Will Smith
@willpjsmith.bsky.social
I love science! I study toxin interactions in microbes. Dad of two @wellcometrust Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow | All views my own | he/him | 🏳️🌈
Reposted by Will Smith
Fantastic talk about the impact of inflammation on Pseudomonas aeruginosa evolution by @taoranfu.bsky.social #MicroEvo25
November 26, 2025 at 11:14 AM
Fantastic talk about the impact of inflammation on Pseudomonas aeruginosa evolution by @taoranfu.bsky.social #MicroEvo25
Reposted by Will Smith
Find out more about DNA repair protein single-molecule tracking from @bexlowrypalms.bsky.social at poster 18🔬 #MicroEvo25
November 26, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Find out more about DNA repair protein single-molecule tracking from @bexlowrypalms.bsky.social at poster 18🔬 #MicroEvo25
Reposted by Will Smith
Come chat to Dan at poster 22 to learn about endosymbiosis evolution #MicroEvo25
November 26, 2025 at 3:16 PM
Come chat to Dan at poster 22 to learn about endosymbiosis evolution #MicroEvo25
Reposted by Will Smith
Had the best day at #MicroEvo25 yesterday! Excited for day two and to be chatting more about hot spring microbial community coalescence 🌋 find me at poster 62 (likely with a coffee in hand)
November 27, 2025 at 8:44 AM
Had the best day at #MicroEvo25 yesterday! Excited for day two and to be chatting more about hot spring microbial community coalescence 🌋 find me at poster 62 (likely with a coffee in hand)
Reposted by Will Smith
Come and see @willpjsmith.bsky.social at poster 71 to find out more about microbial warfare! #MicroEvo25
November 26, 2025 at 12:26 PM
Come and see @willpjsmith.bsky.social at poster 71 to find out more about microbial warfare! #MicroEvo25
Reposted by Will Smith
Happy to share our latest T6SS review:
nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you, Jan, Danny (@dannyjamesward.bsky.social), Joana (@joanampereira.bsky.social), as well as reviewers and editors @natrevmicro.nature.com!
nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you, Jan, Danny (@dannyjamesward.bsky.social), Joana (@joanampereira.bsky.social), as well as reviewers and editors @natrevmicro.nature.com!
The type VI secretion system and associated effector proteins - Nature Reviews Microbiology
In this Review, Basler and colleagues examine the type VI secretion system (T6SS), focusing on the diversity of antibacterial T6SS effectors and the evolutionary forces that shape them. They explain h...
nature.com
November 17, 2025 at 10:08 AM
Happy to share our latest T6SS review:
nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you, Jan, Danny (@dannyjamesward.bsky.social), Joana (@joanampereira.bsky.social), as well as reviewers and editors @natrevmicro.nature.com!
nature.com/articles/s41...
Thank you, Jan, Danny (@dannyjamesward.bsky.social), Joana (@joanampereira.bsky.social), as well as reviewers and editors @natrevmicro.nature.com!
Reposted by Will Smith
Can we leverage bacterial competition for targeted replacement of harmful strains? Maybe! Our recent piece in @natmicrobiol.nature.com provides a theoretical framework and a set of experiments to show what it might take: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Strain displacement in microbiomes via ecological competition - Nature Microbiology
Mathematical modelling and experimental tests reveal principles that govern displacement of a resident strain by an invader in microbial communities.
www.nature.com
November 7, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Can we leverage bacterial competition for targeted replacement of harmful strains? Maybe! Our recent piece in @natmicrobiol.nature.com provides a theoretical framework and a set of experiments to show what it might take: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Had a fabulous time at the @wellcometrust.bsky.social ECR meeting today! Thanks for sharing some inspiring science and innovations to improve research culture 🧑🔬 and sustainability 🌱
November 11, 2025 at 7:21 PM
Had a fabulous time at the @wellcometrust.bsky.social ECR meeting today! Thanks for sharing some inspiring science and innovations to improve research culture 🧑🔬 and sustainability 🌱
Reposted by Will Smith
So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bacterial warfare is associated with virulence and antimicrobial resistance - Nature Communications
Bacteria employ a range of competition systems that deliver toxins to inhibit competing strains. This study shows that these systems are particularly important for the ecology of virulent and antibiot...
www.nature.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:32 AM
So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Will Smith
Hello everyone, take a look at my cool bugs from the Microbial Dark Matter phylum Saccharibacteria! These ultrasmall bacteria (in green) track down Actinobacteria hosts (not in green) and grow on the host cell envelope.
