Kasia M Parfitt

Night view of Belfast City Hall illuminated with colourful lights, promoting abstract submission closing for Annual Conference 2026 at ICC Belfast from April 13-16.

Submit your abstract for the UK’s largest annual gathering of microbiologists, Annual Conference 2026. Held in Belfast, UK, this year’s conference now features two-day attendance tickets.

Antibiotic Resistance and Mechanisms (ARM) Workshop for Researchers 2025 - The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy

Join us in Birmingham for the annual BSAC #AntibioticResistance & Mechanisms workshop - excellent talks and it’s designed to make conversation & networking between attendees easy #MicroSky bsac.org.uk/antibiotic-r...

Bacterial strain Taxonomy for Genomic Surveillance - GenEpi-BioTrain Webinar - Research This workshop aims to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of bacterial classification and nomenclature approaches used in genomic surveillance. Participants will gain insight into ...

Almost there! Starting tomorrow morning (Paris time), the webinar on Bacterial strain Taxonomy for Genomic Surveillance organized within the ECDC sponsored GenEpi-BioTrain programme; registration is free; see more here: research.pasteur.fr/en/event/bac...

<i>Microbial Genomics </i> Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Call for Expressions of interest 06 October 2025

Microbial Genomics is looking to appoint a Deputy Editor-in-Chief, who will help develop the editorial strategy and new content for the journal. Applications close on 1 November, more information about the role can be found here: microb.io/48Ridd3

You had a great talk. Very well explained and thought out. I'm excited to see where the polymicrobial work takes you.

Huge congratulations to Emma Davis, the winner of 2025's Early Career Microbiologist of the Year prize! We agree with Emma that all of the finalists' talks were brilliant and a massive well done to everyone involved!

Outstanding talk that was very engaging. Really well done, Emma.

This talk was brilliant! I could not believe how much work was done in the undergraduate project.

The vaginal microbiome is super interesting - is there another body site where a healthy microbiome = a low-diversity microbiome? @phoebecrossley.bsky.social talk about her research at @microbiologysociety.org young microbiologist of the year finals microbiologysociety.org/blog/meet-ea... #MicroSky

Please RT:
We have an opening for a junior group leader position in „Phage Biology & Biotechnology“.
www.fz-juelich.de/de/karriere/...

Interested candidates are encouraged to contact me via email for further details.

@spp2330.bsky.social; @mibinet.bsky.social

Come and work with me and @ariannebabina.bsky.social on #Streptomyces evolution and antibiotic production

Origins of a tangled bank: Adaptation and evolution in antibiotic-producing Streptomyces

www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...

please repost

At @microbiologysociety.org HQ watching the Young Microbiologist of the Year presentations 🧫🦠

Cyclic-di-GMP signalling mutants drive ecological succession and self-generated diversity in experimentally evolved biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilms represent a discrete form of microbial life which are physiologically distinct from free-living planktonic cells. The altered phenotypic manifestations of the biofilm may also elicit lifestyl...

New paper alert! Serial selection for hyper-biofilm production identifies c-di-GMP as central to genetic control and phenotypic dynamics. @microbiologysociety.org @webberma.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

hey bluesky 👋 visa hurdles mean I’m looking for opportunities outside the US. I’m a computational biologist (bacterial + phage genomics, postdoc in Koonin’s group @ NIH). I am interested in teaming up on funding apps. reach out if this resonates!

Investigating pathogenicity in zoonotic Streptococcus suis at University of Cambridge on FindAPhD.com PhD Project - Investigating pathogenicity in zoonotic Streptococcus suis at University of Cambridge, listed on FindAPhD.com

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

Streptococcus pneumoniae accessory capsular genes modulate fitness, pathogenicity and immune evasion https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.09.11.675585v1

Simple Sequence Repeats Mediate Phase Variation of the Mucoid Phenotype in Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (HVKp) express a thick mucoid capsular polysaccharide which is essential for virulence and survival in the bloodstream but inhibits epithelial adhesion and invasion...

🎉 Delighted to share the first pre-print from my lab where we demonstrate that intergenic DNA repeats mediate phase variation of the mucoid phenotype in hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #klebclub

What We Offer - GW4 BioMed MRC DTP Find out what we offer at the GW4 BioMed2 MRC DTP including: funding and a broad range of training opportunities across four Universities.

