I can't imagine. I would be fascinated to know if you have ever taken such a call, and if so have you ever changed your mind as a result?

Clinical PhD opportunity @lshtm.bsky.social through @hpruezi.bsky.social
Applications now close on 17th April.

Ideal for UK Infection registrars wanting to do a PhD in clinical application of metagenomics in returning travellers.

Collaboration with @emcat1.bsky.social & @ukhsa.bsky.social

Biomedical publishing: Past historic, present continuous, future conditional Academic journals have been publishing the results of biomedical research for more than 350 years. Reviewing their history reveals that the ways in which journals vet submissions have changed over tim...

journals.plos.org/plosbiology/...

This is a great article. It seems to me that enough of us remain obedient to prestige as a value through submission, paper and grant reviewing practice to prevent more disruption of the current system. Prestige journals have adapted but not changed.

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

Journals add lots tangible - dissemination, record, peer review, presentation, uniform reporting... kafkaesque bit is glamour status or imprimatur - which exists because we punters believe en masse. New OA journals haven't dented this. Seems more gatekeeping and taxation by consent than policing.

Senegal – Morocco: Achraf Hakimi betrays his country and breaks the silence The captain of the Moroccan national team, Achraf Hakimi, made a surprising public statement by refusing to accept the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations trophy, which

Some dignity and honour here: “I refuse it... We had the chance to win, but we didn’t... My team and I did not win the AFCON 2025. Congratulations once again to Senegal”
www.afriquesports.net/en/morocco/s...

This rarely-seen Glass Octopus was caught by an underwater robot during an expedition off the Phoenix Islands.

Google Has a Secret Reference Desk. Here's How to Use It. 40 Google features to find exactly what you need, the alternative search engines that do things Google won't, and the reference desk framework underneath all of it.

This is a great list of techniques for getting real information out of a Google search and avoiding AI slop and paid results.
(One thing not included is that if you add "-ai" to a search, you block the AI summary) cardcatalogforlife.substack.com/p/google-has...

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!

Perhaps not if one has accepted an employment contract that includes this task?

🧠Cerebral malaria causes coma and high mortality in children, but diagnosis isn’t always straightforward. New research shows candidate biomarkers, ANGPTL4 and INHBE combined with platelet counts, can help differentiate cerebral malaria from other causes of coma.
📚Read more here👉 : shorturl.at/Ry33l

Leadership transition at Oxford Global Health After two and a half years leading the Oxford Global Health initiative, Professor Alan Bernstein steps down, with new Co-Directors, Professors Susanna Dunachie and Caesar Atuire, appointed to guide it...

📢 Prof Alan Bernstein steps down as Director of #OxfordGlobalHealth after 2.5 years

Prof @Susannajd & @atuire take the helm as Co Directors, leading the next chapter of interdisciplinary research & global partnerships to improve lives worldwide🌍

www.globalhealth.ox.ac.uk/news/leaders...

🫀How do we tackle global hypertension crisis?
A new by Tony Etyang.et.al, it starts in the community.
💡 CHWs achieving 96.8% agreement with clinicians on cardiovascular screening
💡 CHW-led care improving control by 21%
💡 Digital monitoring doubling control rates
📖 Read more 👉: shorturl.at/iBXNS

It would have been at the day 38 point on figure 2 in the TAPER trial, but difference is the TAPER trial had 2 weeks of extra duration in the intervention arm, in Fidax vs Vanc trial it was 10 days for both arms.

15% vs 25% over 4 weeks - not long but long enough to have seen the effect in the trial above. Would be nice to have longer follow up data, but I don't think we are going to get it.

Also tapered vanc only seems to be briefly better at that one timepoint and overall recurrence rates were the same, whereas fidaxomicin was lower recurrence rate overall compared to vanc.

Can't see results on that link, but I don't think it is safe reasoning to say A better than B in trial 1, B same to C in trial 2, therefore A better than C. Could be low power in trial 2, for instance, and network analyses needed to address this.

In head to head fidaxomycin vs vancomycin, fidaxomycin had lower recurrence rate - e.g. www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.... - but I suppose not clear if this is still true in a post-027 world.

Figure 2 makes it look like the extended vancomycin just delays the recurrence by a few weeks. Which doesn't seem all that helpful.

Clinical validation of a novel metagenomic nanopore sequencing method for detecting viral respiratory pathogens: diagnostic accuracy study Background Clinical metagenomics (CMg) offers high-throughput respiratory pathogen detection with a wider range than targeted, probe-dependent diagnostics. Sequencing cost and the challenges of high h...

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...

🧬Curious about the state of malaria drug resistance in Kenya?
Our study shows first-line malaria treatments remain effective but early resistance signals highlight need for routine molecular surveillance, monitoring emerging markers & data-informed treatment policy.
🔗Read here👉: shorturl.at/RnpYC

4/4 A key learning from this evaluation is that bioinformatic criteria are key, need to be set prospectively, and that both sensitivity and specificity depend on these decisions.

3/ 4Then there is barcode crossover because we can't afford to burn a whole flow cell on a single sample (cost entirely prohibitive if we do).

2/4 Reflecting honestly on this, metagenomics at scale is a tough proposition when evaluated like this. Targeted PCR is highly sensitive, sequencing is expensive and host DNA contamination makes it more so.

Clinical validation of a novel metagenomic nanopore sequencing method for detecting viral respiratory pathogens: diagnostic accuracy study Background Clinical metagenomics (CMg) offers high-throughput respiratory pathogen detection with a wider range than targeted, probe-dependent diagnostics. Sequencing cost and the challenges of high h...

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...

Yes, I think fair enough to do these studies when limited data on how well it worked in different populations, but hard to say now that we have equipoise about LEN compared to an experimental vaccine.

The ethics seem difficult where LEN might be unavailable, but for similar costs as enrolling a patient and giving an experimental vaccine, one could provide LEN.

Any discussion on how difficult it might be to test preventive vaccines when lenacapavir is available - i.e. seems difficult to follow up a high risk cohort ethically without providing this?