James Connolly
@ruamicro.bsky.social
MRC Career Development Fellow at Newcastle University. Studying how pathogens control their genes
Pinned
James Connolly
@ruamicro.bsky.social
· Jul 30
Convergent evolution of distinct D-ribulose utilisation pathways in attaching and effacing pathogens - Nature Communications
Cottam et al. identify distinct pathways for D-ribulose utilisation in pathogenic Escherichia coli and Citrobacter rodentium, providing mechanistic details and suggesting convergent evolution towards ...
www.nature.com
Absolutely delighted to share the labs latest work. We identify and characterise two pathways for D-ribulose utilisation in pathogenic EHEC and Citrobacter.
Reposted by James Connolly
🚨 Publication alert! We are stoked to report the structural basis for activity of a novel class of antimicrobials targeting Gram positive priority pathogens in @natcomms.nature.com. There is something for everyone on this paper, and I will highlight a few things below 👇 1/9 doi.org/10.1038/s414...
A unique inhibitor conformation selectively targets the DNA polymerase PolC of Gram-positive priority pathogens - Nature Communications
In this work, Urem et al. characterize the mode of action as well as mechanism of reduced susceptibility related to a class of antimicrobials that is in development for the treatment of infections wit...
doi.org
November 6, 2025 at 10:29 AM
🚨 Publication alert! We are stoked to report the structural basis for activity of a novel class of antimicrobials targeting Gram positive priority pathogens in @natcomms.nature.com. There is something for everyone on this paper, and I will highlight a few things below 👇 1/9 doi.org/10.1038/s414...
Reposted by James Connolly
Looks like a great meeting :)
Registration is now LIVE for the 2026 international symposium on Shiga toxin producing E. coli (VTEC), being held in Aberdeen on the the 10-13th of May 2026.
The early bird deadline is February 27th so don’t miss out and register now.
www.vtec2026.org
The early bird deadline is February 27th so don’t miss out and register now.
www.vtec2026.org
About - (VTEC 2026) International Symposium On Shiga Toxin Producing Escherchia Coli Infections - P&J Live
www.vtec2026.org
November 3, 2025 at 12:36 PM
Looks like a great meeting :)
Registration is now LIVE for the 2026 international symposium on Shiga toxin producing E. coli (VTEC), being held in Aberdeen on the the 10-13th of May 2026.
The early bird deadline is February 27th so don’t miss out and register now.
www.vtec2026.org
The early bird deadline is February 27th so don’t miss out and register now.
www.vtec2026.org
About - (VTEC 2026) International Symposium On Shiga Toxin Producing Escherchia Coli Infections - P&J Live
www.vtec2026.org
November 3, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Registration is now LIVE for the 2026 international symposium on Shiga toxin producing E. coli (VTEC), being held in Aberdeen on the the 10-13th of May 2026.
The early bird deadline is February 27th so don’t miss out and register now.
www.vtec2026.org
The early bird deadline is February 27th so don’t miss out and register now.
www.vtec2026.org
Reposted by James Connolly
Fantastic PhD opportunity 👇
If you are interested in researching how drug resistant bacteria evade killing by our immune system, them this PhD project is for you. Come join the our team at Newcastle, in collaboration with University of Liverpool, and lead research at the interface of microbiology, immunology and metabolomics.
MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Hiding in plain sight: How multi-drug resistant pathogens evade detection and killing by human neutrophils at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Hiding in plain sight: How multi-drug resistant pathogens evade detection and killing by human neutrophils at Newcastle University, listed on Fin...
