Bringing the "applied" into Microbiology

This year's Annual Microbiology Society conference took place in Liverpool over 4 days. We had four of us in attendance at the event, with PhD Austin presenting a poster, PDRA's Zongting and Josie giving a talk. I also represented Amy who couldn't attend as she is currently at the Genome Institute in Singapore.

Austin

The annual Microbiology Society conference took place in Liverpool this year, where we were blessed with a week of sunshine by the docks. From viruses, antimicrobial resistance and infectious disease, to environmental biotech, food production and the applications of AI in our field, the conference was attended by researchers showcasing a broad range of expertise. We even had the opportunity to engage with some of our fellow algae researchers, sharing ideas and challenges alike.  A particularly interesting prize talk was given by Cesar de La Fuente, who presented his lab’s work on antibiotic discovery using machine learning to mine thousands of microbial genomes for potentially antibiotic compounds. With an impressive success rate, using pre-clinical mouse models to validate antimicrobial activity, his lab have expanded their search to extinct genomes. While their work exhibits the power of AI-driven methods, it also raises questions of ethics and intellectual property issues given the lack of precedent around artificially ‘resurrecting’ biology that previously existed in nature. Within a week of this conference, press releases from Colossal Biosciences who claim to have resurrected the dire wolf, show how important such considerations are, as we enter an age where bringing back extinct species is no longer a fantasy, but a reality.

Zongting

I had a wonderful time in Liverpool at the Microbiology Society Annual Conference! The conference covered loads of exciting topics—antimicrobial resistance, pathogen biology, and microbial innovation—plus a cool exhibition and a genuinely useful careers session.

I was honoured to give a talk on our work engineering stable algal-bacterial consortia to produce biopolymers. Along the way, we accidentally discovered “cellulose cages,” which might be a prototype for a whole new class of materials.

Funnily enough, this was my second time presenting the same project—so I got a “second chance” to correct (or update?) some old (new?) mistakes (findings). Last year, I said Nannochloropsis loves leachate—the more the better! But this year, we found that actually, it just really loves its bacterial besties. Without them, it barely grows. Seems like the bacteria are doing the heavy lifting when it comes to detoxifying something mysterious, and there's definitely some hidden exchange of benefits going on. We're still figuring out exactly what they’re up to.

Microbiology is as fun as it is frustrating. My biggest takeaway from the conference is how far omics tools have come—and how much excellent, exemplar research is now revealing new molecules, new pathways, and intricate, fine-tuned engineering. AI is starting to accelerate this process too, and it might be time for us to start thinking about new strategies to welcome a research revolution. Microbial Systems Engineering is building its toolkit fast—it’s never too early to think about how to get involved, or how to play smart with it. We have a plan!

All in all, it was a great experience—I got to meet researchers from all over the world, across all kinds of disciplines, and had loads of fun sharing ideas.

More photos of the conference