Will Smith
@willpjsmith.bsky.social
I love science! I study toxin interactions in microbes. Dad of two @wellcometrust Sir Henry Wellcome Fellow | All views my own | he/him | 🏳️🌈
Reposted by Will Smith
So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Bacterial warfare is associated with virulence and antimicrobial resistance - Nature Communications
Bacteria employ a range of competition systems that deliver toxins to inhibit competing strains. This study shows that these systems are particularly important for the ecology of virulent and antibiot...
www.nature.com
November 5, 2025 at 7:32 AM
So happy to share this! Bacteriocins were first discovered over 100 years ago, but what do they actually do? We look at >1000 bacteriocin plasmids and find links to virulence and antimicrobial resistance, and frequent bacteriocin sharing in Enterobacteriaceae.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Reposted by Will Smith
Hello everyone, take a look at my cool bugs from the Microbial Dark Matter phylum Saccharibacteria! These ultrasmall bacteria (in green) track down Actinobacteria hosts (not in green) and grow on the host cell envelope.
For the first time, scientists have performed targeted mutations on an episymbiosis-determining pathway. In a new study on Saccharibacteria, AFI researchers used advanced techniques to observe pili that drive motility and host attachment.
@batbilegbor.bsky.social
forsyth.org/saccharibact...
@batbilegbor.bsky.social
forsyth.org/saccharibact...
October 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Hello everyone, take a look at my cool bugs from the Microbial Dark Matter phylum Saccharibacteria! These ultrasmall bacteria (in green) track down Actinobacteria hosts (not in green) and grow on the host cell envelope.
Reposted by Will Smith
Open position to work on Type IX secretion (#T9SS) in our lab, in collaboration withe the group of Eric Reynolds at the Dental School of the University of Melbourne. Please spread the word, and forward to anyone potentially interested ! Apply here:
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
Portail Emploi CNRS - Offre d'emploi - Thèse en Microbiologie-Biochimie (H/F)
emploi.cnrs.fr
October 9, 2025 at 12:18 PM
Open position to work on Type IX secretion (#T9SS) in our lab, in collaboration withe the group of Eric Reynolds at the Dental School of the University of Melbourne. Please spread the word, and forward to anyone potentially interested ! Apply here:
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/Docto...
Reposted by Will Smith
🧐Checkout our preprint revealing the stepwise firing💥 mechanism of a Contractile Injection System @xujwet.bsky.social&@chipericson.bsky.social trapped the complex by structure-guided engineering🧪 in multiple intermediate states and imaged them by multimodal #cryoEM❄️🔬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
October 8, 2025 at 9:18 PM
🧐Checkout our preprint revealing the stepwise firing💥 mechanism of a Contractile Injection System @xujwet.bsky.social&@chipericson.bsky.social trapped the complex by structure-guided engineering🧪 in multiple intermediate states and imaged them by multimodal #cryoEM❄️🔬
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Reposted by Will Smith
Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community - Nature Communications
Here the authors leverage a crossfeeding, engineered microbial community to demonstrate that strain abundance cycles are robust across environmental conditions. They pair this with a nonlinear dynamic model to elucidate population cycles.
www.nature.com
October 7, 2025 at 4:23 PM
Metabolic interplay drives population cycles in a cross-feeding microbial community www.nature.com/articles/s41... #jcampubs
Reposted by Will Smith
Phage "satellites" that produce capsids but have no genes to produce tails have puzzled scientists for a long time. These are abundant as prophages in bacteria, but it was unclear how they can infect without tails
Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
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 11, 2025 at 11:23 AM
Phage "satellites" that produce capsids but have no genes to produce tails have puzzled scientists for a long time. These are abundant as prophages in bacteria, but it was unclear how they can infect without tails
Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
Now, Penadés & co show that they hijack tails from other phages. Incredible!
Reposted by Will Smith
New preprint bubbling up in our group for a while:
"Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Generalizes findings of phase separation in microbes using T6SSs to a broad range of interaction mechanisms.
Li + Steinbach et al.
"Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Generalizes findings of phase separation in microbes using T6SSs to a broad range of interaction mechanisms.
Li + Steinbach et al.
![FIG. 3: Time lapse visualizations of a two player coordination game with payo matrix A = [10 5; 510]. The images show the spatial con guration (lattice size L = 256) at t = 0246810 with dt = 005. White corresponds to player 1 and black is player 2. Starting from well mixed initial condition, initial fraction of player 1 is 05, the two players separate into domains whose characteristic length scales (patch size) grow over time.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:pdvoxeret2wq6tzu7gxy7eeh/bafkreieb2n73jcc6srh7s455dc3ztsitbvwe7542vzhjxlc3su3x4l3lpi@jpeg)
September 10, 2025 at 12:57 PM
New preprint bubbling up in our group for a while:
"Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Generalizes findings of phase separation in microbes using T6SSs to a broad range of interaction mechanisms.
