Rebecca Lowry Palmer
mum of two+microbiologist. Navigating career in science post kids 👩🏽🔬
Currently - PDRA Manchester uni, MERMan research group - bacterial mutation rates and DNA repair 🦠
Personal projects underway - Bdellovibrio: evolution, ecology and agriculture 🌱
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerLast ECR talk of the day from Logan Sauers on IgA transcriptomics #UoM_EEday
- This was a brilliant talk, what an amazing career so far - I never knew there were so many different types of placenta!! @evol-molly.bsky.social's work on miRNA and pregnancy outcomes is SO important.
- Last but certainly not least @evol-molly.bsky.social speaking about genome-type and phenome-types at #UoM_EEday
- I was absolutely delighted to give a talk at the University of Manchester Ecology and Evolution day yesterday. An incredible collection of talks and posters were presented and we had some great discussions - thank you to @whelanfj.bsky.social and @knightjar.bsky.social for organising!
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer@bexlowrypalms.bsky.social up next speaking about her work on bdellovibrio #UoM_EEday
- I'll believe it when I see it, fortune cookie 😂
- It's been a wild week for MERMan! Congratulations Rana, you are incredible ✨✨✨
- Congratulations to Dr Rana Alruthaya, who successfully defended her PhD today on AMR diversity in Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from non-CF bronchiectasis patients. She's the 10th PhD student from MERMan. Well done Rana! @dannagifford.bsky.social @brockhurstlab.bsky.social @knightjar.bsky.social
- So proud of @zahraaalbaqsami.bsky.social - you are amazing ✨✨✨✨
- Congratulations to PhD student Zahraa Albaqsami @zahraaalbaqsami.bsky.social for successfully defending her PhD today! Zahraa's thesis looked at thermal adaptation and mutation in the archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarious. Thanks to examiners @rokkrasovec.bsky.social and Thorsten Allers!
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerWhelan lab cake for the win at the Division of Evolution, Infection and Genomics and MCF Winter Celebration 🥳 #bakeoff #whelanlab
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerWe had two fantastic visiting speakers today MERMan alumnus @rowancallumg.bsky.social spoke about his current work with viral cheating in influenza with @asherleeks.bsky.social And @lavishaparab.bsky.social talked about phage infection trade-offs Thanks to @microbesng.bsky.social for our snacks!
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerMore amazing posters presented by our researchers @zahraaalbaqsami.bsky.social and Rana at #MicroEvo25!
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerWhat a week! Thanks to everyone who attended the UK Phage Therapy workshop and #MicroEvo25 in Liverpool… every talk, poster, question, chat, and round of applause helps to build our microbial evolution community! Thanks to @microbiologysociety.org and @ukri.org for support
- So proud of @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social, so much effort goes into everything she does and her presentations always have such amazing hand drawn figures - very well deserved 👏🏼
- Massive congratulations to our own @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social for winning the poster prize at #MicroEvo25!! Her poster describes coalescence dynamics in hot spring microbial communities, and featured wonderful photos from Icelandic field work
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerSo excited to be here for @microbiologysociety.org ‘s #microevo25 meeting!
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerFantastic talk about the impact of inflammation on Pseudomonas aeruginosa evolution by @taoranfu.bsky.social #MicroEvo25
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerCome and see @willpjsmith.bsky.social at poster 71 to find out more about microbial warfare! #MicroEvo25
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerLearn about hot spring microbial communities from @magdalenakurteu.bsky.social at poster 62 🌋 #MicroEvo25
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerFind out more about DNA repair protein single-molecule tracking from @bexlowrypalms.bsky.social at poster 18🔬 #MicroEvo25
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerMetagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1... #jcampubs
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer✨I am thrilled to announce that my #ERCStG project will be funded by @erc.europa.eu. It explores how predatory bacteria interact with bacteria, which they invade and kill 🔬. I am very grateful to the ERC, the panel, reviewers, mentors, collaborators and colleagues! 🙏 #ERCStG => tiny.cc/174s001
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerHappy to share that our story on the bacterial archaellum was published today in @natmicrobiol.nature.com www.nature.com/articles/s41... Congrats to the authors: @sshamphavi.bsky.social @loumollat.bsky.social @mariejoest.bsky.social Najwa Taib and @sgribaldo.bsky.social
- Would you expect that Bacteria use an archaellum for swimming? We didn't, but we found that some Chloroflexota do! Find the story here: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... A little thread below 1/n
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerCan Pseudomonas spp. Biocontrols help us to tackle Kiwi Canker? Isabella Frost is finding out! #PPATH2025
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerPseudomonas is under attack again, with Rebecca Lowry Palmer harnessing Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus as a Biocontrol Agent Against Pseudomonas syringae in Tomato Plants. #ECPP2025 #PPATH2025
- Very excited to be in Nottingham for the @bspp.bsky.social #bspp2025 giving a talk and poster presentation on my work with Bdellovibrio, plants and microbial evolution 🌱
