Long-read sequencing of Mycobacterial tuberculosis is comparable to short-read sequencing for antimicrobial resistance prediction and epidemiological studies. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.04.08.717216v1

On #WorldTBDay, it’s important to reflect on the scale of the challenge we’re facing. In 2024 alone, tuberculosis (TB) caused 1.23 million deaths worldwide, remaining the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent, according to WHO @ndm.ox.ac.uk

Rapid diagnosis of tuberculosis is available and recommended! Early diagnosis is a gamechanger. Ask your provider for access to WHO-recommended rapid tests for TB, including the latest near-point-of-care tests, to ensure a quick diagnosis and early treatment.

Open datasets such as these are key for tackling AMR in diseases such as tuberculosis. #WorldTBDay

Since 2017 the CRyPTIC project collected and collated 53,897 clinical TB samples with genetics and drug susceptibility testing data. You can download the datasets via crypticproject.info and v4.0.0 will appear later this year. #WorldTBDay @modmedmicro.bsky.social

Bash the Bug at ATOM Festival: Dancing, Germs, and the Challenge of Antimicrobial Resistance! We had a fantastic time this weekend at ATOM Festival in Abingdon, bringing microbiology to life with our Bash the Bug public engagement activities.

It was fantastic to see so many people getting involved, asking great questions, and learning about microbiology in the sunshine. Thanks to everyone who came to say hello, and to our brilliant team for all their enthusiasm! #BashTheBug #Microbiology #PublicOutreach #ATOMFestival

We had a brilliant time this weekend at ATOM Festival in Abingdon! ☀️🦠 We brought along our favourite interactive activities to help people learn about antimicrobial resistance #AMR, including our dance mat game where you fight germs with antibiotics, and we tested everyone’s handwashing skills!

1/4 Thrilled to get this metagenomic diagnostic study over the line. We have an in house method that targets RNA viruses in respiratory samples, and evaluated this against 344 prospective samples tested by multiplex PCR. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

New preprint from us @modmedmicro.bsky.social where we validate the diagnostic accuracy of a metagenomic nanopore sequencing method for respiratory RNA viruses. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.6...

Are you a post-doctoral microbiologist interested in characterising bacterial resistance evolution and want to apply your knowledge and expertise to developing new therapeutics for Klebsiella (and other Enterobacterales) infections? Then we need you! Apply now bit.ly/3MX39Ce close date March 13th 👀

Hoping to innovate community population-level AMR surveillance with the ALARUM team bmjopen.bmj.com/content/16/2.... Can we use metagenomics of pooled colonisation samples to predict clinical AMR burden & inform antimicrobial guidelines?

International Day of Women and Girls in Science 👩‍🔬 Proud to work alongside the scientists in our #microbiology lab whose work in antimicrobial resistance, public health and diagnostics has real-world impact! #WomenInScience #AMR #PublicHealth @medsci.ox.ac.uk @ox.ac.uk @oxfordbrc.bsky.social

MMM has an exciting UNIQ+ project running this summer -apply now! Bacteria, microplastics & resistance — what’s the connection? #Microplastics are everywhere, even in hospitals. But what happens when bacteria stick to them? Come and find out! @afswinkels.bsky.social @nstoesser.bsky.social

Happy our preprint is out🦠: "Evaluation of an Oxford Nanopore sequencing workflow for mycobacteria from primary MGIT culture" We developed and tested a workflow for long-read sequencing of #mycobacteria, including optimising DNA extraction and assessing how #ONT performs compared with #Illumina.

Our project "Sardinia’s Invisible Marine Microbiome" is one of six 2026 #PartArt4OW participatory art initiatives! Excited to do this with the brilliant @annadumitriu.bsky.social (image credit), Sardinian scientists, citizens of Alghero, and colleagues in @modmedmicro.bsky.social @bashthebug.net

Delighted to be involved in the Gram-Negative Antibiotic Discovery Innovator (Gr-ADI) consortium novonordiskfonden.dk/en/news/new-... as part of a project led by Annette von Delft gcgh.grandchallenges.org/grant/discov... @modmedmicro.bsky.social @samlipworth.bsky.social @philipwfowler.bsky.social

Univ of Oxford UNIQ+ scheme applications open: 7-week research internship this Summer www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g.... Lots of projects - one in our lab on microplastics & AMR & hospital environments at @modmedmicro.bsky.social led by Aram Swinkels www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/g... (Clin Med 04). Join us!

