Multi-Defence

New preprint out!

New from the @multidefence.bsky.social consortium: a deep dive into MANTIS defence. Thanks to @ukri.org for funding. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.6...

@alekseiagapov.bsky.social and I are both presenting posters today at #ISME20 - come talk to us about phages and defences 🧬 PS2.14.246 and PS2.14.248 😉 @multidefence.bsky.social

A few of us presented some of our ongoing research at #VOM2026 in Prague this week!

Stimulating keynote from @jojofoth.bsky.social on advancing phage therapy for chronic respiratory infections in cystic fibrosis, addressing key translational challenges from clinical pathways and phage biobanking to delivery, diagnostics, and public engagement at #Microbio26.

DefensePredictor: A machine learning model to discover prokaryotic immune systems #microbiology #prokaryotes #CRISPR #MicroSky @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

@multidefence.bsky.social bowling is on. The quality is perhaps lacking

Highlights from our recent participation! Members of the Multi-Defence Consortium presented both talks and posters on phage defence systems — showcasing exciting progress across the field. Great discussions, great science, and we’re excited to share more soon! #MicroEvo25

@multidefence.bsky.social

Antibiotics & phage infectivity www.findaphd.com/phds/project... (4/4)

🦠 Defence systems & AMR www.swbio.ac.uk/files/2025/1... www.swbio.ac.uk/programme/ho... (3/4)

🧬 MADS–CRISPR interaction www.findaphd.com/phds/project... (2/4)

🔬 Interested in bacterial immune systems & AMR, or how antibiotics affect phage infectivity? Three SWBio DTP PhD project opportunities linked to the MultiDefence consortium are now open (1/4) #PhD #DoctoralTraining #ResearchCarrers #LifeSciences #phagesky #AMR #microsky #PhDPositions

www.findaphd.com/phds/project... @nebiolabs.bsky.social @multidefence.bsky.social

More info & tickets see poster and link: sites.exeter.ac.uk/vanhoutelab/... (2/2)

🦠🧬 Join us for a workshop on Phage Therapy in Liverpool (25 Nov 2025)! A 1-day free event bringing together clinicians, academics, regulators & industry to discuss the future of phage therapy; happening in tandem to a 2-day focus meeting on Microbial Evolutionary Dynamics (1/2)

Happily representing @multidefence.bsky.social at the #EESMicrobiology in Heidelberg! Come to my poster if interested in prophage-mediated phage defence! Also don't miss @emgoodall.bsky.social's talk today, and @alekseiagapov.bsky.social and @davvi36.bsky.social posters!

Presenting a poster about Pseudomonas defence systems at #EESMicrobiology in Heidelberg. If you happen to like it, don't forget to check out our consortium @multidefence.bsky.social

Great to get together in Manchester last week for our consortium’s annual meeting – halfway through our 5-year collaboration! Inspiring discussions, exciting updates, and lots of ideas ahead. Excited for what’s next! 💡🔬🤝 #Science #Microbiology #TeamScience

Edze Westra kills viruses @multidefence.bsky.social

As part of the @multidefence.bsky.social consortium, we worked with a globally curated dataset of >4,000 P. aeruginosa (from 10.1126/science.adi0908) to reveal differences in the number and composition of defence systems between isolates from (and not from) cystic fibrosis cases 2/n

Great to be in Manchester for the annual @multidefence.bsky.social meeting, with Luna and Simon!

Passing through the Borders on the train to Manchester for the annual @multidefence.bsky.social meeting

This work was led by the incredible @charlotteechong.bsky.social 💻 🧬 as part of the @multidefence.bsky.social sLoLa consortium funded by @ukri.org BBSRC and in collaboration with a wonderful set of new (and old!) colleagues 9/n

www.findaphd.com/phds/project... A funded PhD studentship is available for a joint project between my lab and @andreashaag.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social

🔬 Three fronts in bacterial defense! At EMBO symposium this week in Paris, our PIs showcased: • @mfwhite2.bsky.social: cyclic nucleotide defence signaling • Prof. Stineke Van Houte: prophage warfare in P. aeruginosa • Prof. Tim Blower: autoregulating toxins & phage defence

We had fantastic poster presentations at the EMBO symposium the Immune System of Bacteria in Paris this week

Coming back to Microbial Warfare session today we have @charlotteechong.bsky.social giving a talk about "Genomic analyses to infer defence system interactions among global Pseudomonas aeruginosa populations" at 12:15

@samriddhigupta.bsky.social gave her poster presentation today at #Microbio25 about discovering new counter-defence systems in prophage genomes

Second poster session starting soon #Microbio25

We also have a couple of poster presentations today 255 from @drramabht.bsky.social, 282 from @anna-k-richmond.bsky.social, 062 from Meg Llewellyn and 068 from Jasmine Thomas-Campbell. All cool stuff about defence systems!

Phage vs Phage from @annaolina.bsky.social at #Microbio25. Fantastic talk!

We also have a couple of poster presentations today 255 from @drramabht.bsky.social, 282 from @anna-k-richmond.bsky.social, 062 from Meg Llewellyn and 068 from Jasmine Thomas-Campbell. All cool stuff about defence systems!

Our upcoming talks today at #Microbio25 in the Microbial Warfare session: Prof Tim Blower's talk about “All the World’s a Phage” - Exploring phage-host interactions, at 14:45 and from @annaolina.bsky.social about Phage vs. Phage: When Pseudomonas’ own prophages step up the defenсe, at 15:45

@brockhurstlab.bsky.social giving a talk about eco-evolutionary mechanisms of AMR in the AMR session at #Microbio25

Poster A092!

Poster A097 tomorrow at #Microbio25!

Welcome to Maryam Ravari & @gretelwaugh.bsky.social to the @multidefence.bsky.social team! They will be supporting @yueyicai.bsky.social in establishing experimental pipelines to explore the regulation of multi-layered bacterial defence systems - what a team! tiffanybtaylor.wordpress.com/people/

🚨PhD studentship opportunity! Bacteria protect themselves with a huge arsenal of defences, but does this affect how they gain new traits on plasmids? 🧫🦠💫 Apply for a funded 4y position with me @livuni-ives.bsky.social, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social @jojofoth.bsky.social & @multidefence.bsky.social ⬇️

Happy New Year! We're off to a great start in our lab as we welcome Yueyi Cai to the group. Yueyi joins as a postdoc who will be working on understanding how layered bacterial defence systems are regulated. She will join the brilliant @multidefence.bsky.social team. Welcome!

New member in the team 😀 Welcoming Meg Llewellyn who has joined as an MbyRes student with Prof Edze Westra and Dr Aleksei Agapov.

A very warm welcome to Jasmine Thomas-Campbell - PhD student with @taylorlabgroup.bsky.social and Prof. Edze Westra; and to @taoranfu.bsky.social - PDRA with @brockhurstlab.bsky.social who have recently joined our Multidefence team 🥳 Looking forward to working together!!

The team is en route to London to be part of the Royal Society Hooke meeting!!! royalsociety.org/science-even...

Shout to all the incredible postdocs on the #MultiDefence project! Your contributions drive research forward, and we're so grateful for all that you do 🎉 #NPAW Charlotte Chong, Rosanna Wright, Aleksei Agapov, Anna Olina, Steven Shaw, Sam Went, Maureen Micaletto @drramabht.bsky.social

We have another position advertised 😃 with @taylorlabgroup.bsky.social in Bath to understand the regulation of multi layered defence systems!! You can apply at www.bath.ac.uk/jobs/Vacancy... Applications close on 9th September.