In this episode of the Micro Binfie podcast, host Andrew Page talks with Dr. Erin Young, a bioinformatician at the Utah Public Health Laboratory, recorded during the 10th Microbial Bioinformatics Hackathon in Bethesda, Maryland. Erin shares her journey from researching hereditary cancer predisposition to her current role in public health bioinformatics, which she entered through a prestigious CDC and APHL fellowship. The conversation delves into her work with bacterial pathogens, particularly in tracking antimicrobial resistance in organisms like Klebsiella. Erin discusses the tools she uses for genome typing, such as MASH, FastANI, and SKA, and her innovative research on the accuracy of long-read sequencing technologies like Nanopore for detecting antimicrobial resistance genes. She also provides a preview of her upcoming poster for ASM, where she examines how Nanopore reads can be used effectively in public health microbiology. This episode offers a fascinating look at how bioinformatics and genomics are advancing the fight against infectious diseases.

133 The Role of Bioinformatics in Public Health and Disease Outbreaks

Microbial Bioinformatics is a rapidly changing field marrying computer science and microbiology. Join us as we share some tips and tricks we’ve learnt over the years. If you’re student just getting to grips to the field, or someone who just wants to keep tabs on the latest and greatest - this podcast is for you. 

The hosts are Dr. Lee Katz from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US), Dr. Nabil-Fareed Alikhan from the University of Oxford (UK), and Prof. Andrew Page from Theiagen Genomics (UK) and bring together years of experience in microbial bioinformatics.

The opinions expressed here are our own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, University of Oxford or Theiagen Genomics.

Intro music : Werq - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Outro music : Scheming Weasel (faster version) - Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Question and comments? microbinfie@gmail.com

133 The Role of Bioinformatics in Public Health and Disease Outbreaks

Micro Binfie Podcast