Shu-Sin Chng

Bacteriocin biophysics: From protein-protein interaction models to navigators of the bacterial cell envelope Bacteriocins are toxins deployed by bacteria to kill their competitors. Here, I reflect on my laboratory’s work on protein bacteriocins and their immunity proteins from Gram-negative bacteria. We unco...

A gift of an article from the inimitable Colin Kleanthous as he says a moving farewell to his laboratory. A brave, unrepentant and scientifically brilliant journey is described - please have a read, friends.

www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Acidic pH Restricts Non‐Tuberculous Mycobacteria Replication Different nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) species display unique replication profiles in acidic pH in vitro which correlates to their replication within human macrophages. Inhibition of the acidic ...

Very happy to see this out! Great work by @lockwop.bsky.social @crick.ac.uk and first paper on NTMs from the lab! Parise made a set of 12 fluorescently labelled NTMs covering environmental and opportunistic mycobacteria...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

AI agent Fleming accelerates antibiotic discovery for Mycobacterium tuberculosis by integrating generative and predictive models, achieving 83% in-vitro hit rates and identifying novel compounds with favorable ADMET profiles across unexplored chemical space.

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

I’m pleased 🤗 to share our new preprint exploring the mode of action and resistance of the antitubercular drug pyrazinamide (PZA) 💊 Thanks to everyone who have participated 🙌
We hope these findings will help the fight against drug resistance in tuberculosis.
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🌀 We solved the structure for T. denticola periplasmic flagella!

I'm very happy to finally showcase this work. A huge collaborative effort between myself, @bindusmitapaul.bsky.social, @debnathghosal.bsky.social, Jack Kim, @banfieldlab.bsky.social, Eric Reynolds and the Chris Fenno lab.

🦠 Enjoy!

Check out our new preprint! We show that tension drives mixing of phase separated membranes!

Beautiful and solid work on trehalose monomycolate synthesis in mycobacteria by @figlegend.bsky.social lab. Check it out folks. Also, for the non-enzymologists, product inhibition is a thing, and actually does matter. 😜

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Many thanks Luiz for the shout out! All credit goes to @yushuchen.bsky.social!

Also extremely happy to see work finally published! Kudos to @yushuchen.bsky.social's tenacity and hard work! Read our previous thread and the paper itself for details/updates! Happy to chat if you find our findings interesting! #MicroSky

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Zhi-Soon and Jacob also found that the AsmA sf protein YhdP interacts stably/specifically with DedD, which binds cell wall primarily at the division site. We offer some prelim thoughts for why/when this interaction might occur, despite seemingly distinct localization patterns. Lots to think abt! 3/3

This discovery suggests that transport of phospholipids (PLs) to the OM happens at the poles, spatially separated from transport of lipolysaccharides (LPS) and insertion of OM proteins around the cell - important implications for establishment of OM lipid asymmetry and maintenance of stability! 2/3

And now published as an Observation! Many congrats to @weeboont.bsky.social for discovering that AsmA superfamily proteins, YhdP/TamB/YdbH, localize to the cell poles in E. coli, curiously AFTER division has occurred! 1/3 #MicroSky
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Exciting line up of talks for CauloCon 2026 - includes keynotes from @brunlabcaulo.bsky.social @lamasonlab.bsky.social and @thanbichlerlab.bsky.social! Hear work from Isaac Payne and Trung Nguyen, 2 students in my lab, on Weds and Thurs. 🤩

Deep learning extracts MoA-specific signatures from high-throughput images of chemically and genetically perturbed Corynebacteria https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.23.707449v1

Come work with Ben Berks FRS in Oxford
2 x PDRA posts: Molecular Analysis of Bacterial Outer Membrane Protein Biogenesis

2 complementary projects investigating bacterial outer membrane protein biogenesis. Building on our recent work (Nature (2015) 647: 479-487)

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Job opening for Research Group Leader in Structural Studies at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, focusing on macromolecular structures.

Are you a structural biologist pushing the boundaries of molecular science with an ambitious research programme?
Join our Structural Studies Division as a tenure-track Group Leader, with core funding, world-leading facilities & enthusiastic colleagues.
Apply by 16 MAR
www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Loss of Fsr quorum sensing promotes biofilm formation and worsens outcomes in enterococcal infective endocarditis - Nature Communications Infective endocarditis (IE) is an understudied biofilm-associated infection. Here, analyses of preclinical and clinical data reveal that the Fsr quorum sensing (QS) system of Enterococcus faecalis is ...

