a blog for miscellaneous bioinformatics stuff

SUMMARYChildcare outside the home is a common experience for many children in high-income countries. It is associated with an increase in the incidence of infectious diseases—not just for the child bu...

The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is pleased to invite applications for a 3-year full-time PhD studentship, starting in September 2026.The award will cover a tax-free stipend

Respiratory metagenomic sequencing is increasingly used for rapid, pan-microbial diagnosis in clinical practice, but there is a need to evaluate different wet lab protocols for performance and feasibi...

Respiratory metagenomic sequencing is increasingly used for rapid, pan-microbial diagnosis in clinical practice, but there is a need to evaluate different wet lab protocols for performance and feasibi...

In this work, Wilson et al., examined sharing of Salmonella between humans, animals and the environment using household samples from Malawi. They revealed an interconnected web of Salmonella circulati...

Metagenomics is being adopted worldwide as a laboratory developed test. We have previously reported a unified metagenomic method for the direct detection of microorganisms from respiratory samples, de...

Metagenomics is being adopted worldwide as a laboratory developed test. We have previously reported a unified metagenomic method for the direct detection of microorganisms from respiratory samples, de...

Abstract. Plasmids are extrachromosomal genetic molecules that replicate independent of chromosomes in bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotic organisms. They co

Phage-plasmids are temperate phages that replicate as plasmids during lysogeny. Despite their high diversity, they carry genes similar to phages and plasmids. This leads to gene exchanges, and to the ...

A low complexity, portable lab-in-tube tuberculosis assay for resource-limited areas analyzes blood, saliva, and sputum with a handheld device.

On Jan 30, 2025, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced the launch of the metagenomics Surveillance Collaboration and Analysis Programme (mSCAPE)—the world’s first biosecurity surveillance sy...

Microbiome science is a multi-disciplinary field, but classical microbiologists are needed to ensure advances are grounded in our understanding of basic microbiological concepts.

Phylogenetic analyses are crucial for understanding microbial evolution and infectious disease transmission. Bacterial phylogenies are often inferred from SNP alignments, with SNPs as the fundamental ...