Professor Lesley Hoyles
@bugsinyourguts.bsky.social
And all this science I don't understand, it's just my job five days a week.
Professor of Microbiome and Systems Biology @ Nottingham Trent University. 🏳️🌈
Working predominantly on the human gut microbiota.
All views my own.
Professor of Microbiome and Systems Biology @ Nottingham Trent University. 🏳️🌈
Working predominantly on the human gut microbiota.
All views my own.
I feel seen.
November 17, 2025 at 9:08 PM
I feel seen.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
The Chronic and Recurrent #UTI Priority Setting Partnership supported by James Lind Alliance (funders AMR Action UK, Bladder Health UK & The Urology Foundation) needs your help! Please take our survey to help prioritise research questions for this horrible malady www.surveymonkey.com/r/UTI2 #UTISky
Shortlisting survey - chronic and recurrent UTI Priority Setting Partnership (PSP)
Take this survey powered by surveymonkey.com. Create your own surveys for free.
www.surveymonkey.com
November 17, 2025 at 2:08 PM
The Chronic and Recurrent #UTI Priority Setting Partnership supported by James Lind Alliance (funders AMR Action UK, Bladder Health UK & The Urology Foundation) needs your help! Please take our survey to help prioritise research questions for this horrible malady www.surveymonkey.com/r/UTI2 #UTISky
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Big news! 🚨 People at high risk of lung cancer will soon be able to receive the first ever experimental vaccine designed to prevent the disease, in a world-first clinical trial. Read more: cruk.ink/4r4KXG2
@ox.ac.uk @ucl.ac.uk
@ox.ac.uk @ucl.ac.uk
November 17, 2025 at 11:39 AM
Big news! 🚨 People at high risk of lung cancer will soon be able to receive the first ever experimental vaccine designed to prevent the disease, in a world-first clinical trial. Read more: cruk.ink/4r4KXG2
@ox.ac.uk @ucl.ac.uk
@ox.ac.uk @ucl.ac.uk
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Hey Labour
Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety?
We're still over here 👋
Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety?
We're still over here 👋
November 17, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Hey Labour
Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety?
We're still over here 👋
Remember the majority of voters who believe in treating people decently and not stealing from those who've endured months and years of hardship fleeing war and persecution to seek a place of safety?
We're still over here 👋
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Couldn’t agree more. Also see huge numbers of crap papers like ‘which is better for microbiome - Illumina or Nanopore’ comparing wildly different end to end methodologies lab and bioinformatics not realising those primarily drive differences - drives me mad.
November 16, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Couldn’t agree more. Also see huge numbers of crap papers like ‘which is better for microbiome - Illumina or Nanopore’ comparing wildly different end to end methodologies lab and bioinformatics not realising those primarily drive differences - drives me mad.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
This has been known for some time, although it's a good reminder. A previous study that comes to mind (www.nature.com/articles/nbt...) found most of the variation was due to extraction methods, while the bioinformatics analysis had a smaller effect.
November 16, 2025 at 2:07 PM
This has been known for some time, although it's a good reminder. A previous study that comes to mind (www.nature.com/articles/nbt...) found most of the variation was due to extraction methods, while the bioinformatics analysis had a smaller effect.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
so...personally I think this is a very poor work which is really deeply confused about what metagenomics is, why we do it, and what the key biologically relevant biases actually are.
But, hey, I know there are deep divisions in the field which can't be overcome through micro-posts.
Key table:
But, hey, I know there are deep divisions in the field which can't be overcome through micro-posts.
Key table:
November 16, 2025 at 5:30 PM
so...personally I think this is a very poor work which is really deeply confused about what metagenomics is, why we do it, and what the key biologically relevant biases actually are.
But, hey, I know there are deep divisions in the field which can't be overcome through micro-posts.
Key table:
But, hey, I know there are deep divisions in the field which can't be overcome through micro-posts.
Key table:
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
So, I guess I'm wound up because of this: lab to lab variability is not an existential threat to progress in the field, but the kind of deep confusion in this work (and elseehere in the literature, ofc) about why we do metagenomics, how we do metagenomics, and what we can say about metagenomes is.
November 16, 2025 at 5:30 PM
So, I guess I'm wound up because of this: lab to lab variability is not an existential threat to progress in the field, but the kind of deep confusion in this work (and elseehere in the literature, ofc) about why we do metagenomics, how we do metagenomics, and what we can say about metagenomes is.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
UK set to limit refugees to temporary stays
Shabana Mahmood is expected to say the era of permanent protection for refugees is over, in major changes to the UK's asylum and immigration system.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 15, 2025 at 10:29 AM
I came to this country as a child refugee. No English, no certainty, no idea what my life could become. Britain gave me refuge.
