In this episode of Microbe Talk, Laura and Professor Stephen Gordon from University College Dublin discuss tuberculosis research in both people and animals.

Find out more about Professor Gordon's research in the below articles: 
Mycobacterium tuberculosis: Humanity's deadly microbial foe (doi: 10.1099/mic.0.000601)
Mycobacterium bovis genomics reveals transmission of infection between cattle and deer in Ireland (doi: 10.1099/mgen.0.000388)
Comparative 'omics analyses differentiate Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis and reveal distinct macrophage responses to infection with the human and bovine tubercle bacilli (doi:10.1099/mgen.0.000163)

Microbe Talk: bovine tuberculosis

COVID-19 has put the subject of infections and pathogens firmly on the centre stage. But it can be difficult to know where to go to find information that is easy to understand and that you can trust. This week Matt talks to Dr Tregoning, author of ‘Infectious: pathogens and how we fight them’, a book that gives a fascinating overview of our ongoing fight against pathogens, uncovering success stories in immunology and virology, and providing some hope in these uncertain times.

Infectious: Pathogens and how we fight them

In this episode of Microbe Talk, Charlie talks to Dr Jonathan Cox about his team's newly published research on a surprising use for Manuka honey. 

Music: 
Leatherbound by Blue Dot Sessions(www.sessions.blue)

Manuka honey could help treat a deadly drug-resistant lung infection

In this episode of Microbe Talk Charlie talks to Dr Fiona Walsh about her team's research into how widespread plasmids carrying antimicrobial resistance genes are around the world, and what we can do about it.

Music:
Leatherbound by Blue Dot Sessions(www.sessions.blue)

A global problem: investigating the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes

In this episode of Microbe Talk, Charlotte talks to Dr Ian Brown about what makes this year’s bird flu outbreak bigger and more worrisome than before.
Maarten Schellekens – Sweet Dreams – Middle-East Remix (freemusicarchive.org)

The biggest ever bird flu outbreak: what you need to know

Some fungal infections, like athletes' foot or thrush, are relatively common and are usually not serious. But in those with underlying conditions or compromised immune systems, fungal infections can be deadly.

In recent weeks, the World Health Organisation has warned of the serious threat that fungi pose to humans with a new report and list of priority fungal pathogens. In this episode of Microbe Talk, Charlotte takes a look inside the creeping threat of fungal infections with guests Prof Kevin Kavanagh and Prof Neil Gow.

Music: True Blue Sky by Blue Dot Sessions (www.sessions.blue)

Inside the creeping threat of fungal infections

Every year, thousands of Tasmanian devils die from contagious facial tumours. On this episode of Microbe Talk, Charlotte speaks to Dr Andy Flies from the Menzies Institute at the University of Tasmania, Australia, about a potential new vaccine approach that could save these endangered animals.

You can view the video mentioned in the episode on our Instagram 
@MicrobioSoc and you can read Andy and his team’s publication in the Journal of General Virology at http://bit.ly/3ITxAok


Tasmanian devil recordings: Wild Immunity
Music: Eggs and Powder by Blue Dot Sessions.

Could a new vaccine save the Tasmanian devil from a contagious cancer?

In this episode of Microbe Talk, Policy and Engagement Officer Katie talks to Professor Martha Clokie about bacteriophages, how they can be used to treat infection and potentially even combat antimicrobial resistance. 

You can read our full response to the government inquiry on the antimicrobial potential of bacteriophages at https://microbiologysociety.org/resource_library/consultation-responses/inquiry-on-anti-microbial-of-bacteriophage.html   

A full transcript of this episode is available on the Microbiology Society website. 

Music: Blue Dot Sessions 'Blue Latex'

The bacteriophage: is the enemy of our enemy a friend?

This month, inspired by a paper published in Microbial Genomics, Clare takes a deep dive into the method of wastewater monitoring. She speaks to Professor Steve Patterson and Dr Anne Leonard about how wastewater monitoring is a useful tool which helps us understand not only the spread of diseases like COVID-19, but also antimicrobial resistance.

