BioArt exhibition exploring microbiology opens at the John Radcliffe Hospital A new display of work by artist Anna Dumitriu is now on show at the John Radcliffe Hospital, bringing together art, microbiology and research into healthcare-associated infections. The exhibition draws on research from Modernising Medical Microbiology into hospital environments, bacteria and antimicrobial resistance. Through BioArt, Anna’s work explores the microbial world that usually remains unseen and encourages people to think differently about the relationship between microorganisms, healthcare and our surroundings.

Hospital sinks are essential for handwashing, but beneath the basin lies a complex microbial environment that may present challenges for infection prevention. During my internship at the University of Oxford, I had the opportunity to contribute to research investigating the microorganisms found in hospital sinks and their potential relevance to patient safety. I worked under the supervision of Dr Aoife Kearney on the SELECTION project, building on Professor Nicole Stoesser and her colleagues’ research into hospital sink environments and healthcare-associated infections.

Infusoria 26 September – 6 November 2026Artlink Corridor Gallery, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford From hospital sinks to BioArt: our microbiology research inspires new exhibition Infusoria What does the microbial world of a hospital sink look like when viewed not only through the lens of microbiology, but through art? Research from Modernising Medical Microbiology (MMM) at the University of Oxford…

Recently, we visited UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) to explore the analysis of microplastics in sink trap aspirates collected from hospital environments. It was a great opportunity to see the analytical process up close, exchange expertise and preliminary results, and take the next steps towards understanding which microplastics are present in these samples and their potential role in harbouring antimicrobial-resistant (AMR) bacteria.

Bloodstream infections occur when bacteria (which are germs that can cause disease) enter the blood and grow there. These infections are usually treated with antibiotics. However, bacteria can become resistant, meaning the antibiotics no longer work, and this is called antimicrobial resistance (AMR). It is a major worldwide health problem and people with cancer are especially at risk because both cancer treatments and the cancer itself weaken their immune systems (bodies own protection system).

Over the last week I have had the pleasure of doing work experience here at MMM Labs, this has provided me with an incredible opportunity and skills that will benefit me greatly in the future such as pipetting and plating techniques. Over the course of the week, I have had the chance to talk to multiple members of the team and have had 1 on 1 conversations about their careers and certain topics such as bioinformatics, phylogenetic trees, environmental sampling from sinks and many more.

Over the last three days we had the pleasure of being introduced to the MMM team and the work they do. After understanding a bit more about lab safety, the pathways that lead to a role in microbiology, as well as how the lab performs sustainable practices, we were able to do our own hands-on experiments. We had the opportunity to amplify bacterial DNA using PCR to determine whether it carried a resistant gene to antibiotics.

BashTheBug was originally a large international citizen science project that invited anyone to help us classify how well different samples of M. tuberculosis grew in the presence of a range of antibiotics. It ran from 2017 to 2021 and in that time 46,427 people took part and collectively they classified 4,746,420 images of M. tuberculosis growing on different concentrations of one of 13 antibiotics. 

BMC Microbiology - Pyrazinamide is an important first-line antibiotic for treating tuberculosis, with resistance primarily driven by mutations in the pncA gene. Traditional machine learning models...

Mutations in Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated with resistance to antibiotics often come with a fitness cost for the bacteria. Resistance to the first-line drug rifampicin leads to lower competiti...

Bedaquiline (BDQ) has only been approved for use for just over a decade and is a key drug for treating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis; however, rising levels of resistance threaten to reduce its eff...

Tuberculosis remains a global health problem. Making it easier and quicker to identify which antibiotics an infection is likely to be susceptible to will be a key part of the solution. Whilst whole-ge...

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. With plenty of sunshine and a steady stream of curious visitors, it was the perfect setting to spark conversations about one of the biggest challenges in global health: …

The UNIQplus programmeThe UNIQplus programme is aimed at supporting talented undergraduates from under-represented groups, who would find continuing into postgraduate study a challenge for reasons

Tuberculosis remains a global health problem. Making it easier and quicker to identify which antibiotics an infection is likely to be susceptible to will be a key part of the solution. Whilst whole-ge...

When patients suffer infections related to replaced knee or hip joints, medical teams need to know which bacteria are causing the problem. A promising new method called metagenomic sequencing reads all the DNA in a sample and can identify bacteria without needing them to grow in the lab. This could be faster than standard tests, and might give more complete information.

Last week the MMM Unit held a plant sale to raise some money for Oxford Hospitals Charity. The work had started some weeks before with lots of propagation of spider plants and sourcing of paper coffee pots (so we didn't have to buy any plastic pots). The stall was staffed all day -- by Katie Hopkins and Valentina Pennetta in the photo -- and a grand total of £212 was raised. It's the first year we've run an event like this and the team are already looking forward to next year!

You can listen to our very own Dr Bernadette Young talking about fluoroquinolones -- these are a very valuable and widely-used class of antibiotics -- on Episode 32 of the Communicable podcast. This prestigious podcast is published by the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and hence is aimed at clinicians so will be technical and detailed, you have been warned!

Bash The Bug (@BashTheBug) / X

Dot Nagy, one of our DPhil students, has written a great blog post about how she and others have got the rest of us in the Unit thinking more about how to reduce the environmental impact of our research.

Dorottya Nagy writes about the experiences from the Modernising Medical Microbiology (MMM) Unit research group on engaging wet lab, computer lab, and office teams on the sustainability agenda.

We have to keep most of our biological samples at -80°C which is much colder than the -20°C you'll find (hopefully) inside your freezer in the kitchen. This does require a lot of electricity. Valentina put in an application to the Freezer Challenge and we came 19th out of 115 teams and won a Recognition Award! By increasing the temperature slightly on our freezers we estimate we will save 48kWh each day which is enough to boil an astonishing 436 litres of water.

Throughout the past three days doing work experience at MMM we’ve learnt about the different roles within the department, their responsibilities and contributions to research. After being briefed a…

This year, our group has achieved Silver in the Green Impact award - a sustainability scheme which supports teams who want to improve their sustainability efforts. As part of the scheme, you are given a toolkit with lots of different activities to complete which encourages people to think more about their environmental impact. Each task is assigned a point value, and you need to collect a specific number of points to achieve Bronze, Silver, Gold and Beyond Gold.

We ran a session at the Philosophy in Pubs Oxford group in April 2024, discussing where the moral lines can and should be drawn around the use of data about us. Who does the data really belong to? What are legitimate uses of it? What are the factors that make people uncomfortable? And are they justified? We had a very interesting discussion with around 16 people from the local Oxfordshire area, covering questions such as “Does the idea of the public good ever outweigh an individual's right to control how their data is used?”, “Is it correct that any data that is “about” us also "belongs" to us, even if we did not create it, nor have any use for it ourselves?”, and “Does it change things if the data is completely anonymised or is there still a general rule about self determination that applies?”

This is the third year that the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) held its Showcase at the popular Westgate Shopping Centre in the centre of Oxford. Like last year it was held jointly with the NIHR Oxford Health BRC. Our research software engineers had redesigned and rewritten our dance mat game so now you took on the role of a doctor firing different coloured antibiotics at incoming bacteria.