New ERC funded computational postdoc position in my lab! We are looking for someone who will study the genomics of bacterial evolution using samples from experimental evolution and clinical trials. Lots of opportunities for interesting and fun collaboration! my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Last chance to join us next month for the #Biodiversity25 conference. A fantastic set of speakers, mix of talks & focused workshops, and the chance to meet others in the field of biodiversity genomics 🧬 In-person registration closes next Monday 29th September! Registration 🔗: bit.ly/4j3vAZ9

Excited to share our @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social led by Magda showing how Bif has co-evolved with different animal hosts 🐒🐭🐷🐦 Key takeaways: 🔹 Host ancestry + diet shape Bif evolution 🔹 Mammals enriched for carb-busting enzymes 🔹 Untapped diversity in non-human hosts = new probiotic potential

The Department of Microbes, Infection and Microbiomes are hiring an Assistant Professor in Bacterial Genomics! Happy to have a chat if anyone wants to know more about the department/UoB www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOO184/a...

The Royal Society's Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship scheme is now open for applications. This scheme offers a first step into an independent research career for early career scientists who require a flexible working pattern. Find out more and apply now: #RSGrants royalsociety.org/grants/dorot...

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...

Excited to say we’re hiring 😊. We’re looking for a post-doc in ancient pathogen genomics to join our friendly supportive team in London at @ugiatucl.bsky.social. Start date January 2026. www.ucl.ac.uk/work-at-ucl/...

New preprint reveals bacteria can't just collect all resistance genes like Pokemon cards. We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Particularly enjoyed the lovely figures www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

We are also hiring a 4-year postdoc to study the dynamics and evolution of mobile genetic elements in the C-fixing Icelandic host-spring microbiomes Join our exciting multidisciplinary team funded by @ukri.org BBSRC sLoLa www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Excited to share our new preprint for the tskit_arg_visualizer Python package! ARGs can sometimes feel like a black box, so @yanwong.bsky.social and I have been developing a method to programmatically drawing these graphs. 🔗 arxiv.org/abs/2508.03958 1/6

Really pleased to see this study led by @raymondkiu.bsky.social now published in @natcomms.nature.com! We show that probiotics help modulate the preterm infant 👶#microbiome - to reduce ARGs, lower MDR bacteria 🦠 & increase beneficial Bifido ✨ Huge team effort! www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to share new #program, STEPS, which can simulate #dynamics of the E. coli Long-Term Evolution Experiment (#LTEE) or other microbes in serial transfer regime. telliamedrevisited.wordpress.com/2025/08/12/s... STEPS developed by @devinmlake.bsky.social, Zachary Matson, Minako Izutsu, and me.

A new 4 year PostDoc position in our lab! Modeling + experiments to explore dynamics of carbon fixing hot-spring microbiomes. Part of an exciting multidisciplinary team with Sophie Nixon, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social & others Please share & get in touch if interested! tinyurl.com/e7j7bha3

Ever wondered why some antibiotics are made by Streptomyces on agar plates but not in liquid cultures? Read this work on redox control of antibiotic biosynthesis. Led by katienoble241.bsky.social and Rebecca Devine, and in collaboration with @barriewilks.bsky.social journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Amazing seminar from @bkoskella.bsky.social, seems I might be a phage convert.

Excellent writing retreat, thanks @resp-micro.bsky.social for organising! Might be recovering from the ultimate frisbee for the rest of the day…

Nice to be back.

#Review A discussion on the evolution, emergence and expansion of environmental fungicide and antifungal drug resistance. 🍄 #MicroSky 🦠 @drjorhodes.com www.nature.com/articles/s41...

This opportunity is still open but closing at the end of July!

Last week to apply for TWO PhDs with me and amazing supervisors at University of Birmingham The Last Of Us - www.findaphd.com/phds/project... Understanding pathogen diversity in maternal and neonatal populations - www.findaphd.com/phds/project... I’m on holiday so can’t answer queries though

Two fully funded #PhD positions on insect #Symbiosis available in our lab: Spiroplasma in Neotropical Arthropods (tinyurl.com/spiroplasma) & Psyllid symbionts (tinyurl.com/psyllids). Please contact me for any questions & share widely #symbiosky #academicjobs

This is a really neat idea

🚨 New preprint klaxon 🚨 We characterised the structure of a PNGaseA superfamily member from Bifidobacterium bifidum LMG13195 and highlight its preference for N-glycan structures attached to a peptide, rather than to a native or denatured protein 💫 @imibirmingham.bsky.social

OrthoFinder just dropped a major update It’s faster, more accurate, and ready for thousands of genomes Let’s break it down (1/10) github.com/OrthoFinder/... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

New manuscript from the group 'IS1216 drives the evolution of pRUM-like multidrug resistance plasmids in Enterococcus faecium' www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... /1

Lister Prize Awards 2026. Applications now open. Includes £300k of flexible funding over five years. Open to those working in biomedical and clinical sciences in the U.K. lister-institute.org.uk/how-to-apply/

BEAST X v10.5.0 finally released – you can't just do beta releases forever. github.com/beast-dev/be... Details and instructions for installing on the BEAST website: beast.community

Lovely review!

