MERMan labs win LEAF Gold sustainability award!
Bacteria use a variety of sophisticated weaponry – including protein syringes, hole-punching nanomachines and weaponised viruses – to compete for space and resources. As well as their roles in shaping microbial communities and infections, these antimicrobials hold immense biotechnological potential for addressing pressing global challenges, including antimicrobial resistance (AMR), biocontrol, and microbiome engineering. Our vision is to harness this potential by understanding and controlling how microbes fight.
Bioscience research is resource-intensive. A typical research lab uses 10x more energy and 4x more water than an equivalent office space. As scientists, it’s imperative that we do all we can to minimise environmental impact when carrying out our research. I’m delighted to share some of the MERMan group’s successes on this front. A typical…
The MEEHubs26 conference has successfully concluded, uniting branches across multiple countries through video links, significantly reducing carbon emissions. Co-organizers express gratitude to speakers, attendees, and sponsors for their contributions. Feedback through a survey is encouraged, and opportunities for leading the next UK hub bid for MEEHubs28 are invited.
Huge congratulations to newly-minted DOCTOR Tanda Qi, who graduated this week!
This week the Smith Lab hosted sixth form students from across Greater Manchester for some hands-on bioscience lab experience. Armed with pipettes and COSHH forms, we embarked on a whistle-stop tour of the Smith lab and Manchester Microbiology as a whole. In 2 days we covered: Most importantly, there were 3-D printed jellyfish as a…
Join us for the 2026 Universally Manchester Festival on Sat June 13th!I’ll be joining the MERMan stalls at University Place (the “tin can”) with phage models, petri dishes and more. Come be curious with us!
Delighted to welcome Dr. Tanda Qi, who joined us from the Delnari lab this May! Tanda is funded by the Future Biomanufacturing Research Hub (https://futurebrh.com/) and will be engineering microbial strains to efficiently produce tailocin antimicrobials. Welcome Tanda 🙂
That’s a (resistance) wrap! Thanks to everyone who participated in the inaugural “Resistance 2 Writing” retreat today, it was great to hear about all the amazing science you’re working on! Huge thanks also to the UoM Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health for our AMR Challenge grant funding, and to the Manchester Conference centre for…
Here’s the latest preprint from my work on evolved resistance to Type VI Secretion system (T6SS) weaponry, funded by a Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship. So happy to see this out! https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.03.17.712380v1 T6SSs are molecular syringes that allow bacteria to inject a diverse array of toxins into rival cells. I’m interested in how gut…
I’m delighted to announce that MEEHubs 26 Registration is now OPEN!https://meehubs2026.oa-event.com/What: awesome conference in microbial ecology and evolution, with hubs around the worldWhere: right here at the University of Manchester (Michael Smith Biosciences Building)When: 3rd-5th August 2026:Abstract submission deadline: April 19thRegistration deadline: end of JulyPlaces are limited; register early to avoid disappointment!
