Shira Weingarten-Gabbay

Beautiful work from the Nemudryi lab discovering tRNA-targeting antiviral immunity in bacteria.

Abstract submission is now OPEN for the 2026 Symposium on the Immune System of Bacteria!

sisb2026.rockefeller.edu
🗓 May 5–7, 2026
📍 Rockefeller University, New York City
⏰ Abstract deadline: March 16, 2026

Attendance will be capped, be sure to register early and secure your spot.

See you in NYC!

As we are sending back the revised version of our pooled prime editing gene tagging paper, I am happy to share a website for design of prime tagging libraries, including some images, all generated from a single pooled transduction and in situ sequencing.
primetagging.org

Tomorrow at the #SystemsVirologyJournalClub, Joel Tan (@joelmjtan.bsky.social) will present his work with Philip Kranzusch (@kranzuschlab.bsky.social) on a DNA-gated molecular guard that control bacterial anti-phage defence.

Paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40306316/

Pre-assembly of biomolecular condensate seeds drives RSV replication Nature - Viral ribonucleoprotein–viral protein networks form pre-replication centres that nucleate viral factories and drive respiratory syncytial virus replication.

Now out in Nature! We visualize infection of the RNA virus RSV in real-time with single-vRNP resolution to understand how RSV establishes viral factories, biomolecular condensates that act as sites of viral replication. A huge collaborative effort led by Dhanushika Ratnayake!

rdcu.be/e1bBW

Join us tomorrow at the #SystemsVirologyJournalClub. @lauraluebbert.com will present her work with @lpachter.bsky.social on detecting viruses at single-cell resolution and uncovering associated changes in host gene expression.

Paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40263451/

Tomorrow, at the #SystemsVirologyJournalClub, @samuelhking.bsky.social will present his work with @brianhie.bsky.social using AI genome language models to generate novel, high-fitness bacteriophages.

Thank you so much!! 😊

Coming in at #4 in our Top 5 Countdown: virus hunters assemble!

Dr. @shiraweingarten.bsky.social at @harvardmed.bsky.social launched the Laboratory of Systems Virology. We cannot wait to see what the lab accomplishes in 2026!
https://bsky.app/profile/scienceinboston.com/post/3lsuek25o5c2f

This scientist found a new trick of the immune system by digging through cellular rubbish Yifat Merbl is part of Nature’s 10, a list of people who shaped science in 2025.

A remarkable recognition in Nature’s 10 for @merbllab.bsky.social and her team at #WeizmannInstitute the mindblowing discovery of a defense mechanism in human cells mediated by proteasome-derived antimicrobial peptides 🤩

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

🚨ATTENTION EARLY CAREER VIROLOGISTS🚨 We have a webinar on how to get a faculty position! Hear from Jean Lim,
@drsprggs.bsky.social and @tylernstarr.bsky.social. Check your email for registration link and form to submit questions in advance.

Tomorrow (Thursday) at the Systems Virology Journal Club, Noor Youssef will present her work with Debbie Marks on developing an AI model that predicts how viruses evolve to evade the immune response.

Paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40345199/

Tomorrow at the #SystemsVirologyJournalClub Yingpu Yu will present his work with Charles Rice on the cis preference of HBV polymerase to its transcript. Spoiler alert: it involves #ribosome stalling! 😍

Paper: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38723628/

🚨 Systems Virology Journal Club – 8th Series! 🚨
#BillSchneider and I are delighted to announce another round of cutting-edge talks in #SystemsVirology! 🦠💡
Join us and an outstanding lineup of speakers, starting Oct 30.
Free registration: shiraweingartengabbay.com/systems-viro... 🔬✨

Thank you for having us Akos! It was a great session.

Congratulation to all the laureate and finalists and to the brilliant Maria Cecilia Canesso 🤩

Looking forward to a terrific symposium on Synthetic Biology and it's implication in therapeutic development ✨

Synthetically designed anti-defense proteins overcome barriers to bacterial transformation and phage infection Bacterial defense systems present considerable barriers to both phage infection and plasmid transformation. These systems target mobile genetic elements, limiting the efficacy of bacteriophage-based t...

Preprint: De-novo design of proteins that inhibit bacterial defenses

Our approach allows silencing defense systems of choice. We show how this approach enables programming of “untransformable” bacteria, and how it can enhance phage therapy applications

Congrats Jeremy Garb!
tinyurl.com/Syttt
🧵

SPEAR (bacterial nanosynringe) enables loading of different types of cargo (including folded ribonucleoproteins and single-stranded DNA) and targeting of defined cell types both in vitro and in vivo
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@natbiotech.nature.com @zhangf.bsky.social

Molecular organization of the New World arenavirus spike glycoprotein complex - Nature Microbiology Cryo-EM structures of the full-length Junin virus and Machupo virus spike glycoprotein complexes stabilized in the prefusion conformation. Analyses reveal features that regulate glycoprotein pH-depend...

Excited to share our new @natmicrobiol.nature.com paper revealing the most complete arenavirus glycoprotein complex (GPC) structures to date 🤩 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Super interesting insights on the evolutionary constrains on synonymous codons 🤩 "Our results suggest that cotranslational localization and translational accuracy, more than cotranslational protein folding, are major drivers of selective pressure on codon choice in eukaryotes."

The most humble scientist I know and a true legend

On my way to #ASV2025. Two flights canceled due to weather ⛈️ but should make it on time! Join us for a terrific symposium tomorrow morning on #NextGenerationVirology with
#BenhurLee #JesseBloom #LisaWagner @wchnicholas.bsky.social and #IleanaCristea. Safe travel everyone! #LoveVirology

Register 2025 | American Society for Virology The 44th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Virology! Dates: July 14 – 17, 2025 (Monday – Thursday) Palais des congrès de Montréal Host: McGill University *TEACHER TRAVEL GRANTS: Applications…

Get ready for ASV 2025! The 2025 American Society for Virology meeting will be hosted by McGill University and held at the Palais des Congrès de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada from July 14 - 17, 2025. Abstract submission, travel award apps, and registration are now open! asv.org/asv2025/regi...

Dr. Shira Weingarten-Gabbay (@shiraweingarten.bsky.social) from @harvardmed.bsky.social is leading the new Laboratory of Systems #Virology.

Her lab uncovers the inner workings of viruses and their interaction with the immune system to prevent current and future viral diseases: bit.ly/44peaBa

"This work by Shira highlights new dark matter in viral genomes that can influence disease and how we design vaccines," says Charles Rice. "It’s yet another layer of biology that was not appreciated but opens up exciting new opportunities for exploration."

Shining a Light on the World of Tiny Proteins

A recent study from @shiraweingarten.bsky.social, a former postdoc in the Rice laboratory, revealed 4,208 previously unknown proteins that are made by viruses such as influenza and H.I.V. using a new technique called massively parallel ribosome profiling.

Pan-viral ORFs discovery using massively parallel ribosome profiling Defining viral proteomes is crucial to understanding viral life cycles and immune recognition but the landscape of translated regions remains unknown for most viruses. We have developed massively para...

Pan-viral ORFs discovery using massively parallel ribosome profiling www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Congratulation @shiraweingarten.bsky.social! Beautiful work!

Thank you Ophir!! 🙏