Martin Fenk
@mfenk.bsky.social
PhD student @MPIIB Berlin | Exploring the captivating realm of microbial evolution within microbiomes #Microbiology #Evolution
Reposted by Martin Fenk
🌙 Bringing Archaea to moon! Our latest study with the Orsi lab shows that M. okinawensis can survive, perform methanogenesis, and grow under simulated Enceladus conditions. Yet another reminder of how astonishingly adaptable Archaea are. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Enceladus-like geochemistry fuels methanogenesis under extreme CO2 limitation
Saturn’s icy moon Enceladus features chemical signatures consistent with an alkaline soda ocean with H2 production via hydrothermal water-rock reactions. Chemolithoautotrophic methanogenesis is thermo...
www.science.org
September 28, 2026 at 6:18 PM
🌙 Bringing Archaea to moon! Our latest study with the Orsi lab shows that M. okinawensis can survive, perform methanogenesis, and grow under simulated Enceladus conditions. Yet another reminder of how astonishingly adaptable Archaea are. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Martin Fenk
Ignicoccus is one of the most fascinating archaeal organisms due to its double membrane (and because of its tight interaction with Nanoarchaeum). But how does a cell like this divide? As so often, archaea invented their own way ... check out our new preprint and I promise you will be stunned!
Excited to share our preprint on Ignicoccus cell divison: only the inner membrane divides, progeny cells accumulate in cell clusters and pop-out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
Great work with the labs: @buzzbaum.bsky.social @curiousdina.bsky.social @anja1.bsky.social
@tbharat-lab.bsky.social
Great work with the labs: @buzzbaum.bsky.social @curiousdina.bsky.social @anja1.bsky.social
@tbharat-lab.bsky.social
The life cycle of an archaeon with multiple membranes
Many prokaryotes are diderms. They divide using an FtsZ division ring to simultaneously constrict physically coupled inner and outer membranes to form daughter cells with two membranes. Currently, onl...
www.biorxiv.org
September 11, 2026 at 8:13 AM
Ignicoccus is one of the most fascinating archaeal organisms due to its double membrane (and because of its tight interaction with Nanoarchaeum). But how does a cell like this divide? As so often, archaea invented their own way ... check out our new preprint and I promise you will be stunned!
Reposted by Martin Fenk
Dear microbiome enthusiasts: I'm excited to be moving my lab to New York University this fall (& the NYU Institute for Engineering Health); with joint-appointment @isbscience.org
I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980
Please share! 🦠🤓
I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980
Please share! 🦠🤓
Apply - Interfolio
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apply.interfolio.com
July 23, 2026 at 8:26 PM
Dear microbiome enthusiasts: I'm excited to be moving my lab to New York University this fall (& the NYU Institute for Engineering Health); with joint-appointment @isbscience.org
I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980
Please share! 🦠🤓
I'm hiring a postdoc @ NYU to look at diet-driven evolution in the gut: apply.interfolio.com/189980
Please share! 🦠🤓
Reposted by Martin Fenk
📢 Voices in Infection Biology
Join us next week for a talk by Matthew J. Shepherd from @manchester.ac.uk, kindly hosted by @keyfm.bsky.social.
🗓️ March 25
🕓 4 pm
📍 on-site seminar (Berlin)
Event info: www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de/events/45077...
Join us next week for a talk by Matthew J. Shepherd from @manchester.ac.uk, kindly hosted by @keyfm.bsky.social.
🗓️ March 25
🕓 4 pm
📍 on-site seminar (Berlin)
Event info: www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de/events/45077...
March 19, 2026 at 7:48 AM
📢 Voices in Infection Biology
Join us next week for a talk by Matthew J. Shepherd from @manchester.ac.uk, kindly hosted by @keyfm.bsky.social.
🗓️ March 25
🕓 4 pm
📍 on-site seminar (Berlin)
Event info: www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de/events/45077...
Join us next week for a talk by Matthew J. Shepherd from @manchester.ac.uk, kindly hosted by @keyfm.bsky.social.
🗓️ March 25
🕓 4 pm
📍 on-site seminar (Berlin)
Event info: www.mpiib-berlin.mpg.de/events/45077...
