Very proud of this preprint out of my lab, our first (of hopefully many) host-microbe spatial transcriptomics paper. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Amazing insights into P. aeruginosa biology and chronic airway disease @cysticfibrosis.org.uk @sangerinstitute.bsky.social @asthmaandlung.org.uk

Humans and bacteria share strategies to defend against viruses. We wondered: could they use each other's genes? Yes, both can! Bacteria can use human immune genes to defend against phages AND Human cells can use bacterial genes for viral defense. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Bacterial and human exonucleases mediate interkingdom antiviral immunity

All kingdoms of life have developed strategies to limit viral infection. In humans, interferons induce a suite of antiviral factors that collectively provide immunity. Some human immune genes are homo...

biorxiv.org

🗞️New Paper🗞️ We show that #Candida & #Staph cooperate via copper handling - with fungal copper uptake & bacterial copper export shaping the community. @mrccmm.bsky.social @microbiologysociety.org @universityofexeter.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Copper-driven mutualism of Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus interkingdom biofilms

Although fungi and bacteria commonly co-exist within polymicrobial communities, the molecular mechanisms underlying their interactions are still not well understood. Here, we show that the fungus Cand...

microbiologyresearch.org

Conjugation dynamics and persistence of a carbapenem resistance gene blaOXA-72 from Acinetobacter pittii to Acinetobacter baumannii https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.06.25.734492v1

Flagellar toxicity: flagellar synthesis is lytic for Bacillus subtilis in the absence of PBP1 bioRxiv from Dan Kearns www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

We are hiring! 🔬🧫 Join our lab at the Uni Southampton as a Research Technician working on bacteria-phage interactions to develop therapies for hard-to-treat infections. 2-year post Deadline: 27 May 2026 Position start date: 1 July 2026 or shortly after Apply: jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

⏰ We have two exciting opportunities to join our team in Southampton! 🚀 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐝𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐫 (2 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬) 𝘈𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘵𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳 virulence 👉 jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx... 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐧 (3 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬) Engineering Biology 👉 jobs.soton.ac.uk/Vacancy.aspx...

Job Opportunity at the University of Southampton: Research Fellow

The McCarthy Lab has an exciting opportunity for a prospective Postdoctoral Research Fellow who is interested in understanding virulence and hospital persistence in Acinetobacter baumannii. The role w...

jobs.soton.ac.uk

In @elife.bsky.social: Antibiotic potentiation and inhibition of cross-resistance in pathogens associated with cystic fibrosis doi.org/10.7554/eLif... Thank you Despoina for taking me on board of this nice work

Antibiotic potentiation and inhibition of cross-resistance in pathogens associated with cystic fibrosis

Targeting disulfide bond formation disables multiple antibiotic resistance mechanisms and prevents cross-protection between pathogens associated with cystic fibrosis lung infections, restoring antibio...

doi.org

Enjoying that diet coke? Ever wondered what it is doing to bacteria living in your body? Here we examine the current evidence on how artificial sweeteners influence the microbiome and bacterial physiology & the gaps in research. @cp-trendsmicrobiol.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The impact of artificial sweeteners on bacterial physiology and the microbiome

Artificial sweeteners are non-nutritive compounds that have a profound sweetening effect with a negligible to zero calorific contribution. Global init…

sciencedirect.com

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/...

New data from the lab, showing how fungicides can drive rapid selection for multidrug resistance In soil bacteria - even under warming. This was probably the most clear cut data I’ve ever seen (collected by @kelbrick.bsky.social), with clear selection on efflux pump regulator PFLU_3160. Enjoy!

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 4mo ago

Fungicide drives de novo evolution of multidrug resistance in the plant growth promoting rhizobacterium, Pseudomonas fluorescens https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.01.715857v1

📣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.

And the preprint is out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... We compared plasmid conjugation in liquid and on solid across 13 AMR plasmids with different types of conjugative pili.

Tatiana Dimitriu@tatianadimitriu.bsky.social · 4mo ago

First paper submitted fully from the lab!

This paper started as an idea @albertomarina.bsky.social had many years ago… which of course means he was right all along 😄. Some of us just needed a few years (and a lot of experiments) to catch up. Grateful (and slightly humbled) to be part of this. Thanks Alberto! www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...

