Sam Williams

Interested in superbugs, AMR and stress resistance? Join us to do a PhD in the Corrigan lab
@UCDMedicine www.ucd.ie/graduatestud...

A multi-strategy antimicrobial discovery approach reveals new ways to treat Chlamydia Bacteria of the genus Chlamydia cause millions of infections each year and have an obligate intracellular lifestyle that makes finding specific treatments particularly difficult. This study developed ...

Interesting antibiotic discovery paper in @plosbiology.org

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

Bakta Web – rapid and standardized genome annotation on scalable infrastructures Abstract. The Bakta command line application is widely used and one of the most established tools for bacterial genome annotation. It balances comprehensiv

We happily present: “Bakta Web – rapid and standardized genome annotation on scalable infrastructures” @OxUniPress NAR’s Web Server issue
doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

Easy to use, no registration, fast, scalable, various visualizations, in sync with Bakta CLI:
bakta.computational.bio
(1/5)

Last night @itvpeston.bsky.social interviewed UK opposition leader @kemibadenochmp.bsky.social…

They showed her a series of charts showing why gas – not net-zero – is to blame for high power prices, inc one from me (pic)

Watch the full clip here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NuG...

antiSMASH 8.0: extended gene cluster detection capabilities and analyses of chemistry, enzymology, and regulation Abstract. Microorganisms synthesize small bioactive compounds through their secondary or specialized metabolism. Those compounds play an important role in

antiSMASH8: The Ocho

Manuscript is out!
doi.org/10.1093/nar/...

antiSMASH 8.0: extended gene cluster detection capabilities and analyses of chemistry, enzymology, and regulation Abstract. Microorganisms synthesize small bioactive compounds through their secondary or specialized metabolism. Those compounds play an important role in

antiSMASH 8.0: extended gene cluster detection capabilities and analyses of chemistry, enzymology, and regulation academic.oup.com/nar/advance-... #jcampubs

Congrats Courtney!

When are rhizosphere Pseudomonads different from other rhizosphere Pseudomonads?
When they are isolated from different wheat cultivars!
We found surprising intra-genus diversity with implications for secondary metabolite production 👇
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Al Gore’s Real-Time Climate Data Just Went Live—Here’s Why It Matters How Real-Time Climate Data from Climate TRACE is transforming emissions tracking—bringing transparency, speed, and accountability to global climate action.

Climate TRACE shows you where and when greenhouse gas emissions are occurring.

Activate climate’s ‘silent majority’ to supercharge action, experts say Making concerned people aware their views are far from alone could unlock the change so urgently needed

89% of world’s people want stronger action on climate but mistakenly believe they're in a minority

69% willing to contribute 1% of their income to the climate fight, & more than 50% in all but a few countries, but believed only a minority would also be willing

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

There’s still about 60 places left in the microbial natural products starter pack - let me know if you’d like added! go.bsky.app/72NeGsT

New call for papers from mSystems! Submit your research on Microbial Ecology and Evolution.

📢 Call for papers! Submit your research to #mSystems' new collection on Microbial Ecology and Evolution. Contribute systems-level insights into microbial communities, evolution and ecosystems. Submit now: asm.social/2mq

GTDB Release 10-RS226 (16th April 2025) has been published
gtdb.ecogenomic.org

International student decline ‘jeopardising UK research base’.

A drop in the number of postgraduate international students coming to the UK is causing “significant and growing insecurity” in the UK’s research base, a report has warned.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-u...

Women, minorities fired in purge of NIH science review boards Scientists, with expertise in fields that include mental health, cancer and infectious disease, typically serve five-year terms and were not given a reason for their dismissal.

Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards.

Virtual cells for predictive immunotherapy - @fertiglab.bsky.social @genomescience.bsky.social go.nature.com/4jfqM3Y

New postdoc position in our lab (2 y+): evolutionary genomics of integrons and MGEs with focus on vibrio-phage interactions. Great environment @pasteur.fr for science, career building. Super collaborators @celineloot.bsky.social @amazeld.bsky.social @fredoleroux.bsky.social 3 weeks to apply!

This is a must-read for everyone involved in metabolomics.

Personally I love this article because I no longer have to write a long paragraph when I say 'please don't use pathway analysis' during peer review 🤣

Frontiers | Inexpensive Apparatus for High-Quality Imaging of Microbial Growth on Agar Plates The ability to capture images of results or processes is an important tool in the biologist’s tool kit. In microbiology, capturing high-quality images of mic...

We built this in my laboratory: www.frontiersin.org/journals/mic...

The crisis for UK steel is exposing another – perhaps even bigger – crisis for the UK

Our news media seems incapable of even the most basic factchecking

YES energy for UK steelmakers is costly
NO it's not due to net-zero
YES it is due to GAS

Here's what UK media isn't telling you🧵

I've answered consulting client questions dozens of times over the years to the effect of "should I force my users traveling to China to take burner devices to safeguard our IP?"

It's amazing that in just a few short months, the US is on par with China for many countries' espionage concerns.

Join us for the RSC Chemical Biology Leadership Retreat for Early Career Researchers! This is designed for researchers within 5 years of their first independent position. Bursuries are available (details in link below).

Venue: Imperial College London
Date: 10-12 Sep 2025
www.rsc.org/events/detai...

Fancy yourself as an editor at Nature Microbiology? This is your chance! Come work with us at @natmicrobiol.nature.com and @naturecomms.bsky.social

One thing maybe not discussed enough is the long term opportunity cost of not investing and supporting open source software. Imagine the more and better Blenders, GIMPs, Firefoxs, InkScapes, QGISs etc we would of had (+ could have) if open source was taken more seriously by government and businesses

Research Visit Grant Login to apply

Research Visit Grants now open! Funding available for eligible members planning a short 1-3 month lab visit. Apply by 01 May 25, 23:59 BST. Check eligibility & apply here: microb.io/2vS9B2x. #ResearchFunding

The Quadram Institute has a pretty cool setup over there. This sounds like a fun job.

This has been a long journey, but it's now out in final form. @kjamali.bsky.social

academic.oup.com/bioinformati...

Harnessing microbial co-culture to increase the production of known secondary metabolites Covering: 2019 to 2024 Secondary metabolites (SMs) are naturally occurring defense or signaling molecules that are also utilized as human and animal drugs, crop protection agents, and fine chemicals.…

Be sure to read in our latest issue this review from István Molnár, Peng Xu, Bo-Bo Zhang & co. at Shantou University on harnessing microbial co-culture to increase the production of known secondary metabolites #secmet #natprod

Find it here🔽

CoverM: Read alignment statistics for metagenomics AbstractSummary. Genome-centric analysis of metagenomic samples is a powerful method for understanding the function of microbial communities. Calculating r

CoverM is published!

CoverM: Read alignment statistics for metagenomics academic.oup.com/bioinformati... #jcampubs

Microbial warfare brought us CRISPR. What big breakthroughs could be next? Gene editing and many other useful biotechnology tools came from studies of bacteria fighting off viral invaders. But scientists have only begun to unlock the secrets of this ancient arms race.

OK. I don't need to explain the importance of 'blue-sky' research to people on here, but this story in @nature.com is so cool! The area of research that delivered CRISPR gene editing has exploded and is turning up all kinds of cool tools for molecular biology. www.nature.com/articles/d41...