Doing the periodic cleaning of used plasmid miniprep columns and realized in honor of Earth Day it may be worth reminding you molecular biologists:

Plasmid miniprep columns can be cleaned and reused essentially indefinitely! Just add 1 M HCl, soak overnight and wash 3x w/ water. Save $ and plastic

My super department @warwicklifesci.bsky.social is hiring 6 assistant profs in the wake of recent retirements. We're looking for people in microbiology/infection, cellular disease / immunity; environmental biology; and plant/crop science. #MicroSky warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

Great chairing by ElisMabeth as well!!

Beautiful work from @pmoyniha.bsky.social presented at today’s MHD seminar. 👏🏻

Totally. It’s thoroughly depressing

I have now read this piece and it is very good.

Massive respect for @merenbey.bsky.social and Iva for their persistence and documenting this torturous process.

Highly recommended reading for anyone who cares about reproducibility in science.

Clostridia from preterm infants metabolize human milk oligosaccharides to suppress pathobionts and modulate intestinal function in organoids - Nature Microbiology Clostridium perfringens lacking perfringolysin O toxin isolated from preterm infants metabolizes human milk oligosaccharide disialyllacto-N-tetraose to produce metabolites that promote the growth of c...

Clostridia (especially non-toxigenic perfringens) from preterm infants metabolize human milk oligosaccharides to suppress pathobionts and modulate intestinal function in organoids
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Applying for an ERC grant in the 2027 competitions: what you need to know The ERC plans to launch the grant competitions under its 2027 Work Programme between July 2026 and June 2027, with the calls for proposals introducing several changes to the eligibility rules for appl...

I don’t know if you saw the MASSIVE news announced by @erc.europa.eu today: from now on, if you get a B at step 1 you are eligible to apply at N+3(!!!) years. Say you got a B in STG2026 step 1, you thought you could apply in STG2028, but no: only in STG2029! erc.europa.eu/news-events/...

We are recruiting postdocs to work on antimicrobial resistance and bacterial cell envelope biology. PLEASE SHARE.

Such a lovely story 😊😊

Excited to share our new paper out today in @science.org 🎉

We show that HGT via natural competence drives diversification of chromosomal integrons in V. cholerae 🤩

Below a 🧵 on key findings incl. background on natural competence in V. cholerae 1/
#microsky #phagesky
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Postdoc position available in St Andrews for a structural biologist: www.vacancies.st-andrews.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/...

Anti-type VI tactics: bacterial defenses against type VI secretion system attacks Survival of bacteria in dense and competitive microbial communities depends on their ability to access nutrients or outcompete neighboring cells. One of the key players in competition is the type VI s...

www.cell.com/trends/bioch...

Why we won’t be funding open access publishing any more - Cancer Research UK - Cancer News The open access movement was bold and promising, but ultimately disappointing. Now is the time to stop and call for a new way to make publishing work…

CRUK goes green [OA] news.cancerresearchuk.org/2026/04/01/w...

How diverse is bacterial immunity ?

We report in @science.org how language models allowed us to predict 2.4M antiphage proteins spanning >23K novel potential systems.
👏 @emordret.bsky.social, @alexhv.bsky.social & al doi.org/10.1126/scie...

Explore them here defensefinder.mdmlab.fr/wiki/refseq_...

Phage receptor prediction from genome sequencing alone. Bacterial receptor (blue) interacting with phage proteins (purple) is shown here

📣Huge preprint 🔔
Today we share something our group has been working toward for a long time, led by @lucasmoriniere.bsky.social We asked can we predict which receptor a phage targets from its genome sequence alone? For most phages, we couldn’t. So Lucas set out to do something I had only dreamed of.

FEMS is seeking a new President and two Trustees for our Board (2027–2029)

Are you a strategic thinker with a passion for leadership and governance? We are looking for mission‑driven candidates dedicated to advancing microbiology across Europe and beyond.

Apply by 10 June: buff.ly/btwi7u9

Yay!

FEMS Summer School for Postdocs Take your research to the next level. Apply now for the Summer School for Postdocs happening in Porto from August 26 to 31, 2026.

Apply now for the FEMS Summer School for Postdocs - a fantastic opportunity to connect, learn, and advance your career! Application deadline: 15 April 2026

Find out more: fems-microbiology.org/about_fems/network-and-a...

Hollywood has gone too far this time.

Open Positions -

Open postdoc position in my lab on HGT and interbacterial competition. We seek candidates with a PhD in microbiology (or related fields)+ strong 1st-author publications.
Curious, highly motivated, and dedicated team players ready to contribute fully are encouraged to apply. Details: tiny.cc/cz01101

Crucial Gram-positive Type IV Secretion System protein TraF is a structural homolog of Type VII Secretion System protein EssB/YukC Abstract. Type IV secretion systems (T4SS) are found in both monoderm and diderm bacteria. The broad-host-range conjugative plasmid pIP501 from Enterococcu

Crucial Gram-positive Type IV Secretion System protein TraF is a structural homolog of Type VII Secretion System protein EssB/YukC

in #microLife @femsjournals.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/microlife/ad...

Implications for methenamine hippurate use in recurrent urinary tract infection management: Formaldehyde resistance and altered urinary composition Author summary The mainstay of treatment for urinary tract infections is short course antibiotics, often sufficient to clear the infection. However, a significant proportion of UTIs are recurrent, lea...

So my last publication is out! From a clincial trial for a treatment that was argued could not lead to bacterial resistance, uro-associated bacterial isolates were found to be resistant and we show genetically how. Thanks to Chris Harding and Frank Sargent

journals.plos.org/plospathogen...

A Type VII-secreted toxin enables inter-mycobacterial competition www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03...

A GH with an immunity protein that binds with nM affinity and looks like this 🤩. Bacteria are always surprising us

And a big shout out to Kieran Bowran whose bioinformatics analysis suggests there are multiple toxins out there

We've been we've been working on this for quite a while now (hopefully published soon). Grateful to @proftracypalmer.bsky.social for concinving me & @lislowe.bsky.social that mycobacteria produce inter-bacterial toxins. Team science, led by @sambenedict5.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Please Repost 🔄

Global Staphylococcus research community is heading to the Canadian Rockies!

Join the 20th International Symposium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections
📅 September 20–24, 2026

📍 Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Banff, Canada

#ISSSI2026
#Staphylococcus

A scientist giving a presentation

Delighted to have @vichaicow.bsky.social as our keynote speaker at the @newcastleuni.bsky.social bioscience institute NUBI Live! conference

Research Fellow (Postdoctoral) at University of Birmingham Explore an exciting academic career as a Research Fellow (Postdoctoral). Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

Two post-doctoral positions open in our lab. We're looking for people with expertise in molecular microbiology and/or genome-scale tools. Initially 3 yrs, posts could be extended for upto 8 yrs. If you'd like to know more about us take a look at www.graingerlab.com

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQY475/r...