Home PhD studentship on AMR emergence to start October 2026: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g...

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...

Could the #ribosome be a selfish element? @mkrupovic.bsky.social & Eugene Koonin propose that the #evolution of life can viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources. 🧪 #OriginsOfLife

Bacterial rRNAs are highly modified, but their functions are often mysterious. Zac Park says that methylation of 16S rRNA by MraW(RsmH) enhances translation of structured mRNAs. Thus, mRNA structure and rRNA modifications likely co-evolved to fine-tune protein dosage. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

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...

Interested in a teaching faculty position in Bacteriology at UW-Madison? See the attached announcement! @uwbact.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/...

Research visit grant applications are now open. If you are planning a short (one-to three-month) research visit to another laboratory, don’t miss your opportunity to apply for funding. Check your eligibility and apply before 1 May 2026, 23.59 BST: https://microb.io/4tp6byU

Registration for Annual Conference 2026 closes tomorrow, April 6. Secure your spot and register now: https://microb.io/AC26Register #Microbio26

#microsky #phagesky #MGE A prophage-encoded endonuclease blocks plasmid transfer between bacterial cells www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 Preprint Alert 🚨 New preprint from our research department, in Maude Guillier's team. Congrats to first author Jade Mathis de Fromont and co-authors! To find out about SamT, a modulator of a two-component system in enterobacteriacea, follow the link : doi.org/10.64898/202...

Apply now to attend the next EMBO Bacterial Networks meeting #EMBOBacNet 🗓️13-18 September 2026 📍Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain 📝Program and registration info: meetings.embo.org/event/26-bac... 👩‍🔬Organised with co-chair @s-lab.bsky.social and ECR @coralietesseur.bsky.social #MicroSky

just for the sake of it...

PLEASE SHARE. PhD Opportunity with me, Ben Raymond and Jan Engelstaedter and Andrew Letten at University of Queensland. Experimentally testing mechanisms of how temperature may change selection and spread of AMR in E. coli. Coupled with some advanced modelling and sequencing. 🧪🦠 #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!

www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... Phages drive the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes by facilitating host adaptation to heavy metal stress #phage #phagesky

Two post-doctoral positions open in our lab. We're looking for people with expertise in molecular microbiology and/or genome-scale tools. Initially 3 yrs, posts could be extended for upto 8 yrs. If you'd like to know more about us take a look at www.graingerlab.com www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQY475/r...

For those interested, the papers associated with my talk: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39146405/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41699381/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36735790/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36050399/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41763210/ pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31454312/

Postdoc positions available in my lab in Aarhus, Denmark on 'Mammalian Nuclear RNA Production and Turnover Systems'. Please get in touch for further information or simply apply here: mbg.au.dk/en/news-and-...

Magnesium depletion by Candida albicans unleashes two unusual modes of colistin resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa with different fitness costs. @hsiehyp.bsky.social, Robert Ernst lab, @ajaidandekar.bsky.social, my lab. journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... ipmb.sinica.edu.tw/en/activitie...

🚨 PhD opportunity in evolutionary microbiology! Join our lab to study how horizontal gene transfer drives host–microbe symbioses and ecological function Plus: a PDRA position in comparative genomics is available ✉️ [email protected] Apply below #PhD #Postdoc #Microbiology #Evolution #Genomics

A novel peptide modulator of a two-component system revealed by the specific activation of a small RNA in Enterobacteriaceae https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.20.713024v1

With Eugene Koonin, we propose a concept of “the selfish ribosome”, under which evolution of life is viewed as a ribosomal takeover, where the ribosome evolved to consume most of the cell’s resources, while other cellular componentry ensures the propagation of the ribosome. arxiv.org/abs/2602.23268

🧬 EvolCompGen presents: Christian Landry on the Evolution of gene duplication, from redundancy to dependency @christianlandry.bsky.social 🗓️ Join us on Monday, March 23 at 11:00 AM EDT 📌 Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi... #society #compbio

Just published! at @narjournal.bsky.social . A new example of how gene order in bacterial genomes impacts cell physiology. Inthis episode we messed up with RNA polymerase genes! academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Madness. A bacterium with a 10kb genome, lost replication initiation, translation.., relies on symbiotic host. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to announce our new journal from @isme-microbes.bsky.social ISME Host Microbe is live and now accepting submissions. Look forward to receiving your papers! #Microsky 🧫 🦠

