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Rob Fagan

@robfagan.bsky.social
2.4K followers 2.4K following 547 posts

Lead for Molecular Microbiology @sheffielduni.bsky.social @molmicrosheffield.bsky.social #SEN parent, #AngelmanSyndrome Clostridial cell biology, AMR & bacteriophage structure and function He/Him sites.google.com/sheffield.ac.uk/fa…

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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 5h
I know it's going to be a quiet afternoon when Pip has been swimming
Pip the yellow Labrador asleep with her head on a grey cushion
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Luiz Pedro Carvalho, PhD @luizcarvalholab.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Wow. In a previously unknown toxin-antitoxin system (RelS-RelI) the RelS toxin halts bacterial growth by cleaving 16S rRNA at a unique site in the anti-Shine-Dalgarno region. Beautiful use of comparative genomics at the species level, powerful. @oneyrolles.bsky.social Makarova & Genevaux.
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
I've never been so happy to see rain!
Our slightly soggy back garden. In the foreground are wet pudding stones and a wooden chair. Behind this is some very parched grass and a few large plants in front of a wooden fence
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Reviewing a paper one handed. Pip had her first visit to a new doggy daycare today and I think it's safe to say she enjoyed herself
A sleeping yellow Labrador with her head resting on my right hip and her nose just touching the edge of a silver laptop visible on the foreground of the picture.
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Unpacking the last few boxes after our house move and found the central heating controller from our old house. Oops. Off to the post office in the morning....
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
If I were accused of plagiarism, I can guarantee that no-one outside of my department, and maybe a very narrow slice of the microbiology community, would know or care. I wonder what the difference is?
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Matt Johnson @profmattjohnson.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
Why supercomplexes? 🌱☀️🦠 🚨New 3 year Postdoc opportunity 🚨 A BBSRC sponsored project using single molecule AFM to interrogate ephemeral interactions between ET proteins in respiration and photosynthesis Join our diverse team and Apply here: sheffield.ac.uk/photosynthes...
sheffield.ac.uk
BBSRC Sponsored Postdoc Position
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Abigail Roberts @abigailroberts.bsky.social · 09/08/2026
As generative AI is increasingly encroaching into our everyday, this article pulled together a lot of the ethical, environmental, and cognitive concerns that I’ve been worrying about and discussing with my peers recently. thewaxdrip.substack.com/p/the-age-of...
thewaxdrip.substack.com
The Age of Almost Intelligence
“If you cross the river, a great empire will be destroyed.”
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Reviewing a paper and I seem to have acquired a 30kg scarf! Apologies to the editor and authors for the typos but my scarf keeps kicking my elbow when she's dreaming
Selfie of Rob sitting on a low-backed couch with yellow Labrador Pip lying across his shoulders on the back of the couch.
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Little boys are hilarious. Mr5 made a new friend at holiday club today - apparently they played together all day. Me: What's your new friend's name? Mr5: Don't know, didn't ask...
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026
The latest from us as part of a special issue on S-layers organised by @tbharat-lab.bsky.social S-layers make ideal phage receptors but present another barrier that must be overcome to deliver the genome into the cytoplasm. We know very little about phage that can do this!
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
Selling a house has got to be one of the most stressful things you can do. We're in a small chain but with about £2M on the line everyone is jittery and it might all fall apart over the weekend
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
House moves always start feeling very real when solicitors ask for large sums of money!
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 09/07/2026
My dogs are not impressed by the UK weather at the moment. One benefit of our very old house is that the uninsulated floor is nice and cold
Black and tan Cavalier King Charles, Toby, asleep on the wooden floor under our dining room tableYellow Labrador Pip asleep on our dining room wooden floor. Her head is resting on the edge of a blue rug and there's a pink dressing on her right front leg - she has a broken toe
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 04/07/2026
How's your evening going? I'm drawing!
Schematic showing a contractile bacteriophage binding to a bacterial cell envelope and contacting. The envelope is gram positive with an orange coloured S-layer on the surface
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Drew Hryckowian @a-hryckowian.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
New preprint from the lab led by Alex Dobrila! We show that butyrate-dependent toxin release in C. difficile is mediated by a broadly-conserved endolysin (EndD), which is under the control of the sporulation sigma factor SigK. Excited to share this story! 👇 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
EndD mediates butyrate-dependent toxin release in Clostridioides difficile
Clostridioides difficile is an urgent threat to human health. Current treatments for C. difficile infections (CDIs) are antibiotics and microbiome restoration therapy (MRT) for recurrent cases. Howeve...
