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Alan McNally

@alanmcn1.bsky.social

6.4K followers 580 following 1.7K posts

Head of the School of Infection, Inflammation & Immunology @ Uni Birmingham. Proud Scot. Oversaw a few Covid PCR tests

Alan McNally is a professor of microbial genomics at the University of Birmingham, UK. He works on the evolutionary genomics and antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens.

Source: Wikipedia

Biology 75%

Medicine 8%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 10h

Consecutive Fridays. Consecutive manuscript accepts.

When the science gods are with you, you need to roll with it.

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Reposted by Alan McNally

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 11h

Slept with a member of a 00s girl band before they were famous. Can't tell anyone as I was and still am with my husband and straight.

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Reposted by Paul Davies, Alan McNally

Reuters @reuters.com · 19h

Italy ready to defend 'golden powers' against EU moves, economy minister says reut.rs/4h3GS09

Italy ready to defend 'golden powers' against EU moves, economy minister says

The Italian government will defend its golden powers aimed at shielding strategic assets, its economy minister said on Friday, as Brussels prepares to challenge the legislation.

reut.rs

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 20h

I have found my new correlation and causation teaching aid

NewsThump @newsthump.com · 20h

NEWS! US government issue warning about potential link between toothpaste and decapitation newsthump.com/2025/10/10/u...

US government issue warning about potential link between toothpaste and decapitation

The US government has today issued a warning about the potential link between using toothpaste to brush your teeth and decapitation.

newsthump.com

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Reposted by Alan McNally

NewsThump @newsthump.com · 20h

NEWS! US government issue warning about potential link between toothpaste and decapitation newsthump.com/2025/10/10/u...

US government issue warning about potential link between toothpaste and decapitation

The US government has today issued a warning about the potential link between using toothpaste to brush your teeth and decapitation.

newsthump.com

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Reposted by Alan McNally

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 21h

Wife text me a small household request. I replied okie dokey which was auto corrected to ok donkey. Now I'm making my own tea. Fuck you technology.

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 21h

Yup. Was also taken by heavy bias to cases in the very young

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Reposted by Alan McNally

🎃nisillos @onisillos.bsky.social · 21h

This is starting to look like a seasonal pattern ukhsa-dashboard.data.gov.uk/respiratory-...

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Reposted by Simon Roux, Wolfgang Huber, Larry W. Hunter , and 1 more Simon Roux, Wolfgang Huber, Larry W. Hunter, Alan McNally

Ewan Birney @ewanbirney.bsky.social · 1d

I am hiring! - looking for a Staff Scientist to co-run my research group with me. Staff Scientist is a senior professional scientist role at EMBL. Please forward to people you might know who could be interested! embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/EMBL/j...

Staff Scientist

About EMBL-EBI EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute is a data powerhouse, utilised on a global scale to advance scientific discovery through bioinformatics and solutions to some of the world’s mos...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

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Reposted by Ben C. Sheldon, Jesse M. Shapiro, Elena Litchman , and 1 more Ben C. Sheldon, Jesse M. Shapiro, Elena Litchman, Alan McNally

Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 1d

Three Bicentenary research fellowships on offer at @officialuom.bsky.social @fbmh-uom.bsky.social for exceptional ECRs with <3y postdoc experience

3yrs salary + £30k pa research expenses

Do you have a great idea & want to join @mermanchester.bsky.social?

www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk/research/sup...

Bicentenary Early Career Research Fellowships | Biology, Medicine and Health | University of Manchester

Find out about and apply for a Bicentenary Early Career Research Fellowship.

www.bmh.manchester.ac.uk

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Reposted by Simon Roux, Alan McNally

The Lancet Microbe @lancetmicrobe.bsky.social · 1d

New research article

Evaluation of bacteriophages as a signature of #microbiome health: a systematic review and meta-analysis

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

#IDSky #ClinMicro #ViroSky #Phage #OpenAccess #OA

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Reposted by Alan McNally

Sofia Hauck @shauck.bsky.social · 2d

My parents dropped a bottle of port on a parking lot literally decades ago and the pain has never fully healed. I wish you a swift recovery.

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 2d

Touche

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 2d

Does he. Does he hope. Well by goodness that will see to it.

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 2d

Just dropped a bottle of whiskey on a tiled floor. How is your evening going

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Reposted by Alan McNally

Mr Roger Quimbly @rogerquimbly.bsky.social · 2d

Just before the giant monster Trump bit his head off.

