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Michael Brockhurst

@brockhurstlab.bsky.social
3.6K followers 4.2K following 429 posts

Microbial evolution / University of Manchester

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Reposted by Michael Brockhurst
Willem van Schaik @wvschaik.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
Super-excited to be organising the first in-person meeting of the @target-amr.bsky.social network today and tomorrow. We will be launching an initiative for pump-priming and an amazing comic by Eddie Ross on AMR Genomics
A comic with a phylogenetic tree. The background is the opening slide of a conference
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Daniel Cazares @danielcazares.bsky.social · 11/05/2026
Happy to share that our latest research on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of MDR plasmids and PDPs is now out (open access vAuthor) in The ISME Journal doi.org/10.1093/isme... Here, we explored how plasmid-dependent phages (PDPs) act as a selective pressure against the spread of multidrug resistance
doi.org
Eco-evolutionary responses to plasmid-dependent phage constrain the spread of multidrug resistance plasmids
Abstract. Phage therapy offers a promising alternative to antibiotics for treating multidrug-resistant infections. Plasmid-dependent phages (PDPs) are part
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Less than 1 week to apply for this postdoc! If you want to find out more about the project have a look at our recent preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... #mevosky
biorxiv.org
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Tera Levin @teralevin.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Bacterial immune proteins have repeatedly evolved to become parts of eukaryotic immunity. But how? Our new preprint uncovers a recent horizontal transfer event & shows how eukaryotes co-opted a toxic bacterial immune protein 🦠🧪🧵 1/
Microscopy image showing yeast cells expressing a fluorescently tagged version of the amoeba TirC protein. TirC forms filaments that span the yeast cells.
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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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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 01/05/2026
Join us! @wellcometrust.bsky.social postdoc position using experimental evolution to understand real-world resistance dynamics. See preprint for the 🤯 strain collection we will be working with www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Closing 15 May. Apply: www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... #mevosky
biorxiv.org
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Megan Sorensen @messorensen.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
Interested in working on the evolution of photosynthetic endosymbioses? Come join us! I have 2 open positions in my new group @cemess.bsky.social in Vienna 3yr postdoc info: tinyurl.com/4emkjpn4 4yr PhD info: tinyurl.com/mtxmsjpy Apply by 1st June! Please share/repost #Protists #Symbiosis #PhD
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 30/04/2026
A form of intrinsic biocontainment, essentially ways to limit unwanted release / protect IP etc.
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 28/04/2026
We have a PhD studentship available to develop genome safeguarding technologies for synthetic phage therapeutics www.findaphd.com/phds/project... It is part of an exciting new @officialuom.bsky.social PhD by Enterprise programme www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/study/resear...
findaphd.com
(PhD by Enterprise) Genome safeguarding technologies for synthetic phage therapeutics against multidrug resistant bacterial infections at The University of Manchester on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - (PhD by Enterprise) Genome safeguarding technologies for synthetic phage therapeutics against multidrug resistant bacterial infections at The University of Manchester, listed on FindAPhD...
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 24/03/2026
Here’s another classic: biofilms on glass culture vessel walls stabilise bacteria-phage coexistence www.jstor.org/stable/2463459
jstor.org
Host-Parasite Coexistence: The Role of Spatial Refuges in Stabilizing Bacteria-Phage Interactions on JSTOR
S. J. Schrag, J. E. Mittler, Host-Parasite Coexistence: The Role of Spatial Refuges in Stabilizing Bacteria-Phage Interactions, The American Naturalist, Vol. 148, No. 2 (Aug., 1996), pp. 348-377
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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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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 23/03/2026
Resistance against T4P-binding phage often involves loss of pilus retraction leading to more biofilm. An oldie: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16006335/
pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
The effect of a bacteriophage on diversification of the opportunistic bacterial pathogen, Pseudomonas aeruginosa - PubMed
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that colonizes the lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. CF lungs often contain a diverse range of P. aeruginosa phenotypes, some of which are likely to contribute to the persistence of infection, yet the causes of diversity are unclear. Wh …
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Chris Hassall @katatrepsis.bsky.social · 09/03/2026
Very excited to announce that we are hiring for three faculty positions at @universityofleeds.bsky.social in @bioscienceleeds.bsky.social: A/Prof Plant Science, A/Prof Animal Biology and Lecturer in Ecology, Zoology, Biodiversity or Ecosystem Management. Please do get in touch to chat. Links below:
jobs.leeds.ac.uk
Job Opportunity at University of Leeds: Associate Professor of Plant Science
Associate Professor of Plant Science Salary: Grade 9 (£61,759 - £73,708 p.a, depending on experience)This role will be based on the university campus, with scope for elements of the job to be undertak...