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 24/06/2026
Is it a review? Is it a research article? We started out writing a review for IUCrJ CryoEM special issue but then we had to include our new data and reanalysed data sets of our previously published phage structure
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 12/06/2026
Quick trip to the vet this morning on the way to work. Tire blowout after I clipped a kerb parking. 4 hours later and I'm waiting for the RAC to come back with my wheel. Argh I have so much marking to do!!!
Flat tire on my car with a large hole in the sidewall
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
There is not enough coffee in the verse....
A large stack of exam papers awaiting marking.
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Nate O @nateo.bsky.social · 09/06/2026
This is a scandal equivalent of a hypothetical situation wherein the Chair of the UK EHRC followed neo-Nazi accounts and ‘race realists’, but the UK media won’t touch it because trans people in the UK are considered to be a minority that must be oppressed and subjugated by the state
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
I'm really lucky that 21 years ago I decided to start working on C. difficile. Just back from a great @3cdf.bsky.social meeting organised by @smitslab.bsky.social in Leiden. We have the best community - I don't have competitors, I have friends all over the world @johann-i2bc.bsky.social
Me and Johann Peltier standing on the side ofa canal in Leiden, the Netherlands. It's dark and the lights from bars are reflecting off the water
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Reese Richardson @reeserichardson.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
The Thermo Fisher situation keeps getting worse. We've now collected 450+ problematic images presented as verification data in TF's antibody catalog. This includes: 🖌️ Dozens more images with duplications or painting 🖨️ Hundreds of blots that all share the same background (behold slideshow below)
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
One of these paws is not like the other - poor pup has a broken toe. Waiting for the ortho's opinion but looks like a surgical fix needed
Yellow Labrador Pip lying on a blue vinyl floor in our vet's waiting room. She is pictured from above with her front paws in front of her. Her right paw is noticeable bigger than the left
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Planes, trains and automobiles. En route to Leiden for @3cdf.bsky.social - see you all in a few hours
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 31/05/2026
Synchronised sleeping! Our dogs really aren't enjoying the hot spell
Black and Tan cavalier king Charles spaniel Toby sleep in a brown leather armchair. Yellow Labrador Pip is asleep on the ground in the bay window behind the chair.
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Oh FFS...
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Moving house over the summer and really hoping our new place handles heat better than our 1905 brick terrace. It was 35C in our 4 year old's bedroom last night and only slightly colder in the other bedrooms. I can't justify AC for a few days a year but sorely tempted
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I have come to the conclusion that I detest editorial manager even more than I hate Researchfish (*not even a real fish*). As an author, a reviewer and an editor it is the worst imaginable platform with absolutely no redeeming features
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 09/05/2026
Paper accepted 5min after resubmission - that's an editor who's on the ball
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 02/05/2026
Just a boy and his dog
Mr4 and yellow Labrador Pip. They are walking side by side on a stoney bank with a shallow stream in the background
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 27/04/2026
Academia is such a rollercoaster. Right now I'm on a high and I'm going to savour this moment and celebrate with our group. It won't always be like this but the memory of the wins keeps us going through the rest
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 15/04/2026
Ah, another day another game of "is it a cold or is it hay fever?"
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Emmanuele Severi @emmseveri.bsky.social · 27/03/2026
#microsky Tour de force from the @pmoyniha.bsky.social @lislowe.bsky.social & @proftracypalmer.bsky.social labs on the Type VII secretion in Mycobacteria 🎉👏👏👏 Mine was a minuscule contribution, flattered to feature. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...
biorxiv.org
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Microbiology Society @microbiologysociety.org · 26/03/2026
Just one day to go until the JMM seminar with Dr Robert Fagan! Be sure to catch their discussion on ‘Clostridioides difficile - an evolving AMR threat’. Register here: microb.io/4l58vI6 #JMM
Stylized M logo with gradient blue and green colors next to bold text reading Microbiology Society on a white background.
