🤔
This paper proves basic science is still here. No AI, Just one gene deletion revealed an intermediate 10-100x more potent against MRSA than the final drug.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
@challis-group.bsky.social
This paper proves basic science is still here. No AI, Just one gene deletion revealed an intermediate 10-100x more potent against MRSA than the final drug.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
@challis-group.bsky.social
Discovery of Late Intermediates in Methylenomycin Biosynthesis Active against Drug-Resistant Gram-Positive Bacterial Pathogens
The methylenomycins are highly functionalized cyclopentanone antibiotics produced by Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2). A biosynthetic pathway to the methylenomycins has been proposed based on sequence an...
pubs.acs.org
November 2, 2025 at 1:26 PM
We are racing to find antibiotics with AI, but what if we're ignoring the obvious? 🤔
This paper proves basic science is still here. No AI, Just one gene deletion revealed an intermediate 10-100x more potent against MRSA than the final drug.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
@challis-group.bsky.social
This paper proves basic science is still here. No AI, Just one gene deletion revealed an intermediate 10-100x more potent against MRSA than the final drug.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
@challis-group.bsky.social
Reposted by Mizrahi Lab
Cool 🦠
William Schmidt
Gerard Wong Lab @UCLA
Nature Microbiology
Pseudomonas aeruginosa lays down Psl exopolysaccharide as it crawls
Other cells detect and follow these trails using type IV pili pulling against adhesins like CdrA triggering c-di-GMP & cAMP surges to shift into early biofilm mode
William Schmidt
Gerard Wong Lab @UCLA
Nature Microbiology
Pseudomonas aeruginosa lays down Psl exopolysaccharide as it crawls
Other cells detect and follow these trails using type IV pili pulling against adhesins like CdrA triggering c-di-GMP & cAMP surges to shift into early biofilm mode
Pseudomonas aeruginosa senses exopolysaccharide trails using type IV pili and adhesins during biofilm formation - Nature Microbiology
Opposing forces generated by exopolysaccharide trail binding versus type IV pilus retraction generate a high cyclic diGMP–high cyclic AMP state in Pseudomonas aeruginosa that promotes social motility.
www.nature.com
October 29, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Cool 🦠
William Schmidt
Gerard Wong Lab @UCLA
Nature Microbiology
Pseudomonas aeruginosa lays down Psl exopolysaccharide as it crawls
Other cells detect and follow these trails using type IV pili pulling against adhesins like CdrA triggering c-di-GMP & cAMP surges to shift into early biofilm mode
William Schmidt
Gerard Wong Lab @UCLA
Nature Microbiology
Pseudomonas aeruginosa lays down Psl exopolysaccharide as it crawls
Other cells detect and follow these trails using type IV pili pulling against adhesins like CdrA triggering c-di-GMP & cAMP surges to shift into early biofilm mode
Illuminating the microbiome's functional "dark matter." 💡
A huge gap in #systemsbiology is that most microbial proteins are uncharacterized. This new paper, introduce FUGAsseM, a multiomics method to predict protein function.
@hutlab.bsky.social
Check it out!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A huge gap in #systemsbiology is that most microbial proteins are uncharacterized. This new paper, introduce FUGAsseM, a multiomics method to predict protein function.
@hutlab.bsky.social
Check it out!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Predicting functions of uncharacterized gene products from microbial communities - Nature Biotechnology
FUGAsseM predicts protein function in microbiomes using coexpression patterns from metatranscriptomes and diverse community-wide data.
www.nature.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:00 PM
Illuminating the microbiome's functional "dark matter." 💡
A huge gap in #systemsbiology is that most microbial proteins are uncharacterized. This new paper, introduce FUGAsseM, a multiomics method to predict protein function.
@hutlab.bsky.social
Check it out!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A huge gap in #systemsbiology is that most microbial proteins are uncharacterized. This new paper, introduce FUGAsseM, a multiomics method to predict protein function.
