Sorek Lab
@SorekLab
The Sorek Lab
📢Preprint out! Excited to share my final work from the @Soreklab! 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!
Genomes encode biological complexity, which is determined by combinations of DNA mutations across millions of bases In new @arcinstitute work, we report the discovery and engineering of the first programmable DNA recombinases capable of megabase-scale human genome rearrangement
What if we could universally recombine, insert, delete, or invert any two pieces of DNA? In back-to-back @Nature papers, we report the discovery of bridge RNAs and 3 atomic structures of the first natural RNA-guided recombinase - a new mechanism for programmable genome design
Excited to share our latest on the Type II Thoeris system! In collaboration with the Sorek and Kranzusch labs, we identify His-ADPR as a signaling molecule. Huge thanks to all involved—amazing teamwork! nature.com/articles/s4158…
🗓️Tomorrow! Ariel Cohen, VP Development Projects will present "The Challenges & Opportunities of the Development Pathway for Phage Therapy" 🦠at the Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Conference 2025, join virtually 14:35 CET! Register👉 bsac.eventsair.com/antimicrobial-… #PhageTherapy #Antibiotics
Another cADPR isomer involved in bacterial immunity has been discovered. For me, N7 was the least expected position; I was sure it would be N3, but no... So, there are two more positions for cyclization that should be discovered: N3 and -NH2. More Thoeris systems are waiting! :)
Now published @ScienceMagazine: TIR signaling activates caspase-like immunity in bacteria We report a new immune molecule: N7-cADPR. Produced by phage-induced TIRs and activates a defensive bacterial caspase Congrats @FrancoisRousset & @IlyaOsterman! science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
Congrats our very own @Sys_Immunology member PI @TanaWein for the impressive new paper @Nature together with @SorekLab- Shedding yet another piece of the (inflammasome-related) origins of immunology in bacteria!! Proud of you Tana and team! nature.com/articles/s4158…
Now published @ScienceMagazine: TIR signaling activates caspase-like immunity in bacteria We report a new immune molecule: N7-cADPR. Produced by phage-induced TIRs and activates a defensive bacterial caspase Congrats @FrancoisRousset & @IlyaOsterman! science.org/doi/10.1126/sc…
We just posted a new preprint where we found retrons in bacteria out in the real world, in dirt and water. We describe the first retrons in a handful of new species, show how they defend against phages, and use them to edit genomes. Read about it here: biorxiv.org/content/10.110…