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Joe Wanford

@jwanford.bsky.social

250 followers 430 following 19 posts

Group leader and Wellcome Trust Career Development Fellow at King's College London. Using comparative genomics, microbiology and innate immunology to study Klebsiella virulence. Foodie and below average footballer.

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Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 23d

🎉 Delighted to share the first pre-print from my lab where we demonstrate that intergenic DNA repeats mediate phase variation of the mucoid phenotype in hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... #klebclub

Simple Sequence Repeats Mediate Phase Variation of the Mucoid Phenotype in Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae

Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (HVKp) express a thick mucoid capsular polysaccharide which is essential for virulence and survival in the bloodstream but inhibits epithelial adhesion and invasion...

www.biorxiv.org

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Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 6d

Great opportunity in a great lab!

Michelle Buckner @bucknerlab.bsky.social · 6d

Job opportunity in my lab! We're looking for a post-doc to come join us for an exciting project exploring the evolution of #AMR and #hypervirulence in #klebsiella. Please share!! @unibirmingham.bsky.social Details: www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DOV067/r...

Research Fellow at University of Birmingham

Apply now for the Research Fellow role on jobs.ac.uk - the leading job board for higher education jobs. View details.

www.jobs.ac.uk

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 23d

🚨If you want to help us to answer these questions, there’s still time to apply for our open PDRA positions (deadline 21st Sept):

Molecular microbiology/genomics - tinyurl.com/mtrwtx5e
Infection biology - tinyurl.com/2s3u8ca2

tinyurl.com

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 23d

So many questions remain:

• What are the dynamics of phase variation in the host?
• In what other contexts is this process important?
• What are the determinants of switching rate, and how does this vary by clonal lineage?
• How can this information inform genomic surveillance?

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 23d

I want to thank all of my fantastic collaborators their help and support with this work @codendall.bsky.social @neisseriaspanin.bsky.social @margaretlam.bsky.social @katholt.bsky.social @josebengoechea.bsky.social (+ many others not on bluesky)

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 23d

Comparative genomics revealed that this switch is conserved in all variants of the rmp locus indicating this is likely a key adaptive strategy in all HVKp

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 23d

The switch - termed 'phase variation' - enables HVKp to both ‘have their cake and eat it’, alternating between states of epithelial cell infection, and survival in human serum :

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 23d

By combining in vitro infection assays, whole genome sequencing, and molecular microbiology approaches, we demonstrate that a DNA repeat in rmpA functions as a genetic switch between mucoid and non-mucoid phenotypes

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · 23d

Simple Sequence Repeats Mediate Phase Variation of the Mucoid Phenotype in Hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae

www.biorxiv.org

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Reposted by Joe Wanford

Julie Le Bris @julielebris.bsky.social · 29d

How complex functions, with important physiological and evolutionary impacts get repeatedly and efficiently transferred across genomes?
That’s what we explored using one of the fastest-evolving loci in Bacteria: the capsule locus.
The paper: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Thread👇

Serotype swapping in Klebsiella spp. by plug-and-play

Understanding how complex, multi-gene systems evolve and function across genetic backgrounds is a central question in molecular evolution. While such systems often impose costs through epistatic inter...

www.biorxiv.org

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Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · Aug 26

Thanks, Jose!

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · Aug 26

Thanks, Lesley!

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · Aug 26

🚨 Job alert 🚨

I’m recruiting two postdoctoral research associates to join my lab at KCL to study how #Klebsiella pneumoniae regulates virulence factor expression during infection! #klebclub

Mol Micro: tinyurl.com/mtrwtx5e

Infection: tinyurl.com/2s3u8ca2

Deadline: 21st September.

Postdoctoral Research Associate in Molecular Microbiology

www.kcl.ac.uk

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Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · Jul 29

Thanks so much, Lesley :)

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · Jul 29

Thanks, Julie! The pain of the mocks was worth it 😂

Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · Jul 29

I will shortly be advertising multiple PDRA positions – if you love molecular microbiology and bacterial pathogenesis, please get in touch for a chat!

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Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · Jul 29

Now that it’s official, I’m delighted to announce I’ve been awarded a Wellcome Trust Career Development Award to fund my lab’s work on K. pneumoniae pathogenesis for the next 8 years! Very grateful to many fantastic mentors and collaborators who’ve helped throughout this process.

