Applications are OPEN for the 2027 Gordon Research Conference on Multidrug Efflux Systems. 📅 When: March 21–26, 2027 📍 Where: Ventura, California 🔗 Apply here: www.grc.org/multi-drug-e... #GRC #MultidrugEfflux

Polymyxin B functions as a TLR2 agonist, suggesting that polymyxin B preparations can induce macrophage activation under conditions in which IFN-γ and LPS are present academic.oup.com/jimmunol/art... @jimmunol.bsky.social

Inspiring day of talks and memories of the brilliant Prof Jeff Cole today @imibirmingham.bsky.social. Now Prof Kevin Foster on the metabolic ecology of microbiomes

Fully Funded PhD alert!! Super interesting project with @overtonlab.bsky.social , Sara Jabbari and me!! 🤩

Interested in joining our group in Oxford? We are looking for a PDRA with single particle Cryo-EM experience to help us figure out how sphingolipids are transported to the cell surface of Gram-negative bacteria. The deadline is 31st July. Informal enquires are welcome. Please share!

New review: Host-driven remodelling of the Staphylococcus aureus cell envelope: mechanisms, consequences and therapeutic implications. Published in Microbiology as part of the Emerging Investigators collection: https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001718 #MicrobioJ

Out Now! Identification of chemical features for improved outer membrane permeation in mycobacteria using machine learning #MicroSky

Thrilled to share our recent paper at @cellpress.bsky.social's @cp-iscience.bsky.social studying the antibiotic responses of MRSA, one of the most common wound pathogens, under wound infection-like conditions vs. standard lab test conditions. www.cell.com/iscience/ful...

Recruiting a postdoc to join my lab at @lshtm.bsky.social to work in an MRC porgramme grant funded project to dissect the gut colonziation by Klebsiella. In vivo and in vitro models, and new approaches to identify Klebsiella factors involved. jobs.lshtm.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx...

ZERO! None. Not one. Science is incredible. What incredible news to start the day. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Vaccines work. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

RIP Mark Rothko. You would have loved how the hydrogen peroxide bleach is only turning the Reflecting Pool blue around the perimeter

Professor Colin Kleanthous FMedSci FRS is elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. He is a biochemist whose work has fundamentally changed our understanding of the outer membrane (OM) of Gram-negative bacteria. #RSFellows https://royalsociety.org/people/colin-kleanthous-38107/

A generation of children confined to exclusively posting on LinkedIn, humbled to share that they have been recognised as thought leaders in vertically integrating your mom's supply chain.

BacPROTACs outperform inhibitors in Mycobacterium tuberculosis https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.12.731830v1

New pre-print from the lab! Murepavedin is a Pseudomonas-specific antibiotic, but it disrupts the outer membranes of a wide range of different Gram-negatives. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

📢 We are recruiting! I’m looking for a Research Associate in Structural Biology to join my lab at Imperial College London to study horizontal gene transfer using cryo-EM, biochemistry and microbiology. Please share with interested candidates! Apply: shorturl.at/gmJGS

I am very happy to be in the part of this work! Congratulations @abarbotin.bsky.social @carballido-lab.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

PhD position available for self-funded / scholarship students here in lovely Sheffield using flies to dissect macrophage heterogeneity with @macrofage123.bsky.social and Ryan West - more details via lnkd.in/eVDVJF5m

Over the last month I saw that human editors are now stripped of control. I could no longer stop the system from auto-inviting "reviewers" with zero relevant expertise. Even worse - the AI began actively revoking the invitations I manually sent out to actual, qualified experts.

This makes sense given ASM’s transition to a diversified multinational industrial conglomerate whose focus has shifted beyond its traditional role as a professional society for American microbiologists Wait no

This work nicely quantifies a major issue in our universities: "In higher education, administrative costs have risen much faster than instruction and research costs (4). MIT Faculty grew by only 9.2% between 1985 and 2023, while administrative staff grew by 189%." www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Job alert: come to Cork 😊 Ireland, arguably one of the best English speaking countries to be a scientist these days! Link can be a bit finicky on a phone so screen shot of main details provided too. my.corehr.com/pls/uccrecru...

One week left to apply for two 3-year postdocs in the lab on molecular mechanisms of Burkholderia pathogenesis. Posts associated with Magdalen College. Our lab is based in the Dunn School of Pathology with amazing collaborators at Oxford and MORU magdalencareers.pinpointhq.com/postings/c90...

