Fabulous work and an amazing discovery! Congratulations to all involved!

UK and EU finalise agreement to bring UK into Erasmus+ in 2027 Thousands across the UK set to benefit from re-opening of the historic Erasmus+ programme

Delighted to see the return of Erasmus+. Can be brilliant for students who study abroad, particulary if in a very different culture or language www.gov.uk/government/n...

I just realised I now post about FOMO for #microbiology conferences!!! 😜 I guess the transformation into (structural) #microbiologist is complete?! 😂 #microsky

TIL the role and names of 11 deaf men that were key for human #spaceflight: Harold Domich; Robert Greenmun; Barron Gulak; Raymond Harper; Jerald Jordan; Harry Larson; David Myers; Donald Peterson; Raymond Piper; Alvin Steele; John Zakutney. Very cool! #nasa 🧪

Getting serious FOMO with both @microbiologysociety.org #microbio26 and @escmid.bsky.social #ESCMIDGlobal2026 happening this week! Hope everyone at both conferences has a great time and can't wait to hear about the great science being reported!

Many congratulations @mjafreeman.bsky.social!

#cryosky crowd: for a project we are looking for Quantifoil R0.6/1 copper grids that are currently unavailable from the manufacturer. If anybody has any stock to spare, please let me know! #cryoEM

I'm in this post and I don't like it

One of biggest mysteries in biology: how did complex eukaryotic cells evolve from simple microbes? ~1.8 billion years ago, an archaeal cell likely merged with a bacterium to form the first eukaryotic cell, but can we ever find direct evidence of this transformative event? 🦠 🚶‍♂️

I'm a data scientist @ourworldindata.org and I need help from a botanist or someone local to Kyoto, Japan! 🌸

We present one of the world’s longest climate records: 1,200 years of peak cherry blossom dates in Kyoto.

The researcher who maintained it, Prof. Yasuyuki Aono, sadly passed away last year.

Full story by @isaacbarbosa1.bsky.social and me: www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

“Researchers like ourselves, whose curiosity-led fundamental and applied research is funded by other funding councils, rely on STFC-operated facilities,” they wrote. “Without continued access to these facilities, significant areas of UKRI-funded research simply could not proceed.”

While lots of attention has been on expected cuts to the particle physics, astronomy and nuclear programme, hundreds of researchers from other fields are also raising concerns about cuts to STFC-run facilities which they rely on

UKRI's overall budget is increasing and is forecast to outstrip inflation

Meanwhile, UKRI's total budget is forecast to rise modestly in real terms through the spending review

So STFC will take up a smaller proportion of overall spending by 2030

STFC's woes have been blamed on its growing cost base, but surely decisions made in the allocations process also play a role?

Inflation has piled pressure on STFC's budget, which has stayed relatively flat in cash terms

I think this says a lot about the pressure STFC is under: its budget will not have risen (in cash terms) between 2023 and 2030

Inflation is obviously going keep eroding that, and more so with the Iran war

(Details of STFC budget figures over the spending review have not been published before now)

This is a brilliant blogpost about #scientists and our love for naming our computers and instruments and the many different ways we chose to do so. 🧪

Here is the blog post --Thank you! communities.springernature.com/posts/nickna...

Latest report on resubmission rules and last responsive mode round (September 2025):
www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

I should say Gassy and Wizzy ar DG250 DonWhitley cabinets and names are not reflective of our very positive views on them! They just struggled a bit at one point in a tiny hot room 😂

Yes of course :) Anaerobic cabinet naming credit goes to former PhD student Abbie Kelly ;) I've had a couple of iterations of "Porto" as my desktop - being a drink (Port wine) and my home city, I always chose it when asked for a drink name 😁

It comes down to what is your question and structure interpretation. Keeping the tags might miss meaningful protein-protein contacts; if aim is high throughput, say looking at bound ligands or fragment screening, not cleaving makes sense. But can you be sure it doesn't affect binding? 🤔

Cleave as a rule but as with every rule, there are exceptions. Sometimes it's needed for solubility, stability or crystallisation. Also, tags are always the smallest possible, I've only ever used GST, MBP or other big tags in very exceptional cases.

not sure how to read the "or any other funder" part of the resubmission rule... 🤔

BBC World Service - Discovery, Superbugs: Resistance rising, part 1 Antibiotic resistant bacteria is rising - is a great global crisis on the horizon?

"The [blue plaque] in the red brick building just behind me celebrates the birth of the age of antibiotics"

Prof Chris Tang speaks to the BBC World Service about the world-changing research that took place here in the Dunn School in the 1940s.

Listen now: 🎧https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct6sxh

MRC: research grant: applicant-led Apply for funding to support exciting and ambitious research within the remit of the Medical Research Council, to transform our understanding of human health and disease

After 1 April 2026 technically means September 2025 round for responsive mode at MRC. 2/2

Details in
www.ukri.org/opportunity/...

"not accept uninvited resubmission of applications that were submitted after 1 April 2026 to MRC, the rest of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) or any other funder. [...] unsuccessful, unchanged, minimally revised, or substantially the same, submitted again w/out invitation [...] be rejected 1/2

Reopening of applicant-led grant submissions is much needed. These radical changes in the medical science funding system would have benefited from engaging the scientific community. The impact of the long pauses and these changes is yet to be truly assessed. Let's hope recovery is quick. 6/6

Some Qs re assessment changes:
- What specific problem(s) does it solve?
- What evidence/evaluation shows interviews improve decisions?
- Was potential bias at interviews (gender, race/ethnicity, career stage, institution/prestige) considered and how will it be monitored/mitigated? 5/6

Those that applied in the September 2025 round can't apply, despite reports of significant cuts applied to this round. Restrictions also apply to related rejected applications across all UKRI after April25 4/6

Only one application as project lead allowed: you can only submit an application after a decision has been made, even if it's a different idea or funding stream. 3/6

Shortlisting: college of experts members assess application. Panel shortlists on ambition, expected impact, deliverability.
Expert review: only for shortlisted applications
Interview: by college of experts panel -> scores
Funding decision: panel chairs and MRC Executives make final decision. 2/6