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

In 2019, a mysterious shape appeared on a petri dish in a Birmingham lab. Its surprising appearance, similar to noodles, intrigued researchers to find out more about it. They consulted other scientists online at the time, which sparked an idea to start an online club dedicated to sharing laboratory contaminants.

Now, the team finally publish their research characterising this contaminant as a new species of bacteria, Kocuria rhizophila, in our journal Microbial Genomics. Researchers Rob Moran and Greg McCallum join Communications and Media Officer Lilly Tozer to talk about their journey from discovery to publish.

If you’d like to read the paper, you can do so by following this link: https://microb.io/47L8aoY

Stay tuned to the Microbiology Society socials to be the first to hear about exciting new research in the world of microbiology.

You can download a full, auto generated transcript of the podcast here: https://microb.io/3J6DUf3

The Kocurious case of Noodlococcus: From discovery to community

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