For the first time, scientists have performed targeted mutations on an episymbiosis-determining pathway. In a new study on Saccharibacteria, AFI researchers used advanced techniques to observe pili that drive motility and host attachment.
@batbilegbor.bsky.social
forsyth.org/saccharibact...
@batbilegbor.bsky.social
forsyth.org/saccharibact...
October 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Hello everyone, take a look at my cool bugs from the Microbial Dark Matter phylum Saccharibacteria! These ultrasmall bacteria (in green) track down Actinobacteria hosts (not in green) and grow on the host cell envelope.
Reposted by Will Smith
Open position to work on Type IX secretion (#T9SS) in our lab, in collaboration withe the group of Eric Reynolds at the Dental School of the University of Melbourne. Please spread the word, and forward to anyone potentially interested ! Apply here:
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
Portail Emploi CNRS - Offre d'emploi - Thèse en Microbiologie-Biochimie (H/F)
emploi.cnrs.fr
October 9, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Open position to work on Type IX secretion (#T9SS) in our lab, in collaboration withe the group of Eric Reynolds at the Dental School of the University of Melbourne. Please spread the word, and forward to anyone potentially interested ! Apply here:
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
Reposted by Will Smith
🧐Checkout our preprint revealing the stepwise firing💥 mechanism of a Contractile Injection System @xujwet.bsky.social[email protected] trapped the complex by structure-guided engineering🧪 in multiple intermediate states and imaged them by multimodal #cryoEM❄️🔬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 8, 2025 at 9:18 PM
🧐Checkout our preprint revealing the stepwise firing💥 mechanism of a Contractile Injection System @xujwet.bsky.social[email protected] trapped the complex by structure-guided engineering🧪 in multiple intermediate states and imaged them by multimodal #cryoEM❄️🔬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Will Smith
Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community - Nature Communications
Here the authors leverage a crossfeeding, engineered microbial community to demonstrate that strain abundance cycles are robust across environmental conditions. They pair this with a nonlinear dynamic model to elucidate population cycles.
www.nature.com
October 7, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Reposted by Will Smith
Phage "satellites" that produce capsids but have no genes to produce tails have puzzled scientists for a long time. These are abundant as prophages in bacteria, but it was unclear how they can infect without tails
Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
Thrilled to share our two latest papers with the @tcostalab.bsky.social
lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species.
@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
lab! In the first, we uncover a new mechanism of satellite transfer: cf-PICIs hijack tails from diverse phages to spread across species.
@imperialcollegeldn.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Chimeric infective particles expand species boundaries in phage-inducible chromosomal island mobilization
Capsid-forming PICIs (cf-PICIs) produce their own capsids and exploit phage tails
from unrelated species to transfer their DNA across bacterial hosts. This tail piracy
enables broad dissemination and ...
www.cell.com
September 11, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Phage "satellites" that produce capsids but have no genes to produce tails have puzzled scientists for a long time. These are abundant as prophages in bacteria, but it was unclear how they can infect without tails
Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
Reposted by Will Smith
New preprint bubbling up in our group for a while:
"Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Generalizes findings of phase separation in microbes using T6SSs to a broad range of interaction mechanisms.
Li + Steinbach et al.
"Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Generalizes findings of phase separation in microbes using T6SSs to a broad range of interaction mechanisms.
Li + Steinbach et al.
![FIG. 3: Time lapse visualizations of a two player coordination game with payo matrix A = [10 5; 510]. The images show the spatial con guration (lattice size L = 256) at t = 0246810 with dt = 005. White corresponds to player 1 and black is player 2. Starting from well mixed initial condition, initial fraction of player 1 is 05, the two players separate into domains whose characteristic length scales (patch size) grow over time.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pdvoxeret2wq6tzu7gxy7eeh/bafkreieb2n73jcc6srh7s455dc3ztsitbvwe7542vzhjxlc3su3x4l3lpi@jpeg)
September 10, 2025 at 12:57 PM
New preprint bubbling up in our group for a while:
"Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Generalizes findings of phase separation in microbes using T6SSs to a broad range of interaction mechanisms.
Li + Steinbach et al.
"Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Generalizes findings of phase separation in microbes using T6SSs to a broad range of interaction mechanisms.
Li + Steinbach et al.
