Congratulations to everyone involved! Glad to have contributed to this work.

Had the opportunity to present my work at Viruses of Microbes UK this year. Had a lot of fruitful discussions regarding the work and phage therapy. Looking forward to seeing everyone in Prague in July!

Standing beside my research poster

Detailed view of the research poster

Thrilled to present the findings from my 2025 #SUREscheme project - 'Investigating the influence of latent bacteriophages on healthcare-associated C. difficile lysogens' - at the showcase yesterday evening. Huge thanks to @funnirudh.bsky.social and @robfagan.bsky.social for making this possible!

Clostridial Cell Biology Group We are the Clostridial Cell Biology Group at the University of Sheffield. We study all aspects of cell biology, including the architecture and biogenesis of surface structures on both vegetative cells...

🚨 Fully funded PhD studentships 🚨

We have three fully funded PhD studentships available for Oct 26 start. Funded by the MRC DiMeN programme & the BBSRC Yorkshire Biosciences DTP. Details below as they are advertised. Contact me here or via email for more details or to discuss an application

Look at this beautiful CsCl gradient.

I’m lying, my gradient crashed. I lost my phages and I am going home.

Nothing feels better than a payday. #iGEM

Woman receiving rubella vaccination, School of Public Health of the State of Minas Gerais (ESP-MG), Brazil. CREDIT: Sandra Rugio, ESP-MG, via Wikimedia.

You know that antibiotic use can exert pressure on bacterial populations to evolve resistance.

So are vaccines exerting similar pressure on viruses?

Let's talk about how vaccines MIGHT make viruses evolve to be LESS harmful over time.

Warning: I'm speaking broadly here & biology loves exceptions.

@lilia-elle.bsky.social, @funnirudh.bsky.social and Rob somewhere in Paris

Lab on tour - the wonderful #ClostPath2025 organisers have arranged great walking tours. Guess where we are?

We’re here, and we’re square.

A novel two-component system controls vancomycin resistance in epidemic Clostridioides difficile www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08....

Me seeing the price of booking the cryo-EM for 3 days.

Hello everyone! I am pleased to share information on the first ever Computational Structural Virology Symposium, conducted August 4th on zoom and highlighting work in this emerging field. You can register for this event here: forms.gle/CNiqskMwQEuV.... Please re-post!

Now engineering phages with Anirudh Jakhmola from @robfagan.bsky.social lab at @sheffielduni.bsky.social #3cdf

Thank you to all participants for making the 2nd #3CdF such a fantastic event! See you next year for the next one! #microsky 🧪 #Cdiff

High-throughput screening reveals diverse lambdoid prophage inducers Prophages; dormant bacteriophage genomes integrated within the bacterial chromosome, play pivotal roles in shaping microbial communities when awakened. Our current understanding of prophage activation...

Prophage induction - nice study, inducers other than MitC, but also that inducer concentration matters. Search for optimum needed to get highest titers ☝️
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Good ol’ homologous recombination!

Signed title page of “Everything is Tuberculosis” by author John Green

Managed to nab a signed copy of Everything is Tuberculosis by @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social. Quite excited to read this.

The mutagenesis gods were with us this week.

The do’s and don’ts of scientific image editing Acceptable image-editing practices are partly a matter of common sense. But researchers say journals and funders could help scientists by standardizing policies.

The do’s and don’ts of scientific image editing

Acceptable image-editing practices are partly a matter of common sense. But researchers say journals and funders could help scientists by standardizing policies.

@sarareardon.bsky.social reports

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

3CdF 2025 Fourwaves - 3CdF 2025

Happy to announce 2nd #3CdF Cross-channel C. difficile Forum in Newcastle, June 4-5 for #Cdiff researchers from UK, France and Europe, w/ strong emphasis on ECRs! Thanks to @microbiologysociety.org support!
event.fourwaves.com/3cdf-2025/pa...
Registration & abstract submission still open! #MicroSky

Pip can be a physicist if that’s her thing. I bet she’ll be a good physicist.

A TEM image of a bacteriophage with a burst head and a broken tail tube

Screening some mutant phages and can’t help but feel bad about this guy who:

1. Had his head burst (Red selection is where the head was supposed to be)
2. Tail tube broke in half

RIP unnamed phage. You will be missed.

I wanna know how Toby feels about this. 😂

Extinction is permanent.

Let’s goooo!!

Me standing in front of my poster titled “Targeted structural engineering to understand phage host interactions”

Presented my work in the Science Graduate Showcase at the University of Sheffield. A bit subtle in design compared to my past posters but there’s always tomorrow. #phage

Molecular mechanism of bacteriophage contraction structure of an S-layer–penetrating bacteriophage The molecular details of phage tail contraction and bacterial cell envelope penetration remain poorly understood and are completely unknown for phages infecting bacteria enveloped by proteinaceous S-l...

New paper alert 🚨
We've solved the complete structure of a C. difficile-infecting phage using cryo-EM, in both extended and contracted conformations - published today in Life Science Alliance

www.life-science-alliance.org/content/8/6/...

Error message saying: server sent GOAWAY and closed the connection

NCBI has the most sassy server I’ve ever come across. What do you mean that the error code is NO_ERROR? Real helpful NCBI.

Rob holding a four week old (very fluffy!) yellow Labrador retriever

Introducing Pip! 4 weeks old and doing brilliantly

Village house with cobbled veranda.

Village view with goats in the foreground and houses in the back.

Mountain view of Uttarakhand, India

Green mountains with the himalayas peeking from behind

Spending the last few days at my home and I can never get used to this view. The himalayan range in the background steals the show.

Pretty curious about the phage diversity here though.