Delighted to share that I have been awarded a Springboard award from @acmedsci.bsky.social! Excited to start investigating how E. coli uses different bacterial competition systems in the gut microbiome

Why do bacteria carry multiple similar weapons? Great to team up with @s-booth.bsky.social again, combining some very cool experimental work and bioinformatics to investigate why bacteria keep hold of seemingly redundant weapons.

🚨 New pre-print! 🚨 In the largest study of its kind to-date, we investigate the ecological and evolutionary mechanisms driving within-patient evolution of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Read here:
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... , and follow along with this thread, discussing our findings (1/21)

Bacteriocin biophysics: From protein-protein interaction models to navigators of the bacterial cell envelope Bacteriocins are toxins deployed by bacteria to kill their competitors. Here, I reflect on my laboratory’s work on protein bacteriocins and their immunity proteins from Gram-negative bacteria. We unco...

A gift of an article from the inimitable Colin Kleanthous as he says a moving farewell to his laboratory. A brave, unrepentant and scientifically brilliant journey is described - please have a read, friends.

www.jbc.org/article/S002...

Salmonella relies on siderophore exploitation at low pH Abstract. Salmonella enterica, a prominent enteric pathogen, employs sophisticated iron acquisition mechanisms to overcome host-imposed iron limitation, no

What does competition for iron look like for pathogens in different environments? We had the chance to contribute to this great paper looking at Salmonella in the gut with the Cunrath Lab (UoStrasbourg). Salmonella relies on siderophore exploitation at low pH url: academic.oup.com/microlife/ar...

Excited to share this fully funded PhD position in my lab in collaboration with FBSDTP & @rachelmwheatley.bsky.social, focussing on how iron influences the ability of pathogens to invade the microbiome.

Advert:
research.reading.ac.uk/foodbiosyste...

Apply:
research.reading.ac.uk/foodbiosyste...

Proud to announce SimPhyNI, a new tool for bacterial GWAS with higher precision and scalability than existing tools. Try it out and let us know what you think!!

Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition - Nature Microbiology Mathematical modelling and experimental tests reveal principles that govern displacement of a resident strain by an invader in microbial communities.

Can we leverage bacterial competition for targeted replacement of harmful strains? Maybe! Our recent piece in @natmicrobiol.nature.com provides a theoretical framework and a set of experiments to show what it might take: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bacterial warfare is associated with virulence and antimicrobial resistance - Nature Communications Bacteria employ a range of competition systems that deliver toxins to inhibit competing strains. This study shows that these systems are particularly important for the ecology of virulent and antibiot...

So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Excited to join bsky and share cool research. Hopefully we will have lots of exciting lab updates coming soon!