April Hayes

It’s not only medications—environmental chemicals can also inadvertently harm our gut microbes. Excited to have contributed a bit to this important study!

Microplastics pose a human health risk in more ways than one New study shows that microplastics in the natural environment are colonized by pathogenic and antimicrobial resistant bacteria. The study team calls for urgent action for waste management and strongly

🚨‼️ New paper alert!

‘Sewers to Seas: exploring pathogens and antimicrobial resistance on microplastics from hospital wastewater to marine environments’

FULL ARTICLE: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

➡️ Check out @pml.ac.uk’s coverage: pml.ac.uk/news/micropl...

Great to see our @exeter.ac.uk and @pml.ac.uk research highlighted in @uk.theconversation.com 🤟🙏

➡️ theconversation.com/plastic-bio-...

Are you looking for a wild PhD opportunity? 🦠🧵

There are several opportunities to join the Wild Microbiome Lab in 2026! Scroll for more information, or visit the link below for full project descriptions and application information👇

xavharrison.github.io

NERC RED-ALERT CDT: Green Rivers: harnessing freshwater algae for bioremediation and critical metal recovery. at University of Exeter on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - NERC RED-ALERT CDT: Green Rivers: harnessing freshwater algae for bioremediation and critical metal recovery. at University of Exeter, listed on FindAPhD.com

Exciting PhD position on algal-driven metal remediation with Dr Michiel Vos and collaborators at the University of Exeter. This project combines plant and microbial ecology, and geochemistry to develop innovative biological solutions for metal pollution

www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Geographics and bacterial networks differently shape the acquired and latent global sewage resistomes - Nature Communications Antimicrobial resistance genes that have been mobilized between bacterial species represent a subset of the naturally occurring resistome. Here, the authors compare the abundance, diversity and geogra...

📢 New paper in @natcomms.nature.com

Geographics and bacterial networks differently shape the acquired and latent global sewage resistomes
doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Thrilled to share this massive global effort led by H.M. Martiny, @patrickmunk.bsky.social, F. Aarestrup & the Global Sewage Consortium

A lot has happened since our first announcement of #ExE2026, an evolutionary ecology conference hosted by @uniexecec.bsky.social in #Cornwall from June 29 to July 3 2026.

Have a look at our new website to see our confirmed plenary speakers, the mid-conference excursions, and more.

👉 evoxeco.uk 👈

Pre- and postantibiotic epoch: The historical spread of antimicrobial resistance Plasmids are now the primary vectors of antimicrobial resistance, but our understanding of how human industrialisation of antibiotics influenced their evolution is limited by a paucity of data predati...

Imagine we could travel back in time ⏪⌛️to explore the world of bacterial pathogens before humans discovered and industrialised antibiotics

We just did that to study the history of #AMR spread @science.org
doi.org/10.1126/scie...

If you like time travel & biology, this 🧵is for you👇

Happy to share our new AMR resource which has phenotypic AMR (usually MIC data) collected from publications and databases. This is paired with assemblies and annotations

We're excited for users who might train new models, find phenotype/genotype mismatches, or any other use

The overlapping microbiome: ecology, function and resilience beyond species boundaries at University of Bath on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - The overlapping microbiome: ecology, function and resilience beyond species boundaries at University of Bath, listed on FindAPhD.com

New PhD position in my lab at @uniofbath.bsky.social (with both @tweethinking.bsky.social & Dr Bethan Littleford-Colquhoun)!
We're looking for someone keen on bioinformatics and microbiome evolution.
Important info below on eligibility & URSA competition funding👇
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

proGenomes4: providing 2 million accurately and consistently annotated high-quality prokaryotic genomes Abstract. The pervasive availability of publicly available microbial genomes has opened many new avenues for microbiology research, yet it also demands rob

Congrats @fullam.bsky.social @pangenomics.bsky.social @borklab.bsky.social & team(s). Great to see this published!

proGenomes4: providing 2 million accurately and consistently annotated high-quality prokaryotic genomes: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...

Forecasting multi-trait resistance evolution under antibiotic stress Many bacteria rely on efflux pumps to survive antibiotic stress, and exposure to antibiotics often leads to mutations in pump genes or their regulators that increase pump expression. Predicting the sp...

We have a new preprint modeling the regulatory networks of efflux pumps to predict the evolution of multidrug resistance in P. aeruginosa. Also explore cross-resistance, collateral sensitivity & loss of resistance. With @suvamroy.bsky.social @elibbyscience.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Resistant zombies: how drug-resistance plasmids manipulate the behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa at University of Liverpool on Fin... PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Resistant zombies: how drug-resistance plasmids manipulate the behaviour of the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa at University of Li...