You can read Professor Patterson's paper, published in Microbial Genomics here. https://microb.io/3or9CsS 

Music: pixabay Chill Abstract (Intention) Coma-Media

Chill Abstract (Intention)

A deep dive into wastewater monitoring

In this episode of Microbe Talk, David Walker-Sünderhauf chats with Clare about his paper "Removal of AMR plasmids using a mobile, broad host-range CRISPR-Cas9 delivery tool" published in Microbiology. 




If you'd like to read David's paper, you can find it here https://doi.org/10.1099/mic.0.001334. You can also follow him on twitter @davvi36. 

Music: Time Technology by Comma-Media from Pixabay

CRISPR - Cas9 Takes On AMR Plasmids

Each year, Dyslexia Awareness Week gives us a chance to take some time to reflect and learn about the everyday challenges people can face when they have dyslexia. In this episode, Adam, (who has dyslexia himself) speaks to Dr John Munnoch, who was diagnosed with dyslexia around the age of 8, to discuss how he has been challenged within the field of microbiology. John also explains how he has found his own way of learning, and how he has benefitted from the support of his family, friends and colleagues throughout his career.

Music: Fairy Meeting -  Emily A. Sprague

Fairy Meeting

Dr John Munnoch discusses dyslexia

In this episode of Microbe Talk, Policy and Engagement Officer Katie chats to Dr Tina Joshi and Dr Catrin Moore, the Microbiology Society members leading on the Society’s brand new antimicrobial resistance (AMR) project, Knocking Out AMR. In this episode, Katie, Tina and Catrin talk about what the new project is, how it came to be, and how people can get involved.

To find out more about Knocking Out AMR, and to register your interest, head to www.microbiologysociety.org/knockingoutamr        

A full transcript of this episode is available on the Microbiology Society website.

Music: ‘Relaxed Vlog (Night Street)’ by Ashot Danielyan from Pixabay

Knocking Out AMR: Dr Tina Joshi and Dr Catrin Moore on the Society’s new project

In this episode of Microbe Talk Clare is joined by Rick Mumford, Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor & Deputy Director of Science Evidence & Research at the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA). They chat about research and surveillance of foodborne antimicrobial resistance (AMR), delivering on the 5-year National Action Plan and look to the future of foodborne AMR. 

If you’d like to read Rick’s paper, ‘Foodborne antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research and surveillance in the UK: priorities identified through the Food Standards Agency’s AMR programme review (2023)’ published in Journal of Medical Microbiology, the Society’s interdisciplinary journal for medical, veterinary and dental microbiology, you can do so here https://microb.io/3OaMMiP 

If you’d like to keep up to date with the FSA’s science news, publications and research partnership opportunities you can sign up to their newsletter here https://microb.io/427v99A 

If you’d like to get involved in tackling AMR you can find out more information on our Knocking out AMR project and register your interest on our website https://microb.io/3tIpadW 

Music by Yrii Semchyshyn from Pixabay

Foodborne Antimicrobial Resistance: research and surveillance

Yesterday, we released our vision statement for Knocking Out Antimicrobial Resistance, the Society's new cross-disciplinary project. It outlined the key issues faced by the AMR community: the lack of understanding of the urgency of the crisis, a fragmented AMR landscape and a broken innovation pipeline.

So for this special Knocking Out AMR episode of Microbe Talk Clare spoke to Professor Paul Hoskisson to pick his brain on his latest venture: a one million pound project to use food by-products make antimicrobial production more cost effective and sustainable.

