Press releases

11 September 2024

Researchers from the Quadram Institute working together with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) have established a human “lung-on-chip” model that recreates how SARS-CoV-2 infects lung cells, in a contained laboratory environment.
 

28 August 2024

The Microbiology Society, one of the largest microbiology societies in Europe, is pleased to announce a new three-year Publish and Read offering with German consortium ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences, available to its 400 member institutions and 2,000 hospitals. This agreement was established in partnership with HARRASSOWITZ, the Society’s representative agency in Germany.

15 August 2024

Scientists at The University of Warwick have made a breakthrough which could help find new treatments for a deadly infection that can affect up to 40% of hospital patients using mechanical ventilators.

07 August 2024

Researchers at University of Galway have developed a new, portable technology for on-the-spot testing of water quality to detect one of the most dangerous types of bacteria.

16 July 2024

As part of BIOQUAL’s Animal Model Development Initiative, BIOQUAL researchers in collaboration with scientists at Virgina Tech have established the cynomolgus macaque as one of the first non-human primate models of Mayaro virus infection.

05 December 2023

The Microbiology Society is pleased to announce that it has launched its official account on WeChat, China’s preeminent social media platform, in partnership with Charlesworth. With a goal to better connect with China-based researchers and improve accessibility to its six peer-reviewed titles, this is a significant step in extending reach to international authors.  

22 November 2023

Research published during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week explores the impact of using recommended chlorine chemicals to tackle Clostridioides difficile, the most common cause of antibiotic associated sickness in healthcare settings globally

14 November 2023

Researchers from the University of Johannesburg have discovered a new bacteria species living inside an African medicinal plant, which may be found to have healthcare applications in future. 

04 October 2023

A new study from the Quadram Institute and University of East Anglia into sepsis in neonatal babies has uncovered the secrets of the bacteria’s success in causing this life-threatening condition.

Using genomic sequencing, they have found how certain strains of bacteria that usually live harmlessly on the skin can evade control measures by colonising babies’ guts. This will provide new ways to control this threat to babies’ health.
 

23 August 2023

An economic model by bioinformatics company Genpax published in Microbial Genomics concludes that in England the National Health Service (NHS) could save close to £0.5bn and prevent 1200 avoidable deaths, and the US health system over $3bn and 4,800 deaths by implementing whole genome sequencing (WGS) as a tool to control bacterial healthcare-associated infections.

16 November 2022

The first ever systematic review of its kind confirms that taking probiotics alongside antibiotics can protect against some of the negative impacts of antibiotics on the human gut microbiome. The review is reported in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, published by the Microbiology Society.

17 October 2022

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is an insidious and silent pandemic that is already happening, when bacteria are exposed to levels of antibiotics that do not kill them, they develop ways to overcome further treatments. The latest figures reveal that an estimated 1.2 million people died in 2019 as a direct result of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections and that AMR will cause over 10 million deaths per year by 2050, which is more than deaths from cancer and diabetes combined, and more than the current COVID-19 death toll.

20 September 2022

In a recently published paper, researchers in the UK and Austria have named over 65,000 different kinds of microbes. The study, led by Professor Mark Pallen at the Quadram Institute in Norwich, UK, draws on a long tradition of creating well-formed but arbitrary Latin names for new species, but applies this approach at a scale unprecedented in the history of taxonomy.

13 September 2022

Scientists often name new discoveries after celebrities – such as the Beyoncé horse fly (Scaptia beyoncea), the Steve Irwin snail (Crikey steveirwini) or the David Bowie huntsman spider (Heteropoda davidbowie).

So when University of Adelaide researchers discovered a new type of lactic acid bacteria, they wanted to pay homage to someone who allowed them to continue their work during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

08 September 2022

Scientists develop a potential nebulisation treatment using manuka honey to clear a drug resistant lung infection that can be fatal in cystic fibrosis patients. Aston University researchers combined the antibiotic amikacin with manuka honey as a novel treatment for Mycobacterium abscessus. Using the manuka honey combination resulted in an eight-fold reduction in the dosage of the antibiotic.

01 December 2021

The Microbiology Society and the Max Planck Digital Library (MPDL) are pleased to announce a three-year transformative agreement starting in 2022. The Publish and Read model will enable researchers of 86 Max Planck Institutes in Germany to publish any article accepted for publication in the journals of the Society Open Access, without having to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs).

18 June 2021

The Microbiology Society is pleased to announce three new initiatives that provide article-level metrics of all Open Access (OA) articles published by the Society’s six journals.

16 June 2021

Research published today in the Journal of General Virology has identified missed cases of SARS-CoV-2 by retrospective testing of throat swabs.

Researchers at the University of Nottingham screened 1,660 routine diagnostic specimens which had been collected at a Nottingham hospital between 2 January and 11 March 2020 and tested for SARS-CoV-2 by PCR. At this stage of the pandemic, there was very little COVID-19 testing available in hospitals, and to qualify patients had to meet a strict criterion, including recent travel to certain countries in Asia or contact with a known positive case.

