Now in its 4th year, this meeting has traveled from Birmingham to York via Norwich and Southampton, growing each time. I’d guess there were around 100 attendees this time and Paul Fogg (York) and colleagues did an amazing job as organiser. Joni spke about her work on plasmid encoded H-NS proteins and the idea that they might protect plasmids from invasion my transposable elements. We managed to fit in watching the football too… but that part was a bit disappointing!
Some belated lab news after a busy few months. In April most of us attended the annual UK RNA polymerase workshop in Manchester. Simon presented his work on H-NS and its interplay with transposable elements and phage, Emily talked about her discovery that oxygen (or rather the lack of it) is a key signal for triggering virulence in Vibrio cholerae, mediated by FNR, and Matt talked about integration of cAMP and c-di-GMP signalling to control V. cholerae biofilm formation. We also managed to find some time for socialising and a bit of karaoke.