Conflict and Cooperation in Prokaryote Pangenomes

PhD students wanted Applications accepted all year round. Self-Funded PhD Students Only About the Project Prokaryotes mediate most of the biogeochemical cycles on the planet, are responsible for large numbers of diseases and are used in pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries to make new and interesting compounds. One of the biggest surprises of the last 20 years […]

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Book Chapter: Pangenomes and Selection: The Public Goods Hypothesis

Authors James O McInerney, Fiona J Whelan, Maria Rosa Domingo-Sananes, Alan McNally, Mary J O’Connell. The evolution and structure of prokaryotic genomes are largely shaped by horizontal gene transfer. This process is so prevalent that DNA can be seen as a public good—a resource that is shared across individuals, populations, and species. The consequence is […]

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Theory of Evolution book

Professor McInerney has contributed a chapter to a newly-published book on “The Theory of Evolution: Principles, Concepts, and Assumptions“.     Details on the book (extracted from the promotional material of the book) Darwin’s nineteenth-century writings laid the foundations for modern studies of evolution, and theoretical developments in the mid-twentieth century fostered the Modern Synthesis. Since […]

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Paper: Eukaryote Genes Are More Likely than Prokaryote Genes to Be Composites

Authors: Yaqing Ou and James McInerney. Abstract The formation of new genes by combining parts of existing genes is an important evolutionary process. Remodelled genes, which we call composites, have been investigated in many species, however, their distribution across all of life is still unknown. We set out to examine the extent to which genomes […]

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Manchester Evolution Symposium

This is the webpage of the Manchester Evolution Symposium, funded by the Templeton Foundation and the research Domain of Evolution, Systems and Genomics. Organiser: Professor James O. McInerney Key Administrator: Marian Halfpenny Strategic Funding Team Support: Dr. Daniel Jameson Thursday 14th December, Kanaris Theatre 10:30 Arrival, Registration & Coffee 11:00-11:30 Mark Wilkinson ‘Post Phylogenetic Systematics’ […]

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SIBE meeting in Rome

The Italian Society for Evolutionary Biology (SIBE: Società Italia di Biologia Evoluzionistica) http://sibe2017.uniroma2.it/ held their annual meeting in Rome from August 28th-31st. Prof McInerney spoke at the meeting on the first day,on the topic of “The importance of mergers and acquisitions in evolution”. The meeting is a very diverse meeting in terms of content.  The […]

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SMBE 2017 Liveblog

This live blog will be used during SMBE 2017 to keep track of what happens during the conference – through the eyes of one attendee.

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Short Video Explaining Pangenomes Paper

This is a short video to accompany our recent paper, published here: http://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201740 The citation is: McInerney, J.O., McNally, A and O’Connell, M.J. (2017) Why Prokaryotes Have Pangenomes. Nature Microbiology 2, 17040 (doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2017.40). Please use the social media buttons to share.

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SciFri Talk at The Natural History Museum

On October 28th, 2016, Prof. McInerney gave a talk at The Natural History Museum, London on the subject of “Network Thinking”.  The specific title for the talk was “The dominant role of mergers in evolutionary history” and the talk took place in the Neil Chalmers seminar room.

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Prof. McInerney Becomes A Fellow of The Linnean Society

15th September 2016   Professor McInerney officially became an elected Fellow of the Linnean society of London at a meeting of the society on Thursday September 15th, 2016. Pictured is Prof. McInerney signing the register at an evening meeting of the society. Founded in 1788, the Society takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl […]

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Latest Paper: Combined Analysis of Variation in Core, Accessory and Regulatory Genome Regions Provides a Super-Resolution View into the Evolution of Bacterial Populations

Our latest paper has just been published. It is on the evolution of Escherichia coli, which is a pathogenic bacterium.  The work was led by Dr. Alan McNally, who has just moved from Nottingham Trent University to Birmingham University. The work centres on the analysis of what we call the pangenome of this bacterium.  There is a lot […]

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Latest Paper: Evolution A Four Billion Year Old Metabolism

The latest paper from the lab is a News and Views article entitled: Evolution: A four billion year old metabolism. The history of life on the planet is mostly the history of single-celled prokaryotes. Until recently, it was accepted that life was divided into three ‘domains’ — forms of life of equal standing in a taxonomic […]

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Seminar by Todd Vision

Tuesday 14th June 2016 Today Dr. Todd Vision gave a seminar in the Michael Smith Lecture Theatre on the subject of phenotypes and phenotype databases. The talk focussed on the Phenoscape database, how it has been assembled and what kinds of knowledge can be extracted from the database. You can find a variety of posters […]

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Templeton Foundation Confirms Funding

The John Templeton Foundation have confirmed the award of a two-year research grant to the laboratory of James McInerney at The University of Manchester. Do visit website to buy the best scales that will be helpful to do the research successfully. The grant will fund two post-doctoral researchers for two years each in order to […]