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Aritz Roa-Eguiara @aritz-roa.bsky.social · 07/03/2026
🚨Preprint! Happy to share the research from my PhD “Genome delivery of a contractile tailed phage and its superinfection exclusion mechanism”. We use cryoEM to study the genome ejection of the phage T4, revealing how the tape measure protein regulates the process. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Thibaut Brunet @thibautbrunet.bsky.social · 28/02/2026
Final version @nature.com of our paper describing unconventional multicellular development in a choanoflagellate inhabiting an extreme environment. A ton of new data since the first @biorxivpreprint.bsky.social preprint (which we've kept updating). A brief 🧵 (carried over from the old place)
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Very cool!
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Mark A. Hanson @hansonmark.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Pleased to finally share this fun collab that began at #Ento23 @cedricaumont.bsky.social presented & I had seen NCBI annotated some cockroach genomes as "contaminated." Turns out NCBI & I were wrong (much more fun). Horizontal transfer of an #AntimicrobialPeptide across insects bit.ly/DrsHGT 1/🧵
A phylogenetic tree of insects is shown annotating the presence or absence of a an antimicrobial peptide gene across winged insectsVarious phylogenetic secondary loss events are mapped to a tree of insects to explain the parsimony calculations necessary to explain the diversity of insect Drosomycin antimicrobial peptide genesAntimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are key defence molecules of the innate immune system of plants and animals. Understanding the evolutionary origins of AMPs can help to explain how immune systems acquire novelty and vary in their defensive capabilities. However, AMPs evolve rapidly, and so the origins of similar AMPs across organisms is often unclear. Furthermore, false negatives due to low search sensitivity are common and can hinder confident annotations about true absences. Due to these difficulties, understanding whether similar AMP genes found in diverse organisms represent ancestral molecules or evolutionary novelties has been challenging. In this report, we present evidence of
horizontal gene transfer (HGT) of the antifungal peptide gene Drosomycin across insects. We show that in Diptera, the presence of Drosomycin is restricted to the Melanogaster group and additionally the
distant relative Drosophila busckii. We go on to recover Drosomycin genes in cockroaches (Blattodea), mantises (Mantodea), one katydid (Orthoptera), various beetles (Coleoptera), and a recently acquired
pseudogenized Drosomycin locus in Liposcelis booklice (Psocodea), but no other insects. Explaining this diversity through shared ancestry requires at least 50 independent loss events, or just seven HGT
events. Previous studies have suggested that similar AMPs found across divergent species reflect conservation from a common ancestor, or due to their small size, that they arose via convergent evolution resulting from pathogen-imposed selection. Our findings suggest horizontal gene transfer can be responsible for the presence of some AMP genes found scattered across the tree of life. By presenting a mechanism through which immune systems can acquire novelty, our study also suggests a possible explanation for certain lineage-specific competencies for defence against infectious disease. While loss of AMP genes is common in certain lineages, here we suggest gain of AMPs can occur just as suddenly.
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Sam Hobbs @hobbslabutah.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
CBASS is a cyclic nucleotide-based antiviral system in bacteria that is related to cGAS-STING signaling in animals. One of the big questions is how CBASS is activated during phage infection? We made some progress on this during my final year in the Kranzusch lab. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Sorek Lab @soreklab.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
Out today: We discovered new viral proteins that target immune signaling molecules, solely based on their AlphaFold-predicted shapes www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... Congrats Nitzan Tal and coauthors! Thank you Kranzusch lab for the fun collaboration! Linking below previous thread on our findings
science.org
Structural modeling reveals phage proteins that manipulate bacterial immune signaling
Immune systems in animals, plants, and bacteria often rely on intracellular nucleotide signaling, which viruses can block by sequestering or degrading these signals. We identified structural and bioph...