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
Oh that is sad news. RIP Jeff
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Addgene @addgene.bsky.social · 20/02/2026
Find the hot-off-the-press plasmids here! www.addgene.org/browse/artic...
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
New paper from us. If you're interested in genetic manipulation of Clostridia, we have a few new tools for you! 36 new plasmids - all available from @addgene.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour... #microsky
microbiologyresearch.org
A set of genetic tools for use in Clostridioides difficile and related species
The Clostridia are a phylogenetically diverse group of anaerobic, spore-forming bacteria that include species of medical, veterinary and industrial importance. The last two decades have seen major adv...
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
media.tenor.com
a man is making a funny face while sitting at a table in a restaurant .
Alt: Scene from Firefly with Malcolm looking gobsmacked
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 07/02/2026
Our puppy turned 1 today. I think I managed to tire her out on a muddy walk!
Yellow Labrador Pip asleep with her head on my shoulder. Just visible is the grey wet robe she's wearing
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Omg. WTF is Happening? @lalahaenzy.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
Sir Ian McKellen performing a monologue from Shakespeare’s Sir Thomas More on the Stephen Colbert show. Never have I heard this monologue performed with such a keen sense of prescience. Nor have I ever been in this exact historical moment.TY Sir Ian, for reaching us once again. #Pinks #ProudBlue
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Alan Goddard @alangoddard.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Colleagues of mine @naomilpollock.bsky.social and @alice-rothnie.bsky.social are at a BBSRC event today and have been told that the RM call is paused, until maybe March, to allow them to transition to a open call rather than 3 deadlines a year. Nice that this is widely communicated 😉
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
I know what they're getting at with the "could put jobs at risk" but can we focus on the immediate impact? Each suspended round at MRC and BBSRC means about 80 fewer postdoc jobs and the retrospective cuts at MRC add another 30 or so
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Alasdair Hubbard @dralhubb.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Leaks everywhere and finally we get an official statement, one that somehow manages to say a lot while; No timelines. No clarity. No acknowledgement of impact on ECRs whose careers depend UKRI funding. “Later this year” isn’t a plan. And the sector deserves better than reassurance without detail.
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
Finally comms from UKRI - on a Sunday evening. No mention of the hundreds of ECRs who will see their careers ended by these decisions and notably no explanation for MRC retrospectively applying cuts and wasting all the work that went into writing, reviewing and scoring applications - £millions
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Wiep Klaas Smits (ExpBac/CMAT) @smitslab.bsky.social · 31/01/2026
Dynamic DnaA–DnaB interactions at oriC coordinate the loading and coupled translocation of two DnaB helicases for bidirectional replication url: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...
academic.oup.com
Dynamic DnaA–DnaB interactions at oriC coordinate the loading and coupled translocation of two DnaB helicases for bidirectional replication
Abstract. Bidirectional replication is a conserved principle requiring coordinated translocation of the two replicative helicases loaded at the origin. In
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
Appalling news for the biosciences in the UK. I have three grants under review at the moment so the last week since I heard these rumours have been a definite career low point. Shifting priorities (read political interference) are bad enough www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...
researchprofessionalnews.com
MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News
Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls
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Ian Sudbery @iansudbery.bsky.social · 23/01/2026
I'm seeing relatively little chatter or outcry about what is happening at the MRC, the UK's biomedical research funder. Before Christmas MRC paused the acceptance of many of its grants, including the standard applicant-led research grant. There has been no public information on what is happening 🧵
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
Been working flat out since Christmas so decided to take today off. Afternoon plans out the window after a call from Mr4's school. Never work with children or animals 🤣
Mr4 sitting beside me on the couch. He's watching a video on his tablet and Labrador puppy Pip is asleep beside him
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Rob Fagan @robfagan.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
A quick mental health break before the final grant submission push. Never too cold for a dip if you're a Labrador!
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shauna @goldengateblond.bsky.social · 31/12/2025
orcas have the chance to do the funniest thing
@joepompliano on Threads posted a pic of a map dotted with dozens of yacht names and said: “Pretty much every billionaire that owns a superyacht is in St. Barth right now for New Year's Eve - Jeff Bezos, Miriam Adelson, Shahid Khan, Sergey Brin, Jerry Jones, and 100+ others”
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