On stage at symphony hall, Birmingham

Today's office - Symphony Hall for a bit of Strauss (Til, Tod and Heldenleben)

Join myself, Sara Jabbari and @jessicamablair.bsky.social to work out how we can make bacteria more tolerant of organic molecules such as biofuels and platform chemicals.

Funding is available for UK students - deadline is 1st May 2026, project starts in October 2026.

Improving the solvent tolerance of E. coli by understanding the rules of accumulation at University of Birmingham on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Improving the solvent tolerance of E. coli by understanding the rules of accumulation at University of Birmingham, listed on FindAPhD.com

New PhD opportunity! A project looking at how we can use information about accumulation of varied molecules in bacteria to improve solvent tolerance and industrial processes.

This project is aligned to our new exciting sLoLa project on antimicrobial accumulation

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

I would follow Adam's suggestion of using microscopy on live cells too, with fiji to quantify fluorescence - my concern on fixed cells would be whether you would be measuring the ability of the dye to get into different strains, or the effect of the fixative on the envelope of different strains

If the objective is getting the dye into the cell, then fixing isn't a problem (it is often an advantage). But if you want to know how much dye gets into a live cell, and how quickly, then a fixed cell will likely generate very different data.

AFAIK this is not straightforward - PFA is a crosslinker so will really mess up the envelope, and ethanol permeabilises the membranes. I have seen a report of using metals and azide (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18584902/) but the metals would mess with the LPS.

Ultrasound-activated nanoparticles breach bacterial biofilms When hit with low-frequency ultrasound, the nanoparticles release antibiotics deep inside bacterial communities

Also covered by a piece in Chemical & Engineering News - cen.acs.org/pharmaceutic...

Ultrasound-Responsive Nanoparticles Enable Hydrophobic Antibiotic Release and Deep Penetration for Biofilm Treatment Localized delivery of antibiotics is a promising strategy that leads to transformative treatment pathways of bacterial biofilms and increases the effectiveness of their administration in contrast to traditional delivery methods requiring high antibiotic doses. Hydrophobic antibiotics have poor activity against bacterial biofilms due to their limited penetration and are particularly challenging to deliver. Nanoparticles are ideal drug delivery agents to achieve spatially controlled delivery, but commonly their designs are either soft or porous, which limits temporally triggered release, with the result that most of the antibiotic does not reach deeply into the biofilm. In this study, we present designs of nonporous silica nanoparticles that encapsulate a lipophilic antibiotic, rifampicin, with noncovalent interactions and enable controlled release triggered by Low-Frequency Ultrasound (LFUS). Staphylococcus aureus biofilms treated with the nonporous, core@shell, rifampicin-encapsulated nanoparticles, RIF⊂PhSiO2@SiO2, combined with LFUS, achieved 90% biofilm eradication, compared to 20% without ultrasound; treatment with free rifampicin and LFUS resulted only in a 10% reduction. Nanoparticle penetration into biofilm layers was visualized using fluorescent nanoparticles prepared with coencapsulation of the Nile red fluorophore, RIF+NR⊂PhSiO2@SiO2. Confocal fluorescence imaging of the biofilms demonstrated penetration of the nanoparticles throughout all the layers of the biofilm upon LFUS application, in sharp contrast to their presence in only the top few biofilm layers without LFUS. Scanning Electron Microscopy of the biofilms confirmed the presence of nanoparticles and the dual role of LFUS in promoting penetration and facilitating drug release by disrupting molecular interactions within the nanoparticle. This work introduces a design paradigm for nonporous nanoparticle agents combined with ultrasound, enabling both temporal and spatial control of drug release in bacterial biofilms. This will open transformative therapeutic approaches for effective localized delivery of drugs that have previously been challenging to deliver.

New paper! Collaborative work on using ultrasound to release antibiotics from nanoparticles to permit killing of biofilms - out now in JACS Au - pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls

Startling that this is being broadcast in the absence of any public communications by @ukri.org

The academic community has a right to expect to be told first hand what is happening with response mode funding and what the immediate future looks like

