Great work by Jamie Gorzynski and Josh-Harling-Lee from the group providing insights into the evolutionary origins of bacterial lineages. A collaboration with @jrpenades.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social. #Staph Cell Reports www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Following an open letter on 1 February, our Chief Executive Professor Sir Ian Chapman has responded to feedback and provides an update on the changes to UKRI investment approach. Read his letter here: www.ukri.org/news/ukri-ce...

#NatMicroPicks More than just pumps? 🦠💊 Bacterial efflux pumps not only block drug entry but also disrupt intracellular drug–target interactions by preventing repeated drug rebinding #MicroSky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Thanks to @iansample.bsky.social at the Guardian for covering the devastating funding cuts that are being proposed for UK (astro)physics, and the dire impact these would have on young researchers. Will UKRI/STFC reconsider? Will the UKGov step in?🤞👩‍🔬🧪⚛️🔭 www.theguardian.com/science/2026...

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...

I’m looking forward to this incredible opportunity to advance the science of antibiotic discovery with the Gr-ADI consortium.

Thanks for the highlight @cytokinesociety.bsky.social signals.cytokinesociety.org/2026/02/02/m...

A gift of an article from the inimitable Colin Kleanthous as he says a moving farewell to his laboratory. A brave, unrepentant and scientifically brilliant journey is described - please have a read, friends. www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Hot off the press - a letter from the Exec Chair of @ukri.org explaining his plans and in particular the financial position of STFC. It notes curiosity driven research is protected and will make up around half of UKRI spend over the coming period www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Both MRC and BBSRC responsive modes now withdrawn until further notice. Existing applications unlikely to succeed (late 2025 round expecting 1-5% success rate). Listen, I get that UKRI wants to pivot. But killing both at once is devastating. Let's hope at least one opens by summer... #AcademicSky

At a time when the UK should be capitalising on its global reputation as a great place to do science, this is an enormous own goal. I am so sorry for all those who jobs are going to be impacted.

Almost 4000 people have done this quiz so far, although younger groups still under-represented in case you know anyone who'd like to give it a go and see how they compare to others! probability.kucharski.io

People involved told @francesjones.bsky.social that pulling funding will severely damage the UK’s reputation as a reliable international collaborator and put hundreds of potential jobs in doubt Another two projects were planned national facilities for electron diffraction and mass spectrometry ...

The leaders of four major physics infrastructure projects due to receive over £280m from UKRI were told in December they have “not been prioritised” for funding The projects include an upgrade to the LHC at Cern and a new US particle accelerator ...

Scientists are concerned that curiosity-driven research is set to be further cut back after three research councils confirmed they have paused funding opportunities. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #academicsky #researchfunding https://ow.ly/lpvO50Y67ku

Or: Scientists are furious that they are learning of pauses to their main access to funding through press snippets rather than first hand dialogue with Uni research offices………..

Three of the largest UKRI research councils - MRC, BBSRC and EPSRC confirm they have suspended several of their main funding routes until further notice, amid mounting concerns for curiosity-driven research www.timeshighereducation.com/news/three-u... via @jgro-the.bsky.social

Nobel winner and senior scientists slam cuts to UK physics “These cuts are the inevitable consequence of the government’s choices,” Nobel winner Andre Geim tells me www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

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

We are looking for a new RA to join our team working on host-pathogen interactions during Salmonella infection. The appointment is for two years and you will join a diverse team, using cell and protein biochemistry to further our understanding of pathogenesis. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

I'm seeing relatively little chatter or outcry about what is happening at the MRC, the UK's biomedical research funder. Before Christmas MRC paused the acceptance of many of its grants, including the standard applicant-led research grant. There has been no public information on what is happening 🧵

Lots of PhD opportunities for UK + international students involving my lab. Topics relate to metals & microbiology. First up: TonB-dependent receptors in commensal Neisseria in my lab at Durham, with @kjosts.bsky.social and @mattbashton.bsky.social. 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...

www.findaphd.com/phds/project... interested in bacterial antagonism? PhD opportunity in our team, see below. Please repost!

