Charlotte L Oxley
#TeamPlasmid | Mobile Genetic Element Mischief & Mayhem Curator 🧬🧫 🦠
Powered by #AuDHD | Weaponised Zero Self-Regulation & Hyperfocus 💊🌌🧠
#Mother of | Overachiever, Maximum Volume & Yapper💡🤡🗣️
- When I became a #mother, my Grandmother told me that “The nights feel endless, but the days are short“ and I didn’t appreciate what she meant until today, at the Uni of Southampton #OpenDay. It’s almost the end of #coparenting our eldest; I think it’s safe to say I #brokethecycle
- Reposted by Charlotte L OxleyDelighted to see our paper studying the evolution of plasmids over the last 100 years, now out! Years of work by Adrian Cazares, also Nick Thomson @sangerinstitute.bsky.social - this version much improved over the preprint. Final version should be open access, apols. Thread 1/n
- Heading back to Southampton in a few weeks, only this time, it’s with my eldest daughter for the Open Day - looking forward to seeing the campus from a different perspective to the #MGEworkshop !
- Daily reminder as I go into the second year of my PhD
- Going back into the lab after 2 weeks off got me like

- There are approx 30 seconds per day during which I am brilliant; they are not consecutive and I have no control over them, but here I am, heading towards the end of my first year of #PhD because of [taps sign] #ADHD #garyjohnbishop #STEM #MolMicro
- My childminder is on holiday for 2 weeks, so I’m (trying) to WFH… But damn, I’m starting to regret my jokes about Schrodingers PCR at the start of my PhD.
- Starting the long journey home from #mgeworkshop - really interesting work happening in labs across the country, told in various formats by a great bunch. Thank you again to @fnobrega.bsky.social 🥳 It’s been awesome!
- Reposted by Charlotte L OxleyThe 3rd UK MGE Workshop is nearly upon us! 🧬 For those travelling to Southampton today, join us for a drink at Dancing Man Brewery (SO14 2AR) from 5pm. Registration for the workshop opens at 9am on Monday 16th. We look forward to meeting you all then! #MGE #MGEWorkshop #Southampton
- Almost ready for #MGEworkshop - my first time presenting, not just at an event but 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳 as I'm barely 9 months into my #PhD But I'm reminding myself of the words of my favourite fictional scientist #WalterBishop #Fringe #ADHD #WomeninSTEM #MolMicro
- Last year I was white-knuckling my way through final exams after losing my step-father and trying to co-ordinate the small crowd who attended my graduation. Today, I'm working on my first presentation for #MGEworkshop2025 #PhD #nontraditionalstudents
- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[Not loaded yet]
- One of the best book series I’ve ever read, and now a Skasgard is playing the lead in the TV show #marthawells #womeninscifi
- Also, listening to #hardlandings #greenrampdisaster podcast, I’m a long time Patreon member, check them out if you like aviation disasters www.hardlandingspodcast.com/hard-landing...
- <in Palpatine> Do it
- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[This post could not be retrieved]
- 🧬 Thrilled to announce that I'll be speaking at the 3rd Annual MGE Workshop. If molecular mayhem is your jam, join me and explore "From Stability to Chaos: The Role of MGEs in an Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli Outbreak” #MGEWorkshop2025 #MGE #UKScience #PhDLife #MolMicro #FirstYearPhD
- Anyone else? #ADHD
- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[Not loaded yet]
- At a close friends last night, mentioned I couldn't attend this. I got a tut and an eye roll as she jotted down in her diary that my youngest would be having a school night sleepover at hers. #SciMom #FirstYearPhD #WomeninSTEM #MGEs
- Reposted by Charlotte L OxleyCongratulations to PhD students Rachel and Lottie, and MRes student Martyna on their publication with @mcvickermicro.bsky.social! #microsky www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
- Where it started in 2016 with a small #OpenUni Bio module to see if my brain still worked, followed by #AccessScience at #WestNotts in 2017, Microbiology at #NTU in 2019 and where I’m at now #FirstYearPhD #ThirdAuthor #MolMicro #transposons #EAEC
- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[Not loaded yet]
- #MITOpenCourseWare #OCW is an incredible resource if you want to (unofficially) Learn A Thing outside of your specialty. Or if you’re my type of #ADHD and couldn’t absorb enough knowledge to satiate you in a hundred lifetimes. Also, dude is amazing. ocw.mit.edu/courses/8-04...
- #ADHDbonusthoughts #supernaturalhasamemeforeverything Death is still up there for best character entry ever.
- I ain’t even sorry 🙃 #ADHD #benchmates
- Annual #waroftheworlds watch; still one of my favourite early #SciFi books and one of the best overall. There’s no trope of humanity miraculously overpowering a far more advanced species. Just teeny tiny unnamed pathogens taking them down. Genius.
- Smallest human peered over my shoulder at the weekend when I was checking my first batch of #MicrobesNG sequences, so ofc I walked it all the way back for her, whilst asking what her thoughts were. She immediately grasped #toxinantitoxin and asked if the different types interact. #MolMicro #STEM
- Reposted by Charlotte L OxleyWe're excited to be attending the 1st full East Midlands AMR Network conference TODAY!! Drop by our stand to enter the prize draw for petri dish themed coasters 🧫😍 We've also brought our famous BUZZ wire game, with prizes for the 3 fastest times ⚡🏆 #EastMidsAMR #MicroSky #AMR #WAAW
- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[Not loaded yet]
- Will find out if my first clones have worked or not in approx 30 mins or so #cloning #molecularmicro #iexpectnothing #firstyearphd #teamplasmid
- “Authenticity is the kryptonite to this thing that psychologists might call imposter syndrome” From Unfuck Nation with Gary John Bishop: Imposter Syndrome???, 2 Apr 2024 podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/u... This material may be protected by copyright.
- Soz for being loquacious, I guess.
- Reposted by Charlotte L OxleyJoin us at the Microbiology Society Annual Conference in Liverpool next year! We have organised a session on sex, HGT and symbiosis across eukaryote microbes to explore genetic recombination in these organisms. #MicroSky #ProtistsOnSky microbiologysociety.org/event/annual...
- And when it suddenly powers down, you forget everything you did prior. It’s fun 🙃 But sometimes you surprise yourself and find work you thought you hadn’t done.
- Seriously, just play the #masseffect trilogy and you’ll get it.
- A friends daughter is an undergrad on my campus, doing a very different subject. Yesterday, I gave her a condensed rundown of what #genomicplasticity is and #ecoli and got a wide eyed “I had no idea bacteria were so cool.” #bacteriaarecool or whatever Matt Smiths Dr said
- -taps sign- Turns out, this is a universal experience for those gifted but undiagnosed ND kids that are now adults. Ouch. Nice to see the acknowledgement that executive dysfunction also includes tasks we love, not just dishes or laundry #ADHD #latediagnosis
- I see no lie #phd
- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[Not loaded yet]
- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[Not loaded yet]
- It’s the SST induction part of the overall PhD induction week today so obviously I’ve woken up feeling like this #headache #bloatyhead #showingmyage #themehospital
- Walking into the Grown Up lab as a #PhD for the first time. After 5 years in RFB as an #undergraduate you bet there were tears after.

- Reposted by Charlotte L Oxley[Not loaded yet]
- Trying to cope with a (hopefully very temporary) 2 bus, 90 min commute with awful timings between them. #EastMidlandsAirport is the midpoint which is both awesome and a real damn challenge twice a day for the #ADHD impulse to hop a plane #LifeOnTheEdge #QuantumBiology secondhandbooks