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Study shows how Electronic Health Records have to be used carefully, to avoid mistakes in analysing infections, and the bacteria causing themRead more...Researchers at the Nuffield Department of Medicine have shown that using routinely-collected hospital data to study heart valve infections can give misleading information about how common they are, and suggested ways of improving future studies using hospital data. The researchers looked at electronic health record data – this is the information ...Read more...Read more ... -
July 2019 Newsletter: focus on InfluenzaRead more...MMM July 2019 Newsletter now available You can learn about our work on Influenza virus in our Newsletter. ...Read more...Read more ... -
Who watches the watchmen?Read more...In our recently published paper (Donker et al., PLoS ONE, 2019), we propose a surveillance system for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and other hospital-associated pathogens, which is based on hospitals reporting the number of AMR positive cases they admit who have previously been discharged from other hospitals. By having hospitals report ...Read more...Read more ... -
Study looks at why co-amoxiclav-resistant E coli infections are on the riseRead more...A study looking at health records in Oxfordshire over nearly 20 years has suggested that measures to improve antibiotic use in GP surgeries might help to combat the spread of difficult-to-treat, antibiotic-resistant E coli infections. The study, published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, found that increases in incidence of E coli ...Read more...Read more ... -
Can we reduce demand for antibiotic prescriptions? Or might our efforts backfire?Read more...Taking antibiotics when they are not necessary is a major concern, because it causes bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics. This means that, in the future, we may not be able to find antibiotics that can cure serious illnesses. Recent research from Public Health England found that at least 20% of ...Read more...Read more ... -
MMM: Improving public health through targeted careRead more...Professor Derrick Crook, who leads the Modernising Medical Microbiology(MMM) Research Group, discusses his background, the objectives of our research, and future plans in this article with IMPACT Journal. It is an excellent summary of our work, and how we aim to improve the care of patients with infections using cutting-edge technologies. The ...Read more...Read more ... -
Public Engagement Roundup April 2018Read more...MMM Scientists have participated in a range of events, from science festivals and museum events, to art/science talks. We attended the Oxford Brookes Science Festival and the Museum of Natural History Super Science Saturday, showcasing the award-winning crowdsourcing Bash The Bug project. Bashing some bugs and learning about resistance mutations with ...Read more...Read more ... -
MMM Conference 2018Read more...The MMM Conference will take place on Monday 12 March 2018, at: St Catherine’s College, Manor Road, Oxford, OX1 3UJ. Registration on the day (including tea, coffee and pastries) will commence at 8.20am with an anticipated conference start time of 9.20am. The Conference should finish at 5.30pm and a drinks reception ...Read more...Read more ... -
Speeding up the DNA analysis of bloodstream infectionsRead more...When a patient is admitted with a possible bacterial bloodstream infection, blood tests are taken to identify which bacteria is causing the infection, but the results can take days to come. Patients are given strong antibiotics that cover most common infections, but it is vital to rapidly identify the bacteria ...Read more...Read more ... -
Whole Genome Sequencing accurately diagnoses tuberculosis and related diseasesRead more...DNA analysis of bacteria taken from sick patients has been shown to be 96% accurate for the diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) and related diseases, and 99% accurate for predicting resistance to the most common antibiotics used for TB treatment, when compared to existing laboratory tests. Tuberculosis is more common in the ...Read more...Read more ... -
MMM December 2017 Newsletter now availableRead more...For a quick roundup of MMM's activity in the last quarter of 2017, you can download our newsletter here: MMMnewsletter_2017 ...Read more...Read more ... -
Severe infections emerge from colonising bacteria by adaptive evolutionRead more...Severe infections emerge from colonising bacteria by adaptive evolution In a study published today, Modernising Medical Microbiology researchers present an investigation into the relationship between bacteria found from people with severe infections cause by the bacteria Staphylococcus aureus. Staphylococcus aureus, like many other the bacteria which cause human disease, are commensals, meaning ...Read more...Read more ... -
Speeding up the diagnosis of joint infectionsRead more...Researchers from MMM are working to improve how we find out what bacteria are causing infections in joints. MMM Researchers are showing that you can take the joint fluid, break open all the bacteria, and extract their DNA. (Bacteria have DNA too). This bacterial DNA can be analysed in hours, giving ...Read more...Read more ... -
Serratia bacteria sharing DNA to resist last-line antibioticsRead more...Bacteria ("bugs") are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotic drugs, and some bacteria are now resistant to some of our last-resort antibiotics, a class of drug known as carbapenems. Carbapenem resistance is encoded by several genes, or packages of genetic material, which can be passed from one bacterial bug to another. ...Read more...Read more ... -
