Freya Harrison

PhD opportunity in my lab: exploring how commensals and pathogens build biofilm communities on endotracheal (ventilator) tubes. Microbial ecology, medical microbiology and fancy imaging! Co-supervised with the fabulous Saskia Bakker and Jeremy Webb warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fa... #MicroSky

PhD project claxon!!

Interested in phage functional metagenomics? Want to learn how to program a robot?

Apply for a fully funded MIBTP PhD with myself, Rich Puxty, and @friendlymicrobe.bsky.social here at Warwick, working on viral anti-biofilm gene discovery.
Apply here:
tinyurl.com/phagegenomics

78% of buildings destroyed or damaged.
61 million tonnes of debris.
97% of tree crops and 82% of annual crops destroyed.

Could drones deliver defibrillators to patients in cardiac arrest? warwick.ac.uk/news/pressre...

A man in front of a display screen, showing images of Aspergillus growing on sections of lung tissue.

@aaroncurtismicro.bsky.social adapted our ex-vivo pig lung infection model to conduct dual host-pathogen proteomics in response to Aspergillus infection - he’s a finalist in @microbiologysociety.org young microbiologist of the year #MicroSky www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/...

Very nice talk from @emmanuelkuffo15.bsky.social speaking about his hunt for Strep. suis phage at the @microbiologysociety.org young microbiologist of the year finals - and there's a pre-print up! #MicroSky

#MicroSky

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

#MicroSky

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.

A four panel comic called Happy Halloween From The Birds. In panel 1, a pileated woodpecker has pecked its huge gaping rectangular holes in a pumpkin. In panel 2, a yellow-bellied sapsucker has pecked a face using its standard rows of small holes. In panel 3, a satin bowerbird has carved a pumpkin into a bower and placed its favorite blue candies all around it. In panel 4, a loggerhead shrike has impaled mini pumpkins on a fence's metal spikes and is saying "fight me."

Spooky season approaches, so I'm going to repost some of my Halloween comics from years past.

Ha! Not seen Horse and Every Little Helps before, they’re awesome 💜

A close-up of two sleepy cats, resting their heads together.

We are ready for Caturday.

What are the chances that the breakthrough all-killing phage cocktail will come from the ball pool in a kids’ soft play area?

An illustration of a network with the text "Metagenomics Research Scientist, to join Falk Hildebrand's group to study the diet impact on the gastrointestinal microbiome. Salary: £37,500 to £42,000, Contract length: 2.5 years, Apply by 30 September 2025"

⏰ Closing soon! We’re looking for a Metagenomics Research Scientist to join the Laboratory of Dr Falk Hildebrand to study diet impact on the gastrointestinal microbiome.

💷 £37,500 - £42,000
🗓️ Apply by 30 September 2025
➡️ buff.ly/5gJxZIP

A computer screen showing light microscope image acquisition software. There is a Gram-stained tissue section on the screen, with a dense bacterial biofilm on one surface. It is partly covered by an error message.

When your PhD student sends you a request for help with an error message and you get a sneak preview of a very nice biofilm they've grown 💜 @c-cornbill.bsky.social #MicroSky

It’s either an LLM or an unqualified human.

Some journals, including reputable ones, don’t provide the level of copyediting and typesetting that they used to. I suspect this one has simply found the cheapest provider and this is the result. I’d have raised hell once I saw the hatchet job they’d perpetrated, if it was my own paper.

If it’s not LLM-generated, then this particular publisher has employed a proofreader who can’t write clear, professional English. It’s… not good.

Oh, I’d have gone nuclear on them already, including naming and shaming on here. My colleague is being little more reserved at present 😄

A colleague received proofs of an accepted manuscript, and the "proofing process" clearly involved running the text through ChatGPT. Their voice has been erased, and errors introduced. This is from a supposedly reputable publisher. Anyone else been put through this particular form of hell? #MicroSky

Assessing the Mechanism of Action of Synthetic Nanoengineered Antimicrobial Polymers against the Bacterial Membrane of Pseudomonas aeruginosa The lack of appropriate antimicrobials to tackle multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria poses an escalating threat to modern medicine. Addressing this urgent issue, we have recently developed synt...

🎉 Super happy to finally share our new paper in ACS Biomacromolecules!
We used AFM & neutron reflectometry to study how two SNAPs (synthetic nanoengineered antimicrobial polymers) disrupt P. aeruginosa membranes.
🔗 pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
#SNAPs #AFM #NeutronReflectometry #AMR

A cartoon showing a Gram-negative bacterium exposed to two variants of a polymer. A triblock structure causes formation of multiple small pores in the outer membrane. A diblock structure causes large pores in both outer and inner membranes, and cell lysis.

Another paper from @microberamon.bsky.social's PhD 🦠 Two structural variants of an AMP-inspired antimicrobial polymer have different effects on P. aeruginosa. One kills with a bang, the other with a whimper pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/... #MicroSky @sebperrier.bsky.social @alexiahapeshi.bsky.social

Come and join us in our new home - great colleagues and brand new facilities

A diagram of cell viral infection pathways. Two intracellular viral particle and an organelle give one infected cell the appearance of a screaming face.

Can’t stop feeling for this terrrified little guy 💜 (Source: www.cell.com/trends/immun...)

On my way to UCL to join their MSc Infection & Immunity students' research symposium - looking forward to a day of hearing about their dissertation projects. Jobs like this feel like a minibreak, I get to spend a day listening to new and interesting research.

#MicroSky

Utterly dehumanising. If the end goal is to reduce numbers of people waiting in the immigration system, then employ more staff to process asylum/visa applications quickly & efficiently. This is is useless violence (to borrow a phrase of Primo Levi's that seems very appropriate).

Are you a molecular or structural biologist interested in soft X-ray tomography and correlative imaging using fluorescence & electron microscopy? Exciting post-doc opportunity with a fantastic colleague at Warwick's Advanced Bioimaging platform: warwick-careers.tal.net/vx/lang-en-G...

Assistant Professor (Research and Education) in Bacterial Genomics at University of Birmingham Looking for a new job opportunity in academia? Check out this job opening for a Assistant Professor (Research and Education) in Bacterial Genomics on jobs.ac.uk!

Assistant Prof post in bacterial genomics @unibirmingham.bsky.social Come and join us!!

@imibirmingham.bsky.social
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOO184/a...