I am excited and honored to be the recipient of the 2021 Early Career Microbiologist Award from the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS). Big thanks to all my collaborators, mentors and friends!

Great news: I have been awarded a BBSRC Discovery Fellowship to work on the role of horizontal gene transfer in bacterial warfare at the University of Oxford. Exciting times ahead!

Out now: we show that Escherichia coli bacteria undergo mass cell suicide to release toxins during competitions, and that this behavior is restricted to cells that are going to die from the competitor’s attack.

The Evolution of Mass Cell Suicide in Bacterial Warfare (Open Access)

Watch a video summary of the paper:

Out now on bioRxiv: We looked at bacteria that lyse themselves en masse (!) to release toxins & found that they only do that when they’re bound to die anyway. So smart!

The Evolution of Mass Cell Suicide in Bacterial Warfare (preprint)

I presented my work on suicidal warfare in bacteria at the ESEB2019 conference in Turku, Finland.

Click here to watch my presentation on YouTube

Out now: we reviewed the literature on ecological and evolutionary aspects of bacteria killing each other. With cool figures!

The Ecology and Evolution of Bacterial Warfare (Open Acess)

Our new paper now out in ISME!

In vivo microscopy reveals the impact of Pseudomonas aeruginosa social interactions on host colonization

A cool story on observing bacterial pathogens do their thing in see-through nematodes.

Our new paper is on bioRxiv!

In vivo microscopy reveals the impact of Pseudomonas aeruginosa social interactions on host colonization

Pathogens competing for worm guts, surprising results, and christmas-colored nematodes – this one’s got it all!

The Natural History Museum in Oxford is hosting an amazing exhibition on bacteria. Featuring a giant inflatable E. coli cell, a browser game on bacterial gladiators & several microscopy images from our group.

Check it out:

Museum of Natural History Oxford – Bacterial World

!OUTREACH!

This October/November, 21 scientists from all over the world came together to give Twitter lectures on Microbiology, using the hashtag #EUROmicroMOOC. I contributed a lecture on Bacterial Cooperation, one of my favorite topics! These lectures are aimed at a general audience, and it was tons of fun to answer to questions live on Twitter.

Check out my lecture: EUROmicroMOOC- Bacterial Cooperation