Investigating superbug outbreaks using the Nanopore MinIONRead more...Bacteria are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotic drugs, and some bacteria are now resistant to some of our last-resort antibiotics, a class of drug known as carbapenems. Carbapenem resistance is encoded by several genes, or packages of genetic material, which can be passed from one bacterial bug to another. The ...Read more...Read more ... -
MMM Photo Competition 2017Read more...Our researchers took part in the MMM Image Competition 2017 this October. They were asked to portray their research work, and we had a wide range of entries from laboratory equipment to bio-informatics. Congratulations to our winners - Alex Orlek, Kevin Chau, Sophie George and Fabian Gerbl. A selection of the ...Read more...Read more ... -
Public engagement roundup November 2017Read more...This month, researchers from MMM have been at the Natural History Museum with bashthebug, inspiring microbial drawings at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, and showing their artwork in China MMM researchers were at the National History Museum showcasing the innovative and award-winning Bashthebug crowdsourcing initiative The @BashTheBug team ...Read more...Read more ... -
Bioart and Bacteria Exhibition - Museum of the History of Science, OxfordRead more...BioArt and Bacteria was a solo art exhibition by internationally Anna Dumitriu which exploring our relationship with the microbial world, antibiotics and technology. It ran from October 2017 to March 2018. Read more about it at the Museum of the History of Science exhibition website The Pneumothorax Machine ...Read more...Read more ... -
MMM-led Citizen Science project BashTheBug.net wins NIHR awardRead more...BashTheBug.net is a Citizen Science website that allows anyone with access to the internet and a laptop or tablet to help in the fight against antibiotic resistance. You are shown photographs of a series of wells, each of which has a small amount of the bacterium that causes Tuberculosis and a different ...Read more...Read more ... -
Plasmids: traffickers of antibiotic resistanceRead more...The recent discovery of bacteria resistant to a last-resort antibiotic called colistin prompted headlines warning of a ‘post-antibiotic era’. Colistin resistance had in fact been found before – what alarmed scientists this time was the location of the colistin resistance gene. Rather than being found on the main chunk of ...Read more...Read more ... -
Diagnosing joint infections using bacterial DNARead more...Diagnosing prosthetic joint infections using bacterial genomic sequences An infection following surgery can occur in some patients when they receive a replacement joint such as a knee or hip joint. Although not very common, these infections may be take months to treat with drugs. Sometimes the treatment does not work and ...Read more...Read more ... -
Mortality risks associated with emergency admissions during weekends and public holidays: an analysis of electronic health recordsRead more...Published this week in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet: Mortality risks associated with emergency admissions during weekends and public holidays: an analysis of electronic health records Background Weekend hospital admission is associated with increased mortality, but the contributions of varying illness severity and admission time to this weekend effect remain unexplored. Methods We analysed ...Read more...Read more ... -
Refining strategies to control the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria at national levelRead more...A focus on preventing the introduction of antibiotic-resistant bacteria colonising patients who come from perceived high-risk hospitals may be undermining efforts to control their spread across England. Tjibbe Donker, from MMM, led the study which showed that a larger number of patient transfers from lower risk hospitals may pose a ...Read more...Read more ... -
Help us change the way Tuberculosis is diagnosed and treatedRead more...An online crowdsourcing project has been launched by MMM researchers to study antibiotic resistance in Tuberculosis (TB) with the help of the public. You can try out the project for yourself on the Zooniverse website (which contains instructions for how to take part), and follow the project on Twitter. The Bash the Bug website shows volunteers images ...Read more...Read more ... -
Genetic sequencing offers same-day TB testingRead more...Researchers have for the first time shown that standard tuberculosis (TB) diagnostic tests can be replaced by a sub-24 hour genetic test applied to the TB bacteria in a patient’s sputum. It currently takes up to two months to obtain the full diagnostic information for a patient with TB, as the ...Read more...Read more ...
About Modernising Medical Microbiology
Modernising Medical Microbiology is a research group aiming to transform how we analyse and treat infections, to improve patient care.
We aim to:
1) Modernise the way we analyse infections, bringing cutting-edge scientific techniques to clinical care.
2) Transform they way we study the treatment of patients with infections, using large databases of hospital electronic information, to identify trends in how infections are behaving, and ways patient care can be improved.
3) Use techniques such as DNA analysis of bacteria and viruses to better understand how infections spread, how to treat them, and how to prevent them in the future.
4) Study how bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, and more difficult to treat, and how to prevent this.
Modernising Medical Microbiology studies a number of infections, in particular Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA), Clostridium difficile (C. diff), Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB), and the Enterobacteriaceae family (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella species and others). You can learn more about these bacteria here
Temporary update: Link to content for PPI/E Meeting on 4th May 2018 here : http://modmedmicro.nsms.ox.ac.uk/ppe_040518/