Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Professor Lesley Hoyles @bugsinyourguts.bsky.social · 27d

If you are UK-based and working on any aspect of microbiomes (human, plant, insect, soil, animal, ...), please do sign up to Microbiome-Net for details of networking, funding and training opportunities.

forms.office.com/pages/respon...

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Aug 25

Got an email to say your manuscript had failed manuscripts checks as the corresponding author email was missing and is required ...
I am the corresponding author 🤔..

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Aug 20

Sorry we don't have any

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Aug 11

Damnit . Thanks , attempt 2
millardlab.org/bacteriophag...

Phage Genomes Aug 2025 – Millardlab

millardlab.org

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Aug 11

After a busy period , @ryancook94.bsky.social and I have have updated links to latest INPHARED dataset. With 37.5K genomes now. If some "iffy" genomes have got thought the automated and then out manual filters. Let us know the accession numbers so we can exclude

millardlab.org/bacteriophage-…

https://millardlab.org/bacteriophage-…

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Lucy Evans 🧫🦠👩🏻‍🔬 @biolucy.bsky.social · May 31

Submitted my first set of annual review stuff for my PhD (yes I started end of September but the annual review is due 1st June) and looking back on the past 8 months... Wow I have grown into even more of a badass girlie 😎🧪 #phd #microsky

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Adam Blanchard @addyblanch.bsky.social · May 30

New preprint up on the changes in the bovine virome though different life stages led by @milja001.bsky.social @ryancook94.bsky.social www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Life-Stage Transitions Drive Distinct Gut Viral Communities in Dairy Cattle

Ruminant gut microbial communities profoundly influence host health and environmental impacts, yet their viral components remain poorly characterised across developmental transitions. Here, we analyse...

www.biorxiv.org

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · May 25

We agreed to meet in the middle.....you were just more efficient at getting to the middle ....😁

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Ryan Cook @ryancook94.bsky.social · May 25

This is probably my last piece of work from my @medresfdn.bsky.social funded PhD at @uniofnottingham.bsky.social (thanks for all the support over the years!). Contributions from @milja001.bsky.social @evelienadri.bsky.social (and many others not yet on Bluesky) 13/13

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Ryan Cook @ryancook94.bsky.social · May 25

The dairy cow gut virome is a dynamic ecosystem that could be an under-studied player in sustainable agriculture 🔑

Preprint: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
#Microbiome #Virome #ClimateScience #Agriculture #Dairy #Cows #Methanogens 12/13

Life-Stage Transitions Drive Distinct Gut Viral Communities in Dairy Cattle

Ruminant gut microbial communities profoundly influence host health and environmental impacts, yet their viral components remain poorly characterised across developmental transitions. Here, we analyse...

www.biorxiv.org

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Ryan Cook @ryancook94.bsky.social · May 25

1,338 vOTUs were predicted complete. @milja001.bsky.social and I agreed to manually inspect the annotations of every single one. I started at the top, he started at the bottom (I think he only did 50 though despite agreeing to do half 💁‍♂️). All of them looked viral in origin, and most were novel 4/13

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Ryan Cook @ryancook94.bsky.social · May 25

We profiled the faecal virome of dairy cows across key life stages with ultra-deep Nanopore and Illumina sequencing 🐮

We recovered over 30,000 vOTUs (approximate to species), and included shallow bulk metagenomes for each sample to place the viruses within the context of their microbial hosts 3/13

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Ryan Cook @ryancook94.bsky.social · May 25

Why does this matter? Dairy cows = 265 million worldwide, huge importance in food production and greenhouse gas emissions. Yet we know very little about their gut viral communities across key life stages 🐄 2/13

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Ryan Cook @ryancook94.bsky.social · May 25

🧬🐄 NEW PREPRINT: Really happy to finally share the last big piece of work from my PhD!

Spoiler: Cows are great and so are their viromes 🧵1/13

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

Life-Stage Transitions Drive Distinct Gut Viral Communities in Dairy Cattle

Ruminant gut microbial communities profoundly influence host health and environmental impacts, yet their viral components remain poorly characterised across developmental transitions. Here, we analyse...

www.biorxiv.org

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · May 16

Interested in phages ?
Want to work as team that will isolate, genome sequence and charachterise 1000s of phage to build a biobank .
Come work with me and Martha Clokie at Leicester

jobs.le.ac.uk/vacancies/va...

Vacancy Search Results - University of Leicester Recruitment Team

View our Latest Vacancies

jobs.le.ac.uk

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · May 11

Take away coffees are served differently in Vietnam..bit fancier than standard Costa slop
,😁

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · May 10

Contact Thomas at [email protected]

www.biocompass.dk

BioCompass.dk

www.biocompass.dk

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · May 9

I'll ask Thomas . He isn't this platform . And yes it would be

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · May 8

Oops
Some what late in replying .

