According to one experienced editor, authors are 99% of the time wrong when stating they are 100% sure they know the identity of a particular reviewer.

Excited that Aoshu Zhong's exciting work on an antitoxin encoded within a toxin is now published. Lovely to collaborate with @jiang_bioinfo and @michael_laub8 and Alison Hickman and Fred Dyda https://t.co/vIKp961Ekc

So excited for you to join us @MITBiology. And especially excited for your lab to be down the hall from mine. Welcome, @sokrypton!

I wonder what it's like to have a very specific hole in one's thought processes that results in "surely this uni admin with every incentive to lie wouldn't lie to ME"

👋I’m back. And I wrote about the current wave of attempts to downplay long COVID—less outright denial & more "it’s real but no big deal". Except: it very much is. It’s a substantial and ongoing crisis that still demands our attention. 1/ https://t.co/Baz81cRDBg

@Lis_Lowe @Addgene Yes! Histidine in histidine kinase, forever. @michael_laub8

Thanks @MarraffiniLab for hosting me at Rockefeller last Friday! An amazing visit - great science and great people from start to finish.

Such a pleasure for @L_M_Smith and I to highlight for @MolecularCell the amazing work in @Nature from @tongzhang1109 @gem__atkinson @hauryliuk @michael_laub8 Abel Garcia-Pino and team on how a #phage capsid directly activates a #toxin-antitoxin system. @microtago @otago

Really jazzed to share a #review on #phagetherapy @CellCellPress that I wrote w/ @Vivek_Mutalik @GHatfull & @chipatucsd. Let the #phage begin! https://t.co/mJhWvIv8d4

Yes!! Love seeing @tongzhang1109 highlighted in this shoutout to #womeninSTEM - richly deserved!

Cannot emphasize enough the work and brilliance of @tongzhang1109 throughout this project. And a simply spectacular set of collaborators, @gem__atkinson, @hauryliuk, Abel Garcia-Pino, and their labs! 6/6

Some cool parallels to the sensing of molecular/pathogen associated molecular patterns by eukaryotic innate immune proteins. Also, our work suggests that TA systems aren't necessarily activated by proteolysis. Indeed, CapRel (and others...) can respond to phage proteins! 5/6

With Gemma, Vasili, and Abel, we found that the capsid directly binds the CapRel protein to promote an open, active state that then blocks translation to prevent phage replication. 4/6

Howver, like so many of the other new anti-phage defense systems being discovered of late, it was unclear how this TA system got activated in response to phage infection. Through some clever genetics, @tongzhang1109 discovered that the phage's capsid protein was key. 3/6

They had identified CapRel TA systems and shown they could sometimes pyrophosphorylate tRNAs, but to what end was unclear. Meanwhile, we'd gone all in on the idea that TA systems play major roles in anti-phage defense. And indeed, some of the CapRels turn out to do just that! 2/6

Happy to see the final version of this paper out in @Nature. Led by the incredible @tongzhang1109 and fantastic collaborators @gem__atkinson @hauryliuk and Abel Garcia-Pino. Started after serving as outside examiner for a student of Gem and Vasili's. 1/6 https://t.co/bRsFaFdHzp

Caulobacter produces a phage-like element that provides template DNA recombination, enabling survival in genotoxic conditions All I can say at this point is that I ❤️ microbiology - the plasticity and interdependence that comes from such long co-evolution @michael_laub8

I loved working on Caulobacter, but my lab's interests have evolved and we're onto new problems/ideas. Will still follow Caulobacter and esp work from fantastic former trainees: Kevin Gozzi @monicasguo @GuzzoMathilde @Tung_BK_Le @krijonas @dnarepairlab @EBiondix 2/2

Very happy to see this work led by Kevin Gozzi published in @PLOSBiology! GTAs are weird, amazing entities... Also represents end of an era for me- last Caulobacter paper from my lab after working on this bug since I was in grad school. 1/2

Just finished my lectures for the semester for Introductory Biology (7.015) @MIT. Must say that teaching is somehow both the most exhausting and the most energizing thing I do as a scientist. Thanks to the phenomenal students this year - was a privilege and a joy to teach them.