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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Sep 4

Its been an incredible three days of outstanding science at the Holoruminant.eu annual meeting here in QUB. Its such a privilege to host this amazing team. As we enter the final year of the project, there are so many exciting papers and tools to come. #EUH2020 #ruminant #microbiology

Photo of presentation in action with a a complex graph on screen

Photo of presentation in action with a large phylogenetic tree on the screen

Groups photo of the meeting participants

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Aug 30

James has done a great job of putting our latest preprint in context, led by @lucydillon.bsky.social. A combined ML and pangenome approach of over 16K genomes reveals the possibility of evolutionary dead ends in MDR organisms that could be exploited therapeutically. @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social

James McInerney @jomcinerney.bsky.social · Aug 29

New preprint reveals bacteria can't just collect all resistance genes like Pokemon cards.
We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Genomic constraints shape the evolution of alternative routes to drug resistance in prokaryotes

Background Variation within the prokaryotic pangenome is not random, and natural selection that favours particular combinations of genes appears to dominate over random drift. What is less clear is wh...

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Chris Creevey

James McInerney @jomcinerney.bsky.social · Aug 29

New preprint reveals bacteria can't just collect all resistance genes like Pokemon cards.
We found mutually exclusive evolutionary pathways to multidrug resistance in E. coli & P. aeruginosa - some resistance mechanisms actively prevent others from coexisting www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Genomic constraints shape the evolution of alternative routes to drug resistance in prokaryotes

Background Variation within the prokaryotic pangenome is not random, and natural selection that favours particular combinations of genes appears to dominate over random drift. What is less clear is wh...

www.biorxiv.org

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Aug 28

Wonderful to see the launch of the School of Biological Sciences! 🎓 @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social newest undergraduate degree programmes!
BSc Agricultural Sciences and BSc/MSci Veterinary Biosciences - exciting opportunities for the next generation of scientists
#HE #Degrees

Presentation of the new degree programmes

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Aug 28

Science is the ultimate team sport! Next week @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social hosts researchers from 15 countries for the EU H2020 HoloRuminant project. International collaboration, different perspectives, shared data, common goals! 🌍🐄 Looking forward to it!
#HoloRuminant #MicrobialEcology #EUH2020

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Microbiology Society @microbiologysociety.org · Aug 25

Our newest title, Microbiology Outlooks is now open to submissions! If you have a review, perspective, or commentary to contribute, submit to this forward-looking journal covering all areas of microbiology research: microb.io/Mout. #NewJournal #Mout

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Nicole Dubilier @nicoledubilier.bsky.social · Aug 23

I missed this when it came out last September - excellent essay!
Not-so-mutually beneficial coral symbiosis: Current Biology www.cell.com/current-biol...

Not-so-mutually beneficial coral symbiosis

The partnership between corals and their intracellular algal symbionts has long been a textbook example of mutually beneficial association. In this essay, Mikhail Matz argues for an updated view in which the coral acts more as a farmer of algal cells to support its own growth.

www.cell.com

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James McInerney @jomcinerney.bsky.social · Aug 22

Is there only one "path" that evolution tends to take when a new trait arises? Or can the trait arise in more than one way? In other words, walking back from a particular evolutionary "destination", do we always take the same path? The answer might be "no", at least some of the time. In fact... 1/n

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Aug 22

New preprint from the group: @lucydillon.bsky.social analysis of 16,000+ genomes finds Bacteria cannot combine certain resistance genes as they are mutually exclusive, forcing them down incompatible evolutionary paths.
biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.20.671315v1
@jomcinerney.bsky.social

Genomic constraints shape the evolution of alternative routes to drug resistance in prokaryotes.

Background: Variation within the prokaryotic pangenome is not random, and natural selection that favours particular combinations of genes appears to dominate over random drift. What is less clear is w...

biorxiv.org

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Mar 10

Available now:

Fully funded 4-year PhD studentship (with BBSRC NILAB)

Integrating AI and Taxonomy-Free Classification for Enhanced Microbiome Analysis of One Health Environments.

Merging AI & microbiomics to drive impactful advancements in One Health.

Apply here:
www.qub.ac.uk/courses/post...

REF: NILAB-2025 - BIO-PHD | Courses | Queen's University Belfast

www.qub.ac.uk

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Systematics Association @systassn.bsky.social · Mar 10

Final day! You have until 23:59 GMT+0 March 10 to apply yo the LinneSys scheme.

We (@systassn.bsky.social and @linneansociety.bsky.social) provide up to 1500GBP for taxonomy and/or systematics projects.

You just need to be a member to apply.

Apply TODAY: systass.org/linnesys/

LinneSys: Systematics Research Fund

LinneSys: Systematics Research Fund The Councils of The Linnean Society of London and The Systematics Association jointly administer this fund for the benefit of systematics research. The Fund has …

systass.org

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Mar 7

On the eve of international women’s day, it’s worth being reminded why it’s so important.