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Géraldine Laloux @lalouxlab.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
#MicroSky Please RT @erc.europa.eu-funded postdoc position in my lab to identify the molecular basis of prey-predator interactions using our favorite micro-vampire Bdellovibrio exovorus as a model. Let's find what the bite is made of! 🧛 Flexible start date. Info: euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/415877
euraxess.ec.europa.eu
Postdoctoral researcher in molecular and cellular bacteriology - ERC CoG VAMPIRE
The research group of Prof Géraldine Laloux at the de Duve Institute (UCLouvain) is looking for a highly motivated postdoc to elucidate the molecular factors underlying bacterial prey-predator interac...
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Peter Fineran @peterfineran.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
New post-doctoral research position in my phage-host interactions (Phi) laboratory in @otagomicroimmuno.bsky.social at @universityofotago.bsky.social New Zealand. The project is focused on defences against jumbo phages. Please share and if interested apply using the link in the comments.
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Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 27/01/2026
Phage therapy offers a powerful tool against AMR infections—but only if we move from isolated cases to coordinated systems. The first initiative of the ASM Health Unit, led by Colleen Kraft and Dev Mittar, will tackle this. Delighted by this scientific leadership, join us! asm.org/about-asm/as...
asm.org
Phage Therapy Coordination Network | ASM.org
ASM Health is unlocking bacteriophage therapies for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through coordinated access and regulatory approvals.
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Pedro Dorado-Morales @doradomoralesp.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
New preprint out on bioRxiv! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Can conjugative plasmids be used to control plasmid and pathogen spread? Follow me down the rabbit hole that led to this story 🧵
biorxiv.org
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BejaLabTechnion @bejalab.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Convergent MurJ flippase inhibition by phage lysis proteins www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Convergent MurJ flippase inhibition by phage lysis proteins - Nature
A common mechanism of inhibition of the essential lipid II flippase MurJ by three distinct phage-encoded single-gene lysis proteins provides insights into potential new targets for antimicrobial devel...
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Jesse Shapiro @bjesseshapiro.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Now out & nicely formatted in @isme-microbes.bsky.social A big analysis of ocean genomes & metagenomes co-led by former postdocs, now PIs, @gmdouglas.bsky.social & @cyanophage.bsky.social along with co-PIs @lbobay.bsky.social & Samuel Chaffron. A few highlights... 🧵 (1/n) doi.org/10.1093/isme...
doi.org
Co-occurrence is associated with horizontal gene transfer across marine bacteria independent of phylogeny
Abstract. Understanding the drivers and consequences of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a key goal of microbial evolution research. Although co-occurring
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Richard Lenski @relenski.bsky.social · 24/02/2026
Happy 38th birthday to the #LTEE! #BOTD in 1988. Keep on evolving! #science #evolution #microbiology
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Yonatan Grad @yhgrad.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Now published: our work using phylodynamics from surveillance data to quantify and experimentally validate the fitness impact of antibiotic resistance determinants & how this changes with patterns of antibiotic use: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Quantifying the real-world impact of antibiotic use and genetic determinants of resistance on gonococcal dynamics
Nature Microbiology - Phylodynamic modelling shows how the changing antibiotic landscape and genetic determinants of resistance shape real-world gonococcal dynamics. Experiments validated that...
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Vaughn Cooper @vscooper.micropopbio.org · 25/02/2026
Thank you Mike! I encourage your colleagues to join the new initiative from ASM Health to develop and execute on synergies with phage therapy. Would be great to involve multiple societies and NGO's here as appropriate, as we share common goals. asm.org/about-asm/as...
asm.org
Phage Therapy Coordination Network | ASM.org
ASM Health is unlocking bacteriophage therapies for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through coordinated access and regulatory approvals.