The Microbiology Society's Knocking Out AMR Vision statement can be found on our website here https://microb.io/4bHDoMO 

Paul's Socials:
Bluesky @paulhoskisson.bsky.social 
Twitter @PaulHoskisson
Instagram @paulhoskisson

Music by Yurii Semchyshyn from Pixabay

Knocking Out AMR: fixing the broken innovation pipeline

For this episode of Microbe Talk Clare was joined by the wonderful Gwyn Dahlquist-Axe and Francesca Standeven, archaeological scientists who study AMR and ancient human oral microbiomes. They're on the podcast to discuss their review into diet, disease and antibiotic resistance from ancient human oral microbiomes published in Microbial Genomics. 

You can read their review 'Inferring diet, disease and antibiotic resistance from ancient human oral microbiomes' by following this link: https://microb.io/3yrdaQo

If you'd like to keep up with Francesca and Gwyn's research their Twitter (X) handles are @GDahlquistAxe and @fstandeven193

You can read a full transcript of the podcast on our website here https://microb.io/3xfueJ0

Roots of resistance: exploring AMR in ancient mouths

In aid of space week Clare is looking up into the sky with Dr Katherine Baxter about the exciting field of space microbiology. They chat about how research in space could help with problems back on earth, how microbes behave in space and how they might be key to survival in future space travel. 

The details of the ways to get involved are below. If you're in need of even more space content, keep your eye out for the next edition of Microbiology Today. 

The NASA Open Science Data Repository: https://awg.osdr.space/ 
The SOLSTICE citizen science project: https://www.nasa.gov/osdr-working-groups-citizen-science/.  

Music by drmseq from Pixabay

Looking up at space microbiology

The month of October is #BlackHistoryMonth and this year we caught up with Society Champion, Dr Amaka Awayne, on our latest episode of the Microbe Talk podcast. Dr Amaka discusses her insightful experiences as a Black person working in science, as well as how she is contributing to Black History Month this year.

Find out how to get more involved with Society activities via our Get Involved webpage: https://microb.io/4f18YYd

Music by The_Mountain from Pixabay

Black History Month: Amaka Awayne

For this episode of Microbe Talk Clare is joined by Dr Sanjay Patel, a paediatric infectious disease and immunology consultant at Southampton Children's Hospital and the National Clinical Advisor for Paediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship at NHS England. Clare and Sanjay discuss paediatric AMR, why it's often overlooked and how Sanjay and his colleagues from clinical, research and policy backgrounds are taking action. 

If you'd like to learn more about research into antimicrobial resistance in neonates, take a look at this paper in Journal of Medical Microbiology: https://microb.io/4i4guDp

You can find details of how to get involved with Knocking Out AMR here:https://microb.io/40g484K

The resources and initiatives Sanjay mentioned are below: 
National empirical antimicrobial guidelines: https://uk-pas.co.uk/Antimicrobial-Paediatric-Summary-UKPAS.pdf
The common infection clinical pathways, the IV to oral switch decision aid: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66795c88a7a18c1aa1a00f20/paeds-iv-to-oral-switch-decision-aid-1.pdf 
The common infection paediatric pathways: https://bsac.org.uk/paediatricpathways/

Music: Inspiring Science Technology - Comma Media from Pixabay

To download the transcript of this podcast please visit our website. 

World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week: paediatric AMR

In this episode of Microbe Talk Clare spoke to Adam Aspinall who's Senior Director in the Access and Product Management team at Medicines for Malaria Venture. They discuss Malaria, antimalarial drug resistance and the work that Medicines for Malaria Venture is doing to support new drug discovery.

If you'd like to find out more about the Microbiology Society's Knocking Out AMR project, you can do so here https://microb.io/3XDv9fq 

If you'd like to find out more about the work that Medicines for Malaria do, take a look at their resources here: 

MMV website: http://mmv.org

Severe Malaria Observatory : severemalaria.org

You can also download a full transcript of the podcast by visiting the Microbiology Society's website. 

Music: Blue Dot Sessions - Blue Latex

Antimalarial drug resistance: current challenges and future solutions

For the first episode of Microbe Talk in 2025, we’re bringing you something fascinating and a bit different— non-communicable diseases. In this special episode, Clare chats with Professor John Tregoning, a  Professor in Vaccine Immunology, about his new book, 'Live Forever? A Curious Scientist’s Guide to Wellness, Ageing and Death'. Clare and John chat about why he's writing about non-communicable diseases, the processes behind his book and any public engagement advice he'd give to our community. 