Does your lab perform killing assays?
TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is.
Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!

Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
1/n
TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is.
Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!

Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
1/n
Type VI secretion system activity at lethal antibiotic concentrations leads to overestimation of weapon potency
Competition assays are a mainstay of modern microbiology, offering a simple and cost-effective means to quantify microbe–microbe interactions in vitro. Here, we demonstrate a key weakness of this meth...
www.microbiologyresearch.org
August 31, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Does your lab perform killing assays?
TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is.
Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!

Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
1/n
TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is.
Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!

Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
1/n
Reposted by Will Smith
The Royal Society David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Dr Roger Highfield for a vast contribution to public engagement, reaching audiences of millions through journalism, broadcast, books and museum-led initiatives. https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/attenborough-prize/
August 30, 2025 at 2:33 PM
The Royal Society David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Dr Roger Highfield for a vast contribution to public engagement, reaching audiences of millions through journalism, broadcast, books and museum-led initiatives. https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/attenborough-prize/
Reposted by Will Smith
Check out our latest preprint! We show that the same antibacterial toxin requires different immunity proteins depending whether it’s intra or extracellular
Distinct immunity protein families mediate compartment-specificneutralisation of a bacterial toxin https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.31.657152v1
June 1, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Check out our latest preprint! We show that the same antibacterial toxin requires different immunity proteins depending whether it’s intra or extracellular
Go Team! Deeply honoured that the MERMan lab reps won an @manchester.ac.uk "FMBH heroes" award - thanks @fbmh-uom.bsky.social and @mermanchester.bsky.social for nominating us ❤️❤️❤️
July 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Go Team! Deeply honoured that the MERMan lab reps won an @manchester.ac.uk "FMBH heroes" award - thanks @fbmh-uom.bsky.social and @mermanchester.bsky.social for nominating us ❤️❤️❤️
Reposted by Will Smith
Only one week to go until the abstract submission deadline for Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics 2025! Make sure to submit by 23:59 BST on 7 July 2025. microb.io/Abstracts #MicroEvo25
June 30, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Only one week to go until the abstract submission deadline for Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics 2025! Make sure to submit by 23:59 BST on 7 July 2025. microb.io/Abstracts #MicroEvo25
Reposted by Will Smith
#Bacteria use weapons to outcompete rivals, but what happens if they're transferred? @prokaryota.bsky.social @jdpal.bsky.social &co show that HGT of toxin #plasmids is rare but recipients can thrive under relaxed nutrient competition, reshaping bacterial warfare @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/43vC3X7
May 22, 2025 at 9:00 AM
#Bacteria use weapons to outcompete rivals, but what happens if they're transferred? @prokaryota.bsky.social @jdpal.bsky.social &co show that HGT of toxin #plasmids is rare but recipients can thrive under relaxed nutrient competition, reshaping bacterial warfare @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/43vC3X7
Reposted by Will Smith
Delighted to be able to share our new review on R-pyocins produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It covers genetics, regulation, killing mechanisms and therapeutic potential amongst other things. #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s44...
R-pyocins as targeted antimicrobials against Pseudomonas aeruginosa - npj Antimicrobials and Resistance
npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - R-pyocins as targeted antimicrobials against Pseudomonas aeruginosa
www.nature.com
March 1, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Delighted to be able to share our new review on R-pyocins produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It covers genetics, regulation, killing mechanisms and therapeutic potential amongst other things. #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Had a fantastic time at @pintofscience.uk last night! Here I am wobbling on a chair trying to turn a #Phage into a #T6SS. Thanks @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social for the pic!
May 21, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Had a fantastic time at @pintofscience.uk last night! Here I am wobbling on a chair trying to turn a #Phage into a #T6SS. Thanks @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social for the pic!
Reposted by Will Smith
Had the absolute best time at @pintofscience.uk talking about microbial evolution and some of the work I’ve been doing at @mermanchester.bsky.social with @flanagella.bsky.social and @dannagifford.bsky.social 🧫💊🧬
May 21, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Had the absolute best time at @pintofscience.uk talking about microbial evolution and some of the work I’ve been doing at @mermanchester.bsky.social with @flanagella.bsky.social and @dannagifford.bsky.social 🧫💊🧬
An excellent showing from @mermanchester.bsky.social at #microbio25!
April 2, 2025 at 6:45 PM
An excellent showing from @mermanchester.bsky.social at #microbio25!