Our work characterizing how mutational bias is influenced by the local sequence context beyond trinucleotides is out now @pnas.org! We also showed which motifs are most prone to mutations caused by strand misalignment, revealing several new hotspots! 🧬 www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Really exciting to see this paper out! This is a massive effort from clinicians, bioinformaticians and microbiologists investigating links between pancreatic and bile microbiota in healthy individuals and cancer patients. journals.lww.com/internationa...

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...

🔈Paper out! We turned the most fascinating phage host-switch mechanism, diversity-generating retroelements, into a programmable mutagenesis tool, DGRec. You can perform targeted hypermutation of any 50-200bp sequence directly in vivo in E. coli www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak “This country has given me endless opportunities…: The America we inhabit today bears almost no resemblance to the country I chose all those years ago” newsletter.ofthebrave.org/p/im-a-nobel...

🚨 Please share this fully-funded #PhD #opportunity within your network!👇 👇 Only two weeks are left to apply! @imperiallifesci.bsky.social @imperialsci.bsky.social @imperial-edu.bsky.social @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social

Great work from Jo Sadler's group!!

As scientists, asking ourselves if our direction of travel is the right one is the responsible thing to do. This is why I'm really pleased to share this article summarising our reflections on the current state of biobased approaches to manage #plastic waste. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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

Fully endorse this view at least in prokaryotes. Someone once told me that "cells are bags of ribosomes making more ribosomes". It may be worth considering that at some point in multicellular evolution (of eukaryotes?) this was abandoned by a more organism-centric strategy

🚨🚨🚨LAST CHANCE!! - Closing tomorrow!!! 🚨🚨🚨

🚨JOB alert🚨 We have three (yes, THREE) 🌟lectureships🌟 advertised in the School of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol. Broad remit, including #AnimalBehaviour & #GlobalChangeBiology ⏱️Deadline: 8th March 2026 🙏Please circulate widely 😊Come join us! Full #job details: tinyurl.com/y3us95rc

One week left to apply to this PhD studentship!! Do not miss this opportunity! 💷 Fully paid tuition and stipend for 3.5 years 📅 Deadline 27th February 🇬🇧 Home fees (UK national / settled status) 🧫 ⚗️ ⚛️ Interdisciplinary team

Join us Feb. 26 at Imperial! 🧬 PromoterAtlas: decoding regulatory sequences across Gammaproteobacteria using a transformer model Lucas Coppens (Biofoundry) 🌾 Resurrecting plant defence mechanisms to avoid crop pathogens Imogen Binnian (Resurrect Bio) tinyurl.com/2d52z38h

How could a simple self-replicating system emerge at the origins of life? RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but existing ones are so large that their self-replication seems impossible. Could they be smaller? Excited to share our latest work in @science.org on a new small polymerase. 1/n

Join us in our crusade to make materials sustainable! We are recruiting a PhD student (home fees) to work on an exciting project to decarbonise the nylon industry and create new biodegradable materials. Info on how to apply here: www.imperial.ac.uk/school-of-co... (deadline 27th of February!)

Reposting this paper now with a working link! 😅 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Feel like doing a SynBio PhD in Spain? Check this offer, many fellowships available 👉🏻 lifehub.csic.es/synbio-cofund/

"Are you not worried that engineered microbes can be released into the environment and eat all the plastic?" The answer is not really. Pleased to share our latest piece addressing this question by evaluating the current status of whole-cell plastic degradation: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

What happens when you suddenly remove half of an essential enzyme from cells? 🤔 We watched in real-time as cells deploy multiple backup strategies to buffer against changes in RNA Pol II abundance. Our lab's new preprint 👇 bit.ly/4pyPgax

#CIBpapers Researchers at the @cib-csic.bsky.social present a new bacterium capable of transforming plastic waste into high-value bioproducts More info 🔗https://cib.csic.es/news/research/researchers-cib-margarita-salas-present-new-bacterium-capable-transforming-plastic

New year resolution: develop the strength and technique to do ONE bloody muscle-up. Not a lot to ask. That at the back is the Bay of Cadiz. Not a bad place to start 2026. Happy New Year!!

Really happy to see this paper out. It looks like Santa had us on the nice list!! Congrats to all authors, it's been such a joy to be involved!

