Today we've launched our digitised Probate Registers and Bishops' Transcripts collections onto Ancestry. Together that's 16 million records covering 1389-1858 - these can be accessed via a subscription to Ancestry or for free here at the Borthwick! www.ancestry.co.uk/search/colle...

🔥 Archaea are rewriting microbiology. From the origin of eukaryotes to life in extreme environments—these #mLife publications reveal how archaea shape evolution, ecology, and biotechnology. 🧵Explore 10 key papers below ⬇️

Plasmidsaurus earned this partnership for good reason — they've sequenced over 5 million plasmids since 2021, delivering whole-plasmid results overnight with consensus accuracy that frequently reaches Q60. Reliable for even the most complex constructs.

Open postdoc position in my lab on HGT and interbacterial competition. We seek candidates with a PhD in microbiology (or related fields)+ strong 1st-author publications. Curious, highly motivated, and dedicated team players ready to contribute fully are encouraged to apply. Details: tiny.cc/cz01101

In our recent paper in PLoS Computational Biology, we used AlphaFold2 Multimer to predict the structural details of ~28,000 protein-protein interactions from high-confidence STRING pairs in Drosophila, and identified interesting patterns in disordered regions. journals.plos.org/ploscompbiol...

Last day to apply

"Chromatin organization in Asgard archaea: Histones, SMC complexes, and the archaeal roots of eukaryotic chromatin" by Remus Dame & colleagues (@damelab.bsky.social) "Understanding chromatin organization in Asgard archaea is key to understanding how eukaryotic chromatin evolved." shorturl.at/6bLvx

More correspondence from Chair to Minister for Science, Innovation, Research and Nuclear and Chief Executive for UKRI, re: Scientific research funding committees.parliament.uk/committee/13...

Happy to share the final version of my postdoc work on bacterial CBASS immunity with @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social published in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

New review in @cp-trendsgenetics.bsky.social on the fascinating world of chromatin organization in Asgard archaea. Very nice joint effort with @jvhooff.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

How common is multicellularity in bacteria? And archaea? And how does it evolve? We wrote a short review "On the architecture and evolution of prokaryotic multicellularity". Preprint link: bit.ly/4ta06Gq Sharing and comments are much appreciated. 1/4

How much protein diversity can Life on Earth actually generate? With DIAMOND DeepClust, we show how billions of proteins across the tree of life can be clustered at low-identity for downstream analytics tasks. 📚Paper: www.nature.com/articles/s41... 💻Code: github.com/bbuchfink/di...

Our work "Horizontal gene transfer and gene loss drove the divergent evolution of host dependency in Micrarchaeota" finally got published on National Science Review! academic.oup.com/nsr/article/...

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...

Some good news in these dark political times came from Italy. Meloni's attempt to subordinate the judiciary to political power defeated at the ballot box. An independent judiciary is one of democracy's load-bearing walls. Democracy won. At least for now. #AcademicSky

Check out our new preprint providing direct in vivo evidence for transertion in Bacillus subtilis (also arguing for coupled transcription-translation). Excellent work by Jonathan Norris, co-supervised by Nikolay Zenkin and me during his PhD. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #microsky

ICYMI: New Online! Technologies to measure and modulate protein subcellular localization

The I2BC is now accepting applications for new group leader positions. Explore our research at the Institute in our Journal: www.scoop.it/u/institut-d... Deadline: April 22, 2026 @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social

Reversible DNA condensation drives natural transformation @natcomms.nature.com from Keith Mickolajczyk, Matthew Neiditch, and David Dubnau www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It is a pleasure to announce the 4th UK MGE workshop will be in York on 23rd-24th June 2026! Registration is free and we are actively looking for contributors. Interested? If so, please register via the website and select the talk option www.ukmgeworkshop.org We look forward to seeing you in York!

Exploring the energy landscape of bacterial chromosome segregation -in PNAS by Sumitabha Brahmachari et al from José Onuchic www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Single-molecule fluorescence imaging and tracking in live bacteria: observing proteins in action journals.asm.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs

Binding of Bacillus subtilis dynamin‐like protein DynA to the bacterial membrane is essential for effective phage defense - Shafqat - 2026 - The FEBS Journal - Wiley Online Library febs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

Three years ago Thalia was diagnosed with a brain tumour. She had multiple surgeries, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. This year we are walking the Nine Edges Challenge to raise awareness and money for OSCAR's Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity. Please donate: www.justgiving.com/team/thaliaf...

