Neil Hall

A social card with an illustration of DNA and the text "Research Scientist, to develop new experimental methods to better understand horizontal gene transfer in the gut microbiome, salary: £37,500 to £43,350, Contract length: 2 years, Apply by 30 November 2025."

🆕 Vacancy! We’re looking for a Research Scientist to join the Laboratory of Dr Chris Quince based at the Quadram Institute and @earlhaminst.bsky.social in the Food, Microbiome and Health programme 🔬

💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 30 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/E19Nd83

Prof Andrew Millar introducing his talk, focusing on Prof Dame Janet Thornton's impact in bioinformatics and data science.

A fantastic talk from @andrewmillar.bsky.social for our Dame Janet Thornton Lecture - some fascinating considerations and insights across science and societal impact, refocusing research questions, and the urgent pull factors beyond the lab presented by global threats.

@neilhall.bsky.social

I would rather go on a NASA Mars mission using spaceX tech than a spaceX Mars mission with NASA tech. As they would be going for different reasons

I do accept that the aggressive pace and dynamism of Celera did have a positive impact on public efforts. So I don’t question the potential positives when the motives of industry and academia align - often they align at the outset but can diverge very quickly.

I agree, to a point, maybe I’m damaged by the Celera story but as I recall the drosophila and mosquito genomes were done in partnership but then used as case studies to try and undermine the need for public efforts. I’m not saying all industry is bad but I’m wary of becoming overelient

I have been thinking about this quite a bit recently. It takes me back to the genome wars days between Celera and the public effort. Sadly I feel like most government funders seem happy to cede this one to the big commercial players

📣 Applications have just opened for our 2026 #PhD programme as part of the @nrpdtp.bsky.social and @aries-dtp.bsky.social!

Begin your academic career with the expert scientists, technology, and facilities at the Earlham Institute in Norwich.

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#genomics #findaphd #AcademicSky

BioFAIR Fellowship Launches to Empower the Next Generation of FAIR Leaders - BioFAIR We are delighted to announce the official launch of the BioFAIR Fellowship, starting on 1 October 2025. This new programme is designed to build a vibrant and skilled community of researchers and profe...

🚀 The BioFAIR Fellowship launched today!

Leaders in data & workflows, working together to advance FAIR practices for the life sciences.

👉 full details: biofair.uk/updates/2025...

#FAIR #OpenScience

The BBC are usually so keen to give us Reform news. Can’t imagine why this isn’t featuring prominently on their website…

New project explores potential of soil microbes to achieve UK net zero goals Researchers are combining the latest science in climate forecasting and soil science to understand how land use management could enable soil carbon storage.

Scientists at the Earlham Institute and @quadraminstitute.bsky.social are part of a new collaboration looking at how different land uses impact #soil #microbes and their contribution to carbon storage.

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#microbial #genomics

It was a delight to have Guillaume Delhaye and Torda Varga (@rbgkew.bsky.social) at @earlhaminst.bsky.social last week, talking to a packed Norwich Research Park audience about mushroom-forming and mycorrhizal fungi from molecule to ecosystem! 🍄🧬🌳

@neilhall.bsky.social @norwichmicro.bsky.social

Group Leader - Engineering Biology

🧬 Are you looking to establish and lead an internationally recognised programme of innovative research in #engineeringbiology? ⚙️

Join our Research Faculty as a new Group Leader:
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#EngBio #Biotech #SynBio

Group Leader - Engineering Biology

🧬 Are you looking to establish and lead an internationally recognised programme of innovative research in #engineeringbiology? ⚙️

Join our Research Faculty as a new Group Leader:
buff.ly/VGQNod7

#EngBio #Biotech #SynBio

Our paper on phylogenetics of fungal Starship TEs is now on the cover of the June issue of Genetics @genetics-gsa.bsky.social 🙂
academic.oup.com/genetics/iss...

@mcmullan0.bsky.social @earlhaminst.bsky.social @rothamsted.bsky.social

Norwich Single-Cell and Spatial Symposium Now in its eighth year, and extended to a two-day event, the Norwich Single-Cell and Spatial Symposium at Earlham Institute covers single-cell and spatial genomics technologies and their application…

Register to join our #singlecell and #spatial symposium next month! We're bringing the community together to discover the last science and technologies in:
🦠 Environmental microbes
🧠 Healthy human development and ageing
🌱 Plant development
🧬 Human pathology
↔️ Cell dynamics

🖥️ 🧬 🧪

Colleagues networking during the lunch time poster session.

Dr Wilfried Haerty introduces the CellGen research programme, with a slide explaining the aim of exploring genomic variation within cell type.

Dr Karim Gharbi, Head of Technical Genomics, with a sresentation screen explaining the capabilities of the high-performance sequencing platforms at the Earlham Institute, including automated DNA and RNA pipelines, long and short-read sequencing, deployment of new technologies, and integrated project management and bioinformatics analysis.

