Will Matlock

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...

Conjugation structures plasmid populations through host-lineage restriction https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.02.19.706745v1

🚨 New preprint 🚨

How promiscuous really are conjugative plasmids, and what does that mean for plasmid co-occurrence?

A pleasure to collaborate with @craigmaclean.bsky.social on the first paper of my fellowship!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

If you're interested, click on www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g... - Life and Medical Sciences, Clinical Medicine 04!

Neisseria gonorrhoeae carries an unusually large number of restriction–modification systems (up to 16!), many of which are phase-variable. How does this affect plasmid transmission in gonococci? doi.org/10.64898/202...

🔊 Job Opportunity: Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Bacterial Evolution.

Looking to recruit a postdoc to join a UKRI FLF-funded project on antibiotic resistance evolution in the microbiome 🦠

3 years funding, deadline 26th Jan, please share!
hrwebapp.qub.ac.uk/tlive_webrec...

Please do!

Excited to share some new work on plasmid host specificity and co-occurrence!

Plasmid dynamics driving carbapenemase gene dissemination in healthcare environments: a nationwide analysis of closed Enterobacterales genomes - Nature Communications Plasmid-mediated transmission plays a significant role in the spread of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales. Here, analyzing 1,115 carbapenemase-producing plasmids from Singapore, the authors sugges...

Delighted to have played a small part in this great study from colleagues in CaPES: doi.org/10.1038/s414...

The genomic basis of symbiotic integration at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - The genomic basis of symbiotic integration at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com

There's a PhD position now available with me in Bath, on the evolution of symbiosis. www.findaphd.com/phds/project.... The supervisory team also includes @anja1.bsky.social @phil-donoghue.bsky.social and others. NB, this is open both to UK-based students *and* to international students :)

We have a fully funded PhD studentship available @modmedmicro.bsky.social in Oxford to work on a really cool project looking at population heterogeneity in bloodstream infections www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/study/dphil-... Please spread the word/get in touch if you'd like to chat.

Please feel free to message me with any questions! ☺️

🔊 Fully-funded 4yr PhD studentship with the NWB DTP, working on novel regulators of bacterial nitrogen metabolism 🦠
Primary supervisor: @ariannebabina.bsky.social (University of Glasgow)
Co-supervisors: myself (Queen’s Belfast)+ Dónal Wall (Glasgow)
🌟 please share 🌟

www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...

Come and work with Nicole Stoesser and I in Oxford with the fantastic team @modmedmicro.bsky.social - great opportunity for a postdoc in microbial genomics to do some creative research with great datasets as part of our HPRU.

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

Now published in @natcomms.nature.com 🎉

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

With Gillian Rodger, @nstoesser.bsky.social, @samlipworth.bsky.social, @stat-sarah.bsky.social, and many others!

Delighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols.
Thread 1/n

Plasmids link antibiotic resistance genes and phage defense systems in E. coli Phage therapy has been proposed as an alternative to antibiotics to treat resistant infections. However, we have a limited understanding of how antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) associate with bacter...

New pre-print from my lab!
Plasmids link antibiotic resistance and phage defense.

E.coli plasmids are hotspots for both antibiotic resistance and phage defense. Phage therapy has the potential to accidentally select for antibiotic resistance!!!
#microsky#AMR#phage

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1....

Plasmids link antibiotic resistance genes and phage defense systems in E. coli https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.07.25.666796v1

Reinforcing social safety for transgender and non-binary communities amidst global legislative threats In 2017, we called for multisector public health initiatives to address discrimination and violence against transgender and non-binary communities, offering tangible recommendations for protecting the...

New Comment—Reinforcing social safety for transgender and non-binary communities amidst global legislative threats tinyurl.com/v3jvjzs5

Delighted to see this paper from danderson123.bsky.social 's PhD out. We have been building tools for AMR gene detection for over a decade now, but multicopy genes remain challenging. Dan shows that with a gene-space de Bruijn graph and long reads, you can do well
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

That was fun: 2 days of bacterial genome evolution in beautiful Bath

Ta @edfeil.bsky.social @eseb.bsky.social

Great to see @craigmaclean.bsky.social @wtmatlock.bsky.social @jpjhall.bsky.social @taylorlabgroup.bsky.social @zaminiqbal.bsky.social @epcrocha.bsky.social @jomcinerney.bsky.social &co

The leading region of many conjugative plasmids is depleted in restriction-modification targets https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.04.03.647016v1

Congrats! A brilliant demonstration of how slick PanGraph is 👏

Deadline in ‼️3 weeks‼️ for this project with me & @paulhoskisson.bsky.social 🦠 🧫

Global genomic epidemiology of bla GES-5 carbapenemase-associated integrons Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) gene cassettes comprise an AMR gene flanked by short recombination sites (attI and attC or attC and attC). Integrons are genetic elements able to capture, excise and shu...

Genomic epidemiology of blaGES-5 integrons

www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

Yes!! 🎉 We should catch up soon…

Very cool!

A chromosomal mutation is superior to a plasmid-encoded mutation for plasmid fitness cost compensation Plasmids spread important traits in microbiomes but impose fitness costs on their hosts. This study of the ecological consequences of plasmid-bacterial compensatory evolution reveals benefits to bacte...

🆕New in @plosbiology.bsky.social: we show compensatory mutations make plasmids play Rock-Paper-Scissors and turn conjugation into a weapon🛡️💫✂️🦠

w/Rosanna Wright, Jamie Wood, @mbottery.bsky.social, @kmudz.bsky.social, @scottishwormboy.bsky.social, Ellie Harrison & @brockhurstlab.bsky.social #MicroSky

AllTheBacteria - all bacterial genomes assembled, available and searchable The bacterial sequence data publicly available at the global DNA archives is a vast source of information on the evolution of bacteria and their mobile elements. However, most of it is either unassemb...

Latest data from AllTheBacteria described in our updated preprint. All illumina WGS bacterial+archaeal sequence data to Aug 2024 consistently assembled, QC, and now AMR profiling. That's 2.4 million genomes. Gene annotations almost done , coming next. Please use!

www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Expanding the diversity of origin of transfer-containing sequences in mobilizable plasmids - Nature Microbiology Characterization of known plasmid oriT features facilitates identification of 21 oriT-containing sequence families which, alongside candidate sequence validation, expands our understanding of plasmid ...

Our paper on identifying novel origins of transfer by conjugation is out! One can now expand the known oriTs from 1% to 80% in species like Acinetobacter baumannii. This contributes to unravel hitcher plasmid mobility beyond model elements. #microsky www.nature.com/articles/s41...