Adriana Guatame-García @adrianaguatame.bsky.social · Mar 6

A friend included this anti-acknowledgement section on her PhD thesis. She also added the proposition: “Systematic bullying and undermining of girls and women in STEM starts early on and is the reason why they do not stay in science and related fields.”
Absurd we still need to go through this
🧪👩‍🔬

There have been people less than helpful in my journey here. I wanted to acknowledge those too, bc I know I am not unique in this experience.
No thank you to the physics study assoc that made me sing songs about how women couldn't study physics without sleeping with the professor, the day I stepped into university life. No thank you to the 5th year physics student that decided to assign me a stripper name within the first minute of meeting me in the physics coffee corner in my first year. No thank you to the technician that was responsible for onboarding me on the use of the cluster in my third year who raised his eyebrows and asked me if that meant I was some sort of computer girl. No thank you to the senior researcher that sent me utterly inappropriate texts after a conference, then proceeded to apologise months later by telling me they had not been meant for me anyway so no hard feelings remain hopefully And no thank you to him for attending every conference I've been to since. No thank you to the people who told me that it was surprising that I was doing a PhD since I was a girl. No thank you to the man who mistook me for a coffee lady at a conference, and after having to correct him two times that I did not work there, responded with you should consider it. No thank you to the researcher that asked me what I was wearing underneath my outfit during a conference. No thank you to the physicist who declared to a room full of other physicists that biologists don't know how to design an experiment. No thank you to the people who have called me scary instead of strong and intimidating instead of intelligent.
And finally, no thank you to the exec board of the TU Delft, whose knee-jerk reaction to being held up a mirror about the social safety at the university, was to sue the party holding up the mirror instead of looking at the problems they highlighted.
... You have made me feel like I do not belong in science & I cannot forgive you for that.

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The Linnean Society of London @linneansociety.bsky.social · Feb 12

It's #DarwinDay! Here is Charles Darwin as part of the series "Men of the Day" (1871) from Vanity Fair (UK), a weekly magazine. Unsigned chromolithograph by James Jacques Tissot that is accompanied by an article by Thomas Gibson Bowles.
Read here: bit.ly/40S5cdP

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Microbiology Society @microbiologysociety.org · Feb 12

#OnThisDay in 1941 the first patient, Albert Alexander, was treated with Penicillin. This event marked the success of antibiotics and their application in medicine. His story serves as a testament to inspire researchers to develop new life-saving antibiotics in an effort against AMR #KnockingOutAMR

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Feb 7

Love this :D

Randall Munroe @xkcd.com · Feb 4

Stromatolites xkcd.com/3046

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Phil B. Pope @microbesrule.bsky.social · Jan 20

Congratulations DR @cmkobel.bsky.social on the successful defense of your thesis 🙌🏼 Massive thanks to @hairyllama.bsky.social and @manuelkleiner.bsky.social for the time and your style which made the day all the more entertaining.

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Aberystwyth Uni Computer Science @abercompsci.bsky.social · Dec 19

First up a bioinformatics project with Dr Wayne Aubrey Small but mighty. Small Genes, Big Impact: Exploring sORFs in Host-Parasite Interactions www.findaphd.com/phds/project...

Small but mighty. Small Genes, Big Impact: Exploring sORFs in Host-Parasite Interactions at Aberystwyth University on FindAPhD.com

PhD Project - Small but mighty. Small Genes, Big Impact: Exploring sORFs in Host-Parasite Interactions at Aberystwyth University, listed on FindAPhD.com

www.findaphd.com

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Karen Siu Ting @telmatobita.bsky.social · Dec 17

3 funded PhD opportunities to work with me and my new lab. 2 led by me and the other I will co-supervise with parasitologist Prof. Geoff Gobert, QUB.
#PhD #bioinformatics #Genomics #AI #biodiversity

See next post to find out about these projects! 👇

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Karen Siu Ting @telmatobita.bsky.social · Dec 17

#PhD 1: Effects of Mercury in Amazonian Amphibians 🐸 as part of BBSRC funded NorthWestBio DTP. Based at @qubelfastofficial.bsky.social

Project: tinyurl.com/frogHg
Apply: tinyurl.com/NWBapply
Deadline: 06/01/2025

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Twisteddoodles @twisteddoodles.bsky.social · Dec 16

He’s making a list…

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Dec 15

Congrats Lucy! It’s well deserved! It’s been a pleasure working with you.

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Twisteddoodles @twisteddoodles.bsky.social · Dec 12

If science talks were like social media videos #science

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Dec 4

For anyone attending VIBE/ICBG conference 2024 this week in Galway, keep an eye out for some Creevey Lab members, including talks by Emmet Campbell and John-Paul Wilkins and posters by @lucydillon.bsky.social and Corey Woods.
vibe-icbg.com/Event_Schedu...

vibe-icbg.com

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Nov 12

Not a bad start to a Tuesday, listening to Prof. Brian Cox putting all the petty things in perspective 🤯

Prof Brian Cox on a stage talking in front of a picture of a vast and colourful galaxy

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Chris Creevey @hairyllama.bsky.social · Nov 5

First time for me to be at Stormont, meeting First and Deputy First ministers as part of the launch of the Aquaphage project led by Tim skvortsov at QUB Pharmacy to tackle the algal blooms in Lough Neagh.

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