Improving how we diagnose and treat infections

Infections are caused by bacteria, viruses and fungi – what we call bugs.

We are a group of scientists working at the University of Oxford to transform how we analyse and treat infections, improving patient care.

Through this website you can find out more about our research, and even take part yourself!

Oxford Brookes Science Bazaar

Philip Fowler, 4th March 201827th September 2021

A week ago on Saturday, BashTheBug and Lucy Turner together ran a stall at the annual, extremely popular Oxford Brookes Science Bazaar.

This is an annual event and is aimed at families with children who are 5-12 years old. We were in a room with several other genetics activities and were lucky enough to have been given use of the SMART board so we could not only project BashTheBug, but people could interactively try classifying the growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

We also brought a DUPLO-based game which demonstrates how mutations in proteins can cause antibiotic resistance. Lucy had also made a whole series of stamps with motifs based on the 96-well plates, the structures of proteins and how M. tuberculosis grows. One girl did this amazing pattern with Lucy’s stamps.