Does evolution take millions of years?Nope! Our SSR article with @taylorlabgroup.bsky.social @adamrutherford.bsky.social introduces an experimental classroom approach that lets students observe evolutionary change in just 48 hours.Very cool! www.ase.org.uk/resources/sc... #Evolution#ScienceEducation

Thank you for having me! I had a fantastic day chatting to everyone there and hearing about the incredible science going on.

MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester)@mermanchester.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Last week we kicked off the ecology & evolution seminar series with a fantastic talk by @taylorlabgroup.bsky.social 🧬 A great start to a diverse series of talks organised by @bexlowrypalms.bsky.social & @matthewjshepherd.bsky.social Come and join us for the next one on 25th June!

Can a book be scientifically flawed & still transform how we see ourselves? The Naked Ape is proof that connecting with your audience matters, even when it ruffles academic feathers. Loved joining @ellaalshamahi.bsky.social & fellow guests to unpack this on BBC Radio 4 www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/...

Archive on 4 - The Evolution of The Naked Ape - BBC Sounds

Ella Al-Shamahi revisits Desmond Morris’s controversial book The Naked Ape, six decades on

bbc.co.uk

Now out in AEM @asm.org! 🎉🧪 *High school student-isolated mutants 👉🏻 novel genetic causes of biofilm-associated adaptations *We learn how diversity arises quickly and is maintained *EvolvingSTEM enables scalable research in classrooms & promotes scientific literacy journals.asm.org/eprint/FBU9M...

Genetic diversification of Pseudomonas fluorescens maintained by multi-niche selection within biofilms | Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Bacterial biofilms dominate microbial life; however, their evolutionary genetics remain incompletely understood. Extensive replication of biofilm selection experiments by secondary school students can...

journals.asm.org

Vaughn Cooper@vscooper.micropopbio.org · last yr.

Sharing the most significant work from my group, led by the @evolvingstem.bsky.social team. Come for the discoveries of how Pseudomonas adapts in biofilms, stay for the story of how they were discovered by thousands of young scientists in grades 9-12. 🧪🧫🧬🧵 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

🔊 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!

Was in Oxford today examining a D Phil viva and I couldn't help but take a peek at the new @biology.ox.ac.uk building. Looking a bit fancier than the old Tinbergen building!

Happy #DarwinDay 🧬🌿! To celebrate, why not share a story about #evolution with a #FutureScientist? My book, Little Changes, is a fun bedtime story for young readers to explore how small changes shape the living world. littlestories.co.uk/little-chang... #ScienceForKids #STEMBooks

Little Changes

an introduction to evolution Click on the image below, to read the story. Meet the Rinkidinks. They live together in one large happy family, carefree and untroubled by the rest of the world. Until …

littlestories.co.uk

🚨 PhD Studentship available! 🚨 We're hiring a UK student to start in Oct '26 via the BBSRC CODEM scheme. Full studentship plus £10k top-up PA. Study the mysterious ZOMBIE PHAGES 🧟 🦠 with our fabulous @mermanchester.bsky.social and @uommib.bsky.social communities! www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

(CODE M) Losing your head: how do bacterial viruses evolve into anti-competitor weapons? at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - (CODE M) Losing your head: how do bacterial viruses evolve into anti-competitor weapons? at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

The 2026 EMBO course in Computational and Experimental Microbiomics held in @uniofbath.bsky.social has been announced! Come and join us for this course to study host-microbe interactions and co-evolution. ⏰ When: 6-18 July 26 🚨 Registration: 11 May 26 🔗 meetings.embo.org/event/26-mic...

