The John Currey Room, University of York

Day 1 - Tuesday 23rd June 2026

09:00 - 09:30 Registration and Welcome Refreshments

09:30 - 09:35 Opening Remarks

Presentation Session 1

09:35 - 09:55 Victoria Orr University of Liverpool

The pQBR mercury resistance plasmids: a model set of plasmids and how we can use them

09:55 - 10:15 Daniel Cazares López University of Oxford

Phage constrain multidrug resistance plasmid spread

10:15 - 10:35 Anna Olina University of Exeter

Temperate phages specialise either in offence or in defence

10:35 - 11:00 Paul Fogg University of York

Engines of Evolution: Structure and Function of the GTA DNA Packaging Motor 

Refreshments Break (~30 min)

Presentations Session 2

11:30 - 11:45 Lottie Oxley Nottingham Trent University 

Rethinking IS26 Mechanisms: What Daughter Lineages of a Clinical Isolate Reveal

11:45 - 12:00 Matt Craske University of York 

Insights into the Regulation and Evolution of Gene Transfer Agents

12:00 - 12:15 Rebecca Quinn University of Warwick 

tRNA-mediated phage-resistance in T4 & E. coli B REL606

12:15 - 12:30 Ruizhe Li University of Cambridge

Physiological Heterogeneity of Microbes as a Handle for Predicting and Controlling Treatment Outcomes

12:30 - 12:45 Daniel Narino Rojas University of York 

Genome-wide identification of Ralstonia solanacearum genes conferring resistance to diverse bacteriophages using RB-TnSeq

12:45 - 12:55 Shane Houston BMK-Gene

BMKGENE: Your Trusted Multi-omics Service Provider

Lunch Break (~1 h)

Presentations Session 3

14:00 - 14:20 Emma Banks John Innes Centre

The Great Escape: how do gene transfer agents lyse their bacterial hosts?

14:20 - 14:40 Matthew Bird University of Bristol

PhagePlasmids - the weird and wacky

14:40 - 15:05 Somenath Bakshi University of Cambridge

Physiology-aware Tracking of Phage infection Dynamics for Treatment Design

Refreshments Break (~30 min)

Presentations Session 4

15:35 - 15:50 Simran Chhohan University of Birmingham

B Cell Uptake, Activation and Response to Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron generated outer membrane vesicles

15:50 - 16:05 Nia Feakes University of Exeter

Preventing Klebsiella pneumoniae AMR gene dissemination using CRISPR-Cas9

16:05 - 16:20 Nivethanaa Pulavan University of St Andrews

The effect of non-permissive recipients on plasmid conjugation rate evolution

16:20 - 16:35 Lingchen He Imperial College London

Surface-bound phage tails act as DNA-recruiting antennas driving horizontal gene transfer

16:35 - 17:00 João Botelho CBQF/UCP

Antiphage defence systems and MGE conflict in uncharted integron classes

Group Photograph & Drinks Reception

Day 2 - Wednesday 24th June 2026

Presentations Session 5

09:05 - 09:25 Ipoutcha Thomas Imperial college

Interplay between mobile genetic elements drives a fusion-deletion life cycle of plasmids to fuel antimicrobial resistance

09:25 - 09:45 Catriona Thompson John Innes Centre

A tale of two regulators: How plasmids rewire plant-microbe interaction

09:45 - 10:05 David Sünderhauf University of Exeter

CRISPR-Cas is beneficial in plasmid competition, but limited by competitor toxin–antitoxin activity when horizontally transferred

10:05 - 10:30 Sean Meaden University of York

Exploring phage ecology in soil ecosystems through metagenomics

Refreshments Break (~30 min)

Presentations Session 6

11:00 - 11:15 Xena Dyball Quadram Institute Bioscience

Defining the ESKAPE pathogen prophage repertoire with PHORAGER

11:15 - 11:30 Phuong Mai Nguyen University of York

Gene Transfer Agent: From architectures to molecular mechanisms

11:30 - 11:45 Stephane Mesnage University of Sheffield

Dissecting Cell-Surface Recognition by Novel Enterococcal Bacteriophages

11:45 - 12:05 Yi Wu University of Southampton

A methylome-derived m6-dAMP trigger assembles a PUA-Cal-HAD immune filament that depletes dNTPs to abort phage infection

12:05 - 12:25 Rob Beal Bio-Rad Laboratories

Advancing Genetic Analysis Through Droplet Digital PCR

Lunch Break (~1 h)

Presentations Session 7

13:30 - 13:50 Liam Shaw University of Bristol

The leading region of plasmids is adapted for translational efficiency

13:50 - 14:10 Pavol Bardy University of York

A non-canonical gene transfer agent tailspike acts as a detachable biofilm-disrupting munition

14:10 - 14:30 Aleksei Agapov University of Exeter

Patterns of anti-phage defence across diverse phages in Pseudomonas aeruginosa

14:30 - 14:55 Wendy Figueroa University of Cambridge & Wellcome Sanger Institute

Immune-deficient bacteria serve as gateways to genetic exchange and microbial evolution

Refreshments Break (~30 min)

Presentations Session 8

15:30 - 15:45 Michelle Yin University of Oxford

Phages inhibit plasmid transfer in heterogenous populations

15:45 - 16:00 Joni MacDonald University of Birmingham

Plasmid H-NS homolog in A. baumannii

16:00 - 16:15 Taimoor Khan University of Warwick

Discovery and Functional characterisation novel Streptomyces derived natural products

16:15 - 16:40 Matt Bawn Newcastle University

Genomic context matters: mobile genetic elements, niche adaptation and risk in Salmonella Typhimurium.

Closing Remarks & Farewell