Find out where you can buy a copy of Johns book here: https://oneworld-publications.com/work/live-forever/ 

Johns other work can be found here: https://linktr.ee/a_curious_scientist 

You can also download a transcript of the podcast from our website:  https://microbiologysociety.org/blog/microbe-talk-exploring-the-science-of-wellness-ageing-and-death-with-john-tregoning.html

Music by Yrii Semchyshyn from Pixabay

Exploring the science of wellness, ageing and death with John Tregoning

In this episode, Adam talks to Dr Georgios Efthimiou from the University of Hull.  Georgios has created a nationwide ‘spooky’ short story competition called Coccus Pocus. This project links outreach and Halloween with microbiology.  This creative competition has had a clear impact on 12 – 18-year-olds who find the competition a good way to discover an interest in microbiology and have had a lot of fun writing the stories.  Join Adam as he learns more about this Microbiology Society-funded project (and you may hear from a few society staff members reading some of this year's winners along the way).

Coccus Pocus: a microbiology inspired scary story competition

In this episode of Microbe Talk Clare speaks to Judy Li, author on the latest Microbial Primer: Microbiome and thermal tolerance – a new frontier in climate resilience? Clare and Judy chat about the paper, the relatively new field of study and the possible mechanisms of microbes buffering organisms against temperature changes. 
 
If you'd like to Judy's paper, published in Microbiology you can do so here https://microb.io/41914pK 
 
Music: Documentary_Tidal by Comma-Media via Pixabay

Microbiome and thermal tolerance: a new frontier in climate resilience?

We're in Liverpool this week, hosting our annual conference and meeting our members, collaborators and authors.

We know that there will be a lot of exciting conversations, interesting presentations and vital networking opportunities happening all over the and wanted to make sure you could keep the excitement going even after the events of the day have finished. 

So, across the four days of annual conference we'll be bringing you mini episodes of Microbe Talk, each featuring a presenter from the programme. 

For the first of our mini-series, Clare spoke to Phoebe Crossley who will be presenting her research 'Multi-omic analysis of the vaginal microenvironment reveals mechanisms of vulvovaginal and sexual health symptoms in women with benign gynaecological conditions' at the Urogenital Microbes in Health and Disease session tomorrow afternoon. 

Our miniseries for Annual Conference 2025: Phoebe Crossley

We're in Liverpool this week, hosting our annual conference and meeting our members, collaborators and authors.

We know that there will be a lot of exciting conversations, interesting presentations and vital networking opportunities happening all over the and wanted to make sure you could keep the excitement going even after the events of the day have finished.

So, across the four days of annual conference we'll be bringing you mini episodes of Microbe Talk, each featuring a presenter from the programme.

For the second episode of our miniseries for Annual Conference Clare spoke to Elizabeth O’Gorman about her research titled ‘Adaptation of Campylobacter to Sodium Chloride Alters Phenotypes Associated with Human Disease’ which she will be presenting at the infection forum tomorrow afternoon. 

Elizabeth and Clare chat about food safety and how consumer trends might be altering the of bacteria on our meat.

Our miniseries for Annual Conference 2025: Elizabeth O'Gorman

We're in Liverpool this week, hosting our annual conference and meeting our members, collaborators and authors.

We know that there will be a lot of exciting conversations, interesting presentations and vital networking opportunities happening all over the and wanted to make sure you could keep the excitement going even after the events of the day have finished.

So, across the four days of annual conference we'll be bringing you mini episodes of Microbe Talk, each featuring a presenter from the programme.

For the penultimate episode of our miniseries for annual conference Clare spoke to Guilherme Borba Neuman about his research titled ‘Characterizing Retroviral Integrations and Their Impact on Koala Populations: Implications for Health and Conservation’ which he presented earlier today at our Annual Conference in Liverpool. 