UKRI pauses several funding calls amid priorities shake-up The applicant-led MRC funding calls on pause include research grants, partnership grants and new investigator research grants made available through the council’s research boards. www.researchprofessional.com/news-article...

PostDoc position in Newcastle upon Tyne: @henrikstrahl.bsky.social

New paper just out in Microbial Genomics @microbiologysociety.org! As always, a great team effort! Well done all. 🤩 @imibirmingham.bsky.social @hannahpugh.bsky.social @leahburgess.bsky.social @alanmcn1.bsky.social @astimeosa.bsky.social

And now advertised here too if you prefer: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DPX771/r...

Most common editorial management systems are notoriously bad. So yes, it *is* that hard 😭 So please be aware that many of these things are automated/fixed and are, unfortunately, not under our control.

Our paper on polymyxin interacting with the E. coli outer membrane is out! Simulations by the very talented @dheerajprakaash.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s42... To scale outer membrane protein island simulated at coarse-grained resolution with portions refined at all atom resolution.

The deadline for the first of our three fully funded PhD studentships is tomorrow! Determining the role of the dual-function VanT in C. diff vancomycin resistance. Collab with @gavinhthomas.bsky.social and Marjan van der Woude

We're advertising for a bacteriology technician and a post-doc to work on AI-guided antibiotic development as part of a large multidisciplinary Fleming Initiative project: www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-... www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Excited to share our latest work with @albertomarina.bsky.social and @avigdoreldar.bsky.social labs, where we decipher the mechanism by which SPβ-like phages sense the SOS response to control the lysis–lysogeny switch. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Great heroic work by Kevser Bilici demonstrating the import role of biotin for integration of S. aureus into the nasal microbiome.

Now properly published at @natcomms.nature.com with few additional experiments incl. demonstration of Daptomycin's ability to depolarise non-growing cells. See the original preprint-thread for a summary of our findings. www.nature.com/articles/s41... #microsky

rdcu.be/eRxNf here our new study on the characterization of the lipopolysaccharide holotranslocon, LptDE and the newly identified subunits LptM and LptY. Great collaboration with @fronzeslab.bsky.social @pstansfeld.bsky.social @JulienMarcoux @YvesQuentin

I tried an even harder example on Gemini Pro image generation and this is quite scary/amazing. I asked for a microscopy image of around 20 HeLa cells, GFP tagged 20% nuclear, 10% membrane, +1 nuclear staining, + overlap. Image below and prompt in the following post.

Or not…

PhD position on bacterial (Staph aureus) transporters and host-adaptation in my group @roslininstitute.bsky.social @edinburgh-uni.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I may have posted this in haste...

Time to dust this off, again @avishenoy.bsky.social

80 years after the Nobel Prize for penicillin, antimicrobial resistance is one of societies toughest challenges. GSK, the Fleming Initiative, and the @ineosoxford.bsky.social hosted leaders at the Royal Society of Medicine to advance the global response.

Why does daptomycin resistance appear so fast in Enterococcus? We finally have a clue. DAP resistance in enterococci pops up quickly. What’s been missing is why resistance-associated membrane changes look the way they do, and why the classic path of mutations is so predictable.

🆕 We're part of a major new project aiming to understand exactly what makes some bacteria resistant to antibiotics. buff.ly/dpm22l5

In scientific writing, it's the "why" before the "what": "To achieve X, we did Y" "To explore whether A repressed B, we performed C" "To test D, we did E" Starting with the rationale pulls the reader into your logical framework and makes the purpose of every test immediately obvious.

This project is with @jessicamablair.bsky.social and Sara Jabbari at UoB, @webberma.bsky.social at Quadram, @bugsinblood.bsky.social at Imperial and Dong-Hyun Kim at Nottingham - we are kicking off the project right now!

Legit work in progress photo… www.imperial.ac.uk/news/271753/...

Good day for AMR research (part1): www.ukri.org/news/powerin...