New paper from the lab! Spearheaded by soon-to-be doctor Athina Eleftheraki. Fantastic collaboration with Anaïs Le Rhun lab at Uni Bordeaux! academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Had a great time visiting the University of Dundee for a seminar today! ☀️Thanks for the invite Dan Neill & for the lovely chats @slowgoing.bsky.social, Varsha Singh, & Sarah Coulthurst. Forgot to take a Dundee pic, so here’s a nearby view from the train…

🦠🧪

A new episode of my #MattersMicrobial podcast is available! This time, Dr. Paul Hoskisson joins the #QualityQuorum to discuss Streptomyces, antibiotics, and evolution. Please spread the #GoodMicrobialWord? I truly can use views and listens to keep podcasting. Thank you. youtu.be/2w9Hll4xcFk?...

"My name may be forgotten when it comes, but the time will arrive when great outbreaks of cholera will be things of the past. And it is the knowledge of the way in which the disease is propagated which will cause them to disappear" Happy birthday to John Snow! His name & his work is not forgotten.

🚨Happy to share our new mini-review on phage-encoded small RNAs and their potential for phage therapy and antibacterial strategies, written with Aviezer Silverman! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/... #RNA #phage @journals.sagepub.com @hebrewuniversity.bsky.social @phagedirectory.bsky.social

🧬EvolCompGen presents: Christian Landry on the Evolution of gene duplication, from redundancy to dependency @christianlandry.bsky.social 🗓️ Join us on Monday, March 23 at 11:00 AM EDT 📌 Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Excited to share our latest work! 📝 We measured the fitness effect of 136 AMR genes and found that many are neutral or even beneficial without selection. 🤯🧬 Oxygen availability can flip their fitness and our stochastic model indicates that oxygen fluctuations help maintain them. Learn more 👇🏼

tRNA gene arrays: emerging roles in bacterial persistence and adaptive evolution

Some molecular machines, like ribosomes, can persist for long periods of time in cells. Could molecular aging of ribosomes shape how proteins are made? In our new preprint we track ribosomes as they age in cells and uncover unexpected effects on translation (1/10) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Evolutionary emergence and preservation of microproteins encoded by upstream ORFs https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.05.709866v1

We found a viral Trojan Horse: a virus can hide inside another virus.This one surprised us: deltaviruses don’t just borrow a helper virus. They can travel inside it. A literal Trojan Horse “virus-in-a-virus” route into cells. 🤯 Kudos to 1st author @viroscope.bsky.social and co-authors !

In vivo de-amplification of a multi-resistance pseudo-compound transposon in Escherichia coli https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.06.710075v1

Pls re-post: My department @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social are recruiting for several new faculty positions (links below). Broad search in molecular biology/biochemistry, across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Interested in understanding life at the molecular level, this job might be for you! 1/n

PhD position in our lab - 4-year funded by BBSRC and @nrpdtp.bsky.social in collaboration with @earlhaminst.bsky.social and Inspiralis Ltd. Open to UK fee qualifying students - UK citizens and citizens of Ireland (residency requirement), etc biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/how...

Vacation Studentship Grant🚨 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, find out more and apply now: https://microb.io/4kDKRm5

A jumbo cyanophage encodes the most complete ribosomal protein set in the known virosphere www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🔔Seminar Opportunity🔔 We're looking for (self)recommendations for a Postdoc who is working in the area of AMR (any area, any discipline) to give an online seminar in May. Reply, DM or email me, there will more opportunities in the future as well so will be good to have a list. #MicroSky #AMR

The impact is already hitting science agencies hard. The NIH—the world's largest public biomedical research funder—has had to rely on leftover stopgap funds. New grant awards have slowed to a trickle — exacerbating the effects of a record-long shutdown in October. (h/t @jeremymberg.bsky.social)

One thing I learned while contributing to this was how much foresight pioneers of DNA synthesis technology had in understanding the importance of their work to studying genome regulation. Found this 1968 gem from Khorana (who , incidentally, was at UBC for a time):

We are excited to be recruiting a new tenure track group leader in the Structural Studies Division at MRC LMB! It is an amazing place to start your own lab. @mrclmb.bsky.social Please get in touch if you have any questions. www.nature.com/naturecareer...