www.findaphd.com
November 3, 2025 at 8:35 AM
Fantastic PhD opportunity 👇
Reposted by James Connolly
Reposted by James Connolly
Want to find ways to combat TB? Check out this PhD position 👇
November 2, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Want to find ways to combat TB? Check out this PhD position 👇
Reposted by James Connolly
Want to work within a multidisciplinary group to combat antifungal resistance in Candida spp? Fully-funded MRC PhD studentship in collaboration with @nclfungalgroup.bsky.social and Francesco Del Carratore on the mode of action of a new class of antifungal drugs. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Targeting thioredoxin reductase to combat antifungal resistance in Candida spp. at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Targeting thioredoxin reductase to combat antifungal resistance in Candida spp. at Newcastle University, listed on FindAPhD.com
www.findaphd.com
October 31, 2025 at 10:35 AM
Want to work within a multidisciplinary group to combat antifungal resistance in Candida spp? Fully-funded MRC PhD studentship in collaboration with @nclfungalgroup.bsky.social and Francesco Del Carratore on the mode of action of a new class of antifungal drugs. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Reposted by James Connolly
Interested in a PhD at the intersection of biophysics and microbiology?
Apply for this MRC-funded opportunity at Newcastle University to do cutting-edge microscopy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis! 🔬🦠
Closing 4 Dec!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Apply for this MRC-funded opportunity at Newcastle University to do cutting-edge microscopy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis! 🔬🦠
Closing 4 Dec!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Molecular mechanism of slow growth and antibiotic tolerance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using single-molecule microscopy at Newcastle University on FindAPhD....
PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Molecular mechanism of slow growth and antibiotic tolerance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis using single-molecule microscopy at Newcastle Universit...
www.findaphd.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:09 PM
Interested in a PhD at the intersection of biophysics and microbiology?
Apply for this MRC-funded opportunity at Newcastle University to do cutting-edge microscopy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis! 🔬🦠
Closing 4 Dec!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Apply for this MRC-funded opportunity at Newcastle University to do cutting-edge microscopy in Mycobacterium tuberculosis! 🔬🦠
Closing 4 Dec!
www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
If you are interested in researching how drug resistant bacteria evade killing by our immune system, them this PhD project is for you. Come join the our team at Newcastle, in collaboration with University of Liverpool, and lead research at the interface of microbiology, immunology and metabolomics.
MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Hiding in plain sight: How multi-drug resistant pathogens evade detection and killing by human neutrophils at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Hiding in plain sight: How multi-drug resistant pathogens evade detection and killing by human neutrophils at Newcastle University, listed on Fin...
www.findaphd.com
November 2, 2025 at 8:22 PM
If you are interested in researching how drug resistant bacteria evade killing by our immune system, them this PhD project is for you. Come join the our team at Newcastle, in collaboration with University of Liverpool, and lead research at the interface of microbiology, immunology and metabolomics.
Reposted by James Connolly
Exciting PhD opportunity with a great supervisor @ruamicro.bsky.social. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Hiding in plain sight: How multi-drug resistant pathogens evade detection and killing by human neutrophils at Newcastle University on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - MRC DiMeN Doctoral Training Partnership: Hiding in plain sight: How multi-drug resistant pathogens evade detection and killing by human neutrophils at Newcastle University, listed on Fin...
www.findaphd.com
October 31, 2025 at 12:32 PM
Exciting PhD opportunity with a great supervisor @ruamicro.bsky.social. www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
Reposted by James Connolly
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)
October 15, 2025 at 12:22 PM
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT📣: I haven’t been this excited to be part of something new in 15 years… Thrilled to reveal the passion project I’ve been working on for the past year and a half!🙀🥳 (thread 👇)
Reposted by James Connolly
Enhanced virulence and stress tolerance are signatures of epidemiologically successful Shigella sonnei
@sydneylmiles.bsky.social @katholt.bsky.social
🙏to transformative collaborative effort
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@sydneylmiles.bsky.social @katholt.bsky.social
🙏to transformative collaborative effort
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
October 13, 2025 at 9:48 PM
Enhanced virulence and stress tolerance are signatures of epidemiologically successful Shigella sonnei
@sydneylmiles.bsky.social @katholt.bsky.social
🙏to transformative collaborative effort
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
@sydneylmiles.bsky.social @katholt.bsky.social
🙏to transformative collaborative effort
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by James Connolly
Delighted to share our latest paper - A host-directed adjuvant sensitizes intracellular bacterial persisters to antibiotics. Excellently led by Dr. Kuan-Yi Lu. We think it's a great proof-of-concept that altering immune cell behavior can make antibiotics work better www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A host-directed adjuvant sensitizes intracellular bacterial persisters to antibiotics - Nature Microbiology
The authors developed a screen to find compounds that modulate intracellular Staphylococcus aureus metabolism and discovered KL1, which sensitizes persisters to antibiotics by reversing host-induced tolerance.
