New preprint! Cell division has to happen at the right place but how Archaea pick that place is unknown. We now identified a three-protein system, Dip, that positions the divisome at midcell in H. volcanii and is broadly conserved across Archaea. A thread 🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We're recruiting! We're looking for two graduate students to join us at UBC in Vancouver. Fully funded and open to global applicants, with flexible start-date. Topics include theory, bioinformatics, and microbiology. More details: asherleeks.com/apply #socialviruses #evosky #virosky 🧪

We have a PhD studentship available to develop genome safeguarding technologies for synthetic phage therapeutics www.findaphd.com/phds/project... It is part of an exciting new @officialuom.bsky.social PhD by Enterprise programme www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/resear...

Earth Day 🌍 Supporting plant health and sustainable systems - both in research and in practice - feels more important than ever #earthday

gbdraw v0.9.1 is out now on Bioconda! Easily visualize microbial genomes and enjoy the #gbdraw web app completely offline. 📦 Install via Bioconda: bioconda.github.io/recipes/gbdr... 🌐 Try the online app: gbdraw.app #bioinformatics #genomics #microbiology #visualization

Wow! So looking forward to trying this out 🧫🦠

Whenever I presented Phold, I was frequently asked "can you do the same beyond phages?" We ( @oschwengers.bsky.social @linsalrob.bsky.social @binomicalabs.org et al) finally did it with Baktfold github.com/gbouras13/ba... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

It’s always fun to look at phenotypic microbial diversity on an agar plate. #microsky

🔊 Looking for a Research Assistant in Bacterial Evolution to join my lab 🦠 🥼Main duties: Research (AMR + microbiome) + lab assistance. ⏲️ Post duration: 30 months 🗓️ Closing date for applications: 20th April 2026 💰 Salary: ~£35k Details and how to apply: tinyurl.com/2a3v66y7 Please share!

📢 Excited to be offering a Plant Health vacation studentship this summer on plant disease biocontrol and predatory bacteria! Supervised by me at Manchester Uni! @manchester.ac.uk If interested—or know someone who might be—please share and apply! my.rsb.org.uk/services.php... 28th April deadline 🌿🍅🦠

Congratulations to Daniel Rozen on starting his position today as Professor of Microbial Evolution at #InstituteBiologyLeiden (@leidenscience.bsky.social / @unileiden.bsky.social), an exciting milestone and well-deserved recognition.

The University of Manchester is pleased to be the UK host for MEEHubs2026. Registration now open! We have an amazing lineup of speakers, Jasmine Ono, Stineke van Houte, and Sarah Coulthurst, & more virtually at other hubs. We hope to see you here or online 3-5 Aug! meehubs2026.oa-event.com

MEEHubs2026 registration and abstract submission is now online! 🚨🦠✨ Join us Aug 3 - 5, 2026 at one of the 7 hubs or online. We are incredibly excited about our lineup of speakers, and hope that you submit an abstract to contribute too! More information and registration links at: meehubs.org

Here’s the latest preprint from my work on evolved resistance to Type VI Secretion system (T6SS) weaponry, funded by a @wellcometrust.bsky.social Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship. So happy to see this out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Slow and steady! After 15 years of continuous cultivation, we finally isolated the first psychrotolerant ammonia-oxidizing archaeon (AOA) from an arctic environment, Ca. Nitrosocosmicus articus! Our new article in Frontiers in Microbiology: doi.org/10.3389/fmic...

📣 The Whelan lab is hiring a bioinformatics postdoc 📣 Together with @fabricejpierre.bsky.social, we are offering a 1-year bioinformatic PDRA position in comparative genomics of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. To find out more please visit whelanlab.co.uk/contact/. Applications close 3 April 2026!

We've all heard about the over-prescribing of antibiotics but what can be done to help reduce the amount dispensed? Our Research Software Engineers have been working together with FBMH researchers and GPs to trial a new scheme.

I am not very active lately in social media, but if you want to see one of our latest works check Alberto’s post on the fitness cost of AMR genes. Great delivery from him and all collaborators. Thanks, guys! bsky.app/profile/albe...

DAY 277 SPECIES 277- Sulfodiicoccus acidiphilus STAGE: Archaea MEDIUM: Arches Paper. Chromatic, QoR & HWC watercolor, Sakura pen, Tombow pencil Sulfodiicoccus acidiphilus is a coccus shaped, non-motile archaeon. #sciart #watercolor #archaea #painting #art #paint

DAY 276 SPECIES 276 - Saccharolobus solfataricus STAGE: Archaea MEDIUM: Arches Paper. DS , QoR & HWC watercolor, Sakura pen NOTES: I have 3 colors that I want to keep using over and over. #sciart #watercolor #archaea #painting #art #paint

With @saramitri.bsky.social, @sonjalehtinen.bsky.social and L. Lehmann we’ve launched the UNIL Center for Theory in Ecology and Evolution @unil.bsky.social🇨🇭 To kick things off, we’re offering short visiting fellowships for theorists in ecology & evolution. Apply & pls RP 😀 tinyurl.com/2wem36zz

New online! Epistasis and co-adaptation in bacterial genome evolution

In support of #OpenScience, we routinely ask authors to openly share their #research #code before publication. We are now formalizing this practice with a mandatory #code-sharing policy and clarifying what we mean by code sharing. May be nice to cut-out the box for reference plos.io/47dPeOW 🧪

Surveyed misconceptions around #AntibioticResistance are fascinating: • 66% believe they aren't at risk of resistance when taking antibiotics • ~70% assume ‘antibiotic resistance’ refers to the body gaining resistance • ~25% expect antibiotics for viral infections #AMR #SciComm Sources below:

Courtesy of @martibartfast.bsky.social , we have a new release of AllTheBacteria which adds another 322,920 assemblies, covering all ENA (illumina, isolate) prokaryotes to May 2025. allthebacteria.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ov...