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Reposted by Joe Wanford

Feargal Ryan @feargalr.bsky.social · Apr 2

Delighted our study (7+ years in the making) is out today in Nature. In a nutshell, 48 hours of antibiotics in week 1 led to impaired vaccine responses up to 15 months later in infants. We show (in-vivo) a probiotic can fix it #microbiome #science #immunology
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Bifidobacteria support optimal infant vaccine responses - Nature

Neonatal antibiotic use is shown to reduce immune response to infant vaccines, accompanied by reduced abundance of Bifidobacteria in the gut microbiota, with experiments in mice indicating that probio...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Joe Wanford

Camilla Godlee @camillagodlee.bsky.social · Mar 31

I am recruiting a research assistant. Please send to anyone you know who is interested in gaining more lab experience in host:pathogen interactions of bacterial infections.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk/job/50738/

Research Assistant - Godlee Group (Fixed Term) - Job Opportunities - University of Cambridge

Research Assistant - Godlee Group (Fixed Term) in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge.

www.jobs.cam.ac.uk

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Reposted by Joe Wanford

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · Mar 27

OUT NOW: Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice

#microsky 🧪

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Inducible transposon mutagenesis identifies bacterial fitness determinants during infection in mice - Nature Microbiology

InducTn-seq, a method for inducible mutagenesis followed by transposon insertion site sequencing, enables temporal control of transposition to bypass population bottlenecks and enable the quantificati...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by Joe Wanford

ᐯIᑕTOᖇ ᑎIᘔET, ᗰᗪ @nizet.bsky.social · Mar 26

New in Nat Comm

A rapid evolution-tracking system for 𝘒𝘭𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘱𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘮𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘢𝘦 that experimentally tests how this leading MDR threat resists antibiotics and adapts to serum to invade the bloodstream

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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Reposted by Joe Wanford

Annika Hausmann @hausmannannika.bsky.social · Mar 23

I am very excited to share our latest publication on the effect of systemic #endotoxin on intestinal #microbiota spearheaded by the brilliant Sanne Kroon at the Hardt lab @eth-dbiol.bsky.social @ethzurich.bsky.social @naturecomms.bsky.social

👉🏼 rdcu.be/eelLn

Sublethal systemic LPS in mice enables gut-luminal pathogens to bloom through oxygen species-mediated microbiota inhibition

Nature Communications - Acute systemic immune activation may affect gut-luminal colonisation dynamics. Here, the authors show that LPS exposure in mice elevates gut-luminal oxygen species levels,...

rdcu.be

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Joe Wanford @jwanford.bsky.social · Mar 20

🚨 Join us at King's College London for all things cellular microbiology! Super friendly meeting with cool science and great opportunity for ECRs to present their work!

UK Cellular Microbiology @ukcellmicro.bsky.social · Mar 20

Strange sights in central London!

🚨 UK Cell Micro 2025 is here! 🚨

📅 2nd-3rd June 2025
📍 King’s College London

Join us for fun science, networking, and a rooftop social! 🌇🎉

💡 Submit your abstract by 10th April

ukcellmicro.org

Reposted by Joe Wanford

Jonathan Kagan @jkagan1.bsky.social · Mar 8

What do Pablo Picasso and Charles Janeway have in common? Both were interested in patterns of life. Janeway was focused on pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) that are detected by our immune system. But what are these patterns he refers to?

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Reposted by Joe Wanford

apreston243.bsky.social @apreston243.bsky.social · Feb 28

New paper alert! Thoughtful review of phase variation, including current controversies. @microbiologysociety.org www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...

100+ years of phase variation: the premier bacterial bet-hedging phenomenon

Stochastic, reversible switches in the expression of Salmonella flagella variants were first described by Andrewes in 1922. Termed phase variation (PV), subsequent research found that this phenomenon ...

www.microbiologyresearch.org

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Reposted by Joe Wanford

Nature @nature.com · Feb 27

Nature research paper: Macrophages recycle phagocytosed bacteria to fuel immunometabolic responses

https://go.nature.com/3XmyOPD

Macrophages recycle phagocytosed bacteria to fuel immunometabolic responses - Nature

Phagocytosed bacteria can serve as an alternative nutrient source for macrophages, influencing their metabolic and immune responses through the recycling of microbial components, with the process regulated by nutrient-sensing mechanisms and bacterial viability.

go.nature.com

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