www.nature.com
October 10, 2025 at 1:24 PM
Delighted to share our latest paper - A host-directed adjuvant sensitizes intracellular bacterial persisters to antibiotics. Excellently led by Dr. Kuan-Yi Lu. We think it's a great proof-of-concept that altering immune cell behavior can make antibiotics work better www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by James Connolly
Two group leader positions available in the broader areas of RNA science, RNA technologies, and RNA medicine. Attractive packages and a great environment. Come and join us at Helmholtz RNA Würzburg, Bavaria.
October 8, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Two group leader positions available in the broader areas of RNA science, RNA technologies, and RNA medicine. Attractive packages and a great environment. Come and join us at Helmholtz RNA Würzburg, Bavaria.
Reposted by James Connolly
Check it out! A proper team effort from past and present group members and a great collaboration with @sergemostowylab.bsky.social
The Staphylococcus aureus LXG-domain toxins EsxX and SAR0287 do not promote virulence in a zebrafish larval infection model https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.10.04.680436v1
October 5, 2025 at 8:11 AM
Check it out! A proper team effort from past and present group members and a great collaboration with @sergemostowylab.bsky.social
Reposted by James Connolly
PhD opportunity to come and work in Glasgow, developing advanced tissue culture models to study Staphylococcus aureus colonisation and infection #microsky #PhD #DTPprogram
Enquiries from potential applicants are welcome.
www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...
www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
Enquiries from potential applicants are welcome.
www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...
www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
University of Glasgow - Postgraduate study - Centres for Doctoral Training - NorthWest Biosciences - Our Projects - Understanding Pathogens, from Molecules to Phenotypes - Justine Rudkin
www.gla.ac.uk
September 30, 2025 at 12:52 PM
PhD opportunity to come and work in Glasgow, developing advanced tissue culture models to study Staphylococcus aureus colonisation and infection #microsky #PhD #DTPprogram
Enquiries from potential applicants are welcome.
www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...
www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
Enquiries from potential applicants are welcome.
www.gla.ac.uk/postgraduate...
www.findaphd.com/phds/program...
Reposted by James Connolly
Now published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Very nice collaboration with Hoogenboom ( @ucl.ac.uk ) and Bonev ( @uniofnottingham.bsky.social ) labs.
Very nice collaboration with Hoogenboom ( @ucl.ac.uk ) and Bonev ( @uniofnottingham.bsky.social ) labs.
September 29, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Now published! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Very nice collaboration with Hoogenboom ( @ucl.ac.uk ) and Bonev ( @uniofnottingham.bsky.social ) labs.
Very nice collaboration with Hoogenboom ( @ucl.ac.uk ) and Bonev ( @uniofnottingham.bsky.social ) labs.
Reposted by James Connolly
Introducing a new gut microbiology journal, aptly titled Gut Microbiology.
All Article Publishing Charges (APCs) are waived for 2 years!
Please send your exciting research our way.
www.sciencedirect.com/journal/gut-...
All Article Publishing Charges (APCs) are waived for 2 years!
Please send your exciting research our way.
www.sciencedirect.com/journal/gut-...
July 14, 2025 at 8:45 PM
Introducing a new gut microbiology journal, aptly titled Gut Microbiology.
All Article Publishing Charges (APCs) are waived for 2 years!
Please send your exciting research our way.
www.sciencedirect.com/journal/gut-...
All Article Publishing Charges (APCs) are waived for 2 years!
Please send your exciting research our way.
www.sciencedirect.com/journal/gut-...