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerBacterial #QuorumSensing is often assumed to follow a strict hierarchy. @brownlab.bsky.social &co find that #Pseudomonas aeruginosa instead uses a reciprocal, cooperative system that enhances responsiveness to population density & environmental changes @plosbiology.org 🧪 plos.io/3I7DhRG
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer
closing at the end of this week!- Another PDRA position! Join our team exploring how the mammalian immune system shapes microbiome ecology & evolution, and vice versa. In collaboration with @hepworth-lab.bsky.social funded by the @wellcometrust.bsky.social www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
- 👏👏👏 incredible stuff
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerWe are also hiring a 4-year postdoc to study the dynamics and evolution of mobile genetic elements in the C-fixing Icelandic host-spring microbiomes Join our exciting multidisciplinary team funded by @ukri.org BBSRC sLoLa www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
- A new 4 year PostDoc position in our lab! Modeling + experiments to explore dynamics of carbon fixing hot-spring microbiomes. Part of an exciting multidisciplinary team with Sophie Nixon, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social & others Please share & get in touch if interested! tinyurl.com/e7j7bha3
- The most divine break in Wales with my wild ones ☀️🌊🐚
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerHappy share this latest study from the team. Here we look at placental macrophage biology across pregnany and their interaction with Listeria monocytogenes. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerCharlie Mo: generic trade off in phage resistance leads to betalactam susceptibility and down-regulation of virulence genes in phage-resistant #MRSA strains #phages2025 🦠 elifesciences.org/articles/102...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerInterested in investigating the use of bacteriocins for the treatment of urinary tract infections? Come work with me and @bugsinyourguts.bsky.social Professor Lesley Hoyles as a research associate on an exciting project funded by The Urology Foundation vacancies.ntu.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerVery proud to have our lab’s first work published in @cp-cellhostmicrobe.bsky.social! In this work, we use functional metagenomics to find phage defenses from human and soil microbiomes! Congrats to first author @luis840alberto.bsky.social ! www.cell.com/cell-host-mi... (1/3)
- My lab’s first preprint! We used functional metagenomics to identify phage defenses in human and soil microbiomes. We scaled these selections while maintaining accuracy, enabling us to examine 9 habitats for defense elements against 7 phages. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/10
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerNew paper alert! A real time PCR assay to detect and distinguish Klebsiella pneumonia, quasipneumoniae and variicola. @microbiologysociety.org @sylvainbrisse.bsky.social www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/jour...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerAfter many years in the making, here is our host range #phage paper with #ecology, #evolution and #biocontrol perspectives published in Molecular Ecology! @phimresearch.bsky.social @inrae-pv.bsky.social #PVBMT #JulianGarneau onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... These are our key findings:
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerMore on R-pyocins here www.nature.com/articles/s44...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerDo plasmids evolve faster 🐇, slower 🐢, or just like chromosomes 🧬? In our new paper, we tackled this question using theory, simulations, bioinformatics, and experiments! 👇 Check out all the details in Paula’s thread! Hint: 🐇 (most of the time)
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerCheck out these amazing lipid-monolayer-trapping oligomeric OMPs published by @lalouxlab.bsky.social and Lovering Labs. The BAM complex in these bugs must be wild! www.nature.com/articles/s41...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer#MicroSky Summer read! Predatory bacteria kill and eat other bacteria. Their deadly actions come in many flavors, often via direct physical contact between predator & prey 🧛 How do they do it? Our review 📖 @coralietesseur.bsky.social @ysantin.bsky.social www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
- Allotment Sunday
- My little work buddy today - poorly but there's always energy for painting and a thousand activities 🤦🏻♀️😬🎨
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerFresh from peer review a new and improved version of @taoranfu.bsky.social’s paper out today in @asm.org mSystems journals.asm.org/eprint/8NWNW...
- A nice way to wrap-up 2024: a neat preprint by @taoranfu.bsky.social (hot on the heels of her successful PhD viva) testing how inflammation-like environments shape Pseudomonas adaptation, limiting loss of quorum sensing www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerExciting opportunities to join me in this research will be coming soon! If you're passionate about understanding microbial evolution & tackling antimicrobial resistance, keep an eye out or feel free to get in touch. 🔬🧬 🍄 #AMR #Microbiology #Evolution
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerInterested in working on Mucorales adaptation? Thanks to new funding from @wellcometrust.bsky.social, we will have two postdoc and a technician positions advertised very soon! if interested, please get in touch for more information.
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerGo 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 Rebecca Lowry PalmerLearning from bacterial predators on porin-like proteins that trap lipids at rdcu.be/euXWk! Amazing insights by Rebecca J. Parr & Andrew L. Lovering @unibirmingham.bsky.social, and @lalouxlab.bsky.social, as well as all collaborators including Liz Sockett. #MicroSky #predatoryBacteria #porins
- Allllll the allotment flowers are coming out. Yes one is a potato flower, but aren't they amazing (top left)!?
