Willem van Schaik

Er zijn nog 60 BBBers?!

As they liberated the Netherlands in WW2, I don't think we should be too harsh on the Canadians and accept their occasional missteps (like Snow and Bryan Adams)

Which I point out later in the thread

I will die on the hill that says Len - Steal My Sunshine is one of the best pop songs of all time.

YouTube video by Mjmusicwifey09 Andrea True Connection-More,More,More

If you haven't heard where the sample comes from, this will blow your mind

youtu.be/_HI3Bbx8SM8?...

(there are, of course, many other, and better, reasons why the world needs Canada)

YouTube video by LenVEVO Len - Steal My Sunshine

Honestly, if there is one reason why the world should say 'yeah, we need Canada' it is because they gave us one of the best one hit wonders of all time

youtu.be/E1fzJ_AYajA?...

The Green Heart of the University of Birmingham campus with a sign 'feel free to use the beanbags but please return thank you'

More signs of Spring

On the trail of Peaky Blinders, Black Sabbath and the perfect pint – an alternative guide to Birmingham As the Peaky Blinders film is released this week, we follow in the footsteps of the Shelbys, make a heavy metal pilgrimage and find the city’s best places to eat, drink and dance

Pretty good suggestions,nice to see The Craven Arms featured

www.theguardian.com/travel/2026/...

'Vallance said the Medical Research Council would reopen its calls in May, at which point the council would set out “the totality” of its funding'

www.researchprofessional.com/news-article...

The role of microbial genomics in delivering the UK’s national action plan for confronting antimicrobial resistance 2024–29 Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major threat to human and animal health, in addition to environmental resilience. Countries set the agenda on thei…

Are you interested in how your genomics work can meaningfully feed into addressing the UK National Action Plan on AMR? 🧬🧫 🦠💊 Then check out our handy personal view out today in Lancet Microbe … 🧵1/n
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

The role of microbial genomics in delivering the UK’s national action plan for confronting antimicrobial resistance 2024–29 Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major threat to human and animal health, in addition to environmental resilience. Countries set the agenda on their national action against AMR in the form of Natio...

What is the role of #microbial #genomics in delivering the #UK National Action Plan (NAP) for confronting #AntimicrobialResistance ( #AMR ) 2024-29? Read our new open-access #OA piece in @lancetmicrobe.bsky.social exploring this topic from various expertise🛟🧪🧬🖥️🦠💉🧫😷
www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

My grandparents had one of those extension lamps on the wall in photo 3. Nostalgia kicking in. The storeroom is amazing.

🚨 Places are going fast!
🎉 Over 100 people have already signed up for the TARGetAMR Conference 2026
🗓️ Join us at our FREE event, on 14–15 May in Birmingham to explore the future of AMR Genomics
✨ Don’t miss out!
👇 Register now www.targetamr.org.uk/hdrevents/ta...
#TARGetAMR26

New personal view article

The role of microbial genomics in delivering the UK’s national action plan for confronting antimicrobial resistance 2024–29

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

#IDSky #ClinMicro #AMR #OpenAccess #OA

The comms around UKRI changes are a mess, but this sounds promising

'Vallance insisted his “number one priority is protect and grow curiosity-driven research”, amid concerns over major reforms to UKRI’s funding programmes.'

www.researchprofessional.com/news-article...

The traditional sign Spring has started in Birmingham. @pathogenomenick.bsky.social and his group are having pizzas outside

The role of microbial genomics in delivering the UK’s national action plan for confronting antimicrobial resistance 2024–29 Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a major threat to human and animal health, in addition to environmental resilience. Countries set the agenda on thei…

Delighted by this @target-amr.bsky.social publication in @lancetmicrobe.bsky.social. Led by @drtessjohnson.bsky.social and @lewiscemason.bsky.social

'The role of microbial genomics in delivering the UK’s national action plan for confronting AMR 2024–29'

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

I definitely don't think this is a rare event per se, but Hi-C is almost certainly not the best technique to pick it up IMO

Headshot of Jeff Cole

We were deeply saddened to learn of the death of Professor Jeff Cole, a long-standing member who held many positions in the Society. Jeff was elected an Honorary Member in 2011. You can read his full obituary here: microb.io/46xYzkz

Check out some of the great work by @cynthiasilveira.bsky.social e.g. looking at Hi-C in marine environments pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39657233/

1908: the Lancet, one of the most respected scientific journals, calls for 18 age limit on reading in bed amidst a moral panic surrounding children becoming "addicted" to novels, which were "designed to keep kids hooked" and destroy their attention/mental health

If anyone is friends with any Georgian air traffic controllers, buy them a nice bottle of wine. As guardians of pretty much the only narrow gap still available between Europe and Asia that avoids both Iran, the Gulf, Ukraine and Russia, they are under some substantial pressure.

Amazing synthesis of microbial genomic evolution led by the top of the new talent on the block!

If there is a phage present at high level + many hosts that are being infected, you will probably see it in Hi-C, I agree. But this maybe uncommon in most environments, maybe in marine ecosystems more likely?

Completely with you that biology is weird and phages a different level of weird.

But it is unlikely to happen in many cells, in the same strain, at the same time, because that is what you will need, to detect it by Hi-C

In the Discussion of this paper we touch on some studies that are almost certainly interpreting noise as a signal.

Noise reduction strategies in metagenomic chromosome confirmation capture to link antibiotic resistance genes to microbial hosts The gut microbiota is a reservoir for antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs). With current sequencing methods, it is difficult to assign ARGs to their microbial hosts, particularly if these ARGs are lo...

I think Hi-C is unlikely to spot extremely rare events (e.g. the presence of non-replicating DNA inside a single cell in a community) so from that perspective most Hi-C links are probably 'real' (but with caveats re noise & bioinformatics: www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...)

Great @imibirmingham.bsky.social seminar by the brilliant @josebengoechea.bsky.social who has uncovered another cool and important mechanisms in Klebsiella pneumoniae virulence (no spoilers because unpublished data)

Assessing sequencing-based pathogen surveillance of a recreational swimming area in Oslo, Norway Sequencing-based surveillance can enable rapid and sensitive detection of environmental pathogens. The Oslofjord inlet is relatively narrow and is exposed to substantial human activity, including occa...

We’ve published a wee pilot study assessing the utility of metagenomics & full-length 16S sequencing for the detection of seasonal pathogens (and AMR) in our local urban recreational swimming hot-spot

Check it out if you’re into that stuff :)

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