Plasmids are small, mobile DNA elements that enable bacteria to exchange genetic material, including genes for antibiotic resistance. We study these genetic vehicles with the aim to uncover how they facilitate the emergence and persistence of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. #AntibioticResistance

Thanks @fnobrega.bsky.social for an excellent first talk of talks at @mgeworkshop.bsky.social ... Very well-run event!

Cool paper showing 🦠 recipient response to #plasmid conjugation Capsule blocks conjugation, preventing MPF between donor:recipient. However, conjugation exploits recipient strain heterogeneity of capsule thickness, conjugating to cells with less capsule #MicroSky 🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

On our way to @mgeworkshop.bsky.social for @lotox.bsky.social to present later. Looking forward to some amazing talks! @arom-ntu.bsky.social #mgeworkshop

I am Honoured to have received the 2nd Prize at NTU's ⭐️ STAR (Science & Tech Annual Research) Conference! Special thanks to my supervisors @conmeehan.bsky.social @blackpassiflora.bsky.social and collaborators @danwhiley.bsky.social @Kate Cox for the incredible support. @arom-ntu.bsky.social

Almost ready for #MGEworkshop - my first time presenting, not just at an event but 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 as I'm barely 9 months into my #PhD But I'm reminding myself of the words of my favourite fictional scientist #WalterBishop #Fringe #ADHD #WomeninSTEM #MolMicro

This is one of the coolest things I've seen in plasmid biology for a while. Excellent stuff.

I *finally* get to share our work on plasmid competition– super proud to now have this on bioRxiv: CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin-antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/6 👇

cool preprint from a few months back: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Really intriguing IS strategy to become fixed in plasmids, where the IS cuts up any plasmid that doesn't contain the insertion sequence

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... New preprint on E. coli's intimin protein from Oslo, Tübingen & @arom-ntu.bsky.social

🧬 Thrilled to announce that I'll be speaking at the 3rd Annual MGE Workshop. If molecular mayhem is your jam, join me and explore "From Stability to Chaos: The Role of MGEs in an Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Outbreak” #MGEWorkshop2025 #MGE #UKScience #PhDLife #MolMicro #FirstYearPhD

Preprint below has been a long time coming, here just in time for #microbio25 ! (if the train wifi lets me) With @andrewmatthews.bsky.social #MicroSky 🧵

🚨New publication🚨 We show that K. Pneumoniae bacteriophages can be incorporated into alginate to create an antibiofilm matrix effective against clinical K. pneumoniae strains academic.oup.com/jambio/artic...

It's incredible that a resistance integrative and mobilizable element can spread while also holding back their helper plasmids with such a clever trick! From @vincentburrus.bsky.social lab www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

The second great paper concerns the discovery in Eva Top's group that an enigmatic protein encoded by IncP-1beta plasmids modulates the IncP-1 circuitry in E. coli to make the plasmid a burden in this host: Elg et al recently accepted in Molecular Biology and Evolution doi.org/10.1093/molb...

It is a privilege to be an author on two great plasmid papers already this year. The first was McLean et al in Nature Microbiology focused on KorB and the discovery that it is a CTPase by Yung Le's group at the John Innes Institute in Norwich. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

And in a clash, we have @c-cornbill.bsky.social from Warwick (supervisor @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social) talking about the variability in AMR evolution in different host mimicking media in the "AMR - Mechanism and Regulation" (2/5)

And finally, last talk of the day is ... me! I'll be talking in the "Urogenetial Microbes in Health and Disease" at 17:00 where I will go through our preliminary project looking at where AMR genes/strains/species potentially come from during treatment (5/5) #microbio25. Come see them all!!

@danwhiley.bsky.social who will be speaking on Helicobacter suis in UK farmed pigs and retail meat products. Really interesting work! (15:30) (4/5)

Then later this afternoon we have a double bill in the "Exploring Hidden Threats" session with Kate Cox (MBiol student with @conmeehan.bsky.social) talking about creating a molecular epi framework for M. Leprae (15:15) followed by.. (3/5)

Come see @aurelianachilengue.bsky.social speak about doing molly epi for M. tuberculosis without the need for a reference genome (e.g. H37Rv) this afternoon at poster 049! #microsoc25