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Not on a timer, not with conditions attached, but with a chance to grow roots.
A thread 🧵 1/8
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
A fellow of the @royalsociety.org bragged about feeding USAID into the woodchipper. The RS says: "We draw on our Fellowship for inspiration to make a positive impact."
I guess the @royalsociety.org now considers the deaths of hundreds of thousands to be a positive impact.
I guess the @royalsociety.org now considers the deaths of hundreds of thousands to be a positive impact.
Today @TheNewYorker released our short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” online.
It traces the ongoing effects of the sudden shutdown of US foreign aid through the story of one mother in Kenya as she seeks to save her daughter from sickness and starvation. 🎥 1/ www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
It traces the ongoing effects of the sudden shutdown of US foreign aid through the story of one mother in Kenya as she seeks to save her daughter from sickness and starvation. 🎥 1/ www.newyorker.com/culture/the-...
The Shutdown of U.S.A.I.D. Has Already Killed Hundreds of Thousands
The short documentary “Rovina’s Choice” tells the story of what goes when aid goes.
www.newyorker.com
November 6, 2025 at 12:54 PM
A fellow of the @royalsociety.org bragged about feeding USAID into the woodchipper. The RS says: "We draw on our Fellowship for inspiration to make a positive impact."
I guess the @royalsociety.org now considers the deaths of hundreds of thousands to be a positive impact.
I guess the @royalsociety.org now considers the deaths of hundreds of thousands to be a positive impact.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
🚨 PhD Opportunity 🚨
Interested in microbiology, phages & water security?
Join me and Prof Cindy Smith to test phages as a sustainable alternative to chlorine in drinking-water biofilters.
Metagenomics, phage discovery & ecology — all in one exciting project!
Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...
Interested in microbiology, phages & water security?
Join me and Prof Cindy Smith to test phages as a sustainable alternative to chlorine in drinking-water biofilters.
Metagenomics, phage discovery & ecology — all in one exciting project!
Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...
November 15, 2025 at 3:30 PM
🚨 PhD Opportunity 🚨
Interested in microbiology, phages & water security?
Join me and Prof Cindy Smith to test phages as a sustainable alternative to chlorine in drinking-water biofilters.
Metagenomics, phage discovery & ecology — all in one exciting project!
Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...
Interested in microbiology, phages & water security?
Join me and Prof Cindy Smith to test phages as a sustainable alternative to chlorine in drinking-water biofilters.
Metagenomics, phage discovery & ecology — all in one exciting project!
Apply: www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/mvl...
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
London interdisciplinary #PhD position now open with myself, @sergemostowylab.bsky.social, & @gmknght.bsky.social on #phage -bacteria-host immune dynamics for WHO priority bacterial pathogens #Klebsiella, #Shigella, and #Staph. Combines cellular microbiology, genomics, & mathematical modelling.
2026-27 Project (Dyson & Mostowy & Knight) - MRC London Intercollegiate Doctoral Training Partnership Studentships
PHACTS: Unravelling PHAge-baCTeria-host immune dynamicS to inform phage therapy SUPERVISORY TEAM Supervisor Dr Zoe Dyson...
mrc-lid.lshtm.ac.uk
November 13, 2025 at 11:11 AM
London interdisciplinary #PhD position now open with myself, @sergemostowylab.bsky.social, & @gmknght.bsky.social on #phage -bacteria-host immune dynamics for WHO priority bacterial pathogens #Klebsiella, #Shigella, and #Staph. Combines cellular microbiology, genomics, & mathematical modelling.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Claims that autism could be caused by problems with the gut microbiome have caught media attention but some microbiologists are sceptical trib.al/fgv5oLv
November 14, 2025 at 12:04 PM
Claims that autism could be caused by problems with the gut microbiome have caught media attention but some microbiologists are sceptical trib.al/fgv5oLv
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Holy shit.
MISO: microfluidic protein isolation enables single-particle cryo-EM structure determination from a single cell colony.
Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins.
Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg
Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.
Or from a single dish of HEK cell culture in the case of two membrane proteins.
Out in Nature Methods now! lnkd.in/gpyBSceg
Wonderful collaboration with the Efremov lab.