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 3d

And in the process destroying UK HE

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 3d

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch is expected to announce plans to cut the number of UK university places by about 100,000 annually by reintroducing student number controls, reports Patrick Jack #edusky
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/badenochs-number-caps-plan-would-cut-100000-university-places

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Reposted by Steve Peers, Colin Murray, Susan J. Smith , and 3 more Steve Peers, Colin Murray, Susan J. Smith, Charles West, James Connelly, Alan McNally

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 3d

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 3d

Beautiful juxtaposition on BBC news website here

Reposted by Jonathan Portes, Ben H. Ansell, Margot C. Finn , and 3 more Jonathan Portes, Ben H. Ansell, Margot C. Finn, Jon Dean, Alan McNally, Tim Leunig

Sathnam Sanghera @sathnam.bsky.social · 3d

I've responded to Robert Jenrick's vile comments in @thetimes.com

www.thetimes.com/life-style/c...

I sang Jerusalem with Robert Jenrick at school — he’s wrong about race

The Conservative MP has complained that, visiting Handsworth in Birmingham, he didn’t see ‘another white face’. You can’t judge whether someone is integrated by skin colour, argues fellow Wulfrunian S...

www.thetimes.com

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Reposted by Alan McNally

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 3d

After being with the journal since its very inception, the time has come for me to step back from Microbial Genomics. This is a wonderful opportunity to have a leadership role in one of the leading journals for microbial genomics research

microbiologysociety.org/news/society...

<i>Microbial Genomics </i> Deputy Editor-in-Chief: Call for Expressions of interest

microbiologysociety.org

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Reposted by Alan McNally

iruka-okeke.bsky.social @iruka-okeke.bsky.social · 4d

Thanks also to
🇳🇬CDC & #AMRsurveillance system, without which we'd not've seen this;
GHRU-GSA consortium & @nihr.bsky.social
for enabling 🇳🇬 to institute genomic surveillance of AMR. Read our #OpenAccess MGen
@microbiologysociety.org
paper & let's know what you think doi.org/10.1099/mgen... END

Whole-genome sequencing reveals Enterobacter hormaechei as a key bloodstream pathogen in six tertiary care hospitals in southwestern Nigeria

Enterobacter spp. are an important cause of healthcare-associated bloodstream infections that are uncommonly reported in Africa. This study utilized whole-genome sequencing to characterize Enterobacte...

doi.org

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Reposted by Alan McNally

BK. Titanji @boghuma.bsky.social · 4d

A new Nature Medicine study analyzing health records from >100 million people in the US offers compelling evidence that reactivation of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) ,the same virus that causes chickenpox and shingles may contribute to dementia risk.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Varicella-zoster virus reactivation and the risk of dementia - Nature Medicine

Large-scale longitudinal health records reveal consistent association of varicella-zoster virus reactivation with dementia.

www.nature.com

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 4d

T-Regs win the Nobel prize.

And our School's very own Profs Ye Oo and Graham Anderson were just awarded a Wellcome Discovery grant with Prof Sakaguchi as a Co-I on their project.........

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Scientists win Nobel Prize for groundbreaking immune system work

The prize-winning discovery explains how the immune system attacks hostile infections, but not the body's own cells.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Alan McNally

Oliver Schwengers @oschwengers.bsky.social · 5d

Unbelievable, Bakta reached its 1,000th citation!

A huge shout out and thank you to all Bakta users, bug reporters, those sharing ideas and suggesting features...

...just the entire incredibly supporting binfie community!

Without you, Bakta wouldn't be the same.

Thank you!

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Reposted by Jesse M. Shapiro, Simon Roux, José R. Penadés , and 1 more Jesse M. Shapiro, Simon Roux, José R. Penadés, Alan McNally

Michael Brockhurst @brockhurstlab.bsky.social · 5d

New preprint!

Ever wondered why only a fraction of genomes encode CRISPR immunity? 🧬 🦠

Turns out CRISPR is rarely beneficial against virulent phages, being most beneficial against those for which resistance mutations are rare!

An epic effort by Rosanna Wright

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

Resistance mutation supply modulates the benefit of CRISPR immunity against virulent phages

Only a fraction of bacterial genomes encode CRISPR-Cas systems but the selective causes of this variation are unexplained. How naturally virulent bacteriophages (phages) select for CRISPR immunity has...

www.biorxiv.org

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Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 5d

Some seriously bad officiating at the nfl this weekend.

Reposted by Alan McNally

Olaf Falafel @ofalafel.bsky.social · 5d

Never thought I'd say this. It's
gonna be harsh and might
give you angry feelings when
you see it. I've come
up with one simple life rule:
Never ever (I know you're
gonna, but please don't)
let yourself feel stupid when
you look at the first words
down the left side of this post

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Reposted by Alan McNally

Viz Comic @vizcomic.bsky.social · 5d

subscriptions >>> shop.viz.co.uk/viz349bs

I RECENTLY bought a new
laptop which, to my surprise,
was made by HP. This must be
a really progressive company to
diversify from producing baked
beans, soup and tomato sauce
to making computers. Their
competitors should take a leaf out
of HP's book and get busy. Maybe
we could see new gadgets like a
Fray Bentos Fitbit, Batchelors
Bluetooth Earbuds or even a Mr
Kipling Raspberry Smartphone.
Heinz Doofenshmirtz, email

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