This is cool @filiphusnik.bsky.social !

Heaven @saskiahogenhout.bsky.social et al. generated chromosome-level genomes for three psyllid species that are plant disease vectors, revealing detoxification gene expansions and genetic substructure across Europe. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf116 #genome #entomology

How might sugar shape antimicrobial resistance in bacteria? Researchers from @unibirmingham investigated whether glucose might change the evolution of resistance in the leading cause of urinary tract infections, uropathogenic E.coli. Read the paper by clicking the link in our bio 🔬

This is awesome

Every time a new edition of this course starts, I get a little nervous. Even though it always gets great feedback, this is a labour of love, and I want everyone to get the confidence in statistics that is essential for good science. We start today, let’s go! #rstats

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

We are seeking two human health-focused researchers to join Ireland’s AMR One Health Thematic Network, helping bring science into national AMR policy. To apply, please send your CV and a brief cover letter to [email protected]. The deadline to apply is 2 July 2025.

Consider what you mean when you ask someone to be more resilient, “just ignore it”, or other similarly unhelpful comments.

Now published! Note that since Vikram's original post (quoted here), he's made it easy to dynamically update a set of multi-MUMs (e.g. when more genomes are added to a pangenome) and to find multi-MUMs for huge collections like HPRCv2 genomebiology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

🌍 Thrilled to share that I've been selected as a 2025 UK Goalkeeper by WIRED Consulting in partnership with @gatesfoundation.bsky.social! This incredible initiative celebrates those driving progress towards the UN SDGs – and I’m honoured to be among this year’s cohort. www.wired.com/sponsored/st...

🚨Our latest review in Thorax about the impact of climate change focusing on fungal pathogens in Europe 🌍 A truly enjoyable collaboration with Sarah Sedik @germhuntermd.bsky.social @martinhoenigl.bsky.social and @mbottery.bsky.social thorax.bmj.com/content/earl...

New preprint ex @bolinabug.bsky.social (+ @daisukekageyama.bsky.social & @scottishwormboy.bsky.social) on the pronounced secondary expansion of Spiroplasma and Rickettsia genomes in lacewings doi.org/10.1101/2025... #symbiosky 1/2

Very pleased to present the next pre-print from our lab #glycotime We showcase PNGaseL from Flavobacterium akiainvivens that we hope will be a useful tool for the glyco community 🍬🧪👩‍🔬 Special shout out to @cassiebakshani.bsky.social and Paulina (Ludger) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A genomic catalog of Earth's bacterial and archaeal symbionts (bioRxiv pdf): www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

(1/6) 🌟 Excited to share our new paper! Advancing microbiome safety assessments: opportunities, challenges & recommendations 🧫🦠 This work came out of an academic–industry workshop hosted by @microbiologysociety.org in early 2024. 🔗 www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

There’s still time to register for the #ECConf25 in June 2025. Join fellow early career members at @northumbriauni.bsky.social, Newcastle Upon Tyne, for two days of professional development opportunities.

**NEW Doctoral Training Programme just launched!!** This exciting programme on Microbial Genomics for Health Protection is joint between @imibirmingham.bsky.social and UKHSA @ukhsa.bsky.social. 9 brilliant projects available!!

A great webinar today! A really nice opportunity to collect together all my data from the last couple of years into what I think is a cool story. Thanks @wvschaik.bsky.social for the invite!

Delighted to see this paper from danderson123.bsky.social 's PhD out. We have been building tools for AMR gene detection for over a decade now, but multicopy genes remain challenging. Dan shows that with a gene-space de Bruijn graph and long reads, you can do well www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Congratulations to our outstanding PhD student Alice Fraser, first chapter hot off the press in @microbiologysociety.org JMM! E. coli BLBLI in-patient resistance evolution; genome dynamics, mysterious phenotypes... 🧬🖥️ 🦠🧫 🧪 #IDSky #MicroSky #MedSky www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...