Today's the day for the majority of the @arom-ntu.bsky.social talks at #Microbio25. First up we have Chantelle Endley who will be talking about cell cycle control regulator cdc25 in yeast in the "Genetics and Genomics" forum (12:30). (1/5)

We ALSO have multiple @arom-ntu.bsky.social posters today at #microbio25 ! (1/3)

Stealth plasmids: rapid evolution of deleted plasmids can displace antibiotic resistance plasmids under selection for horizontal transmission. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.03.30.646151v1

Congratulations to PhD students Rachel and Lottie, and MRes student Martyna on their publication with @mcvickermicro.bsky.social! #microsky www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

New paper alert. Characterisation of ExPEC E. coli entering drinking water treatment plant, with potential for community-wide dissemination. @microbiologysociety.org www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

New paper alert! New paper alert! Insight, including genomic analyses, in to Staphylococcal diversity on NHP skin. @microbiologysociety.org @davidnegus.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

New paper alert! New paper alert. Experimental determination of the traits conferred by the pAA virulence plasmid in an 0104:H4 enteroaggregative E. coli. @microbiologysociety.org @mcvickermicro.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Incredibly happy to see this paper come out! And first research paper for @lotox.bsky.social! Thanks also to all the collabs at @arom-ntu.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

I'm hiring a microbiologist to support various projects related to the eco-epidemiology and virulence of neglected vector-borne bacteria. www.linkedin.com/posts/mauree...

'Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate for extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli was not sufficiently effective at preventing invasive E. coli disease (IED) compared to placebo. No safety signals related to the vaccine candidate were identified.'

In a new study, @mcvickermicro.bsky.social and @bugsinyourguts.bsky.social characterize the hipBA toxin-antitoxin system in Klebsiella michiganensis, demonstrating that it acts as a potent antibacterial toxin and significantly contributes to plasmid stability. academic.oup.com/jambio/artic...

Apparently today is #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM day and it's fitting that I'm deep-diving into all the groundbreaking work done in the field of microbial genetics by Esther Lederberg: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther_... Some of her key citations at the bottom of schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/2...

Deadline to apply for this PhD is 14 February.

Deadline to apply for this PhD is 14 February.

Deadline to apply for this PhD is 14 February.

2. Assessment of a light-curable hydrogel to be used for root canal obturation - Dr Sarah Kuehne

Great end to the year for @arom-ntu.bsky.social, with three new publications out. 1. Shared mechanisms of enhanced plasmid maintenance and antibiotic tolerance mediated by the VapBC toxin:antitoxin system - @mcvickermicro.bsky.social, Dr Jonathan Thomas

I wish crypto was always short for cryptococcal meningitis

🧪🎅 12 Days of Tools for Science Management 🦠🎄 Twas the weeks before Christmas when all through the lab, not a beaker was stirring, not even a culture-of-Pseudomonas. The meetings have lessened (kinda), the textbooks are closed.. & I found myself reflecting on how we get things done in academia (1/4)

Ah yes, my favourite artists: Placebo, AFI and *checks notes* the Buffy the Vampire Slayer cast from Once More With Feeling.

My PhD work is now published in Nature Microbiology! Please, have a look!

JOB CLAXON! I am recruiting a post-doctoral researcher on a BBSRC-funded project (36 months) on the genetics and functional genomics of vancomycin resistance in enterococci. Further details here: edzz.fa.em3.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/Candid... Please DM or email me if you want to discuss this post.

Plasmid afficionados: Does anybody know of any chromosomal genes that are required for plasmid conjugation? We have found a few by chance in a recent experiment and I would be really interested to know if there are other examples. #microsky #plasmid

Delighted to see this out, after a 2-year-long review process that left @drsimonmcarthur.bsky.social and I wondering what we'd done to upset the reviewing gods. #microbiomesky #gutbrainaxis www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

We're excited to be attending the 1st full East Midlands AMR Network conference TODAY!! Drop by our stand to enter the prize draw for petri dish themed coasters 🧫😍 We've also brought our famous BUZZ wire game, with prizes for the 3 fastest times ⚡🏆 #EastMidsAMR #MicroSky #AMR #WAAW

Thursdays

The UKHSA report on ICU BSI is out and well worth a read. I know very little about the epi of ICU infections and so won't provide much commentary. #bsi #hcai #icu #epidemiology www.gov.uk/government/s...

Reposting this from a while back now that @souravamr.bsky.social has joined us!