🚨 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)

MENI is back! Join us in Dublin this August 2026 for our 3rd Meeting for Microbial Evolution in Ireland. We are delighted to have @rachelmwheatley.bsky.social @drrebeccajhall.bsky.social @jpjhall.bsky.social and @tweethinking.bsky.social join us as keynote speakers this year. miniurl.com/MENI

Back to Madagascar 🇲🇬 for our 2nd phage field season: exploring eco-evolutionary dynamics in rice fields. Aiming to limit sampling to just 1 year of lab + bioinformatics 😅! Great teamwork between Xplain (@phimresearch.bsky.social) and FOFIFA @mariandm.bsky.social #microsky #phagesky #phage #inrae

📣 2026 PhD studentship 📣 Via @manchester.ac.uk 's President's Doctoral Scholar Awards, we are encouraging applications for a PhD on the effect of pollutant exposure on microbe-immune cross talk. This project will incorporate microbiology, immunology, & bioinformatics. Deadline: 16 March 2026!

Applications for Vacation Studentship Grant are now open. The Society offers a limited number of awards to enable undergraduates to work on microbiological research projects during their summer vacation. The deadline for applications is 15 March 2026: https://microb.io/4kFjubf

Researchers of the evolution of plasticity, tolerance, and resistance, take note. Many common themes for precision targeting of AMR, for instance.

Hello Bluesky! Does Nₑ really explain mutation rate (μ) or genome size (GS) in vertebrates? We find the apparent Nₑ–μ link in Bergeron et al. (2023) is a “back-door” path via generation time, and GS is decoupled from both Nₑ and life-history traits. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... #evobio #PNAS

Join us for 4 days of cutting-edge Evolutionary Ecology research in beautiful Cornwall! 👇 #ExE2026

Comparative analysis across 5,678 insect species shows that, when you control for phylogenetic bias, eusociality has not evolved at a faster rate in haplodiploid species. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

#DeepMutationalScanning (DMS) experiments are limited by gene size due to library complexity & costs. @christianlandry.bsky.social &co develop an efficient & cost-effective barcoded cloning strategy for plasmid-based DMS libraries that enables study of large genes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4abhyUf

Researchers at the University of Manchester: Join the Platforms teams for ‘Interdisciplinary &’, a series of four workshops modelling different networking methods to foster collaboration and showcase excellence in interdisciplinary research. Find out more: https://ow.ly/wh6Y50Y5WX5

Aarhus University is seeking a Tenure-Track Assistant/Associate Professor in Bioinformatics/Co… https://nat.au.dk/en/about-the-faculty/vacant-positions-and-career/job/tenure-track-assistant-professor-associate-professor-in-bioinformatics-and-or-computational-biology-at-aarhus-university-denmark #job

Exciting new PhD programme CODE-M Control and Design of Engineered Microbial Systems @officialuom.bsky.social Projects now advertised! Ours is on division of labour & horizontal gene transfer in microbial communities @biotechdixon.bsky.social @coytelab.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Feel like doing a SynBio PhD in Spain? Check this offer, many fellowships available 👉🏻 lifehub.csic.es/synbio-cofund/

New round of PhD studentships in microbial engineering, including one with me on engineering non-canonical DNA mismatch repair into E. coli 🦠🧬 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

New PDRA position with @knightjar.bsky.social @coytelab.bsky.social & me Community assembly processes in soil microbiomes with focus on bioinformatics and computational modelling of data from field and lab experiments www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

#ProtistsOnSky no 'swimming' by 𝘝𝘢𝘮𝘱𝘺𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢, definitively no 'staying still'. just a relaxed walk towards the lunch...

This week's seminar featured two talks. @normanvanrhijn.bsky.social talked about fungal pathogens, and @taoranfu.bsky.social discussed population-level defence systems in bacteria. Huge thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for the snacks!

🔔Collabator Alert🔔 I’m putting together a project on UTIs and the urogenital microbiome and am looking for a collaborator with solid metagenomic sequencing/analysis experience. If you’d be interested in joining the work, I’d love to talk #MicroSky #UTISky

New primer alert! Microbial primer discussing 'ancientbiotics': the search for 'new' antimicrobials from ancient remedies. @microbiologysociety.org @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Only 2 weeks left to apply for the Microbiology journal's Editorial Board. Contribute to high-quality research and engage with the scientific community. Find out more and apply by February 16: https://microb.io/4qKdgJ6

Nominations are now open for the 2026 Horizon Awards 🏆 Do you know someone driving real impact in applied microbiology — from public health and policy to food security, D&I, or the environment? Nominate them now: https://appliedmicrobiology.org/advocacy-policy/horizon-awards.html

We're Hiring! We're looking for a postdoc with bioinformatics/modelling skills to join us in an exciting microbiome ecology project in Manchester (deadline 1st March) www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

A must read! The constant and often irrational renaming of microbes is out of control, and bad for microbiology and microbiologists. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

A reminder to sign up for the 2026 EMBO archaeal meeting im Cambridge: meetings.embo.org/event/26-arc.... Registration is open. We are looking forward to hosting you!