Ville Friman

ERC-Plus: jackpot science or missed chance to fix academia? My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re…

I just published: ERC-Plus: jackpot science or missed chance to fix academia?

My reflections on ERC-Plus, Europe’s newest ultra-competitive research grant and what it tells us about the academic culture we’re building.

medium.com/p/erc-plus-j...

Check this out for the 2026 SISB (phage defense) meeting in NYC. Mark your calendar! (and note the Zoom option, if needed)
sisb2026.rockefeller.edu

Same - hope to see you soon again!

🚨Preprint alert - this is a big one! We transfer the revolutionary power of TnSeq to bacteriophages.

Our HIDEN-SEQ links the "dark matter" genes of your favorite phage to any selectable phenotype, guiding the path from fun observations to molecular mechanisms.

A thread 1/8

A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - A Farewell to Arms: The Trade-off Between Growth and Defence in Bacteria (York YBDTP Project) at University of York, listed on FindAPhD.com

Two fully-funded PhD openings in my research group at the University of York.
If you’re excited about viromes, phage biology, Nanopore sequencing, soils and the odd bit of alpine or agricultural field sampling, we’d love to hear from you!
🌱🦠🏔️

tiny.cc/c4pv001
tiny.cc/e4pv001

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...

Interested in doing a PhD in phage biology? See below a super cool project on megaphage ecology and evolution available at the University of Jyväskylä (FIN) in Elina Laanto's lab (Project no. 4). Co-supervision provided by yours truly.

Exciting news! I have two positions open in my lab at the UoManchester: one PDRA and one Research Tech.
Join our team to study evolutionary mycology and help us understand antifungal resistance in fungal pathogens. A fantastic opportunity to join the brilliant Manchester Fungal Infection Group!

The early bird 🐥 registration for the 8th International Bacterial Wilt Symposium has been extended until the 15th of November! To join those who have already registered visit our website 👉https://event.wur.nl/ibws2026

Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it...

New paper with my (amazing) friend and mentor @jrpenades.bsky.social
Really looking forward to see what plasmid aficionados think of this one!!
With @asantoslopez.bsky.social @wfigueroac3.bsky.social Akshay Sabins and others
www.cell.com/cell-reports...

Mucin-enriched environment shapes bacteriophage protection against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in airway epithelial cells Mucin hypersecretion, a hallmark of chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), creates a complex microenvironment that reshapes host immunity and microbial behavior. However, its impact on bacteriophage ther...

We studied how exogenous mucins influence phage-bacterium interplay in human epithelial cells. This work is now available in BiorXiv

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

Three Bicentenary research fellowships on offer at @officialuom.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social for exceptional ECRs with <3y postdoc experience

3yrs salary + £30k pa research expenses

Do you have a great idea & want to join @mermanchester.bsky.social?

www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/research/sup...

Ecological constraints foster both extreme viral-host lineage stability and mobile element diversity in a marine community Phages are typically viewed as very rapidly evolving biological entities. Little is known, however, about whether and how phages can establish long-term genetic stability. We addressed this eco-evolut...

Phages evolve fast, or do they?
In oysters, some stay identical for years.
With >1,200 phages & 600 Vibrio genomes, we reveal long-term stability and new mobile elements.
Proud of this collaborative work across our teams (Roscoff-UdeM and @epcrocha.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/cgi/content/...

5-years in the making this paper has been a real journey!

Also, a fun collaboration with @frimanscience.bsky.social @jofoth.bsky.social Edze Westra, Simon Lovell, Aras Kadioglu

#mevosky #phagesky

A teal flyer for a PhD opportunity to investigate how warming may change antimicrobial resistance. The project will use experiments on Klebsiella bacteria to answer questions about how temperature affects their response to antibiotics, plasmid transfer, and fitness costs. The research involves microbiology lab work, bioinformatics, and mathematical modeling. The flyer includes contact details for Dr. Daniel Padfield and the logos of the sponsoring institutions.

I have an MRC-funded PhD project available (www.exeter.ac.uk/study/fundin...) on how warming will change the problem of AMR. Join a small and friendly group (padpadpadpad.netlify.app/about) in (sometimes) sunny Cornwall. 🧪🦠 #microsky

Please share the ad below with anyone who may be interested.

Professor or Associate professor (Tenure Track/Full) in Microbial Genetics of Health - Turun yliopisto - Työpaikat - Duunitori Avoin työpaikka: Professor or Associate professor (Tenure Track/Full) in Microbial Genetics of Health - Turun yliopisto, Turku. Duunitorilla lisäksi yli 30 000 muuta avointa työpaikkaa. Lue lisää nyt!

Professor (full) or Associate Professor (tenure track) in Microbial Genetics of Health (U. Turku Finland). Competitive starting package included! Please share.

duunitori.fi/tyopaikat/ty...

Research Associate in Microbiome Ecology:Oxford Road

A new 4 year PostDoc position in our lab! Modeling + experiments to explore dynamics of carbon fixing hot-spring microbiomes. Part of an exciting multidisciplinary team with Sophie Nixon, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social & others

Please share & get in touch if interested!

tinyurl.com/e7j7bha3

We are also hiring a 4-year postdoc to study the dynamics and evolution of mobile genetic elements in the C-fixing Icelandic host-spring microbiomes

Join our exciting multidisciplinary team funded by @ukri.org BBSRC sLoLa

www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...

Congrats Mike 🥳

One week left to submit your abstract to @microbiologysociety.org meeting on “Understanding and Predicting Microbial Evolutionary Dynamics” at Liverpool 26-27 November

Lots of spaces for ECR talks and posters!
microbiologysociety.org/event/societ...

1/27 We have a new paper out! Turns out that snowflake yeast have been hiding a secret from us - they've evolved a (very!) crude circulatory system. Not with blood vessels or a heart, but through spontaneous fluid flows powered by their metabolism. 🧪🔬

www.science.org/doi/full/10....

🚨 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 🦠🧫🔬

Fresh new abstract books are waiting for the #esm2025 congress, which starts in a few days. Don’t forget to follow us from Sunday onwards!

Great postdoc opportunity available in Zurich!

Top two recurring typos with the current grant write-up:

1) Metagnomes 🧌 (Metagenomes)
2) Pants 🩳 (Plants)

Sedentary chromosomal integrons as biobanks of bacterial antiphage defense systems Integrons are genetic systems that drive bacterial adaptation by acquiring, expressing, and shuffling gene cassettes. While mobile integrons are well known for spreading antibiotic resistance genes, t...

🧫🦠🔬🧬 @science.org Sedentary chromosomal integrons as biobanks of bacterial antiphage defense systems | Science www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
@baptistedarracq.bsky.social @eloilittner.bsky.social @celineloot.bsky.social @epcrocha.bsky.social et al.
#microbiology #phage #immunity #phagesky #MicroSky

This will be an excellent meeting - highly recommended!

Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics - 2025 meeting

This meeting will be great!

Abstract submission open now

See you 26-27 Nov in Liverpool

microbiologysociety.org/event/societ...

Hope to see lots of interesting Ralstonia research in Wageningen next year!

Join the ESEB 2025 symposium on bacteria-phage ecology and evolution (S43) with Frédérique Le Roux and Michael Brockhurst as invited speakers. Submit abstracts by April 25, 2025 (eseb2025.com/call-for-abs...). See you in Barcelona, August 17-22, 2025! #phagesky