New preprint from my lab (with Arya Kaul, @fernpizza.bsky.social, and @brinda.eu), in which we explore new genes hitchhiking on the beneficial deletion that fused them together, and find them in the LTEE, M. Tb/bovis, and across the bacterial tree of life

We’re excited to share our latest study that reshapes our understanding of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) lipid composition, with major implications for drug discovery, immunity, and vaccine development. www.nature.com/articles/s41... A thread.

#MachineLearning methods are used to predict #AntimicrobialResistance #AMR from genomic data. @lbarquist.bsky.social &co show that sampling biases driven by population structure severely undermine the accuracy of AMR prediction models even with large datasets @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/4iZ0zXQ

There is still Time to submit an abstract for VTEC 2026! Don’t miss out on the opportunity to present your work on any aspect of VTEC at this longstanding meeting!

Finally out! Right on time for the holidays 🎄🎁 Big thanks to Nick Scott, @giseladivenanzio.bsky.social, Clay and Mario @feldmanlab.bsky.social who made it happen! www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Join our live webinar today at 16:00 (GMT) to hear more about the VTEC conference, and why you should come. STEC/VTEC continues to be priority pathogen. The aim is to share cutting-edge scientific knowledge, addressing the questions about why the outbreaks occur and how best to manage this pathogen.

Fantastic to have Prof Matthias Wilmanns from EMBL Hamburg hosted by @kshbeckham.bsky.social to give a @mhd-newcastle.bsky.social seminar on mycobacterial infection #dreamtheme

💎MRC AIM PhD advert💎 Uncharted territory - the Akkermansia muciniphila import system. Liang Wu, David Tourigny, and I are looking for someone to work on how A. muciniphila imports mucin. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

🔊 Interested in doing a PhD on RNA-binding proteins in an abundant microbiota species and becoming a member of the German Priority Programme “Illuminating Gene Functions in the Human Gut Microbiome”? Apply here: www.uni-wuerzburg.de/karriere/sin...

Today, we are lucky to have Imane El Meouche from IAME, France to give a MCM seminar @medicalsciencesncl.bsky.social (chaired by @henrikstrahl.bsky.social) on antibiotics tolerance in E. Coli

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.

Fabulous opportunity to study phage biology with Andreas Haag in St Andrews. Don’t miss out.

Theres still time to apply for our PhD project on UPEC/immune cell interactions. Deadline December 4th

🚨 Publication alert! We are stoked to report the structural basis for activity of a novel class of antimicrobials targeting Gram positive priority pathogens in @natcomms.nature.com. There is something for everyone on this paper, and I will highlight a few things below 👇 1/9 doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Looks like a great meeting :)

Registration is now LIVE for the 2026 international symposium on Shiga toxin producing E. coli (VTEC), being held in Aberdeen on the the 10-13th of May 2026. The early bird deadline is February 27th so don’t miss out and register now. www.vtec2026.org

Fantastic PhD opportunity 👇

PhD opportunity with me and @kshbeckham.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Want to find ways to combat TB? Check out this PhD position 👇

Want to work within a multidisciplinary group to combat antifungal resistance in Candida spp? Fully-funded MRC PhD studentship in collaboration with @nclfungalgroup.bsky.social and Francesco Del Carratore on the mode of action of a new class of antifungal drugs. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Interested in a PhD at the intersection of biophysics and microbiology? Apply for this MRC-funded opportunity at Newcastle University to do cutting-edge microscopy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis! 🔬🦠 Closing 4 Dec! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

If you are interested in researching how drug resistant bacteria evade killing by our immune system, them this PhD project is for you. Come join the our team at Newcastle, in collaboration with University of Liverpool, and lead research at the interface of microbiology, immunology and metabolomics.

Exciting PhD opportunity with a great supervisor @ruamicro.bsky.social. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)

Enhanced virulence and stress tolerance are signatures of epidemiologically successful Shigella sonnei @sydneylmiles.bsky.social @katholt.bsky.social 🙏to transformative collaborative effort www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Delighted to share our latest paper - A host-directed adjuvant sensitizes intracellular bacterial persisters to antibiotics. Excellently led by Dr. Kuan-Yi Lu. We think it's a great proof-of-concept that altering immune cell behavior can make antibiotics work better www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Two group leader positions available in the broader areas of RNA science, RNA technologies, and RNA medicine. Attractive packages and a great environment. Come and join us at Helmholtz RNA Würzburg, Bavaria.