Manchester Institute of Biotechnology is looking for a new Professor. There are a few priority areas including microbial engineering (broadly defined, from pathways to cells to microbiomes). Closing 12 Jan. Join us in the best city in the UK 😜 www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

So you think your mammalian plasmids have nothing to fear from cloning and propagation in E.coli? Quantitative profiling of millions of nucleotides by Tom Copeman will prove you wrong! Supervised with the amazing @proftomellis.bsky.social and AZ, now on BioRxiv: doi.org/10.64898/202...

- Using novel genomic tools to understand the evolution of Acinetobacter baumannii pathogenicity in clinical environments Supervisors: David Grainger, Katie Hopkins, Jessica Blair, Willem van Schaik www.findaphd.com/phds/project... (4/7)

As the year comes close to an end, just wanted to thank all team members for making my everyday better. Really proud of this talented and selfless group of scientists!!

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-...

Our paper is out! Analysis of 30K+ genomes revealed that CPR bacteria assemble their ribosomes in unconventional ways, and that these assembly processes appear to have co-evolved with ribosome structure. doi.org/10.1093/molb... #Ribosome #Evolution #Patescibacteria #MBE

Just found this definition in the gov.uk webpage that thought might be useful for some. Btw, someone between 14 and 18 years old is sometimes called a Young Person, but is still legally a child.

The scariest thing I have seen this Halloween

The Wallace Lab is expanding in 2026, with five new Postdoctoral Research Associate positions now open. If you're passionate about engineering biology for sustainability, we'd love to hear from you! 🧬 ♻️ Deadline: 12th November 2025, details below ⬇️

1 week left to apply for a postdoctoral position in my group to lead the experimental component of a 5 year BBSRC project on synthetic microbial communities www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

Oct. 23, 6pm at UCL 🥳! Excited for: 🧬 Dirk Benzinger (Briscoe Lab) Dissecting and engineering cellular signal processing with synthetic biology and optogenetics 🌍 Brooke Wain (Jimenez Lab) Biocatalytic recycling of plastic: industrial viability and limitations events.humanitix.com/london-synbi...

This is how Castilla La Mancha will conquer the world: blending tradition and empathy. I'd recommend all world leaders to complete a couple of grape harvests (vendimia) to develop thoughtful leadership. Great mix of cardio and strength exercise too! www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

New preprint this time through a fantastic collaboration with @jorgebarriuso.bsky.social and team. We have discovered the genetic basis behind the remarkable ability of Pseudomonas putida JM37 to use the PET #plastic monomer ethylene glycol as a growth substrate! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community @natcomms.nature.com from @oventurelli2.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Independent research fellowships leading to tenured positions at the John Innes Centre. Repost = nice. Thank you very much!!!

Mapping the evolution of computationally designed protein binders [new] Evolve comp. mini-protein binders *in vivo*. Maps seq-affinity.

PhD positions available in our group! Please share! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Microbial stem cells support productivity in dedicated factory cells in an asymmetrically dividing E. coli system doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Preprint alert!! Delighted to share Eve Nery's work exploring the evolutionary landscape of light-harvesting complexes. She found a new variant shifted to the red that allows purple bacteria to grow faster under high intensity light www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Genetic controllers for enhancing the evolutionary longevity of synthetic gene circuits in bacteria doi.org/10.1038/s414...

I am looking for a motivated #Postdoctoral #Researcher to join my group at Imperial @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social @imperiallifesci.bsky.social. The project focuses on #Antimicrobial #Materials & #Biomimetic #Interfaces Please repost! @imperialsci.bsky.social www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

A bit of an awkward request but hoping that someone can help. We are desperately looking for a vial of CHO-S cells that we could use. Ideally in the London area. Thanks!

Ok, to be precise (thanks @marcsdionne.bsky.social), they are considering implementing triage

BBSRC to implement triage of proposals pre-panel and rolling deadlines to reduce assessment burden. Interesting times ahead!

Please re-post: Interested in chromatin and its evolution? Good news! There's still time to join us in beautiful Catalonia (9-12 Dec) to discuss eukaryotic, bacterial, archaeal, and viral chromatin and how it all hangs together meetings.embo.org/event/24-evo... Abstract deadline: 30 September

Slightly diminish a band: Joy Subtraction