Drs Sonia Fonseca and James Wilsenach present their research bringing together imaging techniques and transcriptomics to study megakaryocyte cells.

A great morning of talks at our Scientific Advisory Board Symposium, exploring key research outputs from our #Cellular #Genomics research programme, as well as the expertise and research applications of our technology platforms.

#genomics #datascience #engbio 🧬🖥️

@neilhall.bsky.social

Developing a crop- wild-reservoir pathogen system to understand pathogen evolution and emergence Evidence for those pathogen genes selected specifically for success on crops.

📃 A new publication from @mcmullan0.bsky.social and the Hall Group studies pathogen genetic diversity to uncover how #crop #pathogens may be evolving in wild reservoirs. 🌱

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@neilhall.bsky.social

I love football #LIVTOT

Sentinel bacteria: engineering a soil bacteria to sense and record soil health

Applications are open for an exciting new PhD project with @sarah-guiziou.bsky.social in collaboration with the Earlham Biofoundry.

The project will focus on #engineeringbiology and the plant root #microbiome developing applications for sustainable #agriculture.

High-quality metagenome assembly from nanopore reads with nanoMDBG www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 🧬🖥️🧪 github.com/GaetanBenoit...

Postdoctoral Research Scientist

Applications are open for a #Postdoc Researcher to join @whaerty.bsky.social at the Earlham Institute.

As part of a HorizonEU funded consortium, you'll undertake analysis of functional implications of variation within #noncoding #sequences in relation to cardiovascular disorders.

DoorDash will let users buy now, pay later for fast food, a possible worrying sign for the economy | CNN Business Buy Now, Pay Later services are typically used on large purchases, like furniture. But now one service is branching out into fast food.

This is the end of times amp.cnn.com/cnn/2025/03/...

Host-pathogen environmental genetic surveillance: pathogen emergence and crop protection

🆕 Fully funded #PhD with @neilhall.bsky.social and @mcmullan0.bsky.social analysing genetic diversity in the genomes of potential crop invasion pathogens and plant hosts associated with resistance.

📆 Apply by: 21 April
➡️ buff.ly/RpmTSFN

#plantscience #agritech

New Career Development Fellows enhance data-driven bioscience at the Earlham Institute The Earlham Institute has appointed two new Career Development Fellows, supporting their journey towards establishing independent research groups.

💬 “Being in Norwich, at the heart of UK #plantsciences, will allow me to build strong collaborations and contribute to the development of resilient, sustainable #crops capable of meeting the challenges of a growing population and a changing climate.” - @willshaw.bsky.social

buff.ly/FQEQcIP #synbio

Dr Karim Gharbi, Head of Technical Genomics and NBRI Lead introduces the day's talks.

Presentation screen demonstrating the key strands of EI's high-performance sequencing platforms, including ultra-long reads, high-quality genomes assembly and annotation, and low-cost library preparation.

A presentation screen describing what a National Bioscience Research Infrastructure is: "A National Bioscience Research Infrastructure (NBRI) is an essential component of the Institute's core capability (e.g. facilities, biological collections, or databases, and associated expertise), which enhances its role as a National Capability, underpins wider UK research capability, and supports wider bioscience research and user communities."

Great to welcome collaborators to the Earlham Institute today for a meeting of the National Bioscience Research Infrastructure in Transformative Genomics. The NBRI unites specialist facilities and expertise in scalable genomics, #longread sequencing, and #singlecell. @drkarimgharbi.bsky.social

The final version of our paper on genomics of understudied fungal root pathogens/endophytes of wheat is now out! The result of close ongoing collab between @earlhaminst.bsky.social (@mcmullan0.bsky.social @greymj.bsky.social @neilhall.bsky.social et al) and @rothamsted.bsky.social
rdcu.be/edlB9

On my way there now- crossing the flatlands

LITE2 takes affordable genome sequencing to a new level The Earlham Institute's improved Low Input, Transposase Enabled (LITE) protocol is a low-cost method for high-throughput whole genome sequencing with reduced DNA input.

💬 “LITE2 really shines when coupled with ultra-high-throughput #sequencing on the #Illumina #NovaSeqX, this has brought affordable whole-#genome sequencing to a new level.” 🧬 🖥️

NBRI Transformative Genomics - Annual User Meeting A one-day meeting of the bioscience community to hear the latest updates and applications from the BBSRC-funded National Bioscience Research Infrastructure in Transformative Genomics at the Earlham…

🔬 Discover how #SpatialTranscriptomics is unlocking insights into the ageing brain with @parker-aim.bsky.social (@quadraminstitute.bsky.social) at the NBRI Transformative Genomics User Meeting.

📅 Register:

Unbelievable news.

Pancreatic is one of the deadliest cancers.

New paper shows personalized mRNA vaccines can induce durable T cells that attack pancreatic cancer, with 75% of patients cancer free at three years—far, far better than standard of care.

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