Gabriel M.F. Almeida

Bovine serum albumin nanoparticles improve bacteriophage stability and antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Bovine serum albumin nanoparticles improve bacteriophage stability and antimicrobial activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Second phage-related publication from the collaboration between the @cansuit.bsky.social - UiT and UNIFAL.

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

This summer me, as part of @cansuit.bsky.social , was involved in the First Brazilian Symposium on Viruses of Microorganisms. Nice to see VoM research growing in South America!

doi.org/10.3390/v171...

Starting January 2026, the Abrescia Lab will move to the Biofisika Institute and maintain operations at bioGUNE until 2028 when the EU InFlame grant ends.
Stay tuned for updates!

Gammelt virus gir nytt håp mot resistente bakterier | UiT En bakteriofag fra 1920-tallet viser seg å kunne angripe en bakterie som første gang ble funnet av UiT-forskere hundre år senere. Funnet kan bety nye behandlingsmuligheter i møte med økende antibiotik...

uit.no/nyheter/arti...

From the Marine Bioprospecting group of the @cansuit.bsky.social @uitnorgesarktiske.bsky.social

Great work from you, Daniel, et al! Nice to see this connection between the @uniofjyvaskyla.bsky.social and @cansuit.bsky.social and happy to be part.

Mucin-enriched environment shapes bacteriophage protection against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in airway epithelial cells Mucin hypersecretion, a hallmark of chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), creates a complex microenvironment that reshapes host immunity and microbial behavior. However, its impact on bacteriophage ther...

We studied how exogenous mucins influence phage-bacterium interplay in human epithelial cells. This work is now available in BiorXiv

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

A link to the past: classical phage ISP infects the recently described Staphylococcus borealis species - Virology Journal Background Staphylococcal infections, caused by a large variety of species within the Staphylococcus genus, are a threat to human health. Although antibiotics are the current choice of treatment for these infections, bacteriophage (phage) therapy has been used with success against Staphylococcus since the dawn of phage therapy. In 2020 a new coagulase-negative species named Staphylococcus borealis was described in Norway. In this study, we focused on understanding phage infections in S. borealis. Methods: First, we predict the presence of prophages and phage-defence mechanisms in the genomes of a collection of twelve S. borealis strains by bioinformatics. We also attempted to isolate S. borealis-infecting phages from Norwegian samples and tested the host-range of three known staphylococcal phages against a panel of fifty Norwegian staphylococcal strains. Results: The presence of prophages and phage defence systems was verified in all tested S. borealis strains. No local Norwegian phages could be obtained in a phage isolation attempt targeted towards S. borealis. The host range analysis shows that phage ISP, originally isolated in the 1920s and still used for phage therapy to date, can infect S. capitis and the S. borealis Hus23 strain. Phage ISP was shown to limit S. borealis Hus23 growth in liquid cultures and lower the formation of biofilm by the bacterium. The efficiency of plating of phage ISP can be improved by repeated passages in the new S. borealis Hus23 host. Conclusions: here we expand the known host range of the traditional phage ISP by showing that it also infects S. borealis and can be adapted to the new host by serial passages, showcasing the flexibility of phages as an antimicrobial strategy.

What started as a question in a @cansuit.bsky.social seminar ended up in tying an old and clinically valuable phage to a new bacterial threat described at the UiT. Thanks Pauline Cavanagh, Rob Lavigne et al for the collaboration!

virologyj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Naiavirus: an enveloped giant virus with a pleomorphic, flexible tail - Nature Communications Rodrigues and Queiroz et al. report the discovery of Naiavirus, the largest enveloped virus, isolated from a Brazil biome. With an oval capsid and flexible tail, its giant genome holds many novel gene...

Naiavirus: an enveloped giant virus with a pleomorphic, flexible tail
nature.com/articles/s41467-025-63463-6

Looking forward to what will be found!

We reached over 500 people with the 1st Brazilian symposium of viruses of microbes, followed by one in Alfenas and a phage isolation course. It is rewarding to see a high interest from the younger generation! Looking forward to see the South American VoM field grow.

@cansuit.bsky.social

Many thanks to the co-discoverers of Jyvaskylavirus:
@lrsundberg.bsky.social @abrescialab.bsky.social

Finland's first giant virus Investigative gene-ius...

Want to hear about Finland's first giant virus?

@gabrielmfa.bsky.social did an excellent interview for a podcast episode in The Naked Scientist 🧪🦠

www.thenakedscientists.com/articles/int...

Great to see Lara Ambrosio Leal Dutra representing CANS and presenting her excellent work on bacteriophages during The Danish Viruses of Microbes symposium in Copenhagen! 😀

Hi, would waiting a few months fine? We have a cool (no pun intended) new Escherichia phage from the Arctic. We aim to publish about it soon, and once done I would be happy to share.