Link for May
millardlab.org/phage-genome...

Phage Genomes May 2025 – Millardlab

millardlab.org

Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · May 7

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

Searching for lytic phages in bacterial genome assemblies ..!

Hidden in plain sight: Bacterial genomes reveal thousands of lytic phages with therapeutic potential

Phages are typically classified as temperate, integrating into host genomes, or lytic, replicating and killing bacteria. Lytic phages are not expected in bacterial genome sequences, yet our analysis o...

www.biorxiv.org

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Apr 15

We @ryancook94.bsky.social , updated number of phage genomes we can find in NCBI .... Took longer than it should to do this months ...

millardlab.org/home/bacteriop…

https://millardlab.org/home/bacteriop…

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Antonia Sagona @antoniasagona.bsky.social · Apr 2

Many congratulations to Mickey @mickey-tad.bsky.social for successfully defending his viva today!! My warmest thanks to Andy @milja001.bsky.social and Lona Alkhalaf for being his examiners and to @nezislab.bsky.social for serving as Exam Advisor! @warwicklifesci.bsky.social @albertilab.bsky.social

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Branko Rihtman @cyanoney.bsky.social · Mar 19

Job claxon!

Senior postdoc research associate position at the Becky Mayer Centre for Phage Research at the University of Leicester, working with @milja001.bsky.social and Martha Clokie.

Brilliant opportunity!

jobs.le.ac.uk/vacancies/11...

Senior Post Doctoral Research Associate– Protein Lead in Leicester | University of Leicester Recruitment Team

View details and apply for this Senior Post Doctoral Research Associate– Protein Lead vacancy in Leicester. You will lead an independent research project within the Becky Mayer Centre for Pha...

jobs.le.ac.uk

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Mar 15

taxMyPhage made Jans pick...in this month's Capsid and tail ..
phage.directory

ptax.ku.dk

github.com/amillard/tax_m…

Phage Directory

Phage Directory curates a database of phage labs, phages, and host strains to advance research and phage therapy.

phage.directory

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Mar 13

Now updated with the latest ICTV taxonomy

Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Mar 7

we ( @ryancook94.bsky.social ) updated genomes in INPHARED
millardlab.org/phage-genomes-…
There are more genomes than last month! Shocker. Haven't had a chance to analyse yet

https://millardlab.org/phage-genomes-…

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Mar 1

Great to have you involved @remidenise.bsky.social .might even meet in person at some point :-)

remidenise.bsky.social @remidenise.bsky.social · Feb 25

🚀 Excited to share our new paper: taxMyPhage: Automated Taxonomy of dsDNA Phage Genomes at the Genus and Species Level 🦠🔬!

Big thanks to all collaborators, especially @milja001.bsky.social & Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén! 🙌

📄 www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

taxMyPhage: Automated Taxonomy of dsDNA Phage Genomes at the Genus and Species Level | PHAGE

Background: Bacteriophages are classified into genera and species based on genomic similarity, a process regulated by the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses. With the rapid increase in...

www.liebertpub.com

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remidenise.bsky.social @remidenise.bsky.social · Feb 25

🚀 Excited to share our new paper: taxMyPhage: Automated Taxonomy of dsDNA Phage Genomes at the Genus and Species Level 🦠🔬!

Big thanks to all collaborators, especially @milja001.bsky.social & Thomas Sicheritz-Pontén! 🙌

📄 www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

taxMyPhage: Automated Taxonomy of dsDNA Phage Genomes at the Genus and Species Level | PHAGE

Background: Bacteriophages are classified into genera and species based on genomic similarity, a process regulated by the International Committee on the Taxonomy of Viruses. With the rapid increase in...

www.liebertpub.com

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Ellie Jameson @elliejameson.bsky.social · Feb 20

Phage taxonomy doesn’t have to be taxing, my latest cartoon for the Phage journal. To illustrate 𝘁𝗮𝘅𝗠𝘆𝗣𝗵𝗮𝗴𝗲 lnkd.in/dAXK4sSt @milja001.bsky.social

Black and white ink cartoon of a myovirus-like phage with eyes and eyebrows looking confused with “?!?” above its head. The page is hovering above a hexagonal child’s sorting toy with different shaped holes. On the front of the toy is a simple phylogenetic tree with shapes corresponding to the holes at the end of the branches

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Andrew Millard @milja001.bsky.social · Jan 26

PHAGE Journal with some phenotype data, to make it a Phage Introduction www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/...

www.liebertpub.com

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