Uday Tak
Assistant Professor of Microbiology at UVA.
My lab studies bacterial immune systems and phages.
taklaboratory.org
- Reposted by Uday TakToo much data, too little thinking. A important essay from Ruslan Medzhitov on the importance of understanding data, not just generating it. A must read. @Yale www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Uday TakThe immune systems paradox Some widespread prokaryotic immune systems are absent in eukaryotes, whereas relatively rare ones became central to eukaryotic innate immunity @audeber.bsky.social & E. Koonin hypothesize the answer is #HGT shareable link: rdcu.be/e2EmD www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Uday TakAmazing findings in geometry-based immune activation! Two bacterial defence systems detect phage-encoded ring oligomers, assemble high-order molecular complexes, and trigger abortive infection. www.nature.com/articles/s41... www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Uday TakJoin us at the 2026 GRC Microbial Stress Response to be held on July 19th-24th at Mount Holyoke College!! Here is the link for more information: www.grc.org/microbial-st...
- Reposted by Uday Tak🚨 Hiring Alert! 🚨My lab at Institut Pasteur is recruiting several Postdocs! We have exciting open projects in: 🦠 Synthetic Biology and🛡️ Bacterial Immunity. Come do great science with us in the middle of Paris! 🇫🇷🥐 research.pasteur.fr/en/job/postd...
- Reposted by Uday TakExcited to share a new story that transformed how we think about membrane domains in the ER! rdcu.be/eR7Cn ER exit sites mediated by the COPII adaptor sec24D selectively recruit lipid raft-preferencing proteins for rapid ER export Wondering what’s so new and exciting? Skytorial below! 1/9
- Reposted by Uday Tak“A student joining a lab is often presented with a hypothesis to work on and may see science as a hypothesis-testing endeavor. Many young postdocs have been told that as a PhD student their job was to answer questions—now they have to discover their own unknown unknowns.”
- A great read! link.springer.com/article/10.1...
- Reposted by Uday TakHello world! I am excited to announce my lab is open at the University of Utah in the Department of Biochemistry. We are looking for scientists at all levels interested in studying host-virus interactions in both bacteria and animals. Come join us in beautiful Utah! (photo is 10 steps from lab)
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- Reposted by Uday TakOur latest CRISPR ring nuclease paper focusses on Csx15 - which seems to act as of a sponge as well as a canonical phosphodiesterase. Great work led by @haotianchi.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Uday TakI’m thrilled to share our work on phage triggers of the bacterial immune system in its final form @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Uday TakPreprint out: We characterise PUA-Cal-HAD, a widespread bacterial antiphage defence family. An infection cue switches a preassembled complex into an immune filament that drains dNTPs via a coupled two-enzyme cascade, and phage DNA mimics can block filament assembly (anti-polymerisation).
- Reposted by Uday TakOut Now! A phage protein screen identifies triggers of the bacterial innate immune system #MicroSky
- Reposted by Uday TakSave the date, please RT: Looking forward to an exciting International Symposium @spp2330.bsky.social "New concepts in prokaryotic virus-host interactions". October 5-7, 2026; Harnack-Haus Berlin (Germany). @dfg.de @hhu.de @fz-juelich.de
- Reposted by Uday TakBacteria chromosomes contain Genomic Islands that provide virulence, antibiotic resistance, MGE-defence,... They transfer between cells, but the mechanism of most remains elusive. Here we explore the conjugative capacity of these mysterious Genomic Islands. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Uday TakHappy to share our recent preprint: "DNA-intercalating antiphage molecules trigger abortive infection through mutual destruction and synergize with bacterial immunity" www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... @spp2330.bsky.social, @mibinet.bsky.social, @dfg.de @hhu.de @fzj.bsky.social
- Reposted by Uday TakOur paper is out! Hiding in plain sight among Cas12a nucleases, Cas12a3 cleaves not its RNA target but the 3′ ends of tRNA. Huge thanks to all who made this possible, especially the Beisel lab, Biao & Dirk for the structure, & @sebastianglatt.bsky.social for all things tRNA. doi.org/10.1038/s415...
- Reposted by Uday TakNLR-like immunity in bacteria A new study from the Alex Gao lab. The scope of this work is incredible!!! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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- Reposted by Uday TakA systematic analysis of STAND NTPases and their associated sensor domains in bacterial immunity 🤯 Mind-blowing work !
