We start of the ‘2026 Celebration of Microbiology’ event @newcastleuni.bsky.social @medicalsciencesncl.bsky.social organised by PhD and Postdoc reps from @mhd-newcastle.bsky.social @cbcb-newcastle.bsky.social Chloe, Natalia, Rachel and Jean-Lou

Just over a week left to apply for this #PhD #studentship on S-layers and #AMR! Please share and if you want to know more, get in touch!

Our B. subtilis autolysis paper by former group members Kenneth Seistrup and @alansckoh.bsky.social is finally out. This one has been lingering in my drawer for far too long. (1/3). #microsky www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

You are an ambitious young scientist, on the verge to independence, in a research field related to our Cluster of Excellence @cmfi.bsky.social “Controlling Microbes to Fight Infections”? Join our vibrant, interactive scientific community in Tubingen. Repost and apply! www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Please share - full funded (UK students only) PhD studentship in the Duncan lab ‘intergrated ‘omics for accelerated antibtioic dicovery from abyssal actinomycetes’. Co-supervisors @thecopperdoctor.bsky.social, Marcel Jaspars, @zmaw.bsky.social- deadline 20th May www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

What membrane properties do cells maintain through regulation of lipid metabolism? In a new paper, we identify intrinsic curvature stress as one such parameter and show how different (eukaryotic) cell types employ different lipids to do that www.cell.com/cell-reports...

**PhD opportunity** Join me, @henrikstrahl.bsky.social, and Alistair Brown at @newcastleuni.bsky.social to uncover how Mycobacterium tuberculosis survives antibiotics, one molecule at a time! 🔬🦠 #PhD #microbiology #biophysics #microscopy 📅 Deadline 20 May 2026 (UK home only) RT = 🙏

We have a PhD studentship open! (UK only sadly) but if you are or know a student keen to work on some *really* weird mycobacterial enzymes then get in touch! #glycotime Advert below www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Want to research the basis of how drug resistant bacteria interact with human immune cells? Fully funded 4-year PhD position available (UK home students). Come and join our amazing interdisciplinary team at the intersection of microbiology, immunity, metabolism and the clinic! Please spread the word

🧫 #AMR #PhD open @newcastleuni.bsky.social! How does #Cdifficile protein "armour" help it resist antimicrobials? Join me and @henrikstrahl.bsky.social to find out using: 🔬 #Structuralbiology, #microbiology #microscopy #genetics 📅 Deadline 20 May 2026 #PhD #PhDLife Pls share! (UK home only)

What are the genetic and molecular determinants underpinning the repair of bidirectional replication fork collapse in bacteria? PhD position open in my lab in collaboration with the brilliant @heathmurraylab.bsky.social. Please share and contact me if interested: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Summer is coming to the Toon!

Super exciting news 🚨 I am hiring a technician to join my brand new lab at the University of Birmingham! @imibirmingham.bsky.social Come and support my BBSRC-funded research on understanding how staphylococci survive antibiotics. Please share! 🧫🧪 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRH271/a...

Fluorescent labeling extended to 3 streptococcal species 🧫✨ @veeninglab.com & coll. benchmarked 5 proteins and developed multicolor cassettes enabling triple labeling—expanding tools for gene expression, cell dynamics & infection studies. 👉️ buff.ly/DFMXjE7

UK and EU finalise agreement to bring UK into Erasmus+ in 2027 - Thousands across the UK set to benefit from re-opening of the historic Erasmus+ programme www.gov.uk/government/n...

The next International Conference on Gram-Positive Bacteria will take place between 29 June – 2 July 2027 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. #subtiwiki

🫵 Post-translational modifications of GlmR integrate metabolic and stress signals to maintain cell envelope homeostasis in Bacillus subtilis: 👇👇👇 dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour... @cdiAMP #subtiwiki

Open postdoc position in my lab on HGT and interbacterial competition. We seek candidates with a PhD in microbiology (or related fields)+ strong 1st-author publications. Curious, highly motivated, and dedicated team players ready to contribute fully are encouraged to apply. Details: tiny.cc/cz01101

Looks like a great @embo.org workshop coming in September: “Lipid Code to Life”, with a who’s who of lipid #biochemistry… (e.g. @dimovalab.bsky.social @holthuislab.bsky.social @sciezgin.bsky.social etc ) More info and registration: meetings.embo.org/event/26-lip... #lipids #biophysics

Check out our new preprint providing direct in vivo evidence for transertion in Bacillus subtilis (also arguing for coupled transcription-translation). Excellent work by Jonathan Norris, co-supervised by Nikolay Zenkin and me during his PhD. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #microsky

It's been our great pleasure to host @lalouxlab.bsky.social for a seminar today, and we thoroughly enjoyed learning about Bdellovibrio polarity and polar protein targeting. Such an odd little bacterium!

2 year fellowship available in AMR research www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/grants/antim...

