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Infectious diseases have been part of life since even before the pandemic. Have you ever wondered "why are we so worried about antibiotic resistance", or "what actually is Tuberculosis"? Come to The Selkirk and learn about what St. George's scientists are doing to help us tackle infections - from the single cell to whole human populations. And as always, there'll be a pub quiz!
Perspectives on Tuberculosis
Julia Kutschenreuter
(PhD student, Institute for Infection and Immunity)
Sally Hayward
(PhD student, Institute for Infection and Immunity)
There are a lot of things to learn and discover about Tuberculosis, the world’s most deadly infectious disease. We will give an insight into what Tuberculosis research can be about. From Egyptian mummies and the beginnings of humanity, take a ride with us from the laboratory bench to busy clinics and hospital beds. And you may be surprised by its importance to politics and society today!
Diagnostics: How do we know?
Dr David Smith
(Clinical Research Fellow, Institute for Infection and Immunity)
Testing times: What does a test really mean? How do you get a test result? How do you know you are infected or infectious or recovered? Dr David Smith will use his Tuberculosis research to take you into a microscopic world of risk and chance that came to dominate our lives
The silent pandemic
Dr Catrin Moore
(Senior Lecturer, Infection and Immunity Research Institute)
It’s safe to say everyone has heard of COVID-19, most of us have had the virus and know people who have been affected by it. How many of us have heard of bacterial Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)? This silent pandemic (so called as many of us have not heard of it) killed between approximately 1.27 and 4.95 million people globally in 2019 and many more lives were shortened because of infections with bacteria that were resistant to the treatment given. I will describe some of my work quantifying the number of people who died because of AMR and how we are trying to decrease the death.
Phage therapy - love it, hate it, will it even make it?
Jake Wildfire
(PhD Student, Institute for Infection and Immunity)
Phage therapy has been the marmite of new medicines. It's been heralded as the alternative to antibiotics; it's been deemed too unreliable to be used as a treatment. So, we're going to give you a crash course on phage therapy. Is it safe, does it work, and will it ever become common medical practice? Come and find out.
Using antibiotics right
Aislinn Cook
(Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Infection and Immunity)
In light of rising antibiotic resistance, improving use of our current antibiotics is critically important to ensure patients who need antibiotics can still receive treatment. But questions about how to do this safely and which patient groups are most affected still remain. We’ll take a broad look at the global tools and policies that are being developed to guide antibiotic use and then zoom in on a patient population at high risk for infections that may not be treatable with all current antibiotics.
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