What if quorum sensing doesn’t promote biofilms - but restrains it? 🤔

New work from @harisantypas.bsky.social shows that the Fsr QS system in Enterococcus faecalis acts as a brake on biofilm formation and pathogenesis during infective endocarditis (IE).

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Membrane-associated effluxosomes coordinate multi-metal resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis - The EMBO Journal Bacterial pathogens must withstand metal-induced stress during infection, yet the mechanisms by which they sense and respond to toxic metal ions remain incompletely understood. Here, we uncover a prev...

🎉 𝐄𝐱𝐜𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐧𝐞𝐰 𝐩𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐌𝐁𝐎 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥!

After 8 months of revision, our work is now online: shorturl.at/WHmFq

We uncover a previously unrecognized way that 𝑀𝑦𝑐𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑢𝑚 𝑡𝑢𝑏𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑠 survives toxic metal stress during infection.
...

My latest preprint on the LolB in Bacteroides! Can't delete it, but you can deplete it to basically nothing and cells grow fine, plus lipoproteins still get to the cell surface 🤯

There is still SO much to understand about lipoproteins in Bacteroides!

SCELSE welcomed a delegation from the Embassy of France in Singapore, reaffirming a shared One Health approach and the central role of partnerships in the France–Singapore relationship. The visit included lab tours and talks on lab-to-market translation. @fillouxlab.bsky.social @cwhitch.bsky.social

Nutrient uptake in commensal bacteria: exploring uncharacterised TonB-dependent transporters. at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Nutrient uptake in commensal bacteria: exploring uncharacterised TonB-dependent transporters. at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

Lots of PhD opportunities for UK + international students involving my lab. Topics relate to metals & microbiology.

First up: TonB-dependent receptors in commensal Neisseria in my lab at Durham, with @kjosts.bsky.social and @mattbashton.bsky.social.

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Characterising antibacterial toxins in the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Characterising antibacterial toxins in the food-borne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com

www.findaphd.com/phds/project... interested in bacterial antagonism? PhD opportunity in our team, see below. Please repost!

Many of you in the mycobacterial community attended the awesome inaugural 2025 Biology of Mycobacteria GRC, organized by @heran.bsky.social and myself: www.grc.org/biology-of-m....

I am writing with an update about this conference as the new chair.

Lipopolysaccharide truncation and restoration drives a trade-off in resistance to two phages in Pseudomonas aeruginosa https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.20.700494v1

It is with emotion and sadness that we heard the passing away of Peer Bork on Jan 16. This was unexpected to us and a dramatic loss for our scientific community. Peer was an asset on the SCELSE Scientific Advisory Board over the past 15 years. Our thoughts go to his family, friends and colleagues.

Fantastic new work from @bactophile.bsky.social @shailab.bsky.social et al from the Shen lab - Defining the order of assembly of the Clostridioides difficile divisome complex www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #modelnotmodel

Enterococcus fans: Check out our latest on E. faecalis EET, advancing our understanding of both the fundamental physiology of this bug and new mechanisms of its virulence. This is the product of a thrilling collaboration with friends in Singapore @gthibault.bsky.social led by @aarontan.bsky.social.

Enterococcus faecalis redox metabolism activates the unfolded protein response to impair wound healing E. faecalis EET generates ROS, which induces the UPR in keratinocytes, inhibiting in vitro migration.

We’ve discovered how the superbug E. faecalis prevents chronic wounds from healing.

It’s not a toxin. It’s metabolism.

The bacteria use extracellular electron transport (EET) to electrochemically generate ROS, effectively "freezing" skin cells in place.

doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aeb5297

We are hiring! If you are a hardcore single molecule biophysicist specializing in fluorescence imaging, check it out here: apply.interfolio.com/179992

Lipid scavenging by the Lyme disease spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi Author summary Lyme disease is caused by a bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi, which has an unusually small genome; it scavenges most of the nutrients it needs to survive from its hosts. This scavenging ...

New publication from Pete Gwynne from @TuftsLyme in PlosPathogens doing a deep dive into lipid scavenging by B. burgdorferi. Once again and example of Bb being lazy and depending on its environment 😀 journals.plos.org/plospathogen...