Angus Bucknell

VACANCY: Postdoctoral Researcher in the Berasategui Lab at TSL, Norwich, UK This is an exciting opportunity to work at the interface of evolutionary genomics, plant pathology and insect symbiosis, within a world-class research environment. Application review starts 16 Nov 2026 buff.ly/WZtMcGs

Excited to share this bioRxiv where we identify another host target for a Magnaporthe effector. Here we characterise the interaction between the zinc finger fold effector (Tie1) to a conserved family of transcription factors called the Tubby-like F-box proteins (TLPs) www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

🚨 Please share! 🚨 I'm recruiting a fully funded 4-year Gatsby Sainsbury PhD studentship at Durham! 🌱🤖 Designing plant immune receptors from scratch, combining AI protein design with structural biology and plant immunity. If you're interested please get in touch! benthamlab.org shorturl.at/U2PdV

This was a really fun event! I really enjoyed seeing the transitions from research to product. It was nice to have a good turnout of research there from @thesainsburylab.bsky.social.

I've really enjoyed having Adam as a supervisor for my PhD @thesainsburylab.bsky.social. Would definitely recommend a PhD with him, this is some really cutting-edge science in a great lab!

Excited to share this pre-print from my PhD work! We explore a Pmk1-Mst12-Bip1 network required for appressorium-mediated infection by the blast fungus 🌾 www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6... Thread 👇

Latest preprint from our group. We found the Bip1 transcription factor is phosphorylated in a Pmk1-dependent manner & with Mst12 co-regulates appressorium-specific functions, as well as acting on genes associated with invasive growth. @camilla-moli.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

New Publication: Tangerine: A new family of Starships from lichen-forming fungi (2026) www.tsl.ac.uk/publications...

See thread by @metalichen.bsky.social on Tangerine - A Starship in the genomes of lichen-forming fungi - the peer-reviewed version is now online. Thanks to all co-authors. It's been a fun collaboration and there's lots more to discover!👇

Really great to see this work out in @pnas.org! A huge thanks to all who contributed, especially @metalichen.bsky.social and @noaheb.bsky.social.

PLEASE SHARE! New job openings in my lab @zmbp-tuebingen.bsky.social. We have a broad interest into the mechanistic basis of how molecular complexes are rewired during cellular development in plants and during invasion by pathogens. 🌱🍄🔬 See details below 👇 #PlantSciJobs

It was great to present my postdoc work at #IAL10, the International Association for Lichenology congress in Trieste! Thanks to the organizers for the invitation!

@metalichen.bsky.social Congratulations on your award, I can for sure agree that I have also been inspired by your work on lichens! 🥳

🎉Congratulations to Dr. Daniel Buendía-Ávila @dbuendia.bsky.social, researcher from the Marí-Ordóñez lab at the GMI, who successfully defended his PhD thesis, titled “Understanding Transposon Silencing in Duckweeds”. @fwf-at.bsky.social @vbcscitraining.bsky.social

Proud that @thesainsburylab.bsky.social alumna @metalichen.bsky.social will be a keynote speaker at the IAL10 Congress presenting our effector investigation in Xanthoria. #celebratingalumni

This is very cool and a phenomenal amount of work! Great to see protein design shaping the future of disease resistance bioengineering. We now really have entered the era of truly bespoke resistance! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Excited to see our new preprint on bioRxiv! 🌱🤖 We used AI protein design (RFdiffusion + ProteinMPNN) to build brand-new sensor domains from scratch and installed them in a rice NLR immune receptor engineering recognition of a Fusarium effector FoSSP17

New Preprint: Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors (2026) www.tsl.ac.uk/publications...

Excited to preprint this collaborative study led by @adamrbentham.bsky.social in which computationally-designed protein binders were generated that recognise pathogen effectors leading to a plant immune response when deployed within NLR immune receptors. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737686v1

This has been a great project to work on and I’m very excited to see where this technology is headed within plant pathology. Big thanks to all the contributors, especially @yuxuan-xi.bsky.social and @adamrbentham.bsky.social!

Computational design of de novo integrated domains enables rational control of pathogen effector recognition in plant NLR immune receptors. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.07.10.737686v1

PhD position in my group for entry in October 2026. Round 3 of the @nrpdtp.bsky.social BBSRC competition. Please RT👇 biodtp.norwichresearchpark.ac.uk/projects/van...