Listerine Leaves 0.1% Of Germs Alive To Spread Message Of Terror Throughout Microbial Community https://theonion.com/listerine-leaves-0-1-of-germs-alive-to-spread-message-of-terror-throughout-microbial-community/

I had heard that this was coming. And now, here it is.

Big congratulations to Colin Kleanthous and Simon Foster! A very well deserved recognition! #microsky

Like a prophage being awakened from its slumber, the phage field has seen a lot of renewed activity during the last decade. Check out our new @natrevmicro.nature.com review on the temperate phage life cycle here to stay up-to-date 🧫🦠 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Surprised to discover that Thermo Fisher appears to show a fake western blot for the validation of one of their p53 antibodies. I've added a diagram to show the very similar bands. This does not appear to be one of the "published figures" but their own internal data.

Big thanks to This Week in Microbiology (TWiM) podcast for featuring our Enhanced Domestication (EDEN) method - designed to cultivate microbial ‘dark matter’ and discover new antibiotics 🦠 💊 Have a listen.. asm.org/podcasts/twi... And here’s the recent paper doi.org/10.1093/isme...

E. coli ST131 is becoming carbapenem resistant. I suspect as CTX-M moves onto the chromosome and the F plasmid is lost facilitating acquisition of carbapenemase plasmids. No good can come of this

I spoke to a few people involved in randomisation in research funding in some way for this piece, none of whom seemed to be aware that UKRI had moved towards lotteries being an optional tool in grant assessment Most were also supportive of the idea in general, but there were plenty of questions 🧵

Join us for the 2026 UK Cellular Microbiology Network Meeting - Submit your abstract until end of the day tomorrow 12.05.2026

Breaking news: Indiana University plant microbiologist Roger Innes has been locked out of his laboratory by the school in response to a request by one of his federal funders. The move comes after Innes complained about the government’s prosecution of Chinese postdocs. https://scim.ag/4tsDqRr

Incredible… (and not in a good way)

Hans Christian Gram: The accidental physician behind one of microbiology’s most enduring terms -in CMI Communications by Carl Llor, Niels Kristian Kjær and Lone Gram www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

One week to go… 🚀

Deadline approaching: Submit an abstract until 12th of May to present at the UK Cellular Microbiology Meeting 2026! Great opportunity for early career researchers! www.ukcellmicro.org

Stitches get britches.

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...

Come and study for a PhD with us on antibiotic-producing Streptomyces, trying to understand the roles of primary metabolic enzymes with additional cellular roles - Details below - please repost www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

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...

Applications are officially OPEN for the 2027 Gordon Research Conference on Multidrug Efflux Systems. 📅 When: March 21–26, 2027 📍 Where: Ventura, California 🔗 Apply here: www.grc.org/multi-drug-e... #GRC #MultidrugEfflux

Most bacteria remain uncultured with vast microbial ‘dark matter’ awaiting discovery.. to address this am excited to share EDEN - an enhanced domestication method to grow uncultured bacteria & new diversity. Using EDEN we isolate a new species active against MDR pathogens.. doi.org/10.1093/isme...

My super department @warwicklifesci.bsky.social is hiring 6 assistant profs in the wake of recent retirements. We're looking for people in microbiology/infection, cellular disease / immunity; environmental biology; and plant/crop science. #MicroSky warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

New paper with @barriewilks.bsky.social. There are many reports on fasamycins and formicamycins (aka accramycins, naphthacemycins, streptovertimycins). Here, we unambiguously solve their structures and stereochemistry. A great effort, led by Dr Edward Hems pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

The programme for this year's BSAC Antibiotic Resistance Mechanisms workshop is live! Take a look at the fantastic speaker line-up: @gmknght.bsky.social @bugsinblood.bsky.social @slowgoing.bsky.social @strain9000.bsky.social to name but a few! bsac.org.uk/arm2026/ @bsacandjac.bsky.social

Excited to share our new paper out today in @science.org 🎉 We show that HGT via natural competence drives diversification of chromosomal integrons in V. cholerae 🤩 Below a 🧵 on key findings incl. background on natural competence in V. cholerae 1/ #microsky #phagesky www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Postdoc position available in St Andrews for a structural biologist: www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Latest from the lab! Between clinical S. aureus, most gene transfer mechanisms are blocked, yet lateral transduction remains highly efficient. Restriction modification-defective strains act as gateways for horizontal gene transfer, enabling DNA flow across populations. rdcu.be/fbNQK