November 15, 2025 at 1:41 PM
Holy shit.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
🆕 Vacancy! We’re looking for a Research Scientist to establish gut-brain/gut-CNS microfluidic chip systems to enable the study of the role of microbial products in regulating gut-immune-CNS communication 🔬
💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/vjp98fx
💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/vjp98fx
November 14, 2025 at 11:00 AM
🆕 Vacancy! We’re looking for a Research Scientist to establish gut-brain/gut-CNS microfluidic chip systems to enable the study of the role of microbial products in regulating gut-immune-CNS communication 🔬
💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/vjp98fx
💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/vjp98fx
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
📢 Save the Date!
✨We’re thrilled to announce the first TARGetAMR Annual Conference!
🗓 Thursday 14 – Friday 15 May 2026
📍The Studio, Birmingham
🔎Theme: Building the Future of AMR Genomics
🔗Registration opens soon – stay tuned! www.targetamr.org.uk/hdrevents/sa...
#TARGetAMR26
✨We’re thrilled to announce the first TARGetAMR Annual Conference!
🗓 Thursday 14 – Friday 15 May 2026
📍The Studio, Birmingham
🔎Theme: Building the Future of AMR Genomics
🔗Registration opens soon – stay tuned! www.targetamr.org.uk/hdrevents/sa...
#TARGetAMR26
November 14, 2025 at 12:50 PM
📢 Save the Date!
✨We’re thrilled to announce the first TARGetAMR Annual Conference!
🗓 Thursday 14 – Friday 15 May 2026
📍The Studio, Birmingham
🔎Theme: Building the Future of AMR Genomics
🔗Registration opens soon – stay tuned! www.targetamr.org.uk/hdrevents/sa...
#TARGetAMR26
✨We’re thrilled to announce the first TARGetAMR Annual Conference!
🗓 Thursday 14 – Friday 15 May 2026
📍The Studio, Birmingham
🔎Theme: Building the Future of AMR Genomics
🔗Registration opens soon – stay tuned! www.targetamr.org.uk/hdrevents/sa...
#TARGetAMR26
Nice perspective piece that covers the science, biology and nuances of the field, and what we can do to go from correlations to mechanisms in translational human #microbiome research.
"the field has faced a deluge of correlative “dysbiosis” studies with limited causal evidence"
"the field has faced a deluge of correlative “dysbiosis” studies with limited causal evidence"
From microbiome to metabolism: Bridging a two-decade translational gap
Despite their initial promise, microbiome-based therapies face translational challenges.
This perspective examines the limitations of correlative studies; the mechanistic
insights from animal models; ...
www.cell.com
November 14, 2025 at 12:02 PM
Nice perspective piece that covers the science, biology and nuances of the field, and what we can do to go from correlations to mechanisms in translational human #microbiome research.
"the field has faced a deluge of correlative “dysbiosis” studies with limited causal evidence"
"the field has faced a deluge of correlative “dysbiosis” studies with limited causal evidence"
Just seen a comment under a piece on the autism-microbiome debunk that those with autism really lack gut feeling.
Going to go and find a desk and quiet corner for the rest of the day.
Going to go and find a desk and quiet corner for the rest of the day.
a stuffed animal is sitting at a table with a plate of donuts .
ALT: a stuffed animal is sitting at a table with a plate of donuts .
media.tenor.com
November 14, 2025 at 11:48 AM
Just seen a comment under a piece on the autism-microbiome debunk that those with autism really lack gut feeling.
Going to go and find a desk and quiet corner for the rest of the day.
Going to go and find a desk and quiet corner for the rest of the day.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Two postdoc positions open now: let's work together to understand microbial regulation of the gut-brain axis in ageing:
buff.ly/UuJciHZ
buff.ly/vjp98fx
buff.ly/UuJciHZ
buff.ly/vjp98fx
November 14, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Two postdoc positions open now: let's work together to understand microbial regulation of the gut-brain axis in ageing:
buff.ly/UuJciHZ
buff.ly/vjp98fx
buff.ly/UuJciHZ
buff.ly/vjp98fx
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
New blogpost on my concerns about Wellcome LEAP new $50m program on autism/microbiome links. deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-le...
#autism #microbiome #biomarkers #diagnostic
#autism #microbiome #biomarkers #diagnostic
A LEAP into the future, or off a cliff: Wellcome LEAP's new $50M program
A few days ago, I saw this post on LinkedIn: How does the gut microbiome shape early brain development? That’s what FORM, a new $50 million...
deevybee.blogspot.com
October 20, 2025 at 1:53 PM
New blogpost on my concerns about Wellcome LEAP new $50m program on autism/microbiome links. deevybee.blogspot.com/2025/10/a-le...
