UW–Madison Biochem

Phages use molecular “jackhammers” to drill through polysaccharide capsules that protect bacteria. What determines how these molecular machines work and which capsules they recognize? In our new paper, we mapped >22,000 mutations in the K1F phage tailspike, revealing the structural constraints and adaptive hotspots that control capsule degradation and host range. These maps identify positions that could potentially be engineered to redirect phages toward new capsule chemistries. Great work by Sarah Evert! science.org/doi/10.1126/scia…

Can we learn the rules of phage host targeting well enough to design new ones? In our new paper, we use large-scale mutational data + deep learning to engineer T7 phages for 26 different tasks, from enhanced infectivity and precise specificity to targeting unseen bacterial strains. A step toward predictive phage engineering. Great work by Naia Novy and fun collab with @romerolab1 doi.org/10.1016/j.cels.2026.…