Read the full paper here: tinyurl.com/2a5z6tt8

🔬 New blog post! Infections after joint replacement are serious, and identifying the bacteria quickly is crucial for patient care. We explain our research into metagenomic sequencing—reading all DNA in a sample to identify bacteria without needing lab growth. 👉 tinyurl.com/mrh8ukha #AMR #Genomics

Our paper is out in Microbial Genomics! 🧬 We evaluate gnomonicus, an open-source AMR prediction tool, using 2,663 Mycobacterium tuberculosis genomes—showing how WGS can deliver faster, scalable TB resistance predictions. Read the full paper here🔗 bit.ly/4iZepd1 #TB #AMR #Genomics

📢Job Alert! Translational Research Collaboration Manager in Infectious Disease and Antimicrobial resistance. 🦠💊 Know anyone who would be good? Pass it on! www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/search-...

Our team wore blue for World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2025💙 Research into how resistance emerges, spreads and can be prevented is vital. Our group works to understand these processes and develop better tools to detect, monitor and combat antimicrobial resistance. #WAAW @oxfordbrc.bsky.social

This World Antimicrobial Resistance Awareness Week #WAAW, we’re championing our microbiology and infection researchers whose work is benefiting patients and informing health care policy. Read: oxfordbrc.nihr.ac.uk/research-the... @ox.ac.uk @ouhospitals.bsky.social @modmedmicro.bsky.social

Why is antimicrobial awareness important? Antimicrobial resistant infections are rising. In the next 25 years an estimated 39.1 million people globally will die from infections with antimicrobial resistance. So what can you do to help? Something as simple as finishing your course of antibiotics!

For #WorldAntimicrobialAwarenessWeek, we introduce our recent paper on antibiotic-resistant subpopulations in TB. TB may be one of humanity’s oldest diseases, yet it still kills over 1M people yearly. As resistance spreads, knowing each patient’s resistance profile before treatment is vital. 🧬💊

Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi & parasites change over time - leading to medicines being less effective against them. Here you see bacteria growing and antibiotics (the small discs) which kill the bacteria...unless they are resistant! #WAAW #AMR @oxfordbrc.bsky.social

Are you interested in infections, the micro-organisms that cause them and antimicrobial resistance? So are @bashthebug.net and they're looking for new members to join their patient & public group. More info: bashthebug.net/lay-represen... Deadline 27 Nov @ouhospitals.bsky.social @medsci.ox.ac.uk

New paper by @vbrunner.bsky.social looking at detecting rifampicin resistant subpopulations in M. tuberculosis infections using genetics and putting a lower limit on the proportion that arose due to secondary infections. bit.ly/47rwf42 @modmedmicro.bsky.social @oxfordbrc.bsky.social

🔔🔔Post-doc in microbial genomics with @modmedmicro.bsky.social🧬 - deadline tomorrow! Big genomic and clinical datasets to play with, friendly and very multidisciplinary team! my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Our recent paper on rifampicin resistant subpopulations in M. tuberculosis (M. tb) has been published at JAC-antimicrobial resistance. I am really happy to see this work published just hours before submitting my DPhil thesis! 🔗👇 doi.org/10.1093/jaca...

We have a fully funded PhD studentship available @modmedmicro.bsky.social in Oxford to work on a really cool project looking at population heterogeneity in bloodstream infections www.ndm.ox.ac.uk/study/dphil-... Please spread the word/get in touch if you'd like to chat.

Now published in @natcomms.nature.com 🎉 www.nature.com/articles/s41... With Gillian Rodger, @nstoesser.bsky.social, @samlipworth.bsky.social, @stat-sarah.bsky.social, and many others!