Revealing the clinical relevance of Staphylococcus borealis | Microbiology Spectrum This study contributes novel knowledge on the clinical relevance of Staphylococcus borealis; this is of importance when clinical microbiologists encounter S. borealis identified in patient samples. S....

New publication alert! 🥳
Jorunn Pauline Cavanagh and colleagues investigated the clinical relevance of the new species Staphylococcus borealis

Have a look 👇
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

"Your new medicine can be a virus" - small discussion about phage therapy, with a Norwegian perspective and updates from the BFE-NFH Marine Bioprospecting group.

Din neste medisin kan være et virus - UiT Magasin

www.uitmagasin.no/2023/02/02/d...

@cansuit.bsky.social

Thanks for an incredible #CANS-day yesterday! Great discussions and research on #AMR and alternative strategies. Huge thanks to Timothy Walsh and Sílvio Santos for their outstanding keynote lectures! 🎤🔬 #AntimicrobialResistance

Genomic and structural insights into Jyvaskylavirus, the first giant virus isolated from Finland Jyvaskylavirus, the northernmost isolate of the Marseilleviridae family, shows that giant viruses are also part of the boreal Finnish environment and brings structural information with relevance for u...

It is not everyday that we can name a virus after a city! Long effort finally out now, adding Finland to the giant virus map. On top of this, in-depth structural data. Thanks @lrsundberg.bsky.social @abrescialab.bsky.social et al.

elifesciences.org/articles/103...

@cansuit.bsky.social

LoVis4u: a locus visualization tool for comparative genomics and coverage profiles Abstract. Comparative genomic analysis often involves visualization of alignments of genomic loci. While several software tools are available for this task

Excited to share that our paper on locus visualisation tool LoVis4u is out! Entirely driven by fantastic PhD student Artyom Egorov @egorov.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nargab/artic...

It’s Not Your Fault That Academic Life is Getting Harder by Glen O’Hara Universities are in trouble, and it’s not just money we’re talking about. They are living through something of a crisis of confidence, even of trust and faith. More and more, I find myself, and my col...

"It is impossible to be a top-line manager and administrator and mentor and researcher and writer and outreach officer and IT expert and online instructor and pedagogical innovator and recruiter and teacher and marker and external examiner and press pundit and grant bidder and editor."

Longitudinal phage–bacteria dynamics in the early life gut microbiome - Nature Microbiology Reanalysis of 12,262 longitudinal infant gut microbiome samples using the Marker-MAGu pipeline revealed phage–bacteria dynamics over the first year of life.

We interrupt your regularly-scheduled chaos to bring you some cool microbiome science. 🦠 🖥️ 🧬
"Longitudinal phage–bacteria dynamics in the early life gut microbiome" now out in Nature Microbiology.

We wanted a way to measure bacteria and phage in metagenomes 1/

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

Call for postdoc candidates interested in applying for an MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship in Human Microbiome UiT The Arctic University of Norway has established «The Arctic MSCA-PF program» (uit.no/project/arcticmsca) to recruit excellent young researchers planning to apply for a Marie Skƚodowsk

Did you know that by being part of The Arctic MSCA-PF program, your chance to win MSCA-PF doubles? Because we provide you with resources and guidance on how to write a successful proposal.

Contact me if interested in exploring human microbiome by metagenomics.

euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/309706

A postdoctoral position is available in my lab at the CIC bioGUNE (Bilbao, Spain) to work on virus-host interactions using state-of-the-art cryoEM.
The position is for a 3-year term.
Preferred start date: 1 March 2025.
For informal enquiries, please contact me: nabrescia@cicbiogune.es

Mucosal-adapted bacteriophages as a preventive strategy for a lethal Pseudomonas aeruginosa challenge in mice Communications Biology - Phage VAC3 adaptations to the mucosal environment (improved replication in mucin-treated hosts and retention in the respiratory tract) are mechanisms that can exploited as...

First paper on a collaboration between the @cansuit.bsky.social of the UiT (Norway) and the UNIFAL (Brazil). This paper strengthens mucosal adaptations as the reason why prophylactic phage therapy works and also is symbolic in the revival of phage research in Brazil.

rdcu.be/d5rhE

Post-Doc Protist Viruses

Looking for a postdoc in environmental virology? Fascinated by giant viruses and their glycobiology?
We have a position available at the MPI for Marine Microbiology!
@mpimarinemicrobio.bsky.social @maxplanck.de
career.mpi-bremen.de/jobposting/8...

E o pai da mentira? YouTube não tá me entregando ou atrasou? Apoiador daqui do fim do mundo, quase no polo norte.