@hutlab.bsky.social
Check it out!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Plasmids are huge drivers of evolution in every ecosystem, allowing microbes to acquire new genes. But how much do they shape our own human microbiome? 🧬
A fantastic new review from the @lgbacteria.bsky.social
summarizes the latest key findings.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A fantastic new review from the @lgbacteria.bsky.social
summarizes the latest key findings.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
October 1, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Plasmids are huge drivers of evolution in every ecosystem, allowing microbes to acquire new genes. But how much do they shape our own human microbiome? 🧬
A fantastic new review from the @lgbacteria.bsky.social
summarizes the latest key findings.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A fantastic new review from the @lgbacteria.bsky.social
summarizes the latest key findings.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
How to design new synthetic microbial communities? It's a huge question we're still deeply exploring 🦠
Check out this new preprint by @tcahitch.bsky.social & @tclavel.bsky.social! They developed an function-directed approach using metagenomic to build better SynComs.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Check out this new preprint by @tcahitch.bsky.social & @tclavel.bsky.social! They developed an function-directed approach using metagenomic to build better SynComs.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Function-Based Selection of Synthetic Communities Enables Mechanistic Microbiome Studies
Understanding the complex interactions between microbes and their environment requires robust model systems such as synthetic communities (SynComs). We developed a functionally directed approach to ge...
www.biorxiv.org
September 28, 2025 at 10:52 AM
How to design new synthetic microbial communities? It's a huge question we're still deeply exploring 🦠
Check out this new preprint by @tcahitch.bsky.social & @tclavel.bsky.social! They developed an function-directed approach using metagenomic to build better SynComs.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Check out this new preprint by @tcahitch.bsky.social & @tclavel.bsky.social! They developed an function-directed approach using metagenomic to build better SynComs.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
3-day 'Science meets Art' retreat ended. Thanks to
Daniel Chamovitz, Pres. of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, for support & inspiring talk. His insights led to unique microbe-to-art collab.
Stay tuned for exhibition date & time!🧑🎨
#ArtScience #BGU #Microbiology #Exhibition
Daniel Chamovitz, Pres. of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, for support & inspiring talk. His insights led to unique microbe-to-art collab.
Stay tuned for exhibition date & time!🧑🎨
#ArtScience #BGU #Microbiology #Exhibition
September 14, 2025 at 11:28 AM
3-day 'Science meets Art' retreat ended. Thanks to
Daniel Chamovitz, Pres. of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, for support & inspiring talk. His insights led to unique microbe-to-art collab.
Stay tuned for exhibition date & time!🧑🎨
#ArtScience #BGU #Microbiology #Exhibition
Daniel Chamovitz, Pres. of Ben Gurion University of the Negev, for support & inspiring talk. His insights led to unique microbe-to-art collab.
Stay tuned for exhibition date & time!🧑🎨
#ArtScience #BGU #Microbiology #Exhibition
We opened the final day of our #retreat with an inspiring talk by Dr. Yakov Merhishti. 📔
We concluded our mission of "seeing the invisible" by exploring microbial #fermentation from a new perspective: with a wine tasting! We toasted the tiny #microbes that make it possible 🦠🍷
We concluded our mission of "seeing the invisible" by exploring microbial #fermentation from a new perspective: with a wine tasting! We toasted the tiny #microbes that make it possible 🦠🍷
September 11, 2025 at 4:53 PM
We opened the final day of our #retreat with an inspiring talk by Dr. Yakov Merhishti. 📔
We concluded our mission of "seeing the invisible" by exploring microbial #fermentation from a new perspective: with a wine tasting! We toasted the tiny #microbes that make it possible 🦠🍷
We concluded our mission of "seeing the invisible" by exploring microbial #fermentation from a new perspective: with a wine tasting! We toasted the tiny #microbes that make it possible 🦠🍷
Continuing work on our exhibition #microbes 🎨
Honored by a talk from Prof. Itzik Hen, director of The Institute for Advanced Studies Jerusalem and a researcher, followed by a food tour at Mahane Yehuda Market, and a recital by Ido Grinshpan and Shelly Jonathan.🎻
Stay tuned for #exhibition details! 🦠
Honored by a talk from Prof. Itzik Hen, director of The Institute for Advanced Studies Jerusalem and a researcher, followed by a food tour at Mahane Yehuda Market, and a recital by Ido Grinshpan and Shelly Jonathan.🎻