28 May 2021

While investigating a disease outbreak in a Queensland botanical gardens, researchers discovered a new species of bacteria that causes a fatal disease in palms.

The bacterium, which they named Candidatus Phytoplasma dypsidis was found to cause a fatal wilt disease. This new discovery was reported in the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

15 April 2021

Today, researchers published an in-depth look at the SARS-CoV-2 mutations that have taken place during the past year in the Journal of General Virology. The review discusses the findings of over 180 research articles and follows the changes that have taken place in the SARS-CoV-2 genome, and the variants that have occurred as a result.

15 October 2020

“Everyone can make a difference!” urge microbiologists after developing a new approach that could reduce their laboratory’s plastic waste by over 500kg a year.  

The group, based at the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute, developed an approach to reduce plastic waste produced by their lab. They have shared their approach in the journal Access Microbiology, with the hope that other labs will follow suit.

13 August 2020

Researchers have developed a new test that can diagnose COVID-19 in just 20 minutes.  

The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, show the rapid molecular test called N1-STOP-LAMP, is 100% accurate in diagnosing samples containing SARS-CoV-2 at high loads. 

17 July 2020

Curcumin, a natural compound found in the spice turmeric, could help eliminate certain viruses, research has found.

A study published in the Journal of General Virology showed that curcumin can prevent Transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGEV) – an alpha-group coronavirus that infects pigs – from infecting cells. At higher doses, the compound was also found to kill virus particles.
 

07 July 2020

Existing public health monitoring systems in the UK, could improve understanding of the risk factors associated with severe COVID-19.

21 May 2020

A new review discusses the findings from over 40 studies on coronavirus immunity and what they could mean for the COVID-19 pandemic.

10 October 2019

Bacteria have been found in the International Space Station’s drinking water. A research article published in the journal Microbiology discussed the bacteria found coating drinking water pipes and tanks on the International Space Station (ISS).

01 October 2019

Potentially harmful microbes overwhelm the healthy gut microbiota in intensive care patients, research has found. Research published in the journal Microbial Genomics assessed how the diversity and makeup of the gut microbiome varied during patients’ time in the intensive care unit (ICU). The gut microbiome is the complex community of bacteria and other microbes that reside in the gut, and plays an important role in health and wellbeing.

10 September 2019

The makeup of the bacterial community that lives in the gut has been identified as a risk factor for bowel cancer. Research has found that the composition of the intestinal microbiome – the complex community of bacteria and other microbes that reside in the gut – can influence an individual’s chances of developing cancer in the bowel.

28 March 2019

Researchers are concerned that attitudes to hygiene are being undermined by the hygiene hypothesis, and that this misleading misnomer could contribute to the spread of infectious disease.

28 March 2019

A recently-isolated soil microbe could be used to modify crops and protect them against fungal diseases, researchers say. Researchers at the Agriculture and Food Development Authority (TEAGASC) have identified a novel bacterium which can modify plant characteristics and provide beneficial traits, such as resistance to diseases.

30 November 2018

Useful products could be generated from biodegrading plastics, researchers say. In a review published in the journal Microbiology, Tanja Narancic and Kevin O’Connor discuss the advances made in biodegradation of fossil-based plastics, the design of plastics for biodegradation and how microbes can transform plastic waste into useful products.

12 September 2018

A new species of bacteria has been discovered on a man in Cornwall. The bacteria was found on a 64 year old man seeking treatment for cellulitis. When researchers attempted to find the cause of this skin infection, they found the bacteria, which although similar to others, had not been seen before

12 July 2018

Researchers have found that a major component of cinnamon oil can help to clear certain bacterial infections.

31 May 2018

An expert has compared the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the 2014 west African epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people.

06 April 2017

Today at the Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference, researchers will show that the overall balance of the bacteria on a person’s skin, rather than the presence or absence of a particular bacterial strain, appears to be an important factor for acne development and skin health.

05 April 2017

Today, at the Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference in Edinburgh, researchers will show that levels of cancer-causing human papillomavirus in Scotland have dropped 90% in young women, following a vaccination campaign that began in 2008. The researchers believe that this may itself lead to a 90% reduction in cervical cancer cases in Scottish women.

23 March 2016

Today, at the Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference in Liverpool, scientists will show that the foam made by Trinidadian frogs represents a new, non-toxic antibiotic delivery system that may help to prevent infections.

18 March 2016

Today, at the Microbiology Society’s Annual Conference in Liverpool, scientists will reveal how Arctic microbes are increasing the rate at which glaciers melt, in a process not accounted for in current climate change models.

25 January 2016

Today, the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Select Committee published the report from their inquiry entitled Science in Emergencies: UK Lessons from Ebola, which makes wide-ranging recommendations to the Government to improve the UK’s preparedness for, and response during, future infectious disease outbreaks.

