Yes! A fantastic way for folks who don’t have access to a major university library to be able to read articles.

Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols. Thread 1/n

2 job adverts on a NERC project w myself + @darrenobbard.bsky.social on “What determines the virome: ecology and the environment, evolution, or species history?” early 2026 in @uniexecec.bsky.social - Postdoc: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... - RA: jobs.exeter.ac.uk/hrpr_webrecr... Pls share!

Resilient Antarctic soil bacteria consume trace gases across wide temperature ranges https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.23.677255v1

*Do manuscripts by female evolutionary biologists spend longer under review?* Spoiler: apparently NO (but arguably). Interestingly, female 1st authors are less likely to be corresponding and the gender of 1st author is correlated with last author. academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-...

The EMBL PhD programme is open until 13th October (entry ~Sep 2026): www.embl.org/about/info/e... We have three positions in microbial genomics at EMBL-EBI, including one in my group. Please do apply, or if you know anyone that would be interested pass on to them

Within-Patient Evolution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Populations During Antimicrobial Treatment https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.19.677277v1

Hardly any National Action Plans to address antimicrobial resistance include reducing antibiotic use as an explicit goal 🤯 Report shows only 3 countries had a significant reduction in sales after implementing their NAPs: Jordan, Sth Africa & Indonesia 👏👏 #AMR #NAP doi.org/10.1017/ice....

We have a new paper out in Molecular Ecology, led by @devinbendixsen.bsky.social ! Reproductive isolation due to divergent ecological selection is accompanied by vast genomic instability in experimentally evolved yeast populations onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Opportunity for Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in Biochemistry/Microbiology at RMIT University (Melbourne Australia) ref: JR41993 | closing: 12-Oct-2025 #biochem #chemsky 🧪 rmit.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/RMIT_C...

Happy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social

MERMan seminars are back! Last week, @zahraaalbaqsami.bsky.social presented her #Thermophiles2025 talk which generated a lot of buzz & Qs from the group!

Two great talks today from MERMan PhD students @mattjago.bsky.social (mutation spectrum) and @amarquiegui98.bsky.social (bioremediation by microbial communities)

Excited to share new #program, STEPS, which can simulate #dynamics of the E. coli Long-Term Evolution Experiment (#LTEE) or other microbes in serial transfer regime. telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/s... STEPS developed by @devinmlake.bsky.social, Zachary Matson, Minako Izutsu, and me.

hey bluesky 👋 visa hurdles mean I’m looking for opportunities outside the US. I’m a computational biologist (bacterial + phage genomics, postdoc in Koonin’s group @ NIH). I am interested in teaming up on funding apps. reach out if this resonates!

Willing to join us @pasteur.fr for a PhD for a project on how interactions between mobile genetic elements shape bacterial adaptation? Subject to be tailored to candidates with keen interest in evolution, genomics, computational biology, microbiology. Check www.pasteur.fr/en/education...

Does anyone know a gene in E. coli that duplicated "fairly recently", as to compare and contrast it's sequence divergence with that found in mobile elements? #sciencesky #microsky

Blogged about how zstd --long fills the gap between fast and slow-but-high-ratio genome compression methods log.bede.im/2025/09/12/z...

OPEN INVITATION to the One Health Microbiome Symposium, May 13-14, 2026!! This is not your typical siloed topic conference. It unifies diverse research fields in microbiome science across Ag, Envtl, and Human Health. 1/n www.eventbrite.com/e/2026-one-h...

Bioinformaticians / computational biologists take note - know where you should take your OS tool chain from and do not introduce backdoors.

Heads up: ignore samtools dot org, similarly minimap2 dot com and likely others. It's owned by a known phishing site and while the binaries they offer look valid currently (but note they may be serving us different binaries to others), that could change. Ie: it's not us (Samtools team)! Be warned

We are looking for a postdoc to study single-cell transcriptional heterogeneity in the human skin microbiome. We have a new protocol mostly developed, but need someone to see it through. Experience with protocol dev or RNAseq appreciated. Funded by a new grant from MIT-HEALS.

Archaeal Virus Ph.D. project! (With Tessa Quax) www.rug.nl/about-ug/wor...

What are you doing next April? Do you fancy joining us in Belfast to discuss microbes (ok, #AMR) - we have two half day sessions under the Knocking Out AMR banner. Do send your abstracts, the closing date for submission is the 11th of November and join us for some fun filled discussions #Microbio26

We are hiring a PhD student! Are you fascinated by microbes and evolution? Come join us in Barcelona!

arxiv.org/abs/2508.20863 The destruction of peer review. We need experts to be trusted, and editors to be involved in the process. The act of peer review is meaningless if editors don't assess the work themselves. Any paper sneaking prompts in is likely drivel, no AI needed to learn that. 😮‍💨

A new paper and video about levels of drug resistance in different countries I am so happy to share a new paper and a new video (see below). The paper describes a simple mathematical model that describes levels of drug resistance. I called the model the Resistance-Acquisition-Purifying-Selection…