Stay tuned for #exhibition details! 🦠
September 11, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Continuing work on our exhibition #microbes 🎨
Honored by a talk from Prof. Itzik Hen, director of The Institute for Advanced Studies Jerusalem and a researcher, followed by a food tour at Mahane Yehuda Market, and a recital by Ido Grinshpan and Shelly Jonathan.🎻
Stay tuned for #exhibition details! 🦠
Honored by a talk from Prof. Itzik Hen, director of The Institute for Advanced Studies Jerusalem and a researcher, followed by a food tour at Mahane Yehuda Market, and a recital by Ido Grinshpan and Shelly Jonathan.🎻
Stay tuned for #exhibition details! 🦠
Day 1 of our 'Science meets Art' retreat was fantastic! We had an inspiring talk from prof. Noam Mizrahi and a great visit to the The Israel Museum. Afterward, we continued our project, creating new art pieces inspired by the invisible world of microbes. 🦠
#Microbiology #ArtScience #Collaboration
#Microbiology #ArtScience #Collaboration
September 10, 2025 at 6:37 PM
Day 1 of our 'Science meets Art' retreat was fantastic! We had an inspiring talk from prof. Noam Mizrahi and a great visit to the The Israel Museum. Afterward, we continued our project, creating new art pieces inspired by the invisible world of microbes. 🦠
#Microbiology #ArtScience #Collaboration
#Microbiology #ArtScience #Collaboration
Reposted by Mizrahi Lab
Iron-respiring microbes could have a role in sulfur cycling www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Iron-respiring microbes could have a role in sulfur cycling
A species of bacteria grows when both ferrihydrite and sulfide are present, but not when either is absent.
www.nature.com
September 10, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Iron-respiring microbes could have a role in sulfur cycling www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Science meets art! 🔬🎨 Our lab is at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) for a 3-day retreat with amazing artists Tamara Efrat & Shaul Cohen, diving into the unseen beauty of microbial life.
Get ready for our upcoming exhibition at Be'er Sheva. Stay tuned!
#Microbiology #ArtScience
Get ready for our upcoming exhibition at Be'er Sheva. Stay tuned!
#Microbiology #ArtScience
September 10, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Science meets art! 🔬🎨 Our lab is at the Israel Institute for Advanced Studies (IIAS) for a 3-day retreat with amazing artists Tamara Efrat & Shaul Cohen, diving into the unseen beauty of microbial life.
Get ready for our upcoming exhibition at Be'er Sheva. Stay tuned!
#Microbiology #ArtScience
Get ready for our upcoming exhibition at Be'er Sheva. Stay tuned!
#Microbiology #ArtScience
Reposted by Mizrahi Lab
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) could cause 10 million deaths by 2050. At PLAS-FIGHTER, we are working to change this!
🔎 We study how plasmids spread resistance to open up new avenues for future containment and diagnostic strategies.
Find out more 👇
plasmidlab.es/project/
#AntibioticResistance
🔎 We study how plasmids spread resistance to open up new avenues for future containment and diagnostic strategies.
Find out more 👇
plasmidlab.es/project/
#AntibioticResistance
Project - Plasmidlab
PLAS-FIGHTER Exploiting plasmid-bacteria interactions to fight
plasmidlab.es
September 8, 2025 at 8:41 AM
Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) could cause 10 million deaths by 2050. At PLAS-FIGHTER, we are working to change this!
🔎 We study how plasmids spread resistance to open up new avenues for future containment and diagnostic strategies.
Find out more 👇
plasmidlab.es/project/
#AntibioticResistance
🔎 We study how plasmids spread resistance to open up new avenues for future containment and diagnostic strategies.
Find out more 👇
plasmidlab.es/project/
#AntibioticResistance
a key question in microbial ecology: which community members are necessary and sufficient for survival where individual species cannot? 🤔
Misosoup, a new Python package, try addresses this problem.
Nicolas Ochsner, Sebastian Bonhoeffer & Alberto Pascual-García
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Misosoup, a new Python package, try addresses this problem.
Nicolas Ochsner, Sebastian Bonhoeffer & Alberto Pascual-García
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
misosoup: A metabolic modeling tool for identifying minimal microbial communities reveals pervasive cross-feeding–driven niche expansion
Microbial survival and function often depend on metabolic interactions within communities. Therefore, a central question to disentangle microbial organization is what minimal groups of species are abl...
www.biorxiv.org
September 3, 2025 at 11:40 AM
a key question in microbial ecology: which community members are necessary and sufficient for survival where individual species cannot? 🤔
Misosoup, a new Python package, try addresses this problem.