New Perspective out in Advanced Science 🎉 in collaboration with @alanrice.ie for @uniofbath.bsky.social 60th anniversary special issue. advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... We review nearly a decade of work asking: how do gene regulatory networks rewire during evolution? 🧫🧵

Transcription Factor Promiscuity Drives Regulatory Rewiring and Evolvability in Gene Networks in Bacteria

This special issue marking the University of Bath's 60th anniversary offers an opportunity to reflect on nearly a decade of research into the evolution of gene regulatory networks (GRNs) from members...

advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com

If you’re interested in antibiotic resistance evolution in Pseudomonas, come to @flanagella.bsky.social’s poster (number 11) 💊 #MicroEvo25

🔬 Interested in bacterial immune systems & AMR, or how antibiotics affect phage infectivity? Three SWBio DTP PhD project opportunities linked to the MultiDefence consortium are now open (1/4) #PhD #DoctoralTraining #ResearchCarrers #LifeSciences #phagesky #AMR #microsky #PhDPositions

The 2025 Curriculum Review is great news for STEM ✅ Depth over breadth ✅ Hands-on science ✅ Digital literacy ✅ Equity & progression. My FREE Evolution Project brings these STEM priorities to life through engaging, hands-on learning. www.bath.ac.uk/campaigns/di... #STEM #CurriculumReview

There's a PhD position now available with me in Bath, on the evolution of symbiosis. www.findaphd.com/phds/project.... The supervisory team also includes @anja1.bsky.social @phil-donoghue.bsky.social and others. NB, this is open both to UK-based students *and* to international students :)

The genomic basis of symbiotic integration at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - The genomic basis of symbiotic integration at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com

findaphd.com

Willing to join us @pasteur.fr for a PhD for a project on how interactions between mobile genetic elements shape bacterial adaptation? Subject to be tailored to candidates with keen interest in evolution, genomics, computational biology, microbiology. Check www.pasteur.fr/en/education...

Pasteur-Paris University International doctoral program​ (PPU)

OverviewIn 2009, the Institut Pasteur, the world leading biomedical research institute founded by Louis Pasteur in 1887, inaugurated the Pasteur Paris-University (PPU) international doctoral program i...

pasteur.fr

Institut Pasteur | 130 years of biomedical research@pasteur.fr · 11mo ago

🎓 Applications for Institut Pasteur's PhD programs open Sept 1-Oct 20, 2025 for October 2026 entry. Apply to up to 4 projects across 6 programs: PPU, PPU-IMAGINE @institutimagine.bsky.social, PPU-@ox.ac.uk, PPU-EID @upcite.bsky.social & more 🧬 Register now ✍️ www.pasteur.fr/en/education...

Excited to share brilliant work @josie-e.bsky.social. She built a minimal type I-F CRISPR-Cas system where parts (like spacers) can be easily swapped. Against a panel of phages it gave full protection in most cases—though for some, immunity was stronger in low-nutrient growth. Check out her 🧵 below!

Josie Elliott@josie-e.bsky.social · 11mo ago

Can CRISPR-Cas systems target any phage? Yes, no, it depends? What does it depend on? The second paper from my PhD came out today in a special issue of Phil Trans B on the ecology and evolution of bacterial immune systems doi.org/10.1098/rstb...

PhD opportunity, please share: We are looking for a prospective PhD student to start in October 2026 who is excited about bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae), how they interact, and how they exchange DNA. All details can be found on the funder website 👉 gw4biomed.ac.uk/developing-c...

What are your "good hands" training tips? @baym.lol and others? - Slow down - Pay attention - Visualise doing the whole protocol. What do you need to have labelled when? Where are you standing? What are you doing during the incubation? Etc. - Start new methods with 2-3 small low-stakes experiments.

Michael Baym@baym.lol · 11mo ago

Every few months the "good lab hands" thing comes up and it misses a key point: you can learn to have good hands. Training matters. Good hands aren't some magic gift from the PCR gods, you have to develop them through directed repetitive practice, like any other skill

New paper out @molbioevol.bsky.social on antimutator Ecoli, mutational spectra and the distribution of fitness effects of antibiotic resistance with @knightjar.bsky.social @rokkrasovec.bsky.social and others @mermanchester.bsky.social doi.org/pzfm Read🧵for highlights and fun stats (1/13)

Antimutator and Mutational Spectrum Effects Can Combine to Reduce Evolutionary Potential in Escherichia coli ΔnudJ

Abstract. The rate of spontaneous mutation is a key factor in determining the capacity of a population to adapt to a novel environment, for example, a bact

doi.org

Thanks @jgi.doe.gov! I'm excited to learn more about how molecular mechanisms link ecological and evolutionary flexibility in P. fluorescens using DAP-seq. In collab with @robjacksoncomics.bsky.social @catriona1392.bsky.social @cjlush.bsky.social & Jacob Malone 🦠🌱