New paper out @molbioevol.bsky.social on antimutator Ecoli, mutational spectra and the distribution of fitness effects of antibiotic resistance with @knightjar.bsky.social @rokkrasovec.bsky.social and others @mermanchester.bsky.social doi.org/pzfm Read🧵for highlights and fun stats (1/13)

Slightly diminish a band: Moyen Jovi

Feels surreal to say but: I'm hiring! If you are or know anyone interested in looking at the evolution of phage resistance using A. baumannii and natural transformation, then this might be for you www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Want to name a real virus? I have recently discovered 9 new phages which now need names! To enter, you simply need to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust on my JustGiving page (£2 = 1 entry) and share your email with me on donation (see link info). Please share 💚 www.justgiving.com/page/meaghan-c-1

Very pleased to say we have an Assistant Professor job opening (tenure track) in the Department of Genetics at Trinity College Dublin! 😀 www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOA399/a... - deadline is August 19th! Please repost!

Delighted to have this review out with @jpjhall.bsky.social! We discuss the risk of transmission of antimicrobial resistance in the hospital sink drain microbiome, highlight studies providing evidence of transfer, and consider strategies to mitigate these risks 🪠🦠 doi.org/10.1038/s442...

The Center For Scientific Integrity, our parent nonprofit, is hiring! Two new positions: -- Editor, Medical Evidence Project -- Staff reporter, Retraction Watch and we're still recruiting for: -- Assistant researcher, Retraction Watch Database

New pre-print from my lab! Plasmids link antibiotic resistance and phage defense. E.coli plasmids are hotspots for both antibiotic resistance and phage defense. Phage therapy has the potential to accidentally select for antibiotic resistance!!! #microsky#AMR#phage www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1....

After many years in the making, here is our host range #phage paper with #ecology, #evolution and #biocontrol perspectives published in Molecular Ecology! @phimresearch.bsky.social‬ @inrae-pv.bsky.social‬ #PVBMT #JulianGarneau onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... These are our key findings:

Do plasmids evolve faster 🐇, slower 🐢, or just like chromosomes 🧬? In our new paper, we tackled this question using theory, simulations, bioinformatics, and experiments! 👇 Check out all the details in Paula’s thread! Hint: 🐇 (most of the time)

A 2-year postdoc position in my lab, under the supervision of P-Alex Kaminski, on Z-DNA phages and the benefit given by ZTGC DNA and the replication machinery, with attempt to create a Z based minireplicon research.pasteur.fr/en/job/a-two...

On this day in 1921, Dr. Frederick Banting and Charles Best successfully isolated the hormone insulin. They accomplished this at the University of Toronto. On Jan 11, 1922, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an insulin injection for diabetes.

Unwelcome guests: characterizing the ecological niche of insertion sequences within prokaryotic genomes https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.22.666184v1

Eco-evolutionary robustness of wild bacterial communities to experimental perturbation #ISMEJournal by @duhitasant.bsky.social et al from @timbarra.bsky.social with Tom Bell, @kayla-king.bsky.social academic.oup.com/ismej/advanc...

📢 We're seeking a postdoc to work on a project funded by HFSP @hfspo.bsky.social at the intersection of bacterial physiology, ecology and evolution. You can find more details about the project, the position, and how to apply here www.dalbellolab.com/hfsp-project! #bacteria #ecosky #MevoSky #microSky

Love this new minireview in J. Bacteriology by @archaeal.bsky.social and colleagues: "Laboratory-based studies must be grounded in nature, not the other way around." And we should focus on members of Earth's dominant microbes from key environments as models. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Our new Faraday Discovery Fellowships Accelerated International Route provides a fast-track option for international mid-career researchers looking to relocate to the UK, providing up to £4m over a five-year period. Find out more: #RSGrants royalsociety.org/grants/farad...

Super excited to announce that MRC has funded a new Centre of Research Excellence in Exposome Immunology. Working together, Manchester and Oxford are going to tackle a major challenge of our times. For those who wonder what the Exposome is - see yesterday's posts! www.ukri.org/news/centre-...

🚨 A new £50M MRC Centre at @manchester.ac.uk and @ox.ac.uk will explore how pollution, microbes & other environmental exposures rewire our immune system and cause chronic inflammatory diseases. #Exposome #ImmunoSky sites.manchester.ac.uk/lydia-becker...

Mutations generate variation, critical for #evolution, but #MutationBias restricts the choice of mutation type. @deepaagashe.bsky.social &co use #Ecoli strains with different mutation biases to show that changing an old bias should yield more beneficial mutations @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/46LjCRt

Peak academia is an email chain of three or more people who all have out of office messages on...

Listen to my science origin story, 13 minutes and includes my recovery from being blind, paralyzed, and unable to breathe to running a lab, and a message about these perilous times for science. Some LGBTQIA+ and first gen uni representation too. www.buzzsprout.com/2513792/epis...

New article alert! Interested in crisis narratives in public health? (Including in AMR...?) Find our work HERE: journalhosting.ucalgary.ca/index.php/jc...