Nicolas Ochsner, Sebastian Bonhoeffer & Alberto Pascual-García
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Misosoup, a new Python package, try addresses this problem.
Nicolas Ochsner, Sebastian Bonhoeffer & Alberto Pascual-García
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Mizrahi Lab
Given the tremendous diversity of microorganisms in the world, why do only a small fraction cause disease?
My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Why are there so few pathogens? Ecology and evolution in pathogen emergence
Why are there so few pathogens, and what determines their emergence? This Perspective argues that ecological and evolutionary forces (host availability, geographic exposure and microbial innovation) w...
journals.plos.org
August 21, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Given the tremendous diversity of microorganisms in the world, why do only a small fraction cause disease?
My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
My essay in #PLOSBiology argues that the answer is lack of opportunity and that humans encounter only one new bacterial pathogen for every 1.4b years lived.
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
The session of Microbial adaptations to changing environments chaired and organized by @sanmillan.bsky.social
@javierdelafuente.bsky.social @mtoll8.bsky.social just started by extremely inspaireing talk by @saramitri.bsky.social so much fun at the @eseb2025.bsky.social
@javierdelafuente.bsky.social @mtoll8.bsky.social just started by extremely inspaireing talk by @saramitri.bsky.social so much fun at the @eseb2025.bsky.social
August 21, 2025 at 9:02 AM
The session of Microbial adaptations to changing environments chaired and organized by @sanmillan.bsky.social
@javierdelafuente.bsky.social @mtoll8.bsky.social just started by extremely inspaireing talk by @saramitri.bsky.social so much fun at the @eseb2025.bsky.social
@javierdelafuente.bsky.social @mtoll8.bsky.social just started by extremely inspaireing talk by @saramitri.bsky.social so much fun at the @eseb2025.bsky.social
Years of research on the fundamental processes of microbial ecology have led to a new question: How can we engineer these communities? 🛠️
A review by Joy Bergelson and Lucas Henry summarizes these core principles and their application.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A review by Joy Bergelson and Lucas Henry summarizes these core principles and their application.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Applying ecological principles to microbiome engineering - Nature Microbiology
This Perspective discusses the application of ecological principles of macro-ecosystems to microbiome engineering. The authors propose research priorities necessary to facilitate the application of th...
www.nature.com
August 13, 2025 at 12:46 PM
Years of research on the fundamental processes of microbial ecology have led to a new question: How can we engineer these communities? 🛠️
A review by Joy Bergelson and Lucas Henry summarizes these core principles and their application.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A review by Joy Bergelson and Lucas Henry summarizes these core principles and their application.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Yesterday, we had the honor of attending the closing concert of a Chamber music course that took place at our university !🎹
One of our PhD students, Jonathan Shelly , also participated in this course with his amazing violin—take a look!🎻
One of our PhD students, Jonathan Shelly , also participated in this course with his amazing violin—take a look!🎻
August 12, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Yesterday, we had the honor of attending the closing concert of a Chamber music course that took place at our university !🎹
One of our PhD students, Jonathan Shelly , also participated in this course with his amazing violin—take a look!🎻
One of our PhD students, Jonathan Shelly , also participated in this course with his amazing violin—take a look!🎻
Reposted by Mizrahi Lab
More on collective behavior: Our new Annual Review of Biophysics piece - with the stellar Danielle Chase - explores how animals sense, share information, and make group decisions. In honeybees and beyond 🐝
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
August 9, 2025 at 9:16 PM
More on collective behavior: Our new Annual Review of Biophysics piece - with the stellar Danielle Chase - explores how animals sense, share information, and make group decisions. In honeybees and beyond 🐝
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
Archaea never stop to surprise us! 🌞 @bejalab.bsky.social @galitzlil.bsky.social discovered that marine archaea use carotenoid "antennas" to capture blue light, transferring the energy to their rhodopsin pumps. A huge leap in microbial photobiology!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Structural insights into light harvesting by antenna-containing rhodopsins in marine Asgard archaea - Nature Microbiology
Uncultured open-ocean Asgard archaea can harvest light energy using rhodopsins and diverse hydroxylated carotenoid antennas.
www.nature.com
August 10, 2025 at 2:05 PM
Archaea never stop to surprise us! 🌞 @bejalab.bsky.social @galitzlil.bsky.social discovered that marine archaea use carotenoid "antennas" to capture blue light, transferring the energy to their rhodopsin pumps. A huge leap in microbial photobiology!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Mizrahi Lab
Discovery of NOT-GPCRs: An Archaeal Membrane Protein Family Whose AlphaFold Predictions Structurally Resemble G Protein-coupled Receptors jxiv.jst.go.jp/index.php/jx...