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

1 [A spoof advert for a life management app. It opens with a glossy, sorted-looking person smugly addressing us]   Hey there. 2 Feeling the January panic already?  3 [Title panel] Then sign up for Stressifyly today.  4 [Show the app on a phone] Stressifyly (We couldn't decide between ‘Stressly' and ‘Stressify') 5 Stressifyly is the cute stress-management app that has given up pretending it's all ok. [the rest of the advert depicts on-screen app tools a la Headspace / Liven / Grammarly etc] 6 Complete your daily freak-out rings  'You've nearly been anxious all day!' 7 Get daily reminders to your devices [A woman jogging, her watch saying to her: "Hey! You should’ve met the right guy by now."] 8 Use innovative visualisation tools  [Show a visualisation of a mountain of work: ‘your work mountain / you’ next to a tiny person] 9 Delve into our ambient sound library [Listening to a recording called ‘The background hum of global decline’ illustrated with an image of trump, putin, a robot, flames etc] 10 Chat to our AI Berater Buddy to start manifesting failure [AI person on phone]: You’re gonna cock this up [Person holding phone, eyes closed] I’m gonna cock this up 11 Do some journaling thing as if that will somehow help [person typing a journal entry on phone: "Today I had too many difficult things to do" 12 And generally pay us to tell you that adult life will go away if you just fiddle around with your phone some more 12 [Advert ending image]: Stressifyly: Stay underwater. [Ends]

Stressifily

This project is with @jessicamablair.bsky.social and Sara Jabbari at UoB, @webberma.bsky.social at Quadram, @bugsinblood.bsky.social at Imperial and Dong-Hyun Kim at Nottingham - we are kicking off the project right now!

Powering team science to unlock life’s secrets Four world-class teams awarded major BBSRC sLoLa grants to push the frontiers of discovery in microbiology, photosynthesis, gene regulation and quantum biology.

Delighted to say that we have been funded by BBSRC to do some exciting science on how bacteria prevent accumulation of antibiotics - www.ukri.org/news/powerin...

St Mary's Church, Kempley - the outside of the church, painted pink, with a low tower topped with a squat spire.

St Mary's Church, Kempley - the chancel, richly decorated with Norman paintings.

St Mary's Church, Deerhurst - a Saxon sculpture of a dragon's head

St Mary's Church, Deerhurst - the exquisite Saxon font, carved with many swirls

Some old buildings in Gloucestershire from the weekend

I am also co-supervising projects with @jessicamablair.bsky.social (efflux & AMR), Paula Mendes (sound & biofilms), Joan Geoghegan (Staphylococcus adhesion & AMR, and a CASE project on skin bacteria with L'Oreal), and Michael Bryant (biolubrication).

Can we prevent biofilm formation using different nutrition?

Can we prevent biofilm formation using electrical stimulation?

Please email me if you are interested! Closing date is 27th November 2025.

New PhDs in my lab starting 2026!
Funded projects as part of the MIBTP centre (funded by BBSRC) now open for applications: warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa...

Are you interested in biofilms? We have a couple of projects - looking at the links between energy metabolism and biofilms - and electricity!

Research Fellow at University of Birmingham Apply now for the Research Fellow role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

Job opportunity in my lab! We're looking for a post-doc to come join us for an exciting project exploring the evolution of #AMR and #hypervirulence in #klebsiella. Please share!! @unibirmingham.bsky.social Details: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOV067/r...

Both GFP variants were poorly expressed in the periplasm and resulted in growth defects and other markers of stress. We used super-resolution microscopy to visualise GFP localisation in cells and other single cell methods. The work was done by Alex Osgerby in my lab, funded by the BBSRC.

New preprint! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
GFP is a useful protein to optimise production of proteins in the cytoplasm, but does not work well in the periplasm. We tested if two newer variants of GFP (sfGPF and cfSGFP2) can be used to improve periplasmic protein production.

A man walking a pictogram of a dog

Had a great time in London this week, including a visit to the always excellent Japan House for their exhibition of pictograms

New paper! A fun collaboration with Aneika Leney's group (@leneyms.bsky.social), looking for cyanobacteria in lake water using novel mass spectrometry approaches (and comparing with flow cytometry) pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Two Scarlet Tiger moths, iridescent black with red, orange and white spots, on a car tyre

A surprise sighting yesterday in Birmingham - two Scarlet Tiger moths on a car tyre!

Starting September 2025, closing date end of May, please contact me if you have questions / for a chat about the project!

Exciting new PhD project!

Are you interested in the microbiology of the mouth, and how we could develop new oral care products to reduce harmful bacteria while helping beneficial ones?

Fully funded by EPSRC (UK students only) and working with Colgate.

www.birmingham.ac.uk/documents/co...

Back at work now but Scotland last week was pretty good

Brilliant news! Well done Ilyas!

Chiffchaff singing outside my office window reminds me that spring is very much here.

Concert today in symphony hall - Stravinsky!

Not done a fellowship interview, but certainly most interviews I have done made me reflect on my life choices to date! (Hope it went OK)

Kaasen and Balto

The Balto statue in Central Park, New York

Seattle Star

Feb. 2, 1925: Dogs save the city of Nome, Alaska. A team of huskies races into the dipththeria-stricken city dragging a sled that carries enough antitoxin to halt the epidemic. The last leg of the heroic relay is directed by musher Gunnar Kaasen and his lead dog, Balto. 1/10