31 March 2015

Date syrup – a thick, sweet liquid derived from dates that is widely consumed across the Middle East – shows antibacterial activity against a number of disease-causing bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli.

New research, presented today at the Society for General Microbiology Annual Conference in Birmingham, showed that, in vitro, date syrup is able to inhibit the growth of bacteria faster than manuka honey, which has previously been shown to have antibacterial properties and is increasingly used in dressings to improve wound repair.

31 March 2015

Researchers from the University of Nottingham have shown that a 1,000 year old Anglo-Saxon remedy for eye infections, which originates from a manuscript in the British Library, has been found to kill the modern-day superbug MRSA. This work is being presented this week at the Society for General Microbiology Annual Conference.

Microbiologist Dr Freya Harrison, working with Dr Steve Diggle and Dr Aled Roberts, collaborated with Dr Christina Lee, an Anglo-Saxon expert from the School of English, to recreate a 10th century potion for eye infections from Bald’s Leechbook. The book is widely thought of as one of the earliest known medical textbooks and contains Anglo-Saxon medical advice and recipes for medicines, salves and treatments.

31 March 2015

For many, body odour is an unfortunate side effect of their daily lives. The smell is caused by bacteria on the skin breaking down naturally secreted molecules contained within sweat. Now, researchers from the University of York working with Unilever have studied the underarm microbiome and identified a unique set of enzymes in the bacterium Staphylococcus hominis that is effective at breaking down sweat molecules into compounds known as thioalcohols, an important component of the characteristic body odour smell.

30 March 2015

Recreational users of coastal waters such as swimmers and surfers are at risk of exposure to antibiotic resistant bacteria, according to new research published this week and presented today at the Annual Conference.

17 April 2014

Each year in the UK, bacterial infections cause around 6,000 cases of a severe eye condition known as microbial keratitis – an inflammation and ulceration of the cornea that can lead to loss of vision. The use of contact lenses has been identified as a particular risk factor for microbial keratitis.

16 April 2014

Food poisoning outbreaks linked to disease-causing strains of the bacterium Escherichia coli are normally associated with tainted meat products. However, between 20-30% of these are caused by people eating contaminated vegetables, as was seen in the 2011 outbreak in Europe that caused 53 deaths. Research presented today at the Society for General Microbiology’s Annual Conference shows that the disease-causing E. coli O157:H7 interacts directly with plant cells, allowing it to anchor to the surface of a plant, where it can multiply.

15 April 2014

Control of gonorrhoea is dependent on successful antibiotic treatment, and the bacterium that causes the infection, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, has become increasingly resistance to every antibiotic used to treat it over the last 60 years. Today, at the Society for General Microbiology’s Annual Conference in Liverpool, Professor Cathy Ison explains the challenges facing the treatment of the disease, which threatens to become resistant to all antibiotics.

14 April 2014

Infection with high-risk human papillomavirus (HR HPV) types 16 and 18 is responsible for around 70-80% of cervical cancers. A study conducted by Public Health England and presented today at the Society for General Microbiology's Annual Conference shows a reduction in these two HR HPV types – which are included in the HPV vaccines used – in sexually active young women in England.

03 September 2013

Candida albicans is a common fungus found living in, and on, many parts of the human body. Usually this species causes no harm to humans unless it can breach the body’s immune defences, where can lead to serious illness or death. It is known as an opportunistic pathogen that can colonise and infect individuals with a compromised immune system. New research, presented today at the Society for General Microbiology’s Autumn Conference, gives us a greater understanding of how mucosal surfaces in the body respond to C. albicans to prevent damage being done during infection.

02 September 2013

Helicobacter pylori is a bacterium that establishes a life-long stomach infection in humans, which in some cases can lead to duodenal ulcers or stomach cancer. New research, presented today at the Society for General Microbiology’s Autumn Conference, gives us a clearer understanding of how these bacteria can manipulate the human immune system to survive in the mucosal lining of the stomach.

03 September 2012

Digested coconut oil is able to attack the bacteria that cause tooth decay. It is a natural antibiotic that could be incorporated into commercial dental care products, say scientists presenting their work at the Society for General Microbiology’s Autumn Conference at the University of Warwick.

30 August 2012

Rosacea is a common dermatological condition that causes reddening and inflammation of the skin mostly around the cheeks, nose and chin. In severe cases skin lesions may form and lead to disfigurement. Rosacea affects around 3% of the population – usually fair-skinned females aged 30-50 and particularly those with weak immune systems. The condition is treated with a variety of antibiotics, even though there has never been a well-established bacterial cause.

31 January 2012

Manuka honey could help clear chronic wound infections and even prevent them from developing in the first place, according to a new study published in Microbiology. The findings provide further evidence for the clinical use of manuka honey to treat bacterial infections in the face of growing antibiotic resistance.