2025 brought: 📝 2 publications 📝 2 preprints▶️ 3 currently submitted manuscripts 💵 3 unfunded grants & 3 new submissions 🤞🏻 📣 3 international conference talks 👩‍🎓 2 student awards (PhD grant & best project ) 👯‍♀️ 9 peer-reviews 🏃🏻‍♀️ 3 official races (5k, 21k & 100k) Let’s see what 2026 has in store for us!

📣New preprint with @rberntsson.bsky.social👇We overturn the long-standing view that Gram-positive bacteria lack conjugative pili! We identify pili-forming proteins in a wide range of bacteria and show they're essential for the spread of #antibioticresistance #AMR 🧵1/6 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Parasites of jumbo phages… 🤔 Muchas gracias, @jrpenades.bsky.social por tu excelente comentario. Much to discover. DNA moves through populations (and communities) at a pace that if we could measure, would stun. Bacteria: inert bags of froth? Hapless? There for the bidding? doi.org/10.1073/pnas...

Our latest collaboration with Karthik Hullahalli's team on bacterial barcoding is now out! We developed a way to measure dissemination dynamics that controls for independent colonization events. This more accurately assesses how bacteria spread between tissues. journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Nothing like the smell of the ocean, the cows grazing, and the snow-capped peaks to know I am finally home 💙💚💙 #AsturiasParaisoNatural In the last 3 days: 1 article under consideration, 1 article editorially rejected, 1 article looking cautiously optimistic!

Preprint alert📢! 
Ever wondered how much bacterial parasites influence evolutionary outcomes of their host? ➡️ We co-evolved two bacterial strains in conditions in which the costs and benefits of prophage carriage varied Here is what we found. 
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 
#MicroSky #PhageSky 🧵

savethevetschool.co.uk Colleagues, please lend us your support. The University wants to close down the vet school despite being ranked educationally above school average and smashing the REF because they want our land and vet education is too expensive.

New preprint from our lab www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...! Andrea Dos Santos and Clément Vulin combine experiments and models showing how adding glucose can strengthen negative interactions between microbial species. This can be used in tandem with antibiotic treatment to inhibit pathogens!

Microbiology Monday: Who becomes dominant in a microbial community? Competitive traits nominate species, but rare microbes “vote” the winner through complex interactions. Learn more in #mBio: asm.social/2Ib

From January 1st 2026, the CNRS will cut access to one of the largest commercial bibliometric databases, Clarivate Analytics' Web of Science, along with the Core Collection and Journal Citation Reports.

Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York. If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you! 🌱🦠🏔️ tiny.cc/c4pv001 tiny.cc/e4pv001

🌳Interested in using genomics, metabolomics and/or remote sensing to study the drought tolerance of a majestic tree species? Apply for the PhD position in my group! Deadline: 8 December 2025. 🌳 @spatialgenetics.bsky.social jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie...

Pleased to share our recent article in PNAS - a collaboration with @jessicaandreani.bsky.social & Pablo Radicella, with important roles played by many members of each team. A tripartite protein complex promotes DNA transport during natural transformation in Firmicutes www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

rdcu.be/eRxNf here our new study on the characterization of the lipopolysaccharide holotranslocon, LptDE and the newly identified subunits LptM and LptY. Great collaboration with @fronzeslab.bsky.social @pstansfeld.bsky.social @JulienMarcoux @YvesQuentin

Experimental phage evolution results in expanded host ranges against antibiotic resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates -in @natcomms.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

The @imili-micro.bsky.social project is such a beautiful and necessary initiative! I am really glad we could contribute. Special kudos to PhD student Lilibeth Torres who did the #Klebsiella drawing and wrote the text - @cbitoulouse.bsky.social

Yay! KlebClub is back for its 6th season! Personally, really happy to reconnect with all other reorganisers after the summer hiatus!

Happy to share our latest NAR paper on Rel toxins targeting M. tuberculosis anti-SD region, with Tim Blower’s team (@durham.ac.uk @nebiolabs.bsky.social) and Laurent Falquet Thanks to FRM @frm-officiel.bsky.social and CNRS @cnrsbiologie.bsky.social academic.oup.com/nar/article-...

New PhD position in my lab at @uniofbath.bsky.social (with both @tweethinking.bsky.social & Dr Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun)! We're looking for someone keen on bioinformatics and microbiome evolution. Important info below on eligibility & URSA competition funding👇 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Everything you need to explain antimicrobial resistance to family and friends, also in Spanish-7 @pablolaborda.bsky.social @crisherencias.bsky.social How we can fight AMR imili.org/pdf/Antimicr...

Very excited to be attending & presenting our work on #Klebsiella biofilm evolution in #ASMBiofilms in Portland!

New tools unlock #Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus’s predatory secrets 🦠. By combining inducible gene expression with #CRISPRi-mediated depletion for precise control of essential genes, @lalouxlab.bsky.social uncovered new insights into its unique lifecycle and cell division. buff.ly/FcDzAY4

Phages evolve fast, or do they? In oysters, some stay identical for years. With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements. Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

Open position to work on Type IX secretion (#T9SS) in our lab, in collaboration withe the group of Eric Reynolds at the Dental School of the University of Melbourne. Please spread the word, and forward to anyone potentially interested ! Apply here: emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...

