Blog listing

September 23, 2021

The Microbiology Society’s third Focused Meeting of the year, Avian Infectious Diseases 2021, took place digitally on 15–17 September 2021. The aim of the event was to bring together the scientific community to help find solutions to the biggest challenges in avian infectious diseases and provide a forum for discussion not only on individual pathogens, but also on cross-cutting areas of relevance to multiple infections. Here, we look back on the three-day event with a view from Twitter.

March 14, 2019

In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) published the ’12 Priority Pathogens’: a list of twelve microbes that are becoming increasingly resistant to current antimicrobials. These twelve pathogens are thought by WHO to pose the greatest threat to human health.

February 15, 2019

This month on Microbe Talk, the Microbiology Society's podcast, we discuss the influenza vaccine with two experts, Dr John McCauley and Dr Othmar Engelhardt.

January 7, 2019

The Journal of Medical Microbiology (JMM) is a journal published by the Microbiology Society, focused on providing a comprehensive coverage of medical, dental and veterinary microbiology and infectious diseases, including bacteriology, virology, mycology and parasitology. This month, Norman Fry, Co-Editor-in-Chief of JMM, has selected an outstanding paper from the January issue to highlight as Editor’s Choice. The paper, titled ‘Molecular characterisation of Corynebacterium diphtheriae isolates in Malaysia between 1981 and 2016’, discusses the changes in the microbial populations that cause diphtheria in Malaysia.

November 8, 2018

Using mosquitoes infected with bacteria sounds like a strange way to prevent the spread of disease, but that is exactly how scientists have been making headlines in Australia, Florida and Brazil. In an effort to combat dengue fever and Zika virus, thousands of mosquitoes are being intentionally infected with a bacterium called Wolbachia and released around the world.

June 11, 2018

Each month, the Microbiology Society publishes the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology (IJSEM), which details newly discovered species of bacteria, archaea, microfungi, microalgae and protists. Here are a few of the new species that have been discovered and the places they’ve been found. 

October 13, 2015

15 October is Global Handwashing Day. The partnership promotes handwashing with soap to improve health and save lives around the world.

October 24, 2014

24 October is World Polio Day, an event that aims to raise awareness of the continuing threat of polio to children in some parts of the world. A global effort to eradicate the disease has been ongoing for 26 years, reducing the number of cases from over 350,000 in 1988 to 406 in 2013.