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BBSRC Grant Announcement

The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) have confirmed the award of £326,000 to the McInerney lab to investigate how recombination structures life on the planet. The title of the research proposal is “Investigating how non-homologous recombination structures genes, proteins, operons, clusters, genomes and ecosystems”. Over a period of three years, this programme will […]

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Sir Henry Wellcome Post-Doctoral Fellowships 2016

We are actively looking for early-stage researchers to apply for Sir Henry Wellcome post-doctoral research funding. Preliminary application deadline: 3 May 2016 (5pm) Eligibility: You must be in the final year of your PhD studies or have no more than two years of postdoctoral research experience from the date of your PhD viva at the final […]

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Professor McInerney Elected Fellow Of The Linnean society

On the 17th March 2016, Professor McInerney was elected as a fellow of the Linnean Society.   From the linnean society website: The Linnean Society of London is the world’s oldest active biological society. Founded in 1788, the Society takes its name from the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus (1707–1778) whose botanical, zoological and library collections […]

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Phylogenomics Summer School 2016 (May 29th-June3rd)

UPDATE: THE COURSE FOR 2016 IS NOW OVER [symple_social icon=”twitter” url=”twitter.com/mcinerneylab” title=”Follow Me” target=”blank” rel=””][symple_social icon=”facebook” url=”facebook.com/mcinerneylab” title=”Like or Share” target=”blank” rel=””] Current status of registrations (since April 4th) [wppb progress=100 option=”flat option=”animated-candystripe red” percent=inside fullwidth=true] What?: Week-long, intensive phylogenetics course covering all aspects of bioinformatics and phylogenetics/phylogenomics. Where?: Department of Biology, National University of Ireland […]

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EMBO Course On Phylogenomics in Iquitos Peru

Many many years ago, a group of us put together a course on phylogenetic analysis and took this course to South America, using funding obtained from various places in Europe – sometimes The European Molecular Biology Organisation (EMBO), sometimes the Society for General Microbiology (now The Microbiology Society), sometimes the British Association. The course has […]

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Professor McInerney Conferred With Irish “Conference Ambassador” Award

Conference Ambassador Recognition Awards Fáilte Ireland has honoured 79 ‘Conference Ambassadors’ at its inaugural Conference Ambassador Recognition Awards ceremony at the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham this evening (Thursday, 21st January 2016). The recipients, from a variety of professional and academic backgrounds, were given the awards for bidding and hosting an international conference or event in Dublin. […]

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Prof. McInerney Speaks At The University of Tübingen, Germany

Professor McInerney gave a research seminar at the University of Tübingen, Germany on November 24th. The title of the seminar was “Merging of biological objects of different kinds is a major evolutionary process”. The seminar was held at the Institute of Microbiology and Infection Medicine and was followed by a session of questions and answers.

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Prof. McInerney Speaks At Carnegie Institution of Washington

Prof. McInerney spoke at the Carnegie Institution of Washington (CIW), Washington DC on Friday 13th November 2015. The conference was organised by CIW and the theme of the meeting was “Re-Conceptualizing the Origin of Life”. Sara Imani Walker and George Cody were the principle organisers, though a large organising committee put the programme together. Prof. […]

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Three PhD studentships available for September 2016

Three PhD studentships are available through a BBSRC (Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Doctoral Training Programme.  The focus will be on ‘Interdisciplinary Training’, ‘Enabling New Ways of Working’ and development of ‘Niche Skills’. The first project will be led by Professor McInerney, is titled “Exploring fungal disease associations using genomic data and network models” […]

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Sir Henry Wellcome Post-Doctoral Fellowships 2015

We are actively looking for early-stage researchers to apply for Sir Henry Wellcome post-doctoral research funding. Eligibility: You must be in the final year of your PhD studies or have no more than two years of postdoctoral research experience from the date of your PhD viva at the final decision point (i.e. interview). Time spent outside […]

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Maynooth University Holds Farewell Party For Prof. McInerney

On Friday September 11th, 2015, The Department of Biology, Maynooth University held a farewell celebration for Professor McInerney. Prof. McInerney had  worked in the department of biology for 16 years, before leaving to take up a position as Chair in Evolutionary Biology at The University of Manchester. Pictured at the celebration are Professor McInerney, chatting […]

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Phylogenetics In The -Omics Era: EMBO Course in Perú

From the 10th – 17th of January 2016, there will be an EMBO-funded phylogenomics course in Iquitos, Peru. Iquitos is the world’s largest city that is NOT accessible by road. You have to fly in there or go by boat. The course is being mainly organised by Chris Creevey (Aberystwyth), Karen Siu-Ting (Aberystwyth) and Mary […]

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