John C. C. Whitney

The paper identifies an Esx secretion system in Actinomycetota that defends against parasitic Patescibacteria by sensing epibionts and triggering a transcriptional response.

The paper develops a bioinformatic pipeline using small serine recombinases to identify antiphage defense systems in bacterial genomes and metagenomes, finding they are genetically linked to these systems.

This study investigates the mechanism by which Eag chaperones release effector transmembrane domains using biochemical, biophysical, and structural approaches.

This study identifies a family of antibacterial proteins from Gram-positive bacteria that kill a broad range of bacteria through receptor-independent entry and degradation of essential cellular components.

The paper presents the cryo-EM structure of Ptx2, a VasX family effector, revealing its multi-domain architecture and conformational flexibility, and identifies key features for its toxic activity.

The paper determines the structure of the Tad pilus alignment complex and shows it forms a periplasmic conduit for pilus extension.

The paper identifies rapidly evolving orphan immunity genes in human gut bacteria that protect against T6SS intoxication through high-affinity protein interactions and shows their evolutionary dynamics across microbiomes.