Associate Senior Lecturer/Assistant Professor position in Molecular Microbiology available at Lund University, Sweden: lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

We're hosting a virtual town hall on 24 Mar, 3-4pm, where our CEO, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, will outline UKRI's upcoming five-year strategy & new mission. He'll be joined by an executive panel and a Q&A will follow. Registration closes 23 Mar, 5pm. Register here⬇️

New preprint: Cyclic tri-adenylate signalling by a Panoptes anti-phage guard system with a CARF-TM effector. Great work led by Sabine Grüschow www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🧬 How do Crenarchaeota make and use polyphosphate? In our new JBC paper we identify a new polyphosphate kinase family (PPK3) — a distinct heteromeric enzyme doi.org/10.1016/j.jb... 🔬 A missing piece of the puzzle. #Archaea #Biochemistry #Microbiology #Polyphosphate

Samples returned from the asteroid Ryugu contain all five canonical nucleobases (A, G, C, T, U). Their presence in Ryugu and Bennu supports the hypothesis that carbonaceous asteroids contributed to the prebiotic chemical inventory of early Earth. http://dlvr.it/TRWtVp ☄️

Some of the main components of Nucleic acids found on asteroids.

Further details on the reopening of MRC calls. A College of Experts drawn from the existing Boards will assess all the grant proposals. Then interviews for selected applications. Not clear whether external reviews are still required or not.

Cyclic tri-adenylate signalling by a Panoptes anti-phage guard system with a CARF-TM effector https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.13.711614v1

Yeah but now rejections will be even more awkward 😬. I think the problem councils face is they can’t effectively pick grants that should be funded because too many are great. Instead of using lottery after shortlisting, they are now introducing interviews which will bring all sorts of bias.

Deep coverage and extended sequence reads obtained with a single archaeal protease expedite de novo protein sequencing by mass spectrometry: Cell Systems www.cell.com/cell-systems...

MRC / @ukri.org are moving to in-person panel interviews for applicants. Have they done a disability and equity impact assessment on this? I know some great scientists with great ideas who would be unfairly disadvantaged, due to minority ethnicity, class background or neurodivergence.

MRC curiosity-driven research reopens with new approach www.ukri.org/news/mrc-cur... MRC applicant-led funding opportunities reopen 7 Apr, experimental medicine opportunities opening 30 Apr Complete change in selection of project: no boards, shortlisted applicants -> in-person panel interview.

I am aware of this paper from the Netherlands link.springer.com/article/10.1.... The authors conclude that '(their) findings imply that the interview considerably changes the assessment of talent'

Interviews are very good at selecting candidates who are good at interviews.

I don’t understand the rationale for this. And I’ve seen first hand how some places are really ‘on it’ with regard to interview practice because they have successful prior candidates or folk on the committee whereas others aren’t. It has the potential to disadvantage some institutions.

Is this in response to new MRC response mode? Honestly this feels like such a bad idea. I think it plays an important role for fellowships but adding it for grants feels way too much (knowing how long I prepped and puddle of nerves I became for my fellowship and discovery interviews.)

🧵(3 posts) Born on tomorrow's date, 15 March in 1813, the story of John Snow is a remarkable one. Born in North Street in York he was the son of a coal yard labourer. He went on to become a physician who is considered one of the founders of epidemiology for his work identifying

Having a hard time keeping up with the fast-moving field of origin of eukaryotes/Asgards archaea? Our new perspective article can help, we review the status of research over the last decade and where it's going. The archaeal roots of eukaryotic life www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

@felixrl.bsky.social reported that PcdA mediates orthogonal cell division in #Staphylococcus aureus: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... But what’s the point? Well, forming staphylococcal abscess communities to evade host immune responses requires this mode of division: www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

🚨🚨🚨 My institute, the @i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social in beautiful Gif-sur-Yvette and part of @univparissaclay.bsky.social, is recruiting group leaders! Announcement here: www.i2bc.paris-saclay.fr/join-i2bc/te... Open to early career scientist from anywhere or mid-career already in France. Please RB!

New OpenFold3 preview out! (OF3p2) It closes the gap to AlphaFold3 for most modalities. Most critically, we're releasing everything, including training sets & configs, making OF3p2 the only current AF3-based model that is functionally trainable & reproducible from scratch🧵1/9

Final version of our last paper is out! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Update on UK science funding shambles 🚨 Pressing letter from @chionwurah.bsky.social (Science, Innovation and Technology Committee Chair) asking for some answers about what the hell UKRI are doing: committees.parliament.uk/publications... Lets hope she and we finally get some satisfactory answers 🤞

A company being awarded UK Government contracts👇🏻

#Ligand-binding site predictor 😎 www.nature.com/articles/s41...