iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Fiona J Whelan @whelanfj.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

So proud of UoM & @mermanchester.bsky.social ECRs for putting together this amazing day of microbiology. Fully ECR conceptualized, organized, and led - brilliant!

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

10 years at UoB today. The best thing I have ever done career wise. And now just 3 more weeks until the next (and definitely final) big move to @manchester.ac.uk and the amazing @mermanchester.bsky.social as Chair of Microbial genomics

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atmicroverse.bsky.social @atmicroverse.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Just over a month to go for our Microbiology Spotlight event! We can’t wait to bring researchers across @manchester.ac.uk working with microbes together 🧫🦠🔬 Watch your emails for your talk nominations, and remember to submit your research photo for a chance to win some exciting prizes 🏆

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

And our final speaker of the session is Kaitlin Schaal (Liverpool): "Modeling and experimental approaches allow us to parse drivers of community responses to environmental change" #meehubs26 #meehubs2026

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Melissa Lawson (Manchester): "Decoding Lung Microbial Interactions: Harnessing a High-Throughput Fly Model to Reveal Pathogen- Microbe Virulence Dynamics in the Lung Environment" #meehubs26 #meehubs2026

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Next we have Oliver Meacock (Sheffield): "When cooperation isn't cooperative: resolving the paradox of stable mutualisms in microbial ecosystems" #meehubs26 #meehubs2026

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SMBE IDEA taskforce @smbe-idea.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

💡If you want to read more about our intitiatives, you can find more details here: www.smbe.org/idea-initiat... 📑 If you want to read about some of the incredible projects we have helped support, you can find them here: www.smbe.org/idea-initiat... ❓Feel free to contact us if you have any queries!

smbe.org

IDEA Initiatives

The Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution (SMBE) is committed to dismantling systemic racism, sexism, colonialism, and all forms of exclusion within our field. Through our IDEA (Inclusion, Diver...

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Manchester kicking off today's MEEHubs with keynote speaker Professor Sarah Coulthurst (Dundee): "The bacterial Type VI secretion system – a versatile antimicrobial weapon" #meehubs26 #meehubs2026

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Simone Andrea Biagini 🏳️‍🌈 @sabiagini.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

🚨 SMBE IDEA 2027 - Call for proposals! Take your chance! ✨ More info at @smbe-idea.bsky.social 👈 #AcademicSky @official-smbe.bsky.social

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MEEhubs @meehubs.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

MEEHubs2026 is underway! We had a great start in the first two sessions with Zurich and Manchester hosting some excellent talks! It's not too late to join us virtually via last-minute registration: meehubs.org #MEEHubs2026

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Thanks all for the morning. Looking forward to the afternoon with Chernihiv, Morelia and Montreal! #meehubs26

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Finally, we have Sadhbh Dodd from Trinity College Dublin: "Intraspecific variation is key for predicting the outcome of bacterial species interactions in the cystic fibrosis lung" #meehubs26

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Our next speaker this morning is down the drain, Greg McCallum from University of Liverpool: "The hospital sink drain microbiome: a melting pot for antimicrobial resistance plasmids" #Meehubs26

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Next we return to the ocean with Dr Gretel Waugh: "A metagenomic framework for marine microbial ecotoxicology"

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

First up in Manchester is our first plenary speaker, Professor Stineke van Houte: "Understanding the role of bacterial anti-phage defences to inform phage therapy" #meehubs26

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MEEhubs @meehubs.bsky.social · 07/10/2025

We’re back! ✨ The next #MeeHubs26 is coming with 7 hubs across the globe and incredible lineups at each. Can’t wait to share more soon! meehubs.org

meehubs.org

Home

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Rebecca J Hall @drrebeccajhall.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

An exciting couple of days of science scheduled at @meehubs.bsky.social this week, and with the UK hub in Manchester I don’t even have to travel! Great job organising it all @mermanchester.bsky.social

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Danna Gifford @dannagifford.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

Manchester is very happy and excited to be the UK host for #MEEHubs26!