Axel Visel@axelvisel.bsky.social · 12mo ago

Congratulations to @jgi.doe.gov's 2025 Functional Genomics awardees: @ostratodd.bsky.social @philmuslab.bsky.social @aaronrashotte.bsky.social @taylorlabgroup.bsky.social Hao Chen, Matthew Cope-Arguello, Olufemi Isimikalu, Paul Scesa, K. Scott, S. Wakao, B. Woolston jgi.doe.gov/user-science...

What shapes the moment when you say, this is who I want to be? Could one classroom research experience be that catalyst? Could a summer camp for teachers help them make students become scientists? 🧪🧫🧬🔬 YES. This is EvolvingSTEM. So proud of this team. youtu.be/sv3tcwRs2PE?...

EvolvingSTEM Summer of Transformation 2025

YouTube video by Evolving STEM

youtu.be

😳 #phage #phagesky #microsky Pseudomonads coordinate innate defense against viruses and bacteria with a single regulatory system: www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...

Pseudomonads coordinate innate defense against viruses and bacteria with a single regulatory system

Brinkley et al. describe a general immune response strategy in Pseudomonas species, termed GUARD, that protects against both bacterial and viral threats. This program, controlled by the Gac/Rsm global...

cell.com

Horton, Cherry, @gretelwaugh.bsky.social @taylorlabgroup.bsky.social et al. combine experimental evolution and bioinformatics in bacteria to characterize a ≥8 bp motif that can increase T:A→G:C mutation rates >1000-fold than the baseline rate. 🔗 doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf183 #evobio #molbio

GnT Motifs Can Increase T:A→G:C Mutation Rates Over 1000-fold in Bacteria

Abstract. Nucleotides across a genome do not mutate at equal frequencies. Instead, specific nucleotide positions can exhibit much higher mutation rates tha

doi.org

🦠 New paper led by James Horton (feat. J Cherry & @gretelwaugh.bsky.social) reveals GnT DNA motif can boost T→A mutation rates up to 1000×, & how tweaking nearby bases can fine-tune its potency. General across bacteria + potential in synbio. 📄 academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-ar… 🔗 James’s thread ⬇️

Feels surreal to say but: I'm hiring! If you are or know anyone interested in looking at the evolution of phage resistance using A. baumannii and natural transformation, then this might be for you www.jobbnorge.no/en/available...

Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139) | UiT The Arctic University of Norway

Job title: Research position in Microbial Pharmacology and Population Biology (282139), Employer: UiT The Arctic University of Norway, Deadline: Wednesday, August 27, 2025

jobbnorge.no

Congratulations to the super talented @josie-e.bsky.social! Looking forward to catching up on your postdoc news with @annechevallereau.bsky.social and cheering you on later at Bath Abbey.

a cartoon girl is sitting on a bed covering her mouth with her hands and saying it 's graduation day .

ALT: a cartoon girl is sitting on a bed covering her mouth with her hands and saying it 's graduation day .

media.tenor.com

Great to see this work from @deepaagashe.bsky.social and team out. Make sure you give it a read.

PLOS Biology@plosbiology.org · last yr.

Mutations generate variation, critical for #evolution, but #MutationBias restricts the choice of mutation type. @deepaagashe.bsky.social &co use #Ecoli strains with different mutation biases to show that changing an old bias should yield more beneficial mutations @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/46LjCRt

40 today! It's been a helluva decade & I feel privileged to have been along for the ride. I got the best gift a girl could ask for - exciting data & excellent plots. I marked the occasion by walking 100km in 23.5h with a dear friend. We chatted, laughed and cried and it was wonderful (and painful).

Very proud to have won the Faculty of Science Excellence in Doctoral Supervision Prize. Biggest thanks goes to my nominator @francescodb.bsky.social and the awesome letters of support from current and past group members that brought a tear to my eye. It's shared with every member Taylor lab member.

Great to be in Manchester for the annual @multidefence.bsky.social meeting, with Luna and Simon!