🚨#PhD studentship opportunity! Plasmids provide bacteria with antimicrobial resistance, but do they have more fundamental effects on behaviour? 🧫🦠💫🧟‍♂️

Apply for a 4y funded MRC DiMeN position with me and Jamie Wheeler @livuni-ives.bsky.social www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

PhD studentship opportunity! Join us at St Andrews to study the factors controlling plasmid transmission in the gut. Competition-funded as part of the EASTBIO DTP, co-supervised with Dr Jaclyn Pearson. Please share & pass on to anyone interested! 🦠🧫 Deadline 15th December👇

Deaths linked to antibiotic-resistant superbugs rose 17% in England in 2024 Data also shows an average of nearly 400 newly reported cases of antibiotic-resistant infections a week last year

‘The latest surveillance data found that the number of antibiotic-resistant infections in 2024 equated to an average of nearly 400 newly reported cases a week.’
www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

**PhD opportunity @uniexecec.bsky.social** How is immunogenetic variation maintained in the wild?

Why are alleles that increase disease susceptibility maintained in populations, when natural selection should eliminate them?

Analyzing human gut microbiome data from global populations: challenges and resources Research on the human gut microbiome is expanding rapidly; yet, most published studies focus on populations from high-income regions such as North America and Europe. Underrepresentation of population...

Our contribution to this special issue: a review on data analysis of human gut microbiome data from global populations

www.cell.com/trends/micro...

Super excited that the bulk of my PhD work is now preprinted! Here we used whole-community competition, or coalescence, experiments to quantify selection acting on genetically diverged strains within larger communities. (1/n)
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

A glitch in the matrix? No! I have another PhD available on temperature and AMR, this time with @swbiodtp.bsky.social. Join a friendly group (padpadpadpad.netlify.app/about) in Cornwall to do evolutionary ecology, experimental evolution, and combine phenotyping and sequencing. 🧪🦠 #microsky

I’m so glad they got there safely!! 💛

Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition - Nature Microbiology Mathematical modelling and experimental tests reveal principles that govern displacement of a resident strain by an invader in microbial communities.

Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs

Functional redundancy matters: the more overlapping microbial functions you have, the more resilient your #microbiome. We showed a strong negative correlation between redundancy loss and increase in #antimicrobial resistance protein upon #drug treatment of microbiomes.
@quadraminstitute.bsky.social

Are you, or someone you know, looking for a PhD, starting in Oct 2026?

Do you like bacteria, genomics & puzzles?🦠🧬🧩

Do you wanna work in a cutting edge of science, with some awesome people @quadraminstitute.bsky.social?

Please apply or share by 2 Dec 🗓️

#PhDposition #academicsky

Find out more ⬇️

Growing cocktail of medicines in world’s waterways could be fuelling antibiotic resistance Every flush sends traces of our medicines into rivers. When antibiotics mix with common drugs like painkillers or hormones, bacteria can evolve to resist treatment.

Countless drugs & chemicals now coexist in the environment, mixtures "that may be quietly shaping the evolution of antibiotic resistance."

The fantastic Dr April Hayes explains how:

theconversation.com/growing-cocktail-of-medicines-in-worlds-waterways-could-be-fuelling-antibiotic-resistance-266945

Growing cocktail of medicines in world’s waterways could be fuelling antibiotic resistance Every flush sends traces of our medicines into rivers. When antibiotics mix with common drugs like painkillers or hormones, bacteria can evolve to resist treatment.

I wrote a piece for The Conversation that came out today focused on our new study but also in general about mixtures of drugs in the environment and what that could mean for AMR -

theconversation.com/growing-cock...

TLDR - mixtures including non-antibiotic drugs can alter selection for AMR, and we should not only consider compounds that show effects in isolation, when in mixtures, they might enhance the effects of antibiotics

3) there were also alterations to the community composition after this seven day period.

most interestingly - these NADs had not had any similar effects when tested individually, but when they were combined with ciprofloxacin they enhanced the selective effect of ciprofloxacin

2) we found that the addition of 1 NAD to ciprofloxacin increased the inhibitory effects on growth over a 12 hour period.

we also did some longer experiments, and exposed the community to ciprofloxacin and 1 NAD for seven days. after this, the selection dynamics for several ARGs were altered

how do non-antibiotic drugs act in mixture with ciprofloxacin? we found in our recent study doi.org/10.1093/isme... that these NADs enhance selection for AMR within complex bacterial communities. we tested this mixture at environmental concs, and identified effects on growth, intI1, and other genes

RA job description

postdoc job description

Our local beach - blue waters and white sand

Elephant hawk moth

Research assistant + postdoc position on a NERC funded project working w @darrenobbard.bsky.social and collaborating with @savebutterflies.bsky.social on the ecological and evolutionary drivers of the virome of UK moths @uniexecec.bsky.social. Descriptions below and links here benlongdon.com/join/