Li + Steinbach et al.
"Phase separation and coexistence in spatial coordination games between microbes"
www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
Generalizes findings of phase separation in microbes using T6SSs to a broad range of interaction mechanisms.
Li + Steinbach et al.
Does your lab perform killing assays?
TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is.
Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!

Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
1/n
TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is.
Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!

Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
1/n
Type VI secretion system activity at lethal antibiotic concentrations leads to overestimation of weapon potency
Competition assays are a mainstay of modern microbiology, offering a simple and cost-effective means to quantify microbe–microbe interactions in vitro. Here, we demonstrate a key weakness of this meth...
www.microbiologyresearch.org
August 31, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Does your lab perform killing assays?
TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is.
Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!

Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
1/n
TL;DR: we’ve identified a problem that can bias the outcome of killing assays, making antagonism look stronger than it really is.
Adding a simple extra step can mitigate this bias!

Out now at #MicrobioJ www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
1/n
Reposted by Will Smith
The Royal Society David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Dr Roger Highfield for a vast contribution to public engagement, reaching audiences of millions through journalism, broadcast, books and museum-led initiatives. https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/attenborough-prize/
August 30, 2025 at 2:33 PM
The Royal Society David Attenborough Award and Lecture 2025 is awarded to Dr Roger Highfield for a vast contribution to public engagement, reaching audiences of millions through journalism, broadcast, books and museum-led initiatives. https://royalsociety.org/medals-and-prizes/attenborough-prize/
Reposted by Will Smith
Check out our latest preprint! We show that the same antibacterial toxin requires different immunity proteins depending whether it’s intra or extracellular
Distinct immunity protein families mediate compartment-specificneutralisation of a bacterial toxin https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.31.657152v1
June 1, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Check out our latest preprint! We show that the same antibacterial toxin requires different immunity proteins depending whether it’s intra or extracellular
Go Team! Deeply honoured that the MERMan lab reps won an @manchester.ac.uk "FMBH heroes" award - thanks @fbmh-uom.bsky.social and @mermanchester.bsky.social for nominating us ❤️❤️❤️
July 2, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Go Team! Deeply honoured that the MERMan lab reps won an @manchester.ac.uk "FMBH heroes" award - thanks @fbmh-uom.bsky.social and @mermanchester.bsky.social for nominating us ❤️❤️❤️
Reposted by Will Smith
Only one week to go until the abstract submission deadline for Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics 2025! Make sure to submit by 23:59 BST on 7 July 2025. microb.io/Abstracts #MicroEvo25
June 30, 2025 at 8:02 AM
Only one week to go until the abstract submission deadline for Understanding and predicting microbial evolutionary dynamics 2025! Make sure to submit by 23:59 BST on 7 July 2025. microb.io/Abstracts #MicroEvo25
Reposted by Will Smith
#Bacteria use weapons to outcompete rivals, but what happens if they're transferred? @prokaryota.bsky.social @jdpal.bsky.social &co show that HGT of toxin #plasmids is rare but recipients can thrive under relaxed nutrient competition, reshaping bacterial warfare @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/43vC3X7
May 22, 2025 at 9:00 AM
#Bacteria use weapons to outcompete rivals, but what happens if they're transferred? @prokaryota.bsky.social @jdpal.bsky.social &co show that HGT of toxin #plasmids is rare but recipients can thrive under relaxed nutrient competition, reshaping bacterial warfare @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/43vC3X7
Reposted by Will Smith
Delighted to be able to share our new review on R-pyocins produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It covers genetics, regulation, killing mechanisms and therapeutic potential amongst other things. #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s44...
R-pyocins as targeted antimicrobials against Pseudomonas aeruginosa - npj Antimicrobials and Resistance
npj Antimicrobials and Resistance - R-pyocins as targeted antimicrobials against Pseudomonas aeruginosa
www.nature.com
March 1, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Delighted to be able to share our new review on R-pyocins produced by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. It covers genetics, regulation, killing mechanisms and therapeutic potential amongst other things. #MicroSky www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Had a fantastic time at @pintofscience.uk last night! Here I am wobbling on a chair trying to turn a #Phage into a #T6SS. Thanks @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social for the pic!
May 21, 2025 at 9:27 AM
Had a fantastic time at @pintofscience.uk last night! Here I am wobbling on a chair trying to turn a #Phage into a #T6SS. Thanks @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social for the pic!
Reposted by Will Smith
Had the absolute best time at @pintofscience.uk talking about microbial evolution and some of the work I’ve been doing at @mermanchester.bsky.social with @flanagella.bsky.social and @dannagifford.bsky.social 🧫💊🧬
May 21, 2025 at 8:01 AM
Had the absolute best time at @pintofscience.uk talking about microbial evolution and some of the work I’ve been doing at @mermanchester.bsky.social with @flanagella.bsky.social and @dannagifford.bsky.social 🧫💊🧬
An excellent showing from @mermanchester.bsky.social at #microbio25!
