Assoc. prof. @LUMC_Leiden/CMAT. Cdiff, DNA replication, AMR, microbiome, anaerobes. Clostpath SC. Education officer ESGCD. Also: @smitslab.bsky.social
Leiden, Nederland
Joined August 2015
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Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
When Pseudomonas is attacked, it strikes back!
Outer membrane damage triggers a tit-for-tat T6SS retaliation via TagQ/TagR protein complex assembly, activating the PpkA kinase.
Congrats to Maxim & team for uncovering this fascinating mechanism!
nature.com/articles/s41467-0…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
The Peggy Lillis Foundation (cdiff.org/) invites clinicians, researchers, scientists, pharmacists, and industry professionals to submit abstracts for the November 19-20 2026 Clostridioides difficileScientific Symposium. The submission deadline is October 23, 2026.
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
Amazing new work from Carol Gross & team in
@PNASNews
! Several new protein functions discovered! #SubtiWiki
The phenotypic landscape of the model firmicute Bacillus subtilis | PNAS pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.26…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
Proud and excited to share our first preprint 🚀 in which we
• create a high-fitness firewalled organism,
• that stably colonizes the mouse gut for >100 days,
• resists all tested phages in the gut,
• and blocks horizontal gene transfer.
+ Chimera genomes to tailor synthetic
ALT Firewalled synthetic commensal blocks horizontal gene transfer in the gut
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
Inspired by Gibson cloning, we describe prime assembly, now published, for in cellulo targeted integration of gene-sized DNA fragments using prime editing. nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
Bacterial stress responses lower mRNA–protein level correlations | PNAS pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pna…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
Scientists have determined the highest-resolution protein structure obtained to date.
Using advanced X-ray crystallography at EMBL Hamburg's P14 beamline, the team solved the structure of an archaeal protein at an astonishing 0.43 Ångström resolution.
embl.org/news/science-techno…
ALT A valence electron deformation map of archaeal rubredoxin at 0.43 Ångström resolution
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
In our new paper, we uncover how Burkholderia switches from antibacterial T6SS-1 to eukaryotic-targeting T6SS-5. Surprisingly, actively turning off T6SS-1 assembly prevents mitochondrial damage and apoptosis.
Congrats @christy_chc and the team!
link.springer.com/article/10…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
The narrowing prokaryote–eukaryote divide reveals a complexity spectrum dlvr.it/TV6wHZ
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
How to use AI in medical publications - the viewpoint from the JAMA editors 💡
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
Broad antibiotic cross-resistance evolved infrequently after adaptation to 40 #antibiotics or nonantibiotics. Yet, when it did emerge, evolution repeatedly converged on mutations in the key efflux regulators acrR and lon. @carmen28_L @mitchell_sysbio doi.org/10.1128/mbio.01168-2…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
New preprint! Led by @aya_iizuka & @MVMazzuoli we ask what helps Staphylococcus aureus enter, survive inside and evade treatment in human monocytes.
biorxiv.org/content/10.64898…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
🧬 Delighted to share our new Nature Communications paper! We show how MCM2-7 double hexamers become active helicases and trigger DNA melting in vivo. Led by Chris Weekes & L. Maximilian Reuter. Congratulations to the whole team!
doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-7…
#DNAReplication
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
ICDS 2026: see icds.si/programme-abstract-b…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
A deeper dive into the article we published last week in @Nature.
I will start with the framing and methodology as they are key to understanding the surprising results:
Proteomics experiments usually begin with an assumption.
nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
1/
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
Genetic and pharmacological inactivation of peptidoglycan remodeling increases antibiotic susceptibility of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium | Nature Communications nature.com/articles/s41467-0…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
The lab has been busy the last few months. We are happy to announce several recently published papers!
Two methods in molecular biology from Duolong, Jason, and @AuchtungJ
Lab: doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-5…
& doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-5…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
A Streptomyces megacluster encodes synergistic biotin-targeting antibiotics | Nature nature.com/articles/s41586-0…
Wiep Klaas Smits retweeted
Universal microbiome signature for CRC
Large gut microbiome meta-analysis of colorectal cancer uncovers CRC microbiome signatures universal across ages & sequencing methods & modifiable by dietary interventions, i.e. fiber.
cell.com/cell-host-microbe/f…