#autism #microbiome #biomarkers #diagnostic
#autism #microbiome #biomarkers #diagnostic
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
🆕 Vacancy! We're looking for a Research Scientist to undertake research projects which advance our understanding of the microbiome-gut-brain axis and its role in ageing 🧠
💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/UuJciHZ
💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/UuJciHZ
November 14, 2025 at 10:00 AM
🆕 Vacancy! We're looking for a Research Scientist to undertake research projects which advance our understanding of the microbiome-gut-brain axis and its role in ageing 🧠
💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/UuJciHZ
💷 £37,500 to £45,350
🗓️ Apply by 28 November 2025
➡️ buff.ly/UuJciHZ
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Unlock the potential of your pea workflow
![[Scene is a kitchen - a middle aged woman called JANET is boiling peas at the stove. A younger more colourfully dressed woman named LIZ approached her.]
JANET:
Ugh...
LIZ:
What's up?
JANET:
I am so bored of cooking peas!
LIZ:
Have you tried...
AI peas?
JANET:
AI peas?
LIZ:
They're peas with AI!
[Liz holds up to us a packet of peas labelled: Pea-i AI - Peas with AI].
LIZ:
Al-powered peas harness the potential of your peas
JANET:
What
LIZ [Now a voiceover as we cut to a whizzy technology diagram of peas all connected by meaningless dotted lines]
Why not take your peas to the next level with Al Peas' new Al tools to power your peas?
[Show a techno diagram of a pea with a label reading 'AI' pointing to a random zone in it]
LIZ:
Each pea has Al in a way we haven't quite worked out yet but it's fine
[Show Janet and Liz now in a Matrix-style world of peas]
LIZ:
With Al peas you can supercharge productivity and make AI work for your peas!
JANET:
What
LIZ:
Shut up
LIZ:
Our game-changing Pea-Al gives you the freedom to unlock the potential of the power of the future of your peas workflow
From opening the bag of peas
to boiling the peas
to eating the peas
To spending millions on adding Al to the peas and then having to work out what that even means.
JANET:
Is it really necessary to-
LIZ [Grabbing Janet by the collar]:
THE PEAS HAVE GOT AI, JANET
[Cut to an advert ending screen, with the bag of peas and the slogan:
AI PEAS: Just 'Peas' for god's sake buy the AI peas.
[Ends]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:4m3we4apbjayclzcnhwe3pfp/bafkreiayqa37f7kik7l7s7fbtfp2sir5ckb662ry2lylinyjrfa2rkvvka@jpeg)
November 14, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Unlock the potential of your pea workflow
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Want to delineate genera? We have been optimising POCP, and propose POCPu, which stops the 'double counting' of proteins in POCP by only allowing unique matches. We also speed up, and benchmarked, the analysis using DIAMOND; peerj.com/articles/202... (now implemented in Protologger)
Fast and robust estimate of bacterial genus novelty using the percentage of conserved proteins with unique matches (POCPu)
Accurate taxonomic assignment of bacterial genomes is essential for identifying novel taxa and for stable classification to enable robust comparison between studies. Bacterial genus delineation relies...
peerj.com
November 14, 2025 at 9:31 AM
Want to delineate genera? We have been optimising POCP, and propose POCPu, which stops the 'double counting' of proteins in POCP by only allowing unique matches. We also speed up, and benchmarked, the analysis using DIAMOND; peerj.com/articles/202... (now implemented in Protologger)
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
It's shameful that this headline is appearing in 2025, primarily a result of grotesque global inequalities.
Africa CDC: Africa experiencing worst cholera outbreak in 25 years
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Africa experiencing worst cholera outbreak in 25 years, health agency warns
Africa CDC said it had recorded about 300,000 cases of cholera this year, with more than 7,000 deaths
www.independent.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 9:37 PM
It's shameful that this headline is appearing in 2025, primarily a result of grotesque global inequalities.
Reposted by Professor Lesley Hoyles
Very excited to share our latest work in Science on metagenomic editing (MetaEdit) of the gut microbiome in vivo & directly modifying unculturable immune-modulatory SFB bug in the small intestine. 🦠🧬🛠️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Metagenomic editing of commensal bacteria in vivo using CRISPR-associated transposases
Although metagenomic sequencing has revealed a rich microbial biodiversity in the mammalian gut, methods to genetically alter specific species in the microbiome are highly limited. Here, we introduce ...
www.science.org
November 13, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Very excited to share our latest work in Science on metagenomic editing (MetaEdit) of the gut microbiome in vivo & directly modifying unculturable immune-modulatory SFB bug in the small intestine. 🦠🧬🛠️
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...