April 2, 2025 at 6:45 PM
An excellent showing from @mermanchester.bsky.social at #microbio25!
Reposted by Will Smith
1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Genome duplication in a long-term multicellularity evolution experiment - Nature
In the Multicellularity Long Term Evolution Experiment, diploid yeast evolve to be tetraploid under selection for larger multicellular size, revealing how whole-genome duplication can arise due to its...
www.nature.com
March 5, 2025 at 11:00 PM
1/46 Hey folks, we have a new paper out on the MuLTEE. Strap in and I’ll tell you the story of how this “little paper on polyploidy” turned into the most data rich paper our lab has produced, largely thanks to the leadership and work ethic of @kaitong25.bsky.social.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The Oxford U. Foster and Slack labs are hiring! A chance to work in bleeding edge microbiome science with some really great mentors @mucosalimmunology.bsky.social
www.fosterlab.uk/vacancies
www.fosterlab.uk/vacancies
vacancies — Foster Lab
job vacancies in the Foster lab
www.fosterlab.uk
February 26, 2025 at 10:18 AM
The Oxford U. Foster and Slack labs are hiring! A chance to work in bleeding edge microbiome science with some really great mentors @mucosalimmunology.bsky.social
www.fosterlab.uk/vacancies
www.fosterlab.uk/vacancies
Reposted by Will Smith
Embracing the systems complexity of microbial ecology and evolution: call for papers
#mSystems Editorial by a group of editors, senior editors & editor-in-chief
@leonorabit.bsky.social @gilbertjacka.bsky.social @ashley17061.bsky.social @markjmandel.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
#mSystems Editorial by a group of editors, senior editors & editor-in-chief
@leonorabit.bsky.social @gilbertjacka.bsky.social @ashley17061.bsky.social @markjmandel.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Embracing the systems complexity of microbial ecology and evolution: call for papers | mSystems
Microbial ecology and evolution are broad disciplines that seek to understand the
underlying processes that drive the diversification, distributions, and dynamics of
microbial cells, populations, comm...
journals.asm.org
February 25, 2025 at 7:54 AM
Embracing the systems complexity of microbial ecology and evolution: call for papers
#mSystems Editorial by a group of editors, senior editors & editor-in-chief
@leonorabit.bsky.social @gilbertjacka.bsky.social @ashley17061.bsky.social @markjmandel.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
#mSystems Editorial by a group of editors, senior editors & editor-in-chief
@leonorabit.bsky.social @gilbertjacka.bsky.social @ashley17061.bsky.social @markjmandel.bsky.social
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Thrilled to have our recent T6SS resistance work featured in this @pnas.org commentary by Prof. Nick Shikuma. Thanks for the shoutout Nick!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org
February 11, 2025 at 2:19 PM
Thrilled to have our recent T6SS resistance work featured in this @pnas.org commentary by Prof. Nick Shikuma. Thanks for the shoutout Nick!
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Reposted by Will Smith
Starting my Bluesky adventure by highlighting a new paper from the lab!
"A human gut bacterium antagonizes neighboring bacteria by altering their protein folding ability" @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social
@yalemedicine.bsky.social Andrew Goodman
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
@yalemedicine.bsky.social Andrew Goodman
www.cell.com/cell-host-mi...
A human gut bacterium antagonizes neighboring bacteria by altering their protein-folding ability
Antagonism shapes microbiomes. Lim et al. identify a mechanism used by human gut commensals
to antagonize related bacteria. The secreted effector Bte1 alters the protein-folding
machinery of targeted ...
www.cell.com
February 5, 2025 at 8:40 PM
Starting my Bluesky adventure by highlighting a new paper from the lab!
Reposted by Will Smith
Hi folks, I'm excited to share a whale of a tale (sorry, bad pun), where we engineer snowflake yeast to express sperm whale myoglobin, and explore how oxygen-binding proteins may have helped overcome anatomical limitations to early multicellularity. 🧪 #MEvoSky
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
January 30, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Hi folks, I'm excited to share a whale of a tale (sorry, bad pun), where we engineer snowflake yeast to express sperm whale myoglobin, and explore how oxygen-binding proteins may have helped overcome anatomical limitations to early multicellularity. 🧪 #MEvoSky
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...
Reposted by Will Smith
And now with the working link!
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
January 30, 2025 at 8:33 AM
And now with the working link!
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...
Reposted by Will Smith
Join us at 13:00 BST today for the AMR in Focus series: "What's new in therapeutics." The webinar is free, and all are welcome to attend. Register before 11:00 BST to join - https://microb.io/AMR-in-Focus
January 27, 2025 at 9:00 AM
Join us at 13:00 BST today for the AMR in Focus series: "What's new in therapeutics." The webinar is free, and all are welcome to attend. Register before 11:00 BST to join - https://microb.io/AMR-in-Focus