Reposted by Martin Fenk
🚨 New pre-print! 🚨 In the largest study of its kind to-date, we investigate the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms driving within-patient evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Read here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... , and follow along with this thread, discussing our findings (1/21)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... , and follow along with this thread, discussing our findings (1/21)
www.biorxiv.org
February 20, 2026 at 3:58 PM
🚨 New pre-print! 🚨 In the largest study of its kind to-date, we investigate the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms driving within-patient evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Read here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... , and follow along with this thread, discussing our findings (1/21)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... , and follow along with this thread, discussing our findings (1/21)
Reposted by Martin Fenk
Grateful to share our paper on gene-specific selective sweeps in human gut microbiomes, now out in Nature! It has been a joy to work with @rwolff.bsky.social, whose insights and hard work made this possible.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Gene-specific selective sweeps are pervasive across human gut microbiomes - Nature
Development and application of the integrated linkage disequilibrium score (iLDS) reveals both selective pressures impacting the human gut microbiome and the mechanisms by which gut bacteria adapt to ...
www.nature.com
December 17, 2025 at 6:53 PM
Grateful to share our paper on gene-specific selective sweeps in human gut microbiomes, now out in Nature! It has been a joy to work with @rwolff.bsky.social, whose insights and hard work made this possible.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Martin Fenk
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Intracellular competition shapes plasmid population dynamics
From populations of multicellular organisms to selfish genetic elements, conflicts between levels of biological organization are central to evolution. Plasmids are extrachromosomal, self-replicating g...
www.science.org
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Hot off the press! Our latest paper led by @fernpizza.bsky.social, understanding how plasmids evolve inside cells. These small, self-replicating DNA circles live inside bacteria and carry antibiotic resistance genes, but also compete with one another to replicate. 1/
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Reposted by Martin Fenk
Our new preprint, led by Martin (@mfenk.bsky.social), is online. We address the microbiome’s role as a source and incubator of acute infections by combining prospective collection of native samples with population-wide, culture-based sequencing. Please check out Martin’s wonderful thread. ⬇️🧵🎉
Is the human microbiome a source for hospital-associated infections (HAI) and are any genetic changes associated with HAI? In our new preprint, we longitudinally reconstruct the evolutionary processes within the human microbiome leading up to HAI: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Colonization, translocation, and evolution of opportunistic pathogens during hospital-associated infections
Many commensal bacteria that peacefully reside in the human microbiome are also able to cause acute opportunistic infections. Emerging evidence suggests that within-host evolution contributes to infec...
doi.org
October 27, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Our new preprint, led by Martin (@mfenk.bsky.social), is online. We address the microbiome’s role as a source and incubator of acute infections by combining prospective collection of native samples with population-wide, culture-based sequencing. Please check out Martin’s wonderful thread. ⬇️🧵🎉
Is the human microbiome a source for hospital-associated infections (HAI) and are any genetic changes associated with HAI? In our new preprint, we longitudinally reconstruct the evolutionary processes within the human microbiome leading up to HAI: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Colonization, translocation, and evolution of opportunistic pathogens during hospital-associated infections
Many commensal bacteria that peacefully reside in the human microbiome are also able to cause acute opportunistic infections. Emerging evidence suggests that within-host evolution contributes to infec...
doi.org
October 27, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Is the human microbiome a source for hospital-associated infections (HAI) and are any genetic changes associated with HAI? In our new preprint, we longitudinally reconstruct the evolutionary processes within the human microbiome leading up to HAI: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
Reposted by Martin Fenk
Finally getting some of my research for my PhD out there! Hopefully soon in a journal near you ;)
Ancient Y. pestis infection from a sheep falls on the LNBA lineage, previously only known from humans! +molecular evolutionary analysis to leverage the ever increasing number of ancient genomes known!
Ancient Y. pestis infection from a sheep falls on the LNBA lineage, previously only known from humans! +molecular evolutionary analysis to leverage the ever increasing number of ancient genomes known!
Many zoonotic diseases are believed to have emerged during prehistory, but can we actually identify their past host range using ancient DNA? In the first publication of the Key Lab we present a 4000y old Yersinia pestis genome reconstructed from domesticated sheep. 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Bronze Age Yersinia pestis genome from sheep sheds light on hosts and evolution of a prehistoric plague lineage
Most human pathogens are of zoonotic origin. Many emerged during prehistory, coinciding with domestication providing more opportunities for spillover from original host species. However, we lack direc...
www.biorxiv.org
February 10, 2025 at 5:18 PM
Finally getting some of my research for my PhD out there! Hopefully soon in a journal near you ;)
Ancient Y. pestis infection from a sheep falls on the LNBA lineage, previously only known from humans! +molecular evolutionary analysis to leverage the ever increasing number of ancient genomes known!
Ancient Y. pestis infection from a sheep falls on the LNBA lineage, previously only known from humans! +molecular evolutionary analysis to leverage the ever increasing number of ancient genomes known!