Rob Fagan

Happy birthday both!

Mr4 and Pip Labrador puppy sitting in the heather

Mr3 standing in some long grass with the Irish sea in the background

Recharging our batteries on Howth Head

Call for 20 Assistant Professor positions Karolinska Institutet is a world-leading medical university with a long and proud history of ground-breaking research. We are now recruiting outstanding early-career researchers with particularly exce...

Karolinska is looking for 20 (!!) assistant professors and offering 6 year appointments with ~1M USD startup packages.

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Pip the Labrador puppy and Toby the cavalier king Charles spaniel asleep on the floor together

Just took the puppy out for a final wee before bed and stepped barefoot on a slug. How's your evening going?

I was reviewer 2. Definitely not my comments. Started to think I was losing it...

Had something like this a while ago. Received the invite - a little confused as I didn't remember the paper. Emailed the editor and they were adamant I'd reviewed it a few months before. Reluctantly agreed and received the paper I had definitely never seen before. Told the editor, they insisted

Is it just me or are the vocals on Wicked massively over-produced? Finally got around to watching it as it's Ms7's new favourite movie. I have to admit that I'm fairly underwhelmed - not a patch on the stage show, especially the original cast

It's not just about protecting your own child (although that should be motivation enough), herd immunity (about 95% for measles) also protects those who can't be vaccinated or who don't respond effectively to the vaccine

Measles outbreak: child dies in Liverpool as vaccine rate plunges The death in a city where one in four young children are unprotected is fuelling warnings that the virus could spread like ‘wildfire’

This is incredibly sad. Every childhood death is an absolute tragedy but even more so when it's entirely preventable. MMR uptake in Liverpool is 73% - ripe for a huge outbreak

www.thetimes.com/article/bb28...

Labrador puppy Pip is asleep on her back with her nose resting on my left ankle. One front leg is resting on my left foot and under my right leg.

Guess I'm staying here then...

An Easyfig comparison of two DNA sequences showing that the sequence at the top has an additional three genes in the middle of the view that are missing from the bottom sequence. The regions either side are almost identical.

Is it sad that I've really enjoyed my evening making figures, with a glass of wine on hand and V for Vendetta on the TV?

Mr4 is mostly playing with his best friend in our house today so I'm going to have to remortgage to keep them in strawberries, blueberries, yogurts, cheese strings, etc.

SpoIIIL is a forespore factor required for efficient cell-cell signalling during Bacillus subtilis sporulation Author summary Bacterial endospores allow bacteria to survive stress, persist in the environment and seed new and recurring infections. Cell-cell signalling is a cornerstone of how bacteria develop in...

Checkout the latest paper from our lab in PLOS Genetics: dx.plos.org/10.1371/jour...

Thanks to our wonderful collaborators, @sgribaldo.bsky.social, @cavalab.bsky.social, @perbullough.bsky.social and Cecile Morlot.

Pip the yellow Labrador puppy asleep on a grey carpet. She is wearing a green collar. Behind her is a brown leather armchair on which Toby the black and tan Cavalier King Charles is also asleep

Our dogs would very much like for the heat to go away now

Looks really useful. Do you think this could be used in an in vitro assay - adding purified reporter to a cel lysate?

🚨 Reminder! You have just over two weeks to submit an abstract, if you want to present at the @microbiologysociety.org meeting "Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics" in Liverpool in November! #microsky 🦠🧫🔬

Selfie of Rob sitting on the ground with a blue-grey couch in the background and an abstract painting on the wall. There is a small child's foot resting on his shoulder, resting against his cheek

Self portrait composition entitled "Parenting"...

@molmicrosheffield.bsky.social the school of bioscience is looking great today! #sheffielduni

Really sad - what a horrible way to die

Had to screenshot to capture the reply - chef's kiss

Most of our exam marking is still on dead trees!

A large stack of exam scripts on my dining room table waiting to be marked

Two kids fed and off to nursery and school. Two dogs fed and asleep. One me sufficiently full of coffee - let's do this

Starting the weekend with a movie and unfortunately Ms7 chose the new Snow White - it's truly truly awful. The songs are dire, the script is turgid, the CGI uncanny valley and the acting just embarrassingly bad

It's been a few years since I've been asked to prove my right to work in the UK - maybe I've just been lucky. I have had two universities add me to their payroll though - for PhD external examiner payment. Messed up my tax code both times and needed calls to HMRC to sort

Just a little shy

The empty stage at Sheffield City Hall. There are a large number of instruments on stage including about 10 guitars, a drum kit and a baby brand piano. The backdrop is a cloth screen artwork with the evolution of humans in the centre, a t rex to the left and various animals and instruments scattered around

Tim Minchin!

A bottle of Yellow Spot whiskey

Don't mind if I do!

Pip the Labrador puppy posing for a photo in Padley Gorge. She is lying on leaf mulch among large broken rocks. On the background are trees on a downward slope onto the gorge

Taking a moment to breathe fresh air before an avalanche of exam marking. See you on the other side....

Now engineering phages with Anirudh Jakhmola from @robfagan.bsky.social lab at @sheffielduni.bsky.social #3cdf

Undoubtedly. We need massively increased taxes on high-polluters with the income used to subsidise and invest in lower impact public transport