Nice to see some yeast genetics in a Cell paper, where the authors test models based on single-molecule in vitro analysis. The combination of genetics and biochemistry often addresses questions most effectively. www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

In our most recent work David Forrest has discovered a widespread mechanisms linking transcription initiation to DNA supercoiling... www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dynamic DnaA–DnaB interactions at oriC coordinate the loading and coupled translocation of two DnaB helicases for bidirectional replication url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

PhD position available in our team to study how UPEC exploits metals to successfully colonise the host gut. Cool collaboration with @thecopperdoctor.bsky.social and @banzhaflab.bsky.social Please share and get in touch for more details

www.findaphd.com/phds/project... interested in bacterial antagonism? PhD opportunity in our team, see below. Please repost!

E. coli is the leading bacterium causing death from AMR infections worldwide. If you'd like to explore approaches to exploit the DNA damage response as alternative antimicrobial, please apply to the following PhD studentship available in my lab starting October 2026: www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Beautiful work with big implications for the future of Cas9-type technologies www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Recombinational repair is the major pathway required to reload the bacterial replicative helicase following introduction of single-strand DNA breaks. A great way to end the year! Big thank you to co-authors from the @heathmurraylab.bsky.social

Congratulations to Hannah and colleagues for depicting the consequences of DNA replication hyper-initiation in Gram-positive bacteria! @microbiologysociety.org www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

New cryo-EM/ET story - a brilliant collaboration with Sergey Melnikov's lab in Newcastle @sergeymelnikov.bsky.social and Stefan Pfeffer's lab in Heidelberg @pfeffercryolab.bsky.social. Great work in particular by Karla Helena-Bueno and @sophiekopetschke.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Still time to apply and join my team on a fully funded PhD project looking at dynamics of the bacterial DNA damage response in live cells using genomics.

This was a fantastic collaboration with our neighbors @mblokesch.bsky.social & David Adams and Mark Szczelkun and @steven-shaw.bsky.social in Bristol. Special thanks to the DCI for invaluable support with cryo-EM of a rather difficult target! @drhonsworth.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Beautiful work from the Dewar lab and colleagues diving into replication fork rescue in vertebrates. Together, our papers highlight critical similarities/differences in DNA damage repair processes occurring in prokaryotes vs eukaryotes when the replisome encounters a single-strand discontinuity.

Excited to share with you the story that enabled me to start my own lab: what happens when the bacterial DNA replication machinery encounters single-strand discontinuities on template DNA? What is required for break repair and replication restart? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...