Cyril Anjou, 2e candidat au prix de thèse nous a présenté ses travaux sur les rôles physiologiques des systèmes thioredoxine de Clostridioides difficile, impliqués dans les étapes du cycle de vie de la bactérie, ainsi que sur l’intérêt thérapeutique potentiel de la modulation de leur expression.🦠

Welcome to the social media account of the International Microbiology Literacy Initiative (IMiLI). Nearly 1,000 researchers freely contribute to the IMiLI project integrating microbiology into education providing downloadable resources for all. Explore at imili.org

Acquisition of different rmp alleles can lead to hypervirulence in vivo, but effects are difficult to predict as there is a strong strain-dependency. @klebclub.bsky.social

This promises to be a great read! “the pathogenicity island was horizontally transferred from Yersinia pestis to E. coli and other Enterobacterales approximatively 4,800 years ago” ⏩️ it then spread to Klebsiella and positively selected over the last 100 yrs ago

I am so proud to be part of this work, that we initiated Fernando de la Cruz and I, when he was on sabbatical in my lab in 2009... it took so much time for this achievement, 1000 thanks to Raúl Fernández-López! this brought me back to my PhD on cyanobacteria genetics. www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...

Super paper from the mighty Mia Winkler, @genomarit.bsky.social and Iren Lohr. "We have previously shown that there were relatively few strain-sharing events across ecological niches...plasmid-sharing is considerably more common across niches than strain-sharing. " www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Using experimental evolution in host-mimicking media, researchers show that inflammation-like environments limit the loss of quorum sensing—a common adaptation during chronic infections—in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Learn more in #mSystems: asm.social/2vd

What an incredible week for @julielebris.bsky.social with one published ms in @asm.org #mBio on #capsule phenotypic heterogeneity & a preprint on the modular evolution of a highly exchangeable locus ⏩️capsule 😅 All her hard work is paying off! #ProudPI #microsky @klebclub.bsky.social Check her 🧵👇🏻

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...

Check out @julielebris.bsky.social’s thread on our latest manuscript describing phenotypic heterogeneity in capsule production in Klebsiella & Acinetobacter @klebclub.bsky.social This work started when I was still in @pasteur.fr & got finished in @cbitoulouse.bsky.social #microsky #phagesky

Asturian@s, Feliz Dia! Today is always special for me, the festivities to celebrate my region -and it’s patron saint, Covadonga. I always feel a little pinch in my heart, when I am not there to celebrate, this, yet again, rainy day 😅 #DiaDeAsturias #DiaDeCovadonga #AsturiasParaisoNatural

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!

Group size dependent selection for cooperation versus freeloading in collective chemical defence https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.03.672859v1

How do bacteria choose what type of defences to use against phages? We explored that question in the last paper I worked on as a postdoc at the Uni of Exeter @uniofexeteresi.bsky.social with Stineke van Houte, Stefano Pagliara and Edze Westra (not on Bluesky) doi.org/10.1098/rstb...

However, we noticed some heterogeneity in the population, with some CRISPR-immune bacteria stalling and suffering from elongation, particularly at high phage doses, which is consistent with this second hypothesis

C. albicans colonization is a susceptibility factor for disseminated Salmonella infection and arginine as a central metabolite in the cross-kingdom interaction between fungi, bacteria and host @nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌊El @ieo.es  y la @universidadoviedo.bsky.social investigan la biología y el movimiento de la carabela portuguesa en la costa asturiana  La campaña Physalia #Asturias busca conocer mejor esta especie y predecir su llegada a las playas 🏖️ ➡️ https://bit.ly/45HsS7d

Cool preprint by Mathieu Berge @polardlab.bsky.social showing that the Spr1630 toxin (RipA) toxin targets the replication sliding-clamp (DnaN) and that this induces competence in Streptococcus pneumoniae. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

@klebclub.bsky.social PhD opportunity in Exeter with @davvi36.bsky.social

Three postdoc positions are now open for applications! Live and work on Kaurna land (Adelaide) in sunny South Australia. We have beach views, wineries, kangaroos, and koalas. Develop new synthetic biology to engineer and understand #phage, and computational tools for #phage and #microbiome analysis

#ESEB2025 Excellent Keynote by @zombieantdoc.bsky.social on how parasites affect host behavior using fungus- 🐜 as a model. Nice combination of multi-omic approaches with functional genetic assays and quantitative behavioral assays to pinpoint host pathways that are affected during fungal infection

#ESEB2025 day 2 started with inspiring plenary lectures: Beatriz Vicoso talked about sex determination & Dieter Ebert presented host parasite coevolution (red queen dynamics) across timescales. Exposure to such diverse high-quality science, much of it beyond my field, is one of the best bits of ESEB