Romi Hadary
PhD student @Soreklab.bsky.social @WeizmannScience
Studying phage-bacteria arms race🦠🛡️
- Reposted by Romi HadaryChemical inhibition of a bacterial immune system Small molecules inhibit type II Thoeris anti-phage systems from diverse bacteria. One compound, IP6C, improves phage-therapy against P. aeruginosa & is effective against Thoeris in polymicrobial communities www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
- Another amazing work by @ostermanilya.bsky.social! A new NAD⁺-depleting defense system and its phage antagonists, revealing an exciting bacterial–phage arms race. 🛡️⚔️ Congrats Ilya and coauthors!
- 🧬 Metabolic arms race continues! We discovered a new NAD⁺-depleting bacterial immune system aRES and phage enzymes that overcome it. Our preprint is out: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Romi HadaryOur new paper is out in Nature 🎉. We show that m1Ψ in mRNA vaccines doesn’t just quiet immunity, it also directly enhance translation by reshaping ribosome dynamics in a sequence-dependent way 🧬 Full paper : rdcu.be/eY5gx
- Reposted by Romi Hadary“Up ’till now, we couldn’t detect it, because we didn’t look at the garbage cans of cells.” Yifat Merbl found a new trick of the immune system, and is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025 go.nature.com/3XZQdgY
- Reposted by Romi HadaryBacterial genomes encode a rich repertoire of antiphage systems, but we still know surprisingly little about when these systems are actually expressed. In this preprint, Lucas Paoli et al, ask what shapes antiphage systems expression in native contexts. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Incredible to learn how far-reaching and diverse Thoeris really is! TIRs play key roles across kingdoms, and this work beautifully highlights their bacterial origins. Congrats @erezyirmiya.bsky.social & Azita! 👏🌟
- I’m happy to share our new preprint! We uncovered the full diversity of bacterial TIR-based antiviral immune signaling, massively expanded the known diversity of Thoeris systems, and revealed conservation of TIR-derived immune signals across the tree of life. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Romi Hadary🧬🛡️How are new immune mechanisms created? We show how Lamassu antiphage system, originated from a DNA-repair complex and evolved into a compact and modular immune machine, wt Dinshaw Patel lab in @pnas.org. 👏 @matthieu-haudiquet.bsky.social, Arpita Chakravarti & all authors! doi.org/10.1073/pnas...
- Reposted by Romi HadaryOur nuclease-protease story is out! We explored a fascinating case of coevolution and modularity in prokaryotic immune systems: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Thanks to wonderful coauthors/collaborators/friends, the whole @doudna-lab.bsky.social and everyone at @innovativegenomics.bsky.social
- So proud of @nitzantal.bsky.social 👏🏻such an inspiring and brilliant scientist!
- Congratulations to Sorek lab alumnus Nitzan Tal, who won the prestigious 2025 Science & SciLifeLab prize for the best PhD thesis in Systems Biology! 💫 Read her Prize Assay, published in the journal Science today www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... @nitzantal.bsky.social
- An incredible story revealing a novel defense system that senses DNA shredding during phage infection — beautifully solved by @ostermanilya.bsky.social ! 🧬✨
- 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...
- Reposted by Romi HadaryToday in @nature.com , we highlight how a cousin of CRISPR-Cas10, mCpol, establishes an evolutionary trap in anti-phage immune systems. Check out @erinedoherty.bsky.social and my work from @doudna-lab.bsky.social lab here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Romi HadaryOur story describing the Panoptes bacterial immune defense system is now finally peer-reviewed and published today! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Romi HadaryEffector-triggered immunity (ETI) indirectly detects pathogen effector activity on the host cell. Kevin Barthes,Tanita Wein and I examine how prokaryotic and eukaryotic viruses deploy similar effectors that activate ETI, underscoring its central role across the tree of life. tinyurl.com/mr3a3xh2
- Reposted by Romi Hadary📢 New preprint alert! We designed synthetic proteins that can block bacterial immune systems, allowing phages + plasmids to overcome natural defenses. This could transform phage therapy + genetic engineering. Here’s what we found 🧵 Preprint🔗: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- 📢 Preprint out! Together with @reneechang.bsky.social @kranzuschlab.bsky.social and the amazing @soreklab.bsky.social, we explored viral sponges to map their diversity and function. Discovered huge diversity, including sponges that inhibit Pycsar & Type IV Thoeris! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- 1/ Defense systems using small molecule signaling exist in >20% of bacteria 🦠 some are ancestors of central immune pathways in animals & plants.
- 2/ Phages must fight back! ⚔️ Sponges 🧽 are viral proteins that bind signaling molecules, preventing activation of defenses. The first families discovered were Tad1 & Tad2 (anti-Thoeris & CBASS) and Acb2 (anti-CBASS).
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View full thread9/ It was such a fun & inspiring journey🎉 Huge thanks to @reneechang.bsky.social- it was a pleasure working on this together! Special thanks to all amazing contributors Nathalie Bechon, @nitzantal.bsky.social, @ostermanilya.bsky.social, @erezyirmiya.bsky.social, Jeremy Garb, @amitaig.bsky.social.
- Reposted by Romi HadaryExcited to share my PhD work in the @kranzuschlab.bsky.social, out now in Molecular Cell @cp-molcell.bsky.social We discover Acb4, a new family of viral sponges that sequesters nucleotide immune signals and defines molecular features that enable ligand specificity. www.cell.com/molecular-ce...
- Reposted by Romi HadaryThe beautiful, ever-expanding universe of viral proteins targeting nucleotide immune signals! Paper by @reneechang.bsky.social in @cp-molcell.bsky.social on a nucleotide sponge www.cell.com/molecular-ce... and preprint by @doudna-lab.bsky.social on viral nucleases www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
