Alan McNally | Lightnews

Light up
your news

About Privacy Terms Help

Alan McNally

Alan McNally

@alanmcn1.bsky.social

6.5K followers 610 following 1.9K posts

Head of the School of Infection, Inflammation & Immunology @ Uni Birmingham. Proud Scot. Oversaw a few Covid PCR tests

Alan McNally is a professor of microbial genomics at the University of Birmingham, UK. He works on the evolutionary genomics and antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens.

Source: Wikipedia

Biology 75%

Medicine 8%

more

Posts Replies Media Videos

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 12h

Was an absolute joy and honour to have the incomparable @cibiocm.bsky.social give our inaugural School seminar today. Tour de force of microbiome research talk.

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 1d

The more I read this the cloudier it becomes.

Saying the budget will not be reduced is fine. But in the absence of any vague idea of how the budget will be used the statement is meaningless

Reposted by Alan McNally

Oliver Schwengers @oschwengers.bsky.social · 1d

🦠🧬🖥️ Bakta v1.12.0 is out

with tons of tiny improvements and bug fixes, too many to list all:

- partial genes on linear seqs
- improved errror handlings & runtimes
- support Python 3.12 & 3.13
- ...

A huge shout out and thank you to all bug reporters and contributors!

github.com/oschwengers/...

Release v1.12 - Just do it, but don't crash · oschwengers/bakta

This is the twelfth minor release (v1.12) providing more than 10 minor improvements and many bug fixes improving runtime stability, IO compatibility, and last but not least user experience. Compati...

Reposted by Alan McNally

Jose Bengoechea @josebengoechea.bsky.social · 1d

A perfect example of how to damage irreversibly a funding system that was eorking in a reasonable manner. Instead of increasing responsive mode funding, the option chosen is centralization of the budget on UKRI to deliver....nothing...while damaging ECRs.

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 1d

And that this was sent out on a SUNDAY!! It’s a PR comms disaster

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 1d

I am sorry. We all knew the three buckets were coming. We are all prepared for a shift in priority. But this message does nothing for all the UK scientists dependent on project grant funding. It doesn’t actually give any information

www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community

UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

Reposted by Alan McNally

UK Research and Innovation @ukri.org · 1d

Today, we're sharing an open letter from our Chief Executive, Professor Sir Ian Chapman, outlining changes to UKRI investment approach, and addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC. Read his letter here: www.ukri.org/news/open-le...

Open letter from Ian Chapman to research and innovation community

UKRI Chief Executive outlines changes to UKRI investment approach, addressing concerns about research funding and the financial position of STFC.

Reposted by Alan McNally

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 1d

I feel as though me, the Beckhams and the my fam move in different circles, if they think Brooklyn's mum dancing weird ruined the wedding. I've been to a wedding where the bride's mother got her tits out and punched the cake.

Reposted by Alan McNally

Nature Microbiology @natmicrobiol.nature.com · 3d

Out now! Out Now! Quantifying the real-world impact of antibiotic use and genetic determinants of resistance on gonococcal dynamics

Quantifying the real-world impact of antibiotic use and genetic determinants of resistance on gonococcal dynamics

Nature Microbiology, Published online: 30 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s41564-025-02235-wPhylodynamic modelling shows how the changing antibiotic landscape and genetic determinants of resistance shape real-world gonococcal dynamics. Experiments validated that determinants with identical resistance phenotype differed in impact on fitness.

Reposted by Alan McNally

NewsThump @newsthump.com · 3d

I’m guess they finally finished redacting the name of the Tangerine Grope Machine!

Reposted by Brigitte Nerlich

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 3d

Or:
Scientists are furious that they are learning of pauses to their main access to funding through press snippets rather than first hand dialogue with Uni research offices………..

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 3d

Scientists are concerned that curiosity-driven research is set to be further cut back after three research councils confirmed they have paused funding opportunities. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #academicsky #researchfunding
https://ow.ly/lpvO50Y67ku

Three UK research councils suspend funding opportunities

Temporary block on grant applications by MRC, BBSRC and EPSRC heightens concerns over funding cuts

Reposted by Richard J. Butler, Alan McNally

Times Higher Education (THE) @timeshighered.bsky.social · 3d

Scientists are concerned that curiosity-driven research is set to be further cut back after three research councils confirmed they have paused funding opportunities. @jgro-the.bsky.social reports #academicsky #researchfunding
https://ow.ly/lpvO50Y67ku

Three UK research councils suspend funding opportunities

Temporary block on grant applications by MRC, BBSRC and EPSRC heightens concerns over funding cuts

Reposted by Alan McNally

Paul Bronks @slendersherbet.bsky.social · 3d

When you're having a shower in winter and accidentally turn on the cold water.

