Microbe Talk

📣 Episode 185 is out now! This month, Lilly welcomes Dr Hannah Trivett from the University of Birmingham to the podcast, to discuss her latest publication bringing patient and public involvement (PPI) and microbial genomics research together for the first time ever. Listen in to hear their discussion of what the public think about effective science communication and how researchers can benefit fr...

This Pride Month, Dr Bruno Francesco Rodrigues de Oliveira and Dr Landon Getz, two of the founders of the Pride in Microbiology network, join Lilly to discuss why their work to harness community and professional development opportunities for LGBTQ+ scientists around the world is as important as ever. 

Ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes planning our flagship Annual Conference? Listen in as Lilly talks to Chairs of the Scientific Conferences Panel during the four day event in Belfast, about the challenges and joys of putting together the exciting programme.  Interested in joining? Visit our website to find out more about how to apply for vacancies in our governance structure.

"I often like to say that we're not the antibiotic police, but we're the antibiotic sommelier. So, you have a bug and we have the drug, and we try to find the best fit." In this month's Microbe Talk, Charlotte Holtum (Head of Engagement & Storytelling) welcomes guests Dr Alicia Demirjian (UK Health Security Agency and Guy’s and St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust) and Dr Yoann Personne (bioMérieu...

What does a healthy vaginal microbiome look like? Are store-bought vaginal probiotics backed by science? How do these microbes interact with sexually transmitted infections (STIs)?   🦠Research is uncovering more and more about the relationship between the vaginal microbiome and sexual health. That's why this month, I spoke with Prof Wilhelmina Huston, a microbiologist specialising in STIs at the...

In this episode of Microbe Talk, we meet some members of staff at the Microbiology Society to reflect on 2025 and look at ways to get involved in 2026. 

The relationship between humans and parasites is changing along with the climate crisis, globalisation, and innovations in science. In this month's Microbe Talk, we chat to expert Kinga Kowalewska-Grochowska at the University of Alberta, Canada, about the evolutions in how we look at parasites, where they are found, and what the future holds for diagnosing and treating these illnesses. This follow...

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...

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 this episode is available on our we...

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 ex...

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 Edinbu...

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 c...

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 c...

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 c...

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 c...

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...

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...

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...

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 s...

 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 background...

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...

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 yo...

Clare is back with another episode of Microbe Talk and this time she’s investigating the topic of Microbial Forensics with Dr Tim Inglis from the University of Western Australia. Tim is the Editor-in-Chief of the Society’s Journal of Medical Microbiology where he published his review on the topic: ‘ A systematic approach to microbial forensics ’. You can read a full transcript of this podcast on o...

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...

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 Hoski...