Intensive “Search for novel inhibitors of the BREX system”
On March 24-26, the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology hosted a bioinformatics intensive for high school and college students on the topic “Search for new inhibitors of the BREX system”.
At the Intensive, we used bioinformatics analysis to find out how one bacteriophage learned to bypass the bacterial defense system.
At the Intensive, we used bioinformatics analysis to find out how one bacteriophage learned to bypass the bacterial defense system.
BREX (bacteriophage exclusion systems) are defense systems that help bacteria fight bacteriophages. These systems are complex and poorly understood. One approach to studying them is to find viral inhibitors that interact with components of bacterial defense systems and inactivate them.
Bacteriophage T7 is usually bad at infecting cells encoding the BREX system. But we in the lab have managed to produce mutants of the bacteriophage that can completely bypass it. We sequenced the genomes of the mutant bacteriophages to figure out what happened to them, and we had an almost detective story in front of us. At the Intensive, we delved into it together!
Bacteriophage T7 is usually bad at infecting cells encoding the BREX system. But we in the lab have managed to produce mutants of the bacteriophage that can completely bypass it. We sequenced the genomes of the mutant bacteriophages to figure out what happened to them, and we had an almost detective story in front of us. At the Intensive, we delved into it together!
Michael Skutel was one of the presenters of the intensives
On the first day there was a lecture part. It was conducted by Alina Demkina and Mikhail Skutel from our laboratory.
Mikhail gave a lecture on the defense systems of prokaryotes, and Alina gave a lecture on modern sequencing technologies.
Mikhail gave a lecture on the defense systems of prokaryotes, and Alina gave a lecture on modern sequencing technologies.
Alina Demkina talked about modern sequencing techniques
On the second and third days there was a practical part. Participants mastered the Linux command line and bioinformatics programs, and then searched for mutations in the genomes of T7 phages obtained in our laboratory under the guidance of Mikhail Skutel and Matvei Kolesnik.
On the second and third days there was a practical part. Participants mastered the Linux command line and bioinformatics programs, and then searched for mutations in the genomes of T7 phages obtained in our laboratory under the guidance of Mikhail Skutel and Matvei Kolesnik.
Unraveling bioinformatics mysteries is fun!
Some people were wary when they saw the word “errors” in the command line, but it was just good wishes from the program developers.
Our assistants helped with the challenges along the way to solve the mystery
An album of photos can be found at the link
27.03.2023
An album of photos can be found at the link
27.03.2023