Listen to find out how Guilherme is able to see the results of his research come to fruition in captive Koala populations. 

Our miniseries for Annual Conference 2025: Guilherme Neumann

We're in Liverpool this week, hosting our annual conference and meeting our members, collaborators and authors.

We know that there will be a lot of exciting conversations, interesting presentations and vital networking opportunities happening all over the and wanted to make sure you could keep the excitement going even after the events of the day have finished.

So, across the four days of annual conference we'll be bringing you mini episodes of Microbe Talk, each featuring a presenter from the programme.

We’re closing up with a chat with Andrew Spicer who is looking at the algae Chlorella in a new light. His invited talk ‘Reimagining Chlorella as a food and beverage ingredient suited for everyday foods’ was on Tuesday afternoon at the Annual Conference in the Microbes to meals session.

Our miniseries for Annual Conference 2025: Andrew Spicer

In this episode, Adam discovers how two microbiologists from opposite sides of the world formed a collaboration and mentorship that has greatly benefited them both.

When in-person classes were suspended during the 2020 lockdown, Akpan Friday, a student from Nigeria, reached out on social media seeking support to continue his and his classmates’ learning. Dr Beth Mills from the University of Edinburgh responded to the call and began delivering free online lectures to the students.

Although they have yet to meet in person, their relationship has developed into a mentor–mentee partnership, and both were delighted to share their story.

Music: Instant Crush – Corbyn Kites 


Dr Beth Mills and Akpan Friday on international collaboration and mentorship

In January 2024, Aline Metris and Lindsay Hall hosted an academic-industry workshop at the Microbiology Society offices to discuss the potential long-term implications of microbiome perturbations. 

Since then, they’ve published a comprehensive summary of the findings from the workshop in Microbial Genomics. We invited them back to the Microbiology Society offices to chat with Clare about their experiences hosting the workshop and share their insights from the paper. 

If you’d like to read the review in Microbial Genomics you can do so by following this link https://microb.io/3TkLCn3 

Stay tuned to the Microbiology Society socials to be the first to hear about Lindsay and Aline’s further work and our other projects on the microbiome. 

A full, auto generated, transcript of the podcast is available on our website here https://microb.io/4l4aZ92

From workshop to publication: discussing microbiome safety with Lindsay Hall and Aline Metris

In this episode of Microbe Talk, Clare talks to An Bui from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Alberta about their paper published in Microbiology, the first systematic review of the potential effects of psychotropics (the drugs used to treat bipolar disorder) on the gut microbiome of treated and untreated bipolar individuals.

A full transcript of the recording is available on our website: https://microbiologysociety.org/blog/microbe-talk-exploring-the-gut-brain-link-in-bipolar-treatments.html

Chemical Conversations: Exploring the gut:brain link in bipolar treatments

This summer, many people living in Lancashire were forced to boil their drinking and cooking water, after an outbreak of a parasite that can cause a nasty bout of stomach cramps and diarrhoea. This outbreak was caused by the protozoan Cryptosporidium, a water-borne parasite that can cause a potentially life-threatening infection in the very young or the immunocompromised.

To learn more about Cryptosporidium we spoke to Christopher Miller, a PhD student at the University of Kent, who is looking at ways to better culture this poorly-understood parasite.

Image credit: Steve Johnson on Flickr under CC BY 2.0



Microbe Talk Extra: Cryptosporidium

Protists are an extremely important part of many ecosystems, but people don't often consider their significance and the biodiversity they represent. In this episode of the podcast, Laura speaks with Professor Genoveva Esteban who is based at Bournemouth University, UK. Genoveva's research focuses on the biodiversity of aquatic systems in the UK, particularly at a microbial level.

Image: iStock/prill

The ecological role of protists

The Microbiology Society is a membership organisation for scientists who work in all areas of microbiology.

Microbiology Society

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