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

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!

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 13/06/2026

We’re at the Universally Manchester Festival today with colonies to count, bacteria to infect with phage & your very own microbes to create! 🧫 @socialresponuom.bsky.social

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 04/06/2026

In our recent seminars we heard from @mbottery.bsky.social about anti fungal resistance evolution 💊 and Dr Irma Vitonytė spoke about endosymbiont evolution (using samples from ponds across Manchester!)🔬 Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for the best seminar snacks!

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

This week’s seminar featured a great talk by PhD student Zhou Chen about engineering phages for biocontainment ⚙️ Shoutout to @microbesng.bsky.social for our fabulous snacks!

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 13/05/2026

In last week’s seminar we heard from @rebeccawallis.bsky.social about her work on the ecology and evolution of pathogens in CF 🫁 And @flanagella.bsky.social taught us about the importance of strain context in antibiotic resistance 💊 Thank you to @microbesng.bsky.social for our snacks!

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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

Why does antibiotic resistance evolution vary between patients? Come to @officialuom.bsky.social @mermanchester.bsky.social to help us find out! 2.5 year @wellcometrust.bsky.social postdoc position in experimental evolution Closing 15 May. Apply here: www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

Research Associate in Microbial Evolution:Oxford Road

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

We had two fantastic talks last week: Tom Butterfield talked about tailoring promoter sensitivity for fun and profit, and Deepanshi Kwarwall on understanding the disturbance potential of Bacillus spp. toward soil microbes. Cheers to @microbesng.bsky.social for sponsoring snacks.

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

In this week’s seminar we heard from Erika Hansson who shared work on the evolution of endosymbiosis 🔬 and our lab reps shared an update on our laboratory sustainability efforts, including a quiz on lab recyclables! 🧪♻️ Thank you to @microbesng.bsky.social for the fantastic snacks!

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 16/04/2026

Two great talks from last week's seminar by Emma Wright: Mutation rates depend on the presence and density of cohabiting species, and Matt Thomas: The elements of mobile elements in microbiomes. Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for sponsoring refreshments at our seminars.

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 08/04/2026

Last week's seminar featured excellent talks from @fionapoulter.bsky.social on understanding the evolution of epidemic Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Holly Richardson on why heterogeneity matters: predicting antibiotic resistance in cystic fibrosis. Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for the nice snacks!

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 30/03/2026

Two fantastic talks in our latest seminar: Kirsten Lim told us about her work on the effects of IgA on gut phage diversity, and Jeremy Dejardin shared his work mapping chromosome-plasmid interactions in E. coli Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for the best seminar snacks!

Kirsten is stood to the left of a slide which reads “the three-way interactions between gut bacteria, phage and the host”

Jeremy is stood to the right of a slide reading “mapping chromosome-plasmid interactions: a genome-wide knockout approach”

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Grainger Lab @graingerlab.bsky.social · 24/03/2026

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...

jobs.ac.uk

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.

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 23/03/2026

The University of Manchester is pleased to be the UK host for MEEHubs2026. Registration now open! We have an amazing lineup of speakers, Jasmine Ono, Stineke van Houte, and Sarah Coulthurst, & more virtually at other hubs. We hope to see you here or online 3-5 Aug! meehubs2026.oa-event.com

meehubs2026.oa-event.com

Home

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Will Smith @willpjsmith.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

Here’s the latest preprint from my work on evolved resistance to Type VI Secretion system (T6SS) weaponry, funded by a @wellcometrust.bsky.social Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship. So happy to see this out! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

biorxiv.org

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 18/03/2026

In today’s seminar we heard about Lambda phage Q proteins and their role in gene expression from Xuan Chen 🧬 A huge thank you as always to @microbesng.bsky.social for the fantastic snacks! 🧁

A screen in the centre shows a title slide in dark grey with microscope imagines of bacteriophages. The title in white reads “Regulatory Role of Lambda Q Protein in Late Gene Expression”. The speaker Xuan Chen is stood to the right of the screen.