Phages communicate across species to shape microbial ecosystems

Gallego-del-Sol et al. show that arbitrium-coding phages can sense non-cognate peptide signals from other phages to regulate lysis-lysogeny decisions. This crosstalk affects lysis-lysogeny outcomes of...

cell.com

🔊 Looking for a Research Assistant in Bacterial Evolution to join my lab 🦠 🥼Main duties: Research (AMR + microbiome) + lab assistance. ⏲️ Post duration: 30 months 🗓️ Closing date for applications: 20th April 2026 💰 Salary: ~£35k Details and how to apply: tinyurl.com/2a3v66y7 Please share!

Throwback to some of my PhD work! We uncovered the antimicrobial activity of tormentil, a traditional medicinal plant, identifying compounds with activity against MDR bacteria and the ability to enhance colistin efficacy. Really proud of this one ☺️ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Bogland plant Tormentil inhibits multidrug-resistant pathogen growth and potentiates antibiotics by disrupting iron homeostasis

The antibiotic resistance crisis has created an urgent need for the development of novel therapeutic strategies to tackle recalcitrant infections. In this study, we identified Tormentil [Potentilla er...

microbiologyresearch.org

🌊🦠Our latest work on water treatment now available as a @biorxivpreprint 🌊🦠 “Reusable immobilised quaternary ammonium particles reduce microbial and resistome burdens without promoting #AMR selection during wastewater post-treatment” 🔗 biorxiv.org/content/10.6... 1/5

I am pleased to share my lab’s latest publication - Acinetobacter species lack canonical DNA repair pathway activation mechanisms, and we discovered a conserved transcriptional activator that fills this role: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

A WYL transcriptional regulator activates the DNA damage response pathway in Acinetobacter species

Abstract. The ability to sense DNA damage and activate DNA damage response pathways is critical for repairing DNA damage in all domains of life. The most w

academic.oup.com

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...

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.

jobs.ac.uk

A defense system that protects against RNA viruses by sensing a conserved RNA structure in the viral genome - cool!

Jens Hör@jenshoer.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Excited to share the first preprint from the lab! We show that ApeA defends against RNA phage infection by cleaving the phage genome: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Reversible DNA condensation drives natural transformation @natcomms.nature.com from Keith Mickolajczyk, Matthew Neiditch, and David Dubnau www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🚨 A new piece of the preterm gut microbiome puzzle just fell into place! Bifidobacterium metabolise human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) in early life — shaping immunity, supporting gut development, and protecting against diseases like necrotising enterocolitis (NEC). www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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...

nature.com

Still not in the final format but couldn't wait to share it with you, after a long jpurney to get here. Our latest work (with @davidalbesa.bsky.social lab) on Tke5 T6SS toxin from my favourite bug P. putida KT2440. 🧵 1/5 www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Announcing StrainVis! 🦠🧫🧪 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... This nifty web-based tool allows you to visualize your strain level analyses. You can combine ANI and synteny based analyses and it will make all kinds of cool publication ready plots for you - examples follow. By Hagay Enav and Inbal Paz:

2 year fellowship available in AMR research www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/grants/antim...

Lovely work driven by Lizzie Ledger in the group: a new but druggable mechanism by which Staphs produce biofilm using components of human serum. First polysaccharides, then protein, then eDNA, now lipids too! bsky.app/profile/bior...

bioRxiv Microbiology@biorxiv-microbiol.bsky.social · 5mo ago

Human serum triglycerides promote Staphylococcus aureus biofilm formation and antibiotic tolerance https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.05.709992v1

Hiring two postdocs, 3-years each, at @unisouthampton.bsky.social. We're investigating bat guano in Mexico One postdoc in my group - plant/soil micro/microbiome: tinyurl.com/2zu8nrmv One postdoc in bat ecology + ecoservices: tinyurl.com/27attrsc Deadline March 30 @sotonbiosciences.bsky.social

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. This paper describes a ribozyme, a catalytic RNA molecule, able to do just that.. Fascinating stuff… 🧪🦠 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A small polymerase ribozyme that can synthesize itself and its complementary strand

The emergence of a chemical system capable of self-replication and evolution is a critical event in the origin of life. RNA polymerase ribozymes can replicate RNA, but their large size and structural ...

science.org