Reviewing a paper and I seem to have acquired a 30kg scarf! Apologies to the editor and authors for the typos but my scarf keeps kicking my elbow when she's dreaming

Little boys are hilarious. Mr5 made a new friend at holiday club today - apparently they played together all day. Me: What's your new friend's name? Mr5: Don't know, didn't ask...

The latest from us as part of a special issue on S-layers organised by @tbharat-lab.bsky.social S-layers make ideal phage receptors but present another barrier that must be overcome to deliver the genome into the cytoplasm. We know very little about phage that can do this!

@perbullough.bsky.social · last wk.

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... Our latest paper on C. difficile phage/S-layer interactions with thanks to @robfagan.bsky.social @jasonwils.bsky.social for all their hard work on this.

Selling a house has got to be one of the most stressful things you can do. We're in a small chain but with about £2M on the line everyone is jittery and it might all fall apart over the weekend

House moves always start feeling very real when solicitors ask for large sums of money!

My dogs are not impressed by the UK weather at the moment. One benefit of our very old house is that the uninsulated floor is nice and cold

How's your evening going? I'm drawing!

New preprint from the lab led by Alex Dobrila! We show that butyrate-dependent toxin release in C. difficile is mediated by a broadly-conserved endolysin (EndD), which is under the control of the sporulation sigma factor SigK. Excited to share this story! 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

EndD mediates butyrate-dependent toxin release in Clostridioides difficile

Clostridioides difficile is an urgent threat to human health. Current treatments for C. difficile infections (CDIs) are antibiotics and microbiome restoration therapy (MRT) for recurrent cases. Howeve...

biorxiv.org

Is it a review? Is it a research article? We started out writing a review for IUCrJ CryoEM special issue but then we had to include our new data and reanalysed data sets of our previously published phage structure

@perbullough.bsky.social · last mo.

Latest from our lab in special issue "CryoEM in the Fast Lane of Structural Biology". Review on CISs in #C.difficile & new results on phage contraction & receptor binding @jasonwils.bsky.social @robfagan.bsky.social @molmicrosheffield.bsky.social #SLayers #CryoEM #Phages doi.org/10.1107/S205...

Quick trip to the vet this morning on the way to work. Tire blowout after I clipped a kerb parking. 4 hours later and I'm waiting for the RAC to come back with my wheel. Argh I have so much marking to do!!!

There is not enough coffee in the verse....

This is a scandal equivalent of a hypothetical situation wherein the Chair of the UK EHRC followed neo-Nazi accounts and ‘race realists’, but the UK media won’t touch it because trans people in the UK are considered to be a minority that must be oppressed and subjugated by the state

KD Smith@kd-smith.bsky.social · 2mo ago

With Alt Text. The Chair of the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission, follows 38 accounts on Bluesky that have transphobia labels and/or are on one or more transphobia block lists due to their content. It appears she does not follow any trans people, nor any trans-supportive organisations.

I'm really lucky that 21 years ago I decided to start working on C. difficile. Just back from a great @3cdf.bsky.social meeting organised by @smitslab.bsky.social in Leiden. We have the best community - I don't have competitors, I have friends all over the world @johann-i2bc.bsky.social

The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)

One of these paws is not like the other - poor pup has a broken toe. Waiting for the ortho's opinion but looks like a surgical fix needed

Planes, trains and automobiles. En route to Leiden for @3cdf.bsky.social - see you all in a few hours

Synchronised sleeping! Our dogs really aren't enjoying the hot spell

Oh FFS...

Matthias Eberl@eberlmat.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Data manipulation at a breathtaking scale by commercial providers of crucial research reagents. As if the few remaining lab scientists didn't face enough obstacles already.

Moving house over the summer and really hoping our new place handles heat better than our 1905 brick terrace. It was 35C in our 4 year old's bedroom last night and only slightly colder in the other bedrooms. I can't justify AC for a few days a year but sorely tempted

I have come to the conclusion that I detest editorial manager even more than I hate Researchfish (*not even a real fish*). As an author, a reviewer and an editor it is the worst imaginable platform with absolutely no redeeming features

Paper accepted 5min after resubmission - that's an editor who's on the ball

Just a boy and his dog

Academia is such a rollercoaster. Right now I'm on a high and I'm going to savour this moment and celebrate with our group. It won't always be like this but the memory of the wins keeps us going through the rest

Ah, another day another game of "is it a cold or is it hay fever?"

#microsky Tour de force from the @pmoyniha.bsky.social @lislowe.bsky.social & @proftracypalmer.bsky.social labs on the Type VII secretion in Mycobacteria 🎉👏👏👏 Mine was a minuscule contribution, flattered to feature. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Just one day to go until the JMM seminar with Dr Robert Fagan! Be sure to catch their discussion on ‘Clostridioides difficile - an evolving AMR threat’. Register here: https://microb.io/4l58vI6 #JMM

Oh that is sad news. RIP Jeff

FEMS@femsmicro.org · 5mo ago

FEMS is saddened to learn of the recent passing of Prof. Jeff Cole, former Editor-in-Chief of FEMS Microbiology Letters. He was committed to advancing the field & supporting young scientists. His legacy will continue to shape the community he helped nurture: t.co/g9kxRhYniO

Find the hot-off-the-press plasmids here! www.addgene.org/browse/artic...

Rob Fagan@robfagan.bsky.social · 6mo ago

New paper from us. If you're interested in genetic manipulation of Clostridia, we have a few new tools for you! 36 new plasmids - all available from @addgene.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #microsky

New paper from us. If you're interested in genetic manipulation of Clostridia, we have a few new tools for you! 36 new plasmids - all available from @addgene.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #microsky

A set of genetic tools for use in Clostridioides difficile and related species

The Clostridia are a phylogenetically diverse group of anaerobic, spore-forming bacteria that include species of medical, veterinary and industrial importance. The last two decades have seen major adv...

microbiologyresearch.org