Check it out! A proper team effort from past and present group members and a great collaboration with @sergemostowylab.bsky.social

PhD opportunity to come and work in Glasgow, developing advanced tissue culture models to study Staphylococcus aureus colonisation and infection #microsky #PhD #DTPprogram Enquiries from potential applicants are welcome. www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate... www.findaphd.com/phds/program...

Now published! www.nature.com/articles/s41... Very nice collaboration with Hoogenboom ( @ucl.ac.uk ) and Bonev ( @uniofnottingham.bsky.social ) labs.

Introducing a new gut microbiology journal, aptly titled Gut Microbiology. All Article Publishing Charges (APCs) are waived for 2 years! Please send your exciting research our way. www.sciencedirect.com/journal/gut-...

New preprint from the lab, in collaboration with Wenhan Zhu (U Vanderbilt): using dual RNA-seq during B. theta colonization of the host mucous layer, we identify IroR--an iron-response sRNA that tunes capsule expression and facilitates adaptation to iron limitation. doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.08.672848

Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species. @imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Our second paper with @tcostalab.bsky.social and GoogleDeepMind reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

So excited our antibiotic potentiation story is out 🤩 Led by the extraordinary @manonlang.bsky.social with @fox-science.bsky.social & @amazeld.bsky.social +amazing collaborators @immunobladder.bsky.social @imaneelmeouche.bsky.social 🦠 We believe it can make a difference in #AMR infections!

Delighted with our new paper on a novel itaconate transporter in the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, led by Javeria and Reyme. @ybri-uoy.bsky.social @javeriamehboob.bsky.social @bethkw.bsky.social A duplicated transporter on its way to itaconate selectivity portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #microsky #synbio #ecoli

Applications for Outreach and Engagement grant are now open. Eligible members can apply for up to £1000 to support science outreach or public engagement initiatives. Check your eligibility and apply before 01 Oct 25 at 23.59 BST. microb.io/OutreachandE....

Excited to share a new preclinical model, human bladder organoids, to study UTI, novel therapies, and beyond! Developed with Dr. Sarah Blutt, the BCM Organoid Core, and @tailor-labs.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Absolutely delighted to share the labs latest work. We identify and characterise two pathways for D-ribulose utilisation in pathogenic EHEC and Citrobacter.

In case you missed it, check out our latest paper describing how vancomycin-resistant enterococci exploit antibiotic-mediated killing of gut commensals to grow in nutrient-enriched and metabolite-depleted intestines: doi.org/10.1038/s414... #AMR #GutMicrobiome

Meet the new Editor in Chief of mSystems journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Jo Hobbs @hobbslabmicro.bsky.social has a 12 month Postdoc available on mechanisms of antibiotic tolerance. More details here: www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Words cannot describe how excited I am to share the findings from the second half of my postdoc in @aaronwhiteley.bsky.social's lab where we discover that bacteria use functional amyloids to defend themselves from predatory bacteria. rdcu.be/euu5Y. See thread for details on this epic adventure 1/.

🔬Calling all microbiologists. 🔬 Ever feel like your paper is too small for some journals, but too solid to sit on? #FEMSMicrobes welcomes well-executed microbiology manuscripts, and they put special attention on promoting ECR authors, eg the webinar below. 👇 @femsjournals.bsky.social @femsmicro.org

I am delighted that our manuscript 'Staphylococcus haemolyticus is a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes in the preterm infant gut' is now published. www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.... Big thank you to all co-authors, particularly @lisalamberte.bsky.social and @halllab.bsky.social

Amazing to see this now published! Congrats to @lisalamberte.bsky.social and @wvschaik.bsky.social - on leading this important #microbiome study on #AMR and Staphylococcus haemolyticus in the preterm gut 👇

Our latest: www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(25)00615-1. Links Bacteroides cell size w/ gene expression. Protocol works even for single cells. 🦠 Shoutout to @elisebor.bsky.social, @emmanuel-saliba.bsky.social, @lbarquist.bsky.social, @jorg-vogel-lab.bsky.social, Till Strowig & KC Huang.

Some positive news in troubled times: New preprint by Vincent de Bakker, Xue Liu @jonbakerlab.bsky.social Infection-mimicking conditions+transcriptomics/proteomics/'essentialomics'/lipidomics shows many cool things! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Absolutely delighted to share that I've been awarded the BBSRC Fellowship to continue my working on antivirulence drugs at the University of Glasgow. A massive thank you to all of my mentors and collaborators. I can't wait to see what the future holds for the project 🔬