- Reposted by Uday Tak[1/3] Is your favorite bacterial isolate hiding a surprise lytic virus with a VERY different lifestyle? Finally I can proudly say that our paper on persistent phages is out in Nature Microbiology. rdcu.be/eWJEp. Well done @peterdoug.bsky.social
- Reposted by Uday TakThe changing roles of Escherichia coli www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
- Reposted by Uday TakPut a perspective piece together on how fever may have driven the evolution of antiviral genes: rupress.org/jem/article/...
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- Reposted by Uday TakWhile everyone is hustling for the holidays, hopefully folks will have time to submit abstracts or register for #ASMMicrobe2026 in DC! Please repost!
- Reposted by Uday Tak@peterfineran.bsky.social and colleagues develop Tn-seq for phages by leveraging anti-CRISPR (Acr) as a positive selectable marker in the presence of CRISPR-Cas counter-selection, and identify essential genes in phage from non model orgs www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Uday Takvery unusual - a tRNA regulated anion channel
- Structural insights into the coordinated regulation of the SLAH family in Arabidopsis thaliana pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41407702/ #cryoEM
- Reposted by Uday TakOrganelles do NOT have a single uniform pH. And if you think they must, because “protons diffuse fast,” this paper is for you. A thread on why that assumption is wrong; and what we found instead. 🧵 1/n
- Organelles harbour pH gradients biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/20…
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- Reposted by Uday TakVaults. They are cell biology's greatest puzzle! This preprint from Martin Beck's lab shows them docked on ER membranes with a ribosome inside. What on earth is going on there?? #CellBiology #WTFology www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Uday TakBacterial 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...
- Reposted by Uday TakExciting pre-print on new variants of anti-phage defense systems including CBASS, Pycsar, and Gabija! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
- Reposted by Uday TakConfused by all the histones that are cropping up in organisms that are decidedly NOT eukaryotes? check out our review - fantastic work by team NucEvo in the #Lugerlab The Expanding Histone Universe: Histone-Based DNA Organization in Noneukaryotic Organisms - www.annualreviews.org/content/jour...
- Reposted by Uday TakPhages are full of genes of unknown function that are likely adaptive in specific conditions. New preprint: Phage TnSeq identifies essential genes rapidly and knocks all non-essentials. We would like to send a pool of phiKZ mutants to anyone wanting it! Reach out tinyurl.com/bdcfrejh
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- Reposted by Uday TakLink to 1970 JMB paper detailing the discovery of HindII restriction enzyme here, loving the root story of a class of tools that have been so integral to so much research – doi.org/10.1016/0022...
- Reposted by Uday TakHey friends. I’m looking for a postdoc interested in studying host-pathogen interactions and immunology of tuberculosis. Send me some good people! We have a great group here! Email me joanne@pitt.edu. Thanks!
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- Reposted by Uday TakColibactin-DNA interstrand crosslinks structure reveals DNA-damaging acitivity of colibactin that is linked to colorectal cancer #MicroSky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Uday TakI’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...
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- Reposted by Uday TakCheck this out for the 2026 SISB (phage defense) meeting in NYC. Mark your calendar! (and note the Zoom option, if needed) sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
- Reposted by Uday TakWork I co-led with @jnoms.bsky.social is now online at @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social ! We revealed a previously unrealized diversity of viral immune-evasion proteins that selectively destroy different cyclic nucleotide signals used in bacterial immunity. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Reposted by Uday TakOur latest T7SS study is now out in Science Advances! We solved the cryoEM structure of the T7SSb core unit (T7bCU) composed of YukB, YukC, and YukD from Bacillus subtilis, revealing how these components assemble within the secretion machinery. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Uday Tak🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages. Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms. A thread 1/8
- Reposted by Uday TakWisconsin Evolution is accepting applications for our Seminar Series' Early Career Scientist Award. Come share your evolution research and visit UW-Madison's evolution community. Open to grad students and postdocs (<5 yrs post PhD) from outside UW-Madison. Apply by Dec 15th here: shorturl.at/4a4O6
- Reposted by Uday TakAssistant Professor position posted for my Department, Biological Sciences at UNC Charlotte! Current research foci: Immunology, Microbiology, Virology; Biomolecular Function; Proteostasis; Genome Integrity; Epigenome Regulation; Cancer; Environmental Risks. jobs.charlotte.edu/postings/65141
- Reposted by Uday TakVery happy to share our collaborative project on FAM118 proteins - noncanonical sirtuins that form filaments and process NAD in human and other vertebrate cells.
- Reposted by Uday TakI am so excited to share our project with you! We find prokaryotic proteases activate toxic enzymes and pores as a modular strategy in phage defense. We studied four fascinating protease-toxin pairs that are abundant across bacterial genomes: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