Neat paper from Schwille lab. They demonstrate constriction of synthetic vesicles using important components of the bacterial cell division machinery, FtsZ and FtsN. They induce strong constriction of Z-rings in vesicles just by adding the cytoplasmic domain of FtsN www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New post-doctoral research position in my phage-host interactions (Phi) laboratory in @otagomicroimmuno.bsky.social at @universityofotago.bsky.social New Zealand. The project is focused on defences against jumbo phages. Please share and if interested apply using the link in the comments.

Delighted by this @target-amr.bsky.social publication in @lancetmicrobe.bsky.social. Led by @drtessjohnson.bsky.social and @lewiscemason.bsky.social 'The role of microbial genomics in delivering the UK’s national action plan for confronting AMR 2024–29' www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Save the date for the next International Conference on Gram-Positive Bacteria which will take place between 29 June–2 July 2027. The organizers (@annadragos.bsky.social, @polonca32.bsky.social, and Ines Mandic-Mulec) look forward to welcoming you to Ljubljana, Slovenia

Checkout our latest preprint which is a real lab-wide effort to map antibiotic stress signatures across the pneumococcal pangenome. All findings have also been incorporated in PneumoBrowse 2.0. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Come do a PhD with me and @trevor-lithgow.bsky.social at @monashuniversity.bsky.social ! We’re at the leading edge of pathogen biology using cutting edge Cryo-EM and AI-driven genetic screens to uncover the mysteries of outer membrane biology. Reach out to me for a chat! macsys.org/phd-scholars...

Very happy to host Fred Antson (University of York) today for a seminar! Stunning structures and functional insights into phage/virus capsids and DNA loading.

#NatMicroPicks Aerobic archaeal-eukaryotic ancestor? 🦠🫁 The ancestor of eukaryotes may have combined hydrogen metabolism with aerobic respiration, shaping early cellular complexity. #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s41...

On the "positive" note 😱 Reform appoints Suella Braverman as education spokesperson share.google/gUPJctQnbu5c...

Lipids are kind of the ignored middle children of origins of life research. It's time they got a bit of attention, too! This week's post is a Q&A with geoscientist-turned-??? (interdisciplinary folks know the struggle) @jamessaenz.bsky.social about why there's no cutting the fat from origins. 🧪

Thank you for highlighting our paper on how septal PG hydrolysis licenses a second wave of PG transpeptidation during cell separation! www.nature.com/articles/s41.... I will do a thread when the page set version is out.

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru... Two Postdoctoral Research Associates in the Molecular Analysis of Bacterial Outer Membrane Protein Biogenesis BEN BERKS lab 🤩

SAVE THE DATE! The next instalment of the long-running Bacterial and Archaeal Cell Division Conference will take place at www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels..., Italy from the 20th to 23rd of April 2027. Organisers: me, @s-lab.bsky.social, @awehenkel.bsky.social. More info soon. #MicroSky

Research into filamentous actinomycetes, the antibiotic producers, is in steep decline. Loads of natural products chemistry research worldwide but not much aimed at understanding their biology and ecology. The latter is key to unlocking their specialised metabolism link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is so evolved at surviving environmental stresses! By @oneyrolles.bsky.social & team #TBSky #MicroSky @embojournal.org link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Please spread the word: the Structural Studies Division @mrclmb.bsky.social is looking for a new tenure-track, independent group leader with an exciting plan in any area of Structural (Molecular & Cell) biology, in discovery biology and/or methods development. 🥳 mrc.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

This is a nice one! Congratulations @carballido-lab.bsky.social et al! Nice to see you agree that this might lead to local enrichment of cell wall precursor lipids. Not easy to prove but I still think its an attractive model (to ensure high CW synthesis given low lipid II levels).

ATP-driven membrane binding and polymerization of bacterial actin MreB promotes local membrane fluidization https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.13.705564v1

Charging batteries at the Cheviots. (First sunny day of 2026)

New in JB: Jorgenson reviews recent advances in cell envelope assembly via the lens of the essential lipid carrier undecaprenyl phosphate and with an eye on targets of novel Abx development. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/... @asm.org #JBacteriology

Still time to apply for the open postdoc position in our lab!

Or perhaps antibacterial drug discovery is more your jam? @banzhaflab.bsky.social and @henrikstrahl.bsky.social at Newcastle have just the thing! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

E. coli is the leading bacterium causing death from AMR infections worldwide. If you'd like to explore approaches to exploit the DNA damage response as alternative antimicrobial, please apply to the following PhD studentship available in my lab starting October 2026: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

ICYMI: UKRI pauses several funding calls amid priorities shake-up. www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

Fabian was quicker :) But yes, we have an open postdoc position in bacterial bioenergetics and membrane biology, using on B. subtilis as the model. Come join us! @cbcb-newcastle.bsky.social is a great place to work, and we are a friendly, international lab. Visa+IHS fees covered. #microsky

@poojag96.bsky.social work on the bioenergetics of spore germination is now published- Pooja had a really nice summary that I've put below but essentially we think the role of bioenergetics in spore germination has been completely overlooked! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

💼JOB OFFER: There is a great opportunity for #PDRAs to join the #KathrynLilley #UniversityofCambridge lab to work on an ancient set of effector proteins IM30 family, that promote membrane integrity. See: www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/researc.... Apply by the 13th Feb