iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

🦠Fully funded PhD project with myself, Angus Buckling, Jo Lello and Phil Mitchelmore🦠 How should we design phage therapeutics for bacterial co-infections? How do interactions between pathogens affect treatment efficacy? Please get in touch if you have any Qs 💃 shorturl.at/39Xea

11920 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 22/06/2026

How do macrophage and bacteriophage interactions change over ecological and evolutionary timescales? We find that macrophages initially decrease the efficacy of phage on bacteria populations, but this effect diminishes as bacteria establish and evolve phage resistance. doi.org/10.1093/isme...

162 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 05/01/2026

Very happy to say I will be starting a NERC Independent Research Fellowship in April with the University of Exeter 🥳 This 5-year project will be looking at how environmental conditions determine the impact of phage on microbial communities 🧫🦠 Thank you to the lovely ppl who helped along the way!

3254 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 26/09/2025

Agree with this - this is prophage activity I’ve seen on streaks of one of our species

010 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 05/08/2025

Want to name a real virus? I have recently discovered 9 new phages which now need names! To enter, you simply need to donate to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust on my JustGiving page (£2 = 1 entry) and share your email with me on donation (see link info). Please share 💚 www.justgiving.com/page/meaghan-c-1

23325 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 20/06/2025

How do multiple coexisting bacteria and phages (co)evolve? Well... they don't (or do so much less! In this paper we tracked bacteria-phage (co)evolution in monoculture (individual bacteria-phage pairs) or in polyculture (all three pairs) over 6 weeks. Read more here👇 doi.org/10.1099/mic....

01810 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 25/03/2025

New phage publication! 🦠 Phage resistance increased host density instead of imposing costs (the more common consequence)! This effect then had impacts on the structure of a three-species microbial community. @padpadpadpad.bsky.social, Rai Lewis & Angus Buckling. doi.org/10.1093/fems...

A graph shows that phage resistant bacteria have higher density during the death-phase of the growth curve than phage susceptible bacteria. This impacts the structure of the microbial community by decreasing the density of a conspecific.

297 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 24/02/2025

A very progressive statement from NERC 👇 Moving simply for the sake of moving has been a career dealbreaker for the loss of connections. I have had an anxiety disorder since the age of 6 and I heavily rely on having a strong support network to succeed academically and manage my mental health.

We recognise that mobility is not the only means to acquire the skills and experiences necessary to build a research career. We also recognise the need for having a fixed institution to provide unique facilities or opportunities, and other circumstances where moving would be unsuitable, such as domestic arrangements.

191 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 25/11/2024

Officially the oldest consumable I’ve found while working here - this went out of date when I was learning what atoms were 🥲

Bottle of dulbeccos modified eagles medium which went out of date in 2007

000 0

Meaghan Castledine @mcastd.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

This combines evolutionary and ecological theory to reconcile when and where phages may be important

170 0