Chris Creevey
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hairyllama.bsky.social
Chris Creevey
@hairyllama.bsky.social
All things Microbes, DNA and Computers
Professor of Computational Biology @ Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).
www.creeveylab.org
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
September 4, 2025 at 9:09 AM
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
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
August 30, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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
August 29, 2025 at 2:05 PM
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
August 28, 2025 at 9:59 AM
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
August 28, 2025 at 8:43 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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
August 25, 2025 at 11:02 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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
August 23, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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
August 22, 2025 at 7:37 PM
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
August 22, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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
March 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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
March 10, 2025 at 8:30 AM
On the eve of international women’s day, it’s worth being reminded why it’s so important.
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
🧪👩‍🔬
March 7, 2025 at 9:35 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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
February 12, 2025 at 11:10 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
#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
February 12, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Love this :D
Stromatolites xkcd.com/3046
February 7, 2025 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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.
January 20, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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
December 19, 2024 at 10:57 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
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! 👇
December 17, 2024 at 5:16 PM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
#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
December 17, 2024 at 5:19 PM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
He’s making a list…
December 16, 2024 at 9:03 AM
Reposted by Chris Creevey
If science talks were like social media videos #science
December 12, 2024 at 10:30 AM
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
December 4, 2024 at 2:08 PM
Not a bad start to a Tuesday, listening to Prof. Brian Cox putting all the petty things in perspective 🤯
November 12, 2024 at 6:29 PM
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.
November 5, 2024 at 8:38 PM
🚀 Join Us as a Computational Research Fellow! 🌱

Passionate about sustainable food systems? The Co-Centre for Sustainable Food Systems @QUBelfast is hiring! Innovate and transform the agri-food sector with us. 🌍
📢 Apply Now: go.qub.ac.uk/5gkbc
#JobAlert #SustainableFood
October 21, 2024 at 5:34 PM