August 10, 2025 at 5:28 AM
Discovery of NOT-GPCRs: An Archaeal Membrane Protein Family Whose AlphaFold Predictions Structurally Resemble G Protein-coupled Receptors jxiv.jst.go.jp/index.php/jx...
Final presentations in our Microbial Ecology: Theories & Contemporary Questions course 🎓🦠
Tomer chose to manifest ecological dynamics using visual props.
I love it when people, especially students, color outside the lines.
Tomer chose to manifest ecological dynamics using visual props.
I love it when people, especially students, color outside the lines.
July 31, 2025 at 8:06 AM
Final presentations in our Microbial Ecology: Theories & Contemporary Questions course 🎓🦠
Tomer chose to manifest ecological dynamics using visual props.
I love it when people, especially students, color outside the lines.
Tomer chose to manifest ecological dynamics using visual props.
I love it when people, especially students, color outside the lines.
#ISM2025 Was very fruitful! It was fun to connect with friends and exchange amazing scientific ideas.
Also, we had the chance to present our work!
Our postdoc, Omer Lavy, shared his research on "biblical poop."
Our PhD student, Sarah Winkler, presented her poster on "Decoding Microbial Communities"
Also, we had the chance to present our work!
Our postdoc, Omer Lavy, shared his research on "biblical poop."
Our PhD student, Sarah Winkler, presented her poster on "Decoding Microbial Communities"
July 24, 2025 at 12:12 PM
#ISM2025 Was very fruitful! It was fun to connect with friends and exchange amazing scientific ideas.
Also, we had the chance to present our work!
Our postdoc, Omer Lavy, shared his research on "biblical poop."
Our PhD student, Sarah Winkler, presented her poster on "Decoding Microbial Communities"
Also, we had the chance to present our work!
Our postdoc, Omer Lavy, shared his research on "biblical poop."
Our PhD student, Sarah Winkler, presented her poster on "Decoding Microbial Communities"
Engrafting a new microbe into an ecosystem remains a challenge. ⛰️ New article profiles ~15K interactions between S. epidermidis strains, showing a direct antagonism between strains - as a major barrier to coexistence.
Nice work!
@contaminatedsci.bsky.social @mancusosci.bsky.social
shorturl.at/XTvfC
Nice work!
@contaminatedsci.bsky.social @mancusosci.bsky.social
shorturl.at/XTvfC
Intraspecies warfare restricts strain coexistence in human skin microbiomes - Nature Microbiology
About 15,000 pairwise interactions within S. epidermidis from 18 people in 6 families reveal the antagonism and molecular trade-offs that shape the skin microbiota.
www.nature.com
July 17, 2025 at 9:14 AM
Engrafting a new microbe into an ecosystem remains a challenge. ⛰️ New article profiles ~15K interactions between S. epidermidis strains, showing a direct antagonism between strains - as a major barrier to coexistence.
Nice work!
@contaminatedsci.bsky.social @mancusosci.bsky.social
shorturl.at/XTvfC
Nice work!
@contaminatedsci.bsky.social @mancusosci.bsky.social
shorturl.at/XTvfC
What a strike! 🎳 Our lab's bowling event was a blast! So much fun hitting the lanes and making memories with the team.
#LabLife #Bowling #TeamFun #ScienceSquad
#LabLife #Bowling #TeamFun #ScienceSquad
July 6, 2025 at 6:22 AM
What a strike! 🎳 Our lab's bowling event was a blast! So much fun hitting the lanes and making memories with the team.
#LabLife #Bowling #TeamFun #ScienceSquad
#LabLife #Bowling #TeamFun #ScienceSquad