August 7, 2020

The Journal of Medical Microbiology (JMM) is a journal published by the Microbiology Society, focused on providing comprehensive coverage of medical, dental and veterinary microbiology and infectious diseases, including bacteriology, virology, mycology and parasitology. This month, Dr Direk Limmathurotsakul discusses the paper ‘Correlation between cervical HPV DNA detection and HPV16 seroreactivity measured with L1-only and L1+L2 viral capsid antigens’ which was chosen as Editor’s Choice for the July issue of JMM.

August 5, 2020

In this special blog series, medical microbiologists led by Dr Tim Inglis summarise some of the research that will be essential to inform COVID-19 countermeasures. Find out more about the project in Dr Inglis' Editorial 'Logic in the time of coronavirus', published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

August 3, 2020

Each month, a manuscript published in our flagship journal Microbiology  is chosen by a member of the Editorial Board. This month, the paper is titled ‘Induction of clpP expression by cell wall targeting antibiotics in Streptococcus mutans’ and was chosen by Professor Isabelle Martin-Verstraete.

July 31, 2020

MicroNews is the sister series of our podcast Microbe Talk, where we discuss microbiology in the news over the last month. As COVID-19 is taking over the news elsewhere, we decided to focus on other stories from the microbial world, including parasitic fungi with behaviour-changing effects, medieval medicines and the smell of sweat.
 

July 30, 2020

With the slow return to a new ‘normality’, it is hard to know what life will be like out of lockdown. A direct comparison to the current situation with SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) is the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918. Spanish flu affected a staggering one-third of the world’s population and killed 50 million. As much as the two viruses are very different, the societal reactions during both pandemics are similar, and our way of coping with COVID-19 can be understood by reflecting on the measures used 100 years ago. 

July 29, 2020

On the 16—17 July 2020, the Early Career Microbiologists’ (ECM) Forum hosted a virtual poster and video session on the ECM Forum LinkedIn group. This two-day activity was dedicated to showcasing early career research and building networks.
 

July 23, 2020

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

July 22, 2020

Put lots of scientists from different careers stages (academic and non-academic) in the same room in the middle of a pandemic and what do you get? No, not arguments… an absolutely awesome environment! In this blog, having just finished 7 weeks at the Milton Keynes Lighthouse Lab, PhD student Ellie Boardman reflects on what it was like.
 

July 20, 2020

On the 23 June, Hannah Norman, Policy Officer at the Microbiology Society, virtually attended the Westminster Food and Nutrition Forum. This event involved a discussion from policy makers and stakeholders on the future of UK agricultural policy. Here, Hannah discusses the experience. 
 

July 17, 2020

On this month’s Microbe Talk, Matt talks to Dr Arwyn Edwards; an Arctic microbiologist based at Aberystwyth University. Dr Edwards recently published a paper in Microbial Genomics entitled ‘Microbial genomics amidst the Arctic crisis’. Dr Edwards and Matt discuss the paper, the challenges of working in the Arctic and how Arctic microbial research is changing.