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 3d

Yes. Although i deliberately picked a squid game gif as you know it will just be followed by something else even less humane..............

Reposted by Alan McNally

Yonatan Grad @yhgrad.bsky.social · 3d

Now published: our work using phylodynamics from surveillance data to quantify and experimentally validate the fitness impact of antibiotic resistance determinants & how this changes with patterns of antibiotic use: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 3d

Amen!

Reposted by Alan McNally

Ed Hutchinson @socialinfluenza.bsky.social · 3d

🚨New Pre-Print🚨
Although H3N2 subclade K has multiple mutations in HA, neutralisation assays with pre-epidemic human sera show only moderate antigenic drift, and vaccines used in the 2024/2025 flu season induced cross-neutralising immunity
www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

A data figure showing a phylogenetic tree of H3N2 with 2025-K highlighted, the structure of the HA trimer with mutations characteristic of K highlighted, and box and whisker plots showing % neutralisation of the 2022 H3N2 vaccine strain, and of 2025 clade K, by various human antisera

Reposted by Alan McNally

Damian Shields @damianshields.bsky.social · 4d

Loch Carron and Creag an Duilisg, Plockton #Scotland #Highlands #Plockton www.damianshields.com

Reposted by Alan McNally

NewsThump @newsthump.com · 4d

NEWS! “Britain is the greatest country in the world that’s a big pile of shit and we hate it,” say Reform newsthump.com/2026/01/30/b...

“Britain is the greatest country in the world that’s a big pile of shit and we hate it,” say Reform

The insurgent Reform Party appear to have settled on a core message, that Britain is the greatest country in the world, that they hate it, and it’s awful.

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 4d

Startling that this is being broadcast in the absence of any public communications by @ukri.org

The academic community has a right to expect to be told first hand what is happening with response mode funding and what the immediate future looks like

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News

Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 4d

It's not "would be". It's "going to be"

Reposted by Wolfgang Huber, Alan McNally, Jesse R. Lasky

John Lees @johnlees.bacpop.org · 4d

We are hiring for group leaders again — EBI is a great place to start your research group!

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com/EMBL/job/Hin...

Research Group Leader

Do you want to lead groundbreaking research in computational biology? Join us at EMBL-EBI! EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is seeking talented and highly-motivated scientists to jo...

embl.wd103.myworkdayjobs.com

Reposted by Margot C. Finn, Alan McNally

Research Professional News @resprofnews.bsky.social · 4d

MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates.

Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls.

www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-r...

MRC instructs grant review boards to slash funding rates - Research Professional News

Boards asked to recommend just three applications for funding, as BBSRC also suspends calls

www.researchprofessionalnews.com

Reposted by Alan McNally

Marc Bonten @marcbonten.bsky.social · 4d

Published 🎉

Excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic partly exceeded COVID-19-related deaths, indicating that other causes (vaccine?) may have contributed.

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

COVID-19 vaccination and short-term mortality risk: a nationwide self-controlled case series study in The Netherlands - European Journal of Epidemiology

Excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic partly exceeded COVID-19-related deaths, indicating that other causes may have contributed. We conducted a retrospective data-linkage study including all ...

link.springer.com

Reposted by Alan McNally

Charlotte Houldcroft @virologyhouldcroft.bsky.social · 4d

Interesting paper. Flu A transmits shortly before people become symptomatic in about 10% of cases. Doesn't seem to happen for flu B. Pre-symptomatic transmission in up to 65% of SC2 Omicron cases! www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Frequent presymptomatic household transmission of influenza A but not influenza B virus - Nature Health

Based on two waves of data collection from 748 households in Hong Kong, this analysis sheds light on the number of transmission events that occurred before manifestation of symptoms in influenza A and...

Reposted by Alan McNally

Anon Opin @anonopin.bsky.social · 5d

One of the great British tragedies of recent decades is the collapse of its university system. Wrecked by disastrous Govt policy experimentation followed by neglect, and a totally incompetent, vindictive executive class. Utterly fucked now. Well done pricks.

Alan McNally @alanmcn1.bsky.social · 5d

Absolute text book front post finish from Hojlund. Class goal

Reposted by Alan McNally

Ian Power @ihpower.bsky.social · 5d

Imagine thinking you’re a decent person and still voting Reform.

Reposted by Alan McNally

Sarah Dempster @dempster2000.bsky.social · 5d

“Bovino” sounds like a failed beef-themed sports drink.

Reposted by Alan McNally

fesshole 🧻 @fesshole.bsky.social · 5d

I'm a lollipop lady. I always make sure I stop the Teslas. Fuck Elon Musk.