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 16/03/2026

Last week's seminar featured talks by Hannah on the culture enrichment of cystic fibrosis sputum samples and by Edoardo on the spatial and temporal tracking of antifungal resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus hyphal networks. Cheers to @microbesng.bsky.social for their usual surprise snacks

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

We had an exciting talk at today's seminar, first on Polymicrobial interactions in Cystic Fibrosis @ambercutcliffe.bsky.social, and Coalescence in host spring microbial communities @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social. Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for the snack!

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

We had two interesting talks at today's seminar: Eric spoke about the multistep pharmacodynamics of multimodal antibiotics, and @laurasanrub.bsky.social spoke about the long-term evolution experiment in defenseless PA01. Again, huge thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for the snacks.

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Today's seminar featured one of MERMan's PIs, @sarafederici.bsky.social, who discussed how phage therapy could be improved to target gut pathobionts in IBD. Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for the snacks.

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Will Smith @willpjsmith.bsky.social · 09/02/2026

🚨 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...

findaphd.com

(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

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 04/02/2026

This week's seminar featured two talks. @normanvanrhijn.bsky.social talked about fungal pathogens, and @taoranfu.bsky.social discussed population-level defence systems in bacteria. Huge thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for the snacks!

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Applied Microbiology International @amiposts.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Nominations are now open for the 2026 Horizon Awards 🏆 Do you know someone driving real impact in applied microbiology — from public health and policy to food security, D&I, or the environment? Nominate them now: appliedmicrobiology.org/advocacy-po…

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Chris Knight @knightjar.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

We're Hiring! We're looking for a postdoc with bioinformatics/modelling skills to join us in an exciting microbiome ecology project in Manchester (deadline 1st March) www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

jobs.manchester.ac.uk

'Research Associate in Microbiome Ecology:Manchester

We wish to appoint a PostDoctoral Research Associate to an exciting project exploring the assembly, stability and function of microbial decomposer communities.

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

From phages to fallopian tubes - in last weeks seminar we heard about designing synthetic phages from Ryan ⚙️ And Dolan from the Tank lab @raveentank.bsky.social spoke about their microfluidic fallopian tube models 🧫

Ryan is stood to the right of his title slide which reads: Smart-Phage: designing synthetic bacteriophage to defeat superbugs

Dolan is stood to the right of his title slide which reads: modelling the fallopian tube in a microfluidic setting

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

This week’s seminar featured two talks about long-term evolution experiments! 🧬🕣 Ingrid talked about contamination detection for Pseudomonas LTEEs & CD shared their results of archaeal commmunity LTEEs Huge thank you to @microbesng.bsky.social for the snacks! 🍪

Ingrid is stood to the left of a screen showing a title slide which reads “Long term evolution experiment - investigating the evolutionary trajectories of defenseless PAO1 (dPAO1v2) strain exposed to mobile genetic elements

CD is stood to the left of a screen showing a red title slide, white text reads “The first long-term community evolutionary experiment in archaea”

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MERMan Research Group (University of Manchester) @mermanchester.bsky.social · 14/01/2026

A very interesting talk about culture cycle dependence of mutation rates by Ziang Zhang 🧬 Accompanied by fantastic snacks thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social 🍰

A screen in the centre shows a slide titled “Culture cycle dependent mutation rate”, Ziang Zhang stands to the right looking at a the audience

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Fiona J Whelan @whelanfj.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

Last ECR talk of the day from Logan Sauers on IgA transcriptomics #UoM_EEday

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Rebecca Lowry Palmer @bexlowrypalms.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

I was absolutely delighted to give a talk at the University of Manchester Ecology and Evolution day yesterday. An incredible collection of talks and posters were presented and we had some great discussions - thank you to @whelanfj.bsky.social and @knightjar.bsky.social for organising!

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Fiona J Whelan @whelanfj.bsky.social · 12/01/2026

So excited to have @szytynska.bsky.social kicking off our Evolution & Ecology day at @manchester.ac.uk today! #UoM_EEday

Sharon introducing herself and her research.

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