How do we fix this mess?

Labour's cowardice in the face of extremism iandunt.substack.com/p/labours-co...

We are recruiting 2 postdocs to work on bacterial motility using a combination of cryoEM, FLM and MD. An exciting collaboration with Kirsty Wan @micromotility.bsky.social Wolfram Moebius @wolframmoebius.bsky.social and Daniel Kattnig. Please see links in the thread below!

Please share! 🦠 Workshop on Phage Therapy in Liverpool on 25th November organised by Stineke van Houte, @jojofoth.bsky.social, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social, & Edze Westra. Limited FREE tickets & more info here: sites.exeter.ac.uk/vanhoutelab/... #MicroSky

🌟 Exciting news! We’re launching three fully-funded postdoc positions for "New Horizons for Synthetic Phages” Join us in tackling antimicrobial resistance with cutting-edge synthetic biology + AI bioinformatics. Based at Flinders Uni in vibrant Adelaide. 👇 Read on for details! #Phage

How do macrophages influence the evolution of phage resistance? We show that macrophages reduce the efficacy of a bacteriophage cocktail 🦠, resulting in greater bacteria population densities which, in-turn, facilitate greater rates of phage resistance. Pre-print 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

you'd think given the UK is led by a lawyer, we would have more respect for international law.

At long last, the MHRA have released their much promised guidance document for phage therapeutics in the UK: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/683ed3... Early impression is it's either as hard as it was to access phage therapeutics, or they've closed the door on the one route we did have.

If you want to improve promiscuity and yield of Pseudomonas aeruginosa for production of phages, start by taking out its restriction modification system: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

When will Starmer learn that no matter how good his Nigel Farage impression gets, it won't save him from wipeout at the hands of Reform? Here's another idea - how about doing the work that's needed to actually make people's lives better? 🧵

TANK vs TESLA "We've crushed fascism before and we'll crush it again" - ⁠WW2 veteran Ken, 98, in the tank

I hope we deserve this beautiful piece by Journalist Victor Kravchuk, writing from the Ukraine: #cdnpolitics #canadasky

Great paper out by Ben Chan, Jon Koff and co at Yale highlighting compassionate use of phage therapy in nine patients with CF with multi-drug resistant strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa www.nature.com/articles/s41...

A phage therapy using naturally occurring bacteryophages that not only kill but also selects for less resistant bacteria, shows promise in Cystic Fibrosis patients infected with drug resistant Pseudomonas. Kudos Dr. Chen, Stanley, Turner and Koff!!! #ScienceMatters www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Outdated approval model slows access to phage therapy, which doesn’t fit the "one-size-fits-all" drug process. We need flexible guidelines to be prepared to deploy phages when we need them. #AMR #InfectiousDisease www.independent.org/article/2025...

Remy Chait's super-cool paper on phage lasers is now up on Biorxiv. A beautiful collaboration between modelling and experimental work, driven by passionate curiosity about unusual features Remy observed on some spot assays. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Sadly not surprising. Let's accelerate access to phages that will help protect our existing arsenal of antimicrobials and buy us some time to develop new ones.

How to boost your citations to insane levels: forbetterscience.com/2025/04/15/a...

Bravo Mark Carney. Maintenant vient le plus dur : montrer au monde que la politique progressiste peut servir les intérêts du peuple en s’attaquant aux inégalités qui alimentent le populisme.

I'm starting to wonder whether economics and astrology have roughly the same degree of evidence to support decision making.

I don't know how I missed this story: scienceintegritydigest.com/2024/02/15/t...

PM Starmer offers “peace in our time” tax cuts to megarich US tech companies, while cutting benefits to UK’s poorest to balance the books. Do. Better. Labour. This is not what we voted for. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

In 2023-2024, 122.6 million people were forcibly displaced. That's 1 in 67 of every person on Earth. www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/...

We took over the giant screen at Farage’s big rally in Birmingham

Seems Keir Starmer channels his Neville Chamberlain more every day. Democracy, science and the Rule of Law is under attack because of Trump. Appeasement never works. It's time to develop a spine and stand with our allies. #ElbowsUp. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Musk is now paying people to sign petitions to remove 'activist judges' who have the audacity to not just let him do what he likes. Everyone knows if you're looking for an extreme leftwing nutter, it's the judiciary where you'll find them... www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Apparently due to some Microsoft issue, I can no longer receive emails from external domains. If it stops working for internal people too, this'll be the best day ever.

My favourite lecture of the year: The evolutionary marvel that is T7 infection and hijacking of E. coli cells in the big lecture theatre (at 0830 in the morning, but can't have everything).

Very cool paper using engineering of T4 to deliver protein payload that reduces inflammation in a mouse model of colitis www.nature.com/articles/s41...

New study maps ~6,000 antibiotic resistance gene transfers across 1M+ bacterial genomes & 20K metagenomes. HGT is widespread, but co-host detection gaps mean we may be underestimating ARG transmission especially between humans & wastewater. #AMR #OneHealth www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We desperately need better phages to treat drug resistant Burkholderia. If you're interested in a postdoc position making that happen, I highly recommend this position. Great group and part of the awesome CF-Trailfinder consortium: krb-sjobs.brassring.com/TGnewUI/Sear...

Powerful speech by @claudemalhuret.bsky.social. Europe including the UK needs to unify and step up in the face of tyranny. Even if the US gives security guarantees, the promises of liars are worthless. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkPL...

Amazing few days with collaborators at Mowi and PhD student @mrliambh.bsky.social understanding where phage therapeutics could have the greatest impact in salmon farming in Scotland.

Beyond belief. Is this really the man we’re going to fawn over with a State Visit? It’s time for our PM to pick a side

A new article exploring important historical case studies that shaped the development, use and long-term efficacy of β-lactam #antibiotics. www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

On a day where the National Audit Office reported that the government was not doing enough to combat the threat of untreatable bacterial infections (www.theguardian.com/society/2025...), we met with legislators to highlight the power of phage therapy to provide new treatments to patients.