Applications are now open for the @gw4biomeddtp.bsky.social offering fully funded #PhD studentships across the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd, and University of Exeter. Learn more at gw4biomed.ac.uk/how-to-apply...

Children offered chickenpox vaccine on NHS All young children in England and Wales will be offered a free chickenpox vaccine by the NHS from January 2026.

BBC News - Children to be offered chickenpox vaccine on NHS
www.bbc.com/news/article...

Actinobacillus spp. The MLST scheme hosted in this database was developed by Nick Vereecke and colleagues at Ghent University and PathoSense, Belgium. It is described in Vereecke et al. 2023 Vet Res 54:33. Database curat...

A new MLST scheme is now available for Actinobacillus spp. at pubmlst.org/organisms/ac.... The scheme was developed by Nick Vereecke and colleagues at Ghent University and PathoSense, Belgium. It is described in pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37020296/.

Postdoctoral position in human gut microbiome and bioinformatics - VIB About the Lab Thelab of JeroenRaes(VIB, KU Leuven) is home to a vibrant, dynamic and international group of researchers in the field of gut microbial ecology and its

We're hiring a postdoc!🚨

Study human-associated microbial communities in health & disease.

🔬Requirements:
- PhD in bioinformatics, microbiology, or related field
- Expertise in omics data analysis
- Micro & molecular bio techniques are a plus!

Apply now!🌟
jobs.vib.be/j/119682/pos...

If you are a postdoc working on any topic related to environmental microbiology and are looking for exposure, the Thermal Biology Institute (tbi.montana.edu) has slots open for virtual talks via zoom this fall. Email me if you are interested! Seminars are most Mondays, 3-4 pm Mountain Time.

Graphic shows Microbiology Outlooks cover and invites people to submit their reviews and perspectives

Microbiology Outlooks provides a new platform for impactful reviews and perspectives across all areas of microbiology and intersecting fields. Submit your manuscript or proposal to help shape the field of microbiology. Find out more: microb.io/MOutsJournal

New paper is out! We have studied the cute tiny Discocelia plataet sp. n. to obtain the first molecular data of the order Discocelida and clarify its cell structure. All this for a better understanding of the evolution of Cercozoa.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....

Within-host bacterial evolution and the emergence of pathogenicity - Nature Microbiology In this Review, Tonkin-Hill et al. discuss the processes driving bacterial evolution and emergence of pathogenesis within hosts, the importance of understanding within-host genetic diversity, and the ...

#Review

A discussion on the processes driving bacterial evolution and emergence of pathogenesis within hosts, the importance of understanding within-host genetic diversity, and the implications for transmission analysis and infectious disease control.

#MicroSky 🦠

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

Synteny-aware functional annotation of bacteriophage genomes with Phynteny Accurate genome annotation is fundamental to decoding viral diversity and understanding bacteriophage biology; yet, the majority of bacteriophage genes remain functionally uncharacterised. Bacteriopha...

🚨 New preprint 🚨

My phage annotation tool, Phynteny, finally has a preprint and a brand new version powered by a cool AI transformer architecture and protein language models! #phagesky

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

"Our analysis identified 16 divergent and 165 convergent excludons in E. coli, as well as 10 divergent and 28 convergent excludons in S. aureus."

We’re pleased to announce two new vacancies for senior roles at our institute:

Group Leader in Discovery Plant Sciences: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/gr...

🗓️ Closes 25 August

Independent Fellowship in Plant-Associated Microbial Interactions: www.jic.ac.uk/vacancies/in...

🗓️ Closes 5 September

Call for 20 Assistant Professor positions Karolinska Institutet is a world-leading medical university with a long and proud history of ground-breaking research. We are now recruiting outstanding early-career researchers with particularly exce...

Wow

Karolinska Institutet is recruiting 20 outstanding early-career researchers for assistant professor positions

ki.se/en/about-ki/...

An image showing the ARTIC and Pathoplexus logos connected by blue lines, with the text "Hiring: post-doc/software engineer" and "Global open-source pathogen tools" and "Join Swiss TPH, Work on ARTIC2 and Pathoplexus, Basel, Switzerland"

📢New job posting!📢
Are you excited by the idea of building global infrastructure to make pathogen sequencing more accessible, interpretable, and equitable? 🧑🏻‍💻🧬

My group at @swisstph.ch has an opening working with ARTIC2, @pathoplexus.org, & Loculus - read on!

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