Reposted by James Connolly
New preprint from the lab, in collaboration with Wenhan Zhu (U Vanderbilt): using dual RNA-seq during B. theta colonization of the host mucous layer, we identify IroR--an iron-response sRNA that tunes capsule expression and facilitates adaptation to iron limitation.
doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.08.672848
doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.08.672848
An RNA regulates iron homeostasis and host mucus colonization in Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron
Symbiotic bacteria in the human intestinal microbiota provide many pivotal functions to human health and occupy distinct biogeographic niches within the gut. Yet the molecular basis underlying niche-s...
doi.org
September 9, 2025 at 7:49 AM
New preprint from the lab, in collaboration with Wenhan Zhu (U Vanderbilt): using dual RNA-seq during B. theta colonization of the host mucous layer, we identify IroR--an iron-response sRNA that tunes capsule expression and facilitates adaptation to iron limitation.
doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.08.672848
doi.org/10.1101/2025.09.08.672848
Reposted by James Connolly
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 9, 2025 at 5:05 PM
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...
Reposted by James Connolly
Our second paper with @tcostalab.bsky.social and GoogleDeepMind
reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
AI mirrors experimental science to uncover a mechanism of gene transfer crucial to bacterial evolution
By solving a previously unsolved biological question, the AI co-scientist predicted
a complex mechanism of gene transfer and generated hypotheses that opened new research
directions, illustrating AI's...
www.cell.com
September 9, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Our second paper with @tcostalab.bsky.social and GoogleDeepMind
reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
reports our experience with Google’s co-scientist: remarkably, the AI independently recapitulated our experimental discovery on cf-PICIs, showcasing AI’s potential to accelerate biology.
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Reposted by James Connolly
So excited our antibiotic potentiation story is out 🤩 Led by the extraordinary @manonlang.bsky.social with @fox-science.bsky.social & @amazeld.bsky.social +amazing collaborators @immunobladder.bsky.social @imaneelmeouche.bsky.social 🦠 We believe it can make a difference in #AMR infections!
Uridine as a potentiator of aminoglycosides through activation of carbohydrate transporters
Uridine boosts aminoglycoside treatment efficiency against antibiotic-susceptible as well as antibiotic-resistant E. coli strains.
www.science.org
September 6, 2025 at 9:35 AM
So excited our antibiotic potentiation story is out 🤩 Led by the extraordinary @manonlang.bsky.social with @fox-science.bsky.social & @amazeld.bsky.social +amazing collaborators @immunobladder.bsky.social @imaneelmeouche.bsky.social 🦠 We believe it can make a difference in #AMR infections!
Reposted by James Connolly
Delighted with our new paper on a novel itaconate transporter in the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, led by Javeria and Reyme. @ybri-uoy.bsky.social @javeriamehboob.bsky.social @bethkw.bsky.social A duplicated transporter on its way to itaconate selectivity
portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...
portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...
Itaconate utilisation by the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa requires uptake via the IctPQM TRAP transporter
Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA01 is one of the major causes of disease persistence and mortality in patients with lung pathologies, relying on various host metabolites as carbon and energy sources for grow...
portlandpress.com
September 2, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Delighted with our new paper on a novel itaconate transporter in the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa, led by Javeria and Reyme. @ybri-uoy.bsky.social @javeriamehboob.bsky.social @bethkw.bsky.social A duplicated transporter on its way to itaconate selectivity
portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...
portlandpress.com/biochemj/art...
Reposted by James Connolly
Reposted by James Connolly
Applications for Outreach and Engagement grant are now open. Eligible members can apply for up to £1000 to support science outreach or public engagement initiatives. Check your eligibility and apply before 01 Oct 25 at 23.59 BST. microb.io/OutreachandE....
Outreach and Engagement Grant
Eligible members can apply for up to £1000 to support relevant science outreach or public engagement initiatives that engage new audiences in the art and science in any aspect of microbiology.…
microb.io
August 1, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Applications for Outreach and Engagement grant are now open. Eligible members can apply for up to £1000 to support science outreach or public engagement initiatives. Check your eligibility and apply before 01 Oct 25 at 23.59 BST. microb.io/OutreachandE....