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerThe MHRA today released new guidance for #Phage therapy in the UK. This will provide direction for scientists and researchers working to make this treatment a reality for patients. 🔬 🧪 🔗 www.gov.uk/government/n...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer🛠️Toolbox 🛠️ out to modulate gene expression & protein secretion in a predatory bacterium. 📑Preprint from my group below. Many thanks to L. Mihajlovic @ljmihajlovic.bsky.social, L. Hofacker, F. Lindner, P. Jayakumar & A. Diepold @diepold-lab.bsky.social! #MicroSky #SyntheticBiology #PredatoryBacteria
- Modulating gene expression and protein secretion in the bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/202…
- 👏🏽 lovely preprint from @simonahuwiler.bsky.social
- 1/ Happy to share our latest preprint on modulating gene expression and protein secretion in predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus. #MicroSky #SyntheticBiology #PredatoryBacteria Short thread below. (📑 Preprint at: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...)
- Some nasty infections going on in my lab plants and it makes me so happy 🤣
- Yorkshire rose joy 🩷 #allotment
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerMay’s ‘Microbe of the Month’ is a novel archaeon called Methanobrevibacter intestini which was isolated from a human faecal sample taken from an individual in the United States. Find out more about M. intestini and other exciting discoveries by clicking the link in our bio 🧫🔬
- My little allotment tulip patch bringing all the joy 💐
- It's been a steep learning curve but I've absolutely loved my first venture into plant research 🤩🌱🌿
- MERMan's very own @flanagella.bsky.social 🥳🥳🥳 well done!
- - Journal of General Virology poster prize winner: Afifah Tasnim @afifahtasnim.bsky.social -Microbiology poster prize winner: Louise Flanagan @flanagella.bsky.social
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerRead the written evidence here: committees.parliament.uk/writtenevide...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerLed by @willpjsmith.bsky.social our AMR evolution evidence to parliament makes 3 main points: 1. Understanding of within patient evolution will improve treatments 2. Incentivise resistance-durability in new abx & mandate AMR data in trials 3. Prioritise multi-pronged research into abx alternatives
- Oh my, 10 years ago I finished my PhD 😱
- @microbesng.bsky.social always bringing joy to my day ✨
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerIf you're in Manchester & you 😍 STICKERS, make sure to stop by AV Hill building TOMORROW 11-3pm @carlamicrobes.bsky.social will be there to launch a new dropbox, so you can get FREE shipping for whole plasmid sequencing & microbial WGS #MicroSky @official-uom.bsky.social @mermanchester.bsky.social
- Loving these friendly microbes! Thank you @microbesng.bsky.social 🧫🦠
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer📣Just 1 week left to apply for 2x 5-year researcher posts in experimental evolution #mevosky #microsky in @mermanchester.bsky.social @official-uom.bsky.social + 3-year research tech post www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai... ERC project: how MGEs and defence systems control genome evoluton
- ☎️ Calling #MEvoSky ☎️ 2x 5-year research associate / research assistant positions in experimental evolution ERC-funded project: How do mobile genetic elements and defence systems shape bacterial genome evolution? Join the friendly and exciting @mermanchester.bsky.social community in Manchester!
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerGood news - less fertiliser - less pollution & more food @johninnescentre.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/environment/...
- I don't think I have ever been more proud of myself, move aside PhD 😂 I give myself a ridiculous theme for each child's birthday cake every year and then spend a few days losing my mind. This year Rowan is into inventing 🤣 can't believe I'll have a 7 year old tomorrow!!
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer🚨 Job alert 🚨 — are you interested in understanding how mobile genetic elements and defence systems shape bacterial genome evolution? 🧬 🧪 🧫 🦠 2x 5-year research positions available in experimental evolution @mermanchester.bsky.social Join us! #microsky www.jobs.manchester.ac.uk/Job/JobDetai...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerA few days left to apply for this Postdoc working with microbes and flies! 🧫 🪰 🦠
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer🎉 Congratulations to Dr Dolan Evans! Dolan defended his thesis on microbiota of the pre-term infant gut today @mermanchester.bsky.social @lydiabeckeriii.bsky.social
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerVery excited to share that my first publication is now out! enviromicro-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10....
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerPhD studentship alert! Fully funded, co-supervised with @rokkrasovec.bsky.social and Prof Mike Bromley, University of Manchester Exploring routes of horizontal gene transfer in pathogenic fungi Exciting project, will be a bunch of fun! Come & join us 🔬 www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer🦠🎇Congratulations to the soon-to-be Dr Rosie Clover 👩🏼🎓! The O.G. MERMan PhD student, and the first student to graduate from the Gifford lab, proud supervisor moment 🥺😄 @mermanchester.bsky.social 🎓
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry PalmerNew in Nature Comms, we show that azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus are more likely to evolve resistance to new antifungals due to variants in their DNA mismatch repair system rdcu.be/d3Iyc @natureportfolio.bsky.social #microsky #fungi #amr
- Reposted by Rebecca Lowry Palmer🚨PhD Opportunity - please share!🚨 We’re hiring a PhD student to start Sept 2025: how do bacteria ‘tame’ phage parasites, and turn them into deadly Tailocins? Come join me, @brockhurstlab.bsky.social, Patrick Cai & @raveentank.bsky.social as we study ZOMBIE PHAGES! findaphd.com/phds/project...
