TB or not TB?

MMM won the Academy of Medical Sciences, My Team Science Competition where scientific groups were charged with creating an image which showed how they collaborated in Scientific Research.

The TB or not TB comic represents just a small part of the huge amount of work that goes on, and the many, many different people who contribute to what we do.

We have strived for scientific accuracy where possible, (though admittedly DNA doesn’t always turn out pink). Whilst we have nominated particular groups for particular steps, in reality many people are involved at multiple stages- our Research Assistants analyse data, our Post Docs do Bioinformatics…

If you want to read the Journal articles which inspired the story here they are:

Sequencing bacterial genomes can be used to study Tuberculosis outbreaks:

Assessment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission in Oxfordshire, UK, 2007-12, with whole pathogen genome sequences: an observational study. Lancet Respir Med. (2014)

Genome sequences can be used to predict antibiotic resistance:

Whole-genome sequencing for prediction of Mycobacterium tuberculosis drug susceptibility and resistance: a retrospective cohort study. Lancet Infect Dis (2015)

Prediction of Staphylococcus aureus antimicrobial resistance by whole-genome sequencing. J Clin Microbiol. (2014)

Predicting antimicrobial susceptibilities for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates using whole genomic sequence data. J Antimicrob Chemother. (2013)

A higher quality PDF of the comic is provided below