Blogging Microbes Communicating microbiology to netizens Final Panel

The panel for the "Blogging Microbes - Communicating microbiology to netizens" event (sponsored by The Society for General Microbiology) is finally concluded. We will have some impressively talented people communicating their views to the audience and the broad spectrum of ideas is just mesmerizing. I honestly hope that people out there, and not only scientists or science students, realize that this group of speakers will bring a lot of expertise, quality information, entertaining perspectives and positive thinking to an event that I personally see as resounding. Dont waste the opportunity to come and check by yourself on the 19th of September 2014. 

"Blogging Microbes - Communicating microbiology to netizens"

Date: 19th of September 2014 (Confirmed).

Time: 3 to 5pm (Confirmed).

Venue: D96a, which is located on D Floor of the Medical School, Queens Medical Centre, University of Nottingham (Confirmed).

Confirmed Speakers: 

Alan Cann (author of the blog MicrobiologyBytes) will participate in video format;
Shuna E. Gould (author of labratting on twitter) will be present;

Oscar Huertas Rosalez (YouTubber and author of the Spanish blog "Stupidity is tremendously more interesting") will participate in video format;
James Gurney (co-author of the podcast The League of Nerds) will be present;

Josh Nicholson (co-developer of The Winnower) will participate in video format;
Alam Faraz (author of the blog Memoirs of a defective brain) will be present.

======================================================

QMC full site map - access here.

Directions by Car

Satnav

Please use the postcode NG7 2UH for directions to the Queens Medical Centre when using a satellite navigation system.

How to get there

The hospital can be found on the western side of the city of Nottingham. It is situated just on the east side (inside) of the Nottingham Ring Road at its junction with the A52 to Derby. The A52 crosses the M1 at junction 25.

Leave the M1 motorway at Junction 25, and take the A52 to Nottingham, past Stapleford, Bramcote and Wollaton Park. As you pass the University on your right you will come to a large traffic island with QMC on the right immediately after the island. Turn right here, take the first slip road on the left into the hospital grounds and continue along the hospital perimeter road.

Read More..

LeSpar AMR Workshop The Nottingham Edition Funding Final conclusions

This is the last post on a series of presentations that were given by researchers as part of the Learned Society Partnership on Antimicrobial Resistance. The workshops took place in London, Dundee and Nottingham. All my posting covered solely Nottinghams Edition; the one I have been to! If youd like to read about the different presentations, please access here, here and also here. 

This final part has to do with funding. The talk was given by Lizzie Garrett and to the best of my knowledge it covered the "Tackling antimicrobial resistance cross council initiative". These are the bullet points I managed to take note of during Lizzies talk: 

• UK funded research on AMR, from 2007 to 2013, in approximately £275M;
• What else is needed then? An AMR funders forum led and managed by the Medical Research Council (MRC). This forum was launched in June 2014 and is restricted to bacterial resistance.
• Theme I is about understanding bacteria, Theme 2 is about accelerating therapeutic and diagnostics, Theme 3 is about understanding real world interactions and Theme 4 is about understanding behaviour within and beyond the healthcare settings;
• Looking deeper into what each of these themes entail, theme I is MRC-led, have innovation grants and collaborative grants; theme 2 is also MRC-led with a deadline on the 4th of June 2015 (also innovation and collaborative grants available) and a panel meeting pointing to September 2015 and March 2016; theme 3 is NERC- and MRC-led [NERC = Natural Environment Research Council] and the discussion panel meets in the Summer of 2015;
• I wasnt able to pick up anything on theme 4, sorry for that!

The organisers then proceeded to producing some funny moments of networking with an organised mishmash of groups and discussion tables.  Participants had to contribute with pertinent questions on the today and tomorrow of antimicrobial resistance research and focus, but also had to offer possible answers to questions posed by other groups. The debate was very interesting, but as I mentioned before in my first post, for most of the students present it was more of a sit-back-and-watch PIs and the like talk rather than actually being able to participate. It was a bit like watching grown ups talk on a Saturday night dinner table and not being heard, even when you know their views are in urgent need of some new fresh approaches. 

The questions prepared by the different groups are listed below:

1) In what way can we identify, group and support people with a common interest in alternative approaches to AMR?

2) Is it too late to attempt to conserve antibiotics?

3) Should we be looking elsewhere for alternatives?

4) Are the experiments that we perform in the lab relevant at all? Can this explain why some strains become dominant?

5) How do we standardise experiments between and among labs in order to latter compare results from different environments?

6) Is selection to AMR happening in the environment? If so, where and how? And what are the implications for human and veterinary medicine?

7) Are we in need of realistic lab-based models and model systems, including alternatives to animals, to study infection and therapeutics?

8) What is resistance anyway? How can we define resistance?

Maybe you can organise a debate in your department and have some interesting discussions trying to find answers for these pertinent questions. I hope youve enjoyed this series of presentations and that you keep visiting The Toxicologist Today.

Image kindly taken from http://www.mrc.ac.uk/research/initiatives/antimicrobial-resistance/

Read More..

New Year New Label New Books

2014 started nearly a month ago but the Christmas Spirit is here to stay, so imbued of that holy magnificent giving-away spirit I decide to keep offering me stuff that I really desired for. Note that I never mentioned "need for", even though it is stuff so good that its inherent quality make these items utterly necessary.

I talk you guys about BOOKS. One of my passions. I read on the way to work and I read on the way home. Sometimes, most of the times actually, I skip taking the bus that would shorten my trip to work to some direct/boring 8 minutes in a  bad traffic day, and I delight myself with a good reading in a 30 minutes walk that makes me wish for more. 

I enjoy the fresh air and also the very interesting things I put my eyes on.

Recently Ive been reading 8 books at a time. Odd? No. I get bored very easily if the intensity of the literature in kind of roller-coasting through my retinas. But then I thought it would be great to start a book label here in the blog, literature concerning science obviously, but not that boring tedious amalgam of heavy weight wording with loads of definitions, concepts and formulas. This is to be interesting above all; interesting and enticing. 

For starters, let me introduce you one of the four books I just purchased through Amazon, on some very indulging prices. Some are used but who really cares?, as long as I can read the words and see the images properly, Im game!

Title: "Forensics"

Author: Richard Platt

Label: Kingfisher Knowledge

Year: First published in 2005

Price: £2.15, used but in a very good state

Public review stars: 4 stars

Public comment: 

Starting quote from book:

Link: http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=uEZrWdQt5ZUC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

*********************************************************************************
UPDATE ON THE 06TH OF FEBRUARY AFTER READING HALF OF THE BOOK:
OK, its quite acceptable as you learn new things. But its a very general approach to forensics. Nice for kids or people who have no knowledge at all on forensics and thrive on it. If youre a student on your GCSEs and need a career enlightenment, this book "might" help you slightly on your decision making. I would rate it for "teenagers" and people with no knowledge of science whatsoever.
*********************************************************************************

I will come back soon to you guys with info on the other three I bought. Just let me handle primordial things better because being a dad, doing a PhD and writing up is a tough challenge :D

Read More..