Tracy Palmer

MRC curiosity-driven research reopens with new approach The Medical Research Council (MRC) unpauses curiosity driven research funding and improves the funding process.

MRC have announced their new approach to curiosity-driven research: www.ukri.org/news/mrc-cur...
Boards gone (?) replaced with flexible panels and interviews. DPFS and Gap fund renamed.

Sounds like a metaphor!

Only 7 per cent of Northumbria staff agree to give up TPS pension University’s attempt to entice academics to abandon expensive scheme by offering generous payouts described as ‘abject failure’

Northumbria University’s attempt to entice academics to abandon expensive pension scheme by offering generous payouts described as ‘abject failure’

2 x Assistant Professor in Chemistry University of Warwick - Department of Chemistry.

📍 Location: University of Warwick, UK
📅 Start date: AY 2026/2027
⏰ Deadline to apply: 8th April 2026

warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/appcentre...

Sheffield Hallam restricts TPS access to REF academics only Teaching staff at post-92 institution to be employed by subsidiary firm and lose right to access expensive pensions scheme

Sheffield Hallam’s new plan to save cash:

🔸 All teaching-focused staff to be employed by a subsidiary firm
🔸 All non-REF staff to be moved to a pension scheme with a lower employer contributions

#UKHE

2 year fellowship available in AMR research www.medicalresearchfoundation.org.uk/grants/antim...

Are you investigating the biology of prokaryotic or eukaryotic cells? Are you looking for an excellent scientific environment to establish and lead your own research team? The I2BC is your place and a new call for team leaders is now open.
More info👇Deadline 22nd April
@i2bcparissaclay.bsky.social

Future Leaders Fellowships: round 11 Funding to support ambitious research and innovation across UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)’s remit. You must be a researcher or innovator who is looking to establish or transition to independence.

Interested in the Future Leaders Fellowship Scheme?

Join our upcoming webinars to learn more about the scheme, application process and what support is available.

24 March: webinar for host organisations
26 March: webinar for applicants

Register via the ‘additional information’ section ⬇️

Ubercool.
Toxin-antitoxin systems were discovered 40 years ago in E. coli, and later on in many genomes including in euks.
Now the 1st TA system is reported in the mouse genome!
It affects embryo killing. Amazing distribution of a simple yet efficient genetic system
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

France’s 75 public universities are all running a deficit this year, as researchers warn budget cuts put science at risk #highered #EduSky https://ow.ly/WPz850YrrL1

A Modular Genetic Toolbox for Precise Gene Regulation and Multi-Color Imaging in Streptococci Abstract. Fluorescent labeling is a powerful tool in microbiology allowing live cell imaging and providing insights into dynamic cellular processes, quanti

New tools for Streptococcal cell biology! congrats to Johann Mignolet and Virginie Libante! doi.org/10.1093/fems...

Lovely work driven by Lizzie Ledger in the group: a new but druggable mechanism by which Staphs produce biofilm using components of human serum. First polysaccharides, then protein, then eDNA, now lipids too!

bsky.app/profile/bior...

Streptococcus mitis bacteriocins drive contact-dependent lysis of S. pneumoniae facilitating transformation in multispecies environments | mBio Many streptococci are naturally competent, acquiring environmental DNA through transformation. This includes pathogens like Streptococcus pneumoniae and commensals like Streptococcus mitis, which can exchange genetic material through horizontal gene transfer (HGT). For example, S. mitis can acquire pneumococcal capsules, leading to its misidentification in polymicrobial samples such as those obtained from the upper respiratory tract. Understanding the drivers of HGT between these species is therefore critical. Here, we characterize a competence-induced bacteriocin cluster in S. mitis. These bacteriocins lyse pneumococci, promoting DNA release and enhancing gene transfer in dual-species biofilms. Our findings uncover a mechanism by which competence-associated predation promotes interspecies HGT, shaping the evolution and epidemiology of streptococcal populations.

😮👀
Streptococcus mitis bacteriocins drive contact-dependent lysis of S. pneumoniae facilitating transformation in multispecies environments | mBio journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...

Pls re-post: My department @oxfordbiochemistry.bsky.social are recruiting for several new faculty positions (links below). Broad search in molecular biology/biochemistry, across prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Interested in understanding life at the molecular level, this job might be for you!
1/n

Have you become religious?!

Great talk from @hobbslabmicro.bsky.social - thank you for visiting @mhd-newcastle.bsky.social and telling us why antibiotic tolerance is so important

Research Fellow at University of St Andrews Searching for an academic job? Explore this Research Fellow opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

🚨 We’re hiring – MRC-funded Postdoc (3 yrs)

Research Fellow to investigate how mobile genetic elements interact in Staphylococcus aureus and shape gene transfer and pathogenicity.

University of St Andrews
Closes 31 March 2026

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DQR250/r...

Enquiries: afh22@st-andrews.ac.uk

Mapping the ultrastructural topology of septin cage entrapment

PhD studentship with @carolynmoores1.bsky.social

Direct link here: www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/fees-a...

I think that’s true, sadly

Come work with Ben Berks FRS in Oxford
2 x PDRA posts: Molecular Analysis of Bacterial Outer Membrane Protein Biogenesis

2 complementary projects investigating bacterial outer membrane protein biogenesis. Building on our recent work (Nature (2015) 647: 479-487)

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Are you a structural biologist pushing the boundaries of molecular science with an ambitious research programme?
Join our Structural Studies Division as a tenure-track Group Leader, with core funding, world-leading facilities & enthusiastic colleagues.
Apply by 16 MAR
www.nature.com/naturecareer...

Absolutely insane story about a middle-aged woman from Hertfordshire who got arrested, shackled, and detained by ICE and held in a prison for eight weeks.... while on holiday... with a valid tourist visa... as she tried to leave the country.

Happy to have been involved with this review, where we besides giving an in-depth review of G+ and G- T4SSs, we also propose a unifying nomenclature that we hope will take off!

📢📢📢Lectureships at Bristol!📢📢📢

We're hiring 3 x lecturers (=assistant professor) in Biological Sciences, across the discipline.

Great department, great colleagues, great building, great city

Details here:
www.bristol.ac.uk/jobs/find/de...

The UKRI grants pause risks forcing out mid-career medical researchers The fact that a mere few months’ hiatus imperils the futures of those without permanent posts underlines the fragility of UK biomedicine, says a researcher

Opinion: When a mere few months’ hiatus in UKRI funding opportunities imperils the futures of those without permanent posts, it only underlines the fragility of UK biomedicine, says a researcher #AcademicSky #Research
ow.ly/q32l50Yhv9m

my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...
Two Postdoctoral Research Associates in the Molecular Analysis of Bacterial Outer Membrane Protein Biogenesis

BEN BERKS lab 🤩

Please spread the word: the Structural Studies Division @mrclmb.bsky.social is looking for a new tenure-track, independent group leader with an exciting plan in any area of Structural (Molecular & Cell) biology, in discovery biology and/or methods development. 🥳

mrc.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

UK university staff: please complete our survey about redundancies Academic or professional staff, employed or unemployed, we are anxious to hear your perspectives

Have any of your colleagues recently been made redundant by a UK university? Have you? Do you fear losing your job? What has been the effect of redundancies on departmental morale? We are keen to hear your views

Same!