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 […]
Read MoreAuthors 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 […]
Read MoreWhat is it? Coinfinder is an algorithm and software tool that detects genes which associate and dissociate with other genes more often than expected by chance in pangenomes. Coinfinder is written primarily in C++ and is a command line tool which generates text, gexf, and pdf outputs for the user. Coinfinder uses a Bonferroni-corrected Binomial […]
Read MoreProfessor 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 […]
Read MoreAuthors: 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 […]
Read MoreThis 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’ […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreThis 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.
Read MoreThe first paper from the lab in 2017 [1] is a small comment on the discovery of more unusual archaebacterial genomes in sediment samples from a variety of locations around the world. In this paper, I outlined the discovery and made a small number of observations about the work. The ASGARD group are the closest non-eukaryotic […]
Read MoreFor the University of Manchester website, a short video on the subject of virgin births, or Parthenogenesis. Please share using the sharing buttons below.
Read MoreOn 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.
Read More15th 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 […]
Read MoreOur 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 […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreBottom line: Send me a message through the form at the bottom of this page if you want to come work with me. JOB 1 We are looking for an ambitious and driven scientist to work on a world-leading project to uncover the origin of the eukaryotic cell. The work will involve the large-scale analysis […]
Read MoreTuesday 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 […]
Read MoreThe John Templeton Foundation have confirmed the award of a two-year research grant to the laboratory of James McInerney at The University of Manchester. The grant will fund two post-doctoral researchers for two years each in order to shed light on the origin of the Eukaryotic cell. This area of research has experienced a huge […]
Read MoreThe 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 […]
Read MoreWe 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 […]
Read MoreOn 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 […]
Read MoreUPDATE: 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 […]
Read MoreDr. Davide Pisani from the University of Bristol spoke today about his work using molecular phylogenetics in order to resolve the earliest branches on the Animal tree of life. His talk was based on a recent paper in PNAS from his research group in Bristol and collaborators. http://www.pnas.org/content/112/50/15402.abstract The main thrust of this argument is […]
Read MoreProfessor Nadine Ziemert of the University of Tuebingen spoke at the university of Manchester today, 8th February, 2016. The title of her talk was “Diversity and Evolution of Secondary Metabolites in Bacteria”. There was a super turn-out and a lively discussion afterwards. Much of the work is covered by Nadine’s 2014 PNAS paper, though with […]
Read MoreMany 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 […]
Read MoreConference 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. […]
Read MoreNASA Astrobiology report from the Origin of Life meeting held in November 2015 at the Carnegie Institute of Washington is now online. You can find it here: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/seeking-new-insight-into-lifes-origin/
Read MoreProfessor 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.
Read MoreProf. 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. […]
Read MoreThree 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” […]
Read MoreThe head of the Department of Life Sciences at the Natural History Museum London, Dr. Tim Littlewood, has confirmed that Professor McInerney is to be appointed as a Scientific Associate of the NHM for the next year. This appointment will allow Prof. McInerney to work in the museum from time to time. The benefit of […]
Read MoreWe 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 […]
Read MoreOn 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 […]
Read MoreFrom 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 […]
Read MoreThe paper can be found here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature14963.html
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