🧪 ♻️ Want to make lab and computational research more sustainable? Check out our Oxford Climate Society blog post: oxfordclimatesociety.com/blog/from-pi... Shout out to Green Team colleagues @modmedmicro.bsky.social for helping! #LEAFAward #GreenDiSC #GreenImpact #SustainableScience

From Pipettes to Pipelines: Greening a Multidisciplinary Research Lab. @dotnagy.bsky.social writes about the experiences from the Modernising Medical Microbiology (MMM) research group on engaging wet lab, computer lab, and office teams on the #sustainability agenda. #GreenLab #SustainableScience

Great new work from #DotNagy @modmedmicro.bsky.social - she tool 96 clinical isolates from the NEKSUS study and sequenced with both Illumina and Nanopore - question was, can we do away with hybrid sequencing for the rest of the study? www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Pleased to see this pre-printed, highlighting the completeness/accuracy of @nanoporetech.com long-read genome assembly for clinical Enterobacterales: www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... Thanks to colleagues @modmedmicro.bsky.social, @ukhsa.bsky.social, @genewiz.bsky.social and @oxfordbrc.bsky.social!

Come and work with Nicole Stoesser and I in Oxford with the fantastic team @modmedmicro.bsky.social - great opportunity for a postdoc in microbial genomics to do some creative research with great datasets as part of our HPRU. my.corehr.com/pls/uoxrecru...

Great new opportunity to work with #Liamshaw and @mutantbug.bsky.social as part of our HPRU collaboration (www.expmedndm.ox.ac.uk/research/hpr...) - sinks, phages, wastewater genomes, novel threat detection bit.ly/45Wcv6I - deadline 14th Sept 👀

'Linking life expectancy to the bacteria in our gut: A final year undergraduate project'. Akika investigated how the gut microbiome influences longevity, with fieldwork in Nagano, Japan—home to the country’s longest-living population. Read the blog post here ➡️ bashthebug.net/2025/08/22/l...

More evidence to support best practice "water-safe" care in healthcare facilities is urgently needed. If you're interested please tap into the @hisinfection.bsky.social Wastewater and AMR Special Interest Collaborative (SPARC) - see you there!

More discussion about the JHI study with @emrsa15.bsky.social in the Infection Control Matters podcast series infectioncontrolmatters.com/2025/04/02/t...

This builds on the SinkBug group's earlier work in @thejhi.bsky.social www.journalofhospitalinfection.com/article/S019... where we showed that sink infrastructure in hospitals was common, highly varied, and that antibiotics were detected in a third of sink-traps.

New analysis from Kevin Chau @modmedmicro.bsky.social for the SinkBug Consortium (a collaboration with teams across 29 UK hospitals, NITCAR, UKHSA): Pathogen and AMR gene burden in 287 hospital sink-trap metagenomes and factors associated with high burdens.

Participate at our global conference on Antimicrobial Resistance🧬 🗓️ 23-25 March 2026 #AMR2026 Join a community at the vanguard of #AMR genomics, to explore how big data and innovative technologies are driving solutions to tackle this health crisis. 📎Abstracts welcome: bit.ly/3SWzJUm #MicroSky

Bit over 24 hours left to apply for these two posts to help us develop pipelines to process pathogens..! Senior Bioinformatic Engineer bit.ly/4ecl0hF Senior Biostatistical Researcher bit.ly/4kRfZxI Grade 8 or 7, depending on experience closing date: noon Tues 8 July

Job advert to come and work with me on tuberculosis closes tomorrow (Friday) at noon! Part of #OxCOD4TB bit.ly/4ndKOhF @ndm.ox.ac.uk @modmedmicro.bsky.social @oxfordbrc.bsky.social

Come and work with us! Senior Biostatistical Researcher bit.ly/4kRfZxI Senior Bioinformatic Engineer bit.ly/4ecl0hF both Grade 8 or 7, closing noon Tue 8 Jul Computational Mycobacteriologist Grade 7, closing noon Fri 4 Jul bit.ly/4ndKOhF @medsci.ox.ac.uk @oxfordbrc.bsky.social @ndm.ox.ac.uk

Three posts all closing next week! Senior Biostatistical Researcher bit.ly/4kRfZxI Senior Bioinformatic Engineer bit.ly/4ecl0hF both Grade 8 or 7, closing noon Wed 2 Jul Computational Mycobacteriologist Grade 7, closing noon Fri 4 Jul bit.ly/4ndKOhF @medsci.ox.ac.uk

Come and work with me and use the 53,897 samples of M. tuberculosis we have collated to help tackle this important disease! We are part of the OxCoD4TB consortium that is developing new therapeutics for tuberculosis. Grade 7, funding until 28 Feb 2028, deadline noon Fri 4 July bit.ly/4ndKOhF