And all this science I don't understand, it's just my job five days a week.
Professor of Microbiome and Systems Biology @ Nottingham Trent University.
All views my own. RT != endorsement.
🏳️🌈
| Work website | https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/science-technology/lesley-hoyles |
| ORCiD | https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6418-342X |
| Personal website | http://www.bugs-in-your-guts.com/ |
This is great (disclaimer: I am a long-time DOME fan girl).
More microbiome research needs to be grounded in microbial ecology and functional work.
Drug limits iron availability --> implications for AMR and virulence.
The Parkinson's drug entacapone disrupts gut microbiome homeostasis via iron sequestration https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2023.11.12.566429v1
Hamied Foundation UK-India AMR Visiting Fellowship scheme open for applications. Excellent initiative.
Supports travel and subsistence costs of UK researchers wishing to visit India, or researchers in India wishing to visit the UK, to develop long-term collaborations in AMR research.
https://acmedsci.ac.uk/grants-and-schemes/grant-schemes/amr-professorships
Importance of Mohamed's work in an Egyptian clinical context.
- 31 P. aeruginosa isolates recovered from CAUTIs in an Egyptian hospital over a 3-month period.
- First detailed genomic data for this pathogen in Egypt.
- Even with this small no. of isolates, genetically diverse isolates, novel resistance determinants and high-risk clones in this clinical setting.
- First report of a pBT2436-like megaplasmid in a clinical P. aeruginosa isolate in the MENA region.
Very pleased to see this out. Delighted for Mohamed, who did a huge amount of phenotypic/genotypic work in the first year of his PhD, as well as starting to develop his bioinformatics/data science skills.
*Very proud supervisor*
Phenotypic and genomic characterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates recovered from catheter-associated urinary tract infections in an Egyptian hospital https://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.001125
Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) represent one of the major healthcare-associated infections, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common Gram-negative bacterium associated with catheter infections in Egyptian clinical settings. The present study describes the phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of 31 P . aeruginosa isolates recovered from CAUTIs in an Egyptian hospital over a 3 month period. Genomes of isolates were of good quality and were confirmed to be P. aeruginosa by comparison to the type strain (average nucleotide identity, phylogenetic analysis). Clonal diversity among the isolates was determined; eight different sequence types were found (STs 244, 357, 381, 621, 773, 1430, 1667 and 3765), of which ST357 and ST773 are considered to be high-risk clones. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) testing according to European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (EUCAST) guidelines showed that the isolates were highly resistant to quinolones [ciprofloxacin (12/31, 38.7 %) and levofloxacin (9/31, 29 %) followed by tobramycin (10/31, 32.5 %)] and cephalosporins (7/31, 22.5 %). Genotypic analysis of resistance determinants predicted all isolates to encode a range of AMR genes, including those conferring resistance to aminoglycosides, β-lactamases, fluoroquinolones, fosfomycin, sulfonamides, tetracyclines and chloramphenicol. One isolate was found to carry a 422 938 bp pBT2436-like megaplasmid encoding OXA-520, the first report from Egypt of this emerging family of clinically important mobile genetic elements. All isolates were able to form biofilms and were predicted to encode virulence genes associated with adherence, antimicrobial activity, anti-phagocytosis, phospholipase enzymes, iron uptake, proteases, secretion systems and toxins. The present study shows how phenotypic analysis alongside genomic analysis may help us understand the AMR and virulence profiles of P. aeruginosa contributing to CAUTIs in Egypt.
A leap in user experience: AlphaFold Database introduces sequence-based search and structure cluster members
Sequence similarity search and foldseek clustering now available at EBI's AlphaFold website!
Fully funded BBSRC DTP PhD studentship with me and David Negus at Nottingham Trent University, along with Ellis O'Neill at the University of Nottingham.
oxyMiner: exploiting genomic and metabolomic data to identify secondary metabolites of the Klebsiella oxytoca complex
Open to UK and international students. Details of how to apply to the scheme at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/bbdtp/
Looking forward to presenting our (@SimonMcArthur) work on methylphenols and the gut-brain axis at the 4th International World of Microbiome Conference, today in Sofia.
TL;DR - p-cresol glucuronide protective against LPS; p-cresol sulfate very bad if you've got chronic kidney disease.
pCG - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35596559/
pCS - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.11.12.516113v1
The sequential activity of gut microbial and host processes can exert a powerful modulatory influence on dietary components, as exemplified by the metabolism of the amino acids tyrosine and phenylalanine to <i>p</i>-cresol by gut microbes, and then to <i>p</i>-cresol glucuronide (pCG) by host enzyme …
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2308511120
The immune cell census in the human body! These ~2 trillion cells collectively weigh ~1.2 kg, 40% are lymphocytes, 10% macrophages
Alex Crits-Christoph
Eric Topol