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Thanks for the heads up Vaughn — will check it out and sign up 🙌
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David Sünderhauf @davvi36.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Out now in @plosbiology.org : our big joint effort on the role of #CRISPR in plasmid competition. Read on for a really fun (I’m biased ok) analysis of how a defence system has new selective pressures when it’s mobile journals.plos.org/plosbiology/... 1/6
Two cartoon images of children with plasmids for faces about to fight. Commentators are saying "Plasmid-borne CRISPR-Cas systems provide significant defensive benefits" and "Yes, but toxin-antitoxin systems on competitor plasmids constrain the offensive CRISPR-Cas benefit"
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Guillermina Ramirez-SanJuan @guille-rochelle.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Excited to share our new preprint exploring how Paramecium achieves diverse flow functions, i.e. feeding and swimming, simultaneously. This work was spearheaded by our ExM expert, PhD student Daphne Laan @daphnelaan.bsky.social : www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
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Laurent Duret @handle.invalid · 23/02/2026
Up to what degree of interspecific genetic distance is it possible to form viable and fertile hybrids? A strange species of paramecium breaks the record: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Richard Lenski @relenski.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Alita Burmeister (@aburmeister.bsky.social) is looking to hire a postdoc (or potentially a PhD student) for projects on phage resistance and evolution. The position description is posted to the Eco-Evo Jobs wiki and also available on her lab's website (arburmeister.weebly.com).
arburmeister.weebly.com
The Burmeister Lab: Studying Microbial Evolution and Extinction
​Our research integrates evolutionary biology and microbiology, using bacteria and phage as study systems to address fundamental questions in both fields. ​ ​We study microbial evolution, a...
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Siobhán O'Brien @siderophile.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
MENI is back! Join us in Dublin this August 2026 for our 3rd Meeting for Microbial Evolution in Ireland. We are delighted to have @rachelmwheatley.bsky.social @drrebeccajhall.bsky.social @jpjhall.bsky.social and @tweethinking.bsky.social join us as keynote speakers this year. miniurl.com/MENI
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Adam Mulkern @mulkern.bsky.social · 21/02/2026
Cancer therapies exploit DNA repair defects to kill tumours. We asked whether the same logic could constrain antibiotic resistance evolution... www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Jonathan Eisen @phylogenomics.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Thanks Zam 🙌
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
But some ways skin the cat faster and more predictably than others… More on the evolvability of different lineages coming soon(ish)!
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Thanks Rich! 🙌
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Thanks Jesse!
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Thanks Alan 😮‍💨
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Key take-aways: There are lots of insights here for how to diagnose and manage resistance more effectively… but most important #1 for chronic infections is finding out if resistance is there BEFORE you start to treat! - doable, cheap, likely to delay resistance www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Continuing to treat already resistant infections tends to drive ever higher resistance: evolution doesn’t stop at the breakpoint folks! www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
But, in low diversity infections costs pose no barrier to increasing resistance, driven by recurrent selective sweeps of costly resistance mutations. As such, fitness trade-offs can be leveraged to reduce resistance provided there is ecological competition. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Key take-aways: Resistance is costly. In some patients with high diversity this leads to oscillating resistance levels as susceptible and resistant subpopulations alternate driven by antibiotic selection on a resistance:growth trade off. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Key take-aways: Selection of pre-existing resistance predominated and accelerated emergence of breakpoint resistance relative to more stochastic processes of spontaneous mutations or strain immigration www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Key take-aways: Cipro resistance emerged by 3 main eco/evo mechanisms 1. Selection for pre-existing resistance 2. Spontaneous mutations 3. Immigration of resistant strains OR complex combinations of multiple of these mechanisms www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Prof Jenny Rohn @jennyrohn.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Super interesting - many roads lead to #AMR in different patients #IDSky
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Matthew J Shepherd @matthewjshepherd.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
🚨 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)
biorxiv.org
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Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
How does treatment induced antibiotic resistance happen in real-world infections? We analysed 25k Pseudomonas isolates from 180 patients in a clinical trial to find out! TLDR: The ecological and evolutionary paths are surprisingly diverse & complex even in patients receiving identical treatment…
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