The mycobiont of the lichen Xanthoria parietina produces the siderophore ferrichrome which enables iron acquisition and nutrient exchange with its algal photobiont. Great collaboration with my group & @metalichen.bsky.social led by Hubertus Haas 👇 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

It was fantastic to be back in Norwich! Thank you for the invitation, I was really delighted to talk about my career paths from PhD to now. @nrpdtp.bsky.social

Our last invited speaker for the #NRPDTP26 conference is @hee-kyung-ahn.bsky.social from the @instmolplantsci.bsky.social!

Next we have @pierrebuscaill.bsky.social from the University of Bristol. Today he will talking about how plants regulate bacterial infections. #NRPDTP26

Next we have Camila Cotrim from Better Dairy, discussing her transition into industry and her science on precision fermentation. #NRPDTP26

So proud to see this story finally out!🎉 We added new data since our previous preprint—transgenic barley plants with an engineered immune receptor that fights off two fungal pathogens at once. Short 🧵 and link to the original preprint thread on X👇 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

A great day of talks and posters - looking forward to tomorrow. Especially @metalichen.bsky.social’s talk! #Mendel_ECR_26

Super stoked to be at @gmivienna.bsky.social for MECS2026. Huge thank you to the organizers for the invitation! #Mendel_ECR_26

On the way to the Mendel Early Career Symposium at @gmivienna.bsky.social. Looking forward to some greats talks and posters at a great institute! #Mendel_ECR_26

What an amazing #Fungal26✨ Feeling very inspired– thank you to everyone who shared science and ideas! Thank you to the organisers for my poster award, @gensocuk.bsky.social for sponsoring my attendance and huge thank you @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social for these past years! I will miss the Talbot Lab.

Shout out to the myco-skeeters 🦋 at #fungal26 It's been fun live posting with you! @germhuntermd.bsky.social @talbotlabtsl.bsky.social @audreykward.bsky.social @angusb.bsky.social @hyphaltip.bsky.social @uehlinglab.bsky.social

Césarée Morier-Gxoyiya @cesaree-mg.bsky.social asks what is causing the rise of wheat 🌾 stem rust? Is the rising temperature 🥵 in the UK to blame for this increase? Unlikes the rusts, Césarée will end this cycle (aka her PhD) looking for a postdoc #fungal26

The one and only @mcdonaldmeganc.bsky.social at #Fungal26 talking about ToxA’s journey throughout the stars in different Starships!

Starships in fungi are so intriguing & have clearly had enormous (& diverse) impacts on genome evolution. @mycomile.bsky.social So many questions- the catalytic mechanism of YR Captains, target-site selection, how they move between fungi? (anastomosis/ role for parasexuality?) Amazing #Fungal26

Want to hear about gene regulation driving pathogenicity in the rice blast fungus? Come to my talk this afternoon at the Cell Wall Synthesis and Remodelling session at 16:40! Or my poster tonight! 🍄 #Fungal26

AI-tools to study fungal effector function introduced by ⁦‪@ahbucknell.bsky.social‬⁩ #Fungal26 #FungalAI @thesainsburylab.bsky.social

Phosphoproteomic analysis of TOR signalling during appressorium development of Magnaporthe ⁦‪@mattwengler.bsky.social ‬⁩ #fungal26

Magnagenes- an open science resource for the Magnaporthe research community with many new functions is being developed ⁦ @thesainsburylab.bsky.social ⁩ by Neha Sahu ⁩ #Magnafest26 #Fungal26

I’ll be talking today at the #Fungal26 concurrent session: AI in Fungal Research. I’ll be presenting on protein design in M. oryzae at 15:20 in the Fred Farr Forum. I’ll also be presenting my poster (#651A) tonight - come say hi!

Goodbye #Magnafest26, and hello #Fungal26! A big thanks to @osesmir.bsky.social and @frankmenke.bsky.social for organising this year’s meeting, as well as all the presenters! Looking forward to seeing the research in the greater fungal research community at FGC!

Fabio Dos Santos Barbosa on dissecting the Sln1 turgor-sensor pathway and its role in appressorium function. #Magnafest26 #Fungal26 @thesainsburylab.bsky.social

Here is our very own 'PhosphoJave' Bautista introducing his family of phosphorylated fungal effectors and their potential regulation #Magnafest26 #Fungal26

Euan Cawston on investigating the role of Mst7 and identifying potential scaffolds of the Pmk1 MAPK pathway #Magnafest26 #Fungal26 @thesainsburylab.bsky.social