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Revolution in genomics and microbiology: the impact of technology

The Genomic & Microbiology Revolution: In Technology we Trust? was the title of the 37th Annual Microbiology Conference of the British Society for Microbial Technology, held at the RAF Museum at Hendon on 19 July. A fascinating programme looked at a range of different aspects of technology applied to microbiology, here summarised by Mark Wilks on behalf of the BSMT committee.

Technology is often understood in a very narrow sense such as the introduction of automation to what was a manual process. When this happens, the benefits are normally obvious immediately and very often cost-effective. For example, who would want to go back to manually inspecting blood culture bottles for signs of bacterial growth? Although we should note that even applying technology to this simple process has its own pitfalls as it requires the development of sophisticated algorithms to monitor bacterial growth. These can be confused by delays in transporting blood culture bottles to the laboratory prior to incubation, which upsets the expected increases in turbidity that are expected to occur when the culture is being incubated at 37°C.

            The Health Technology Assessment (HTA) arm of the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) takes a much broader view of the term technology. For the NIHR, technology assessment could mean not just studying the effectiveness of a particular technology such as MALDI-TOF but the assessment of a particular product, such as an antibiotic or probiotic. Here, a yoghurt containing a probiotic is a technology.

Adapting to effectiveness

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Upcoming Events

ECCMID 2024 - European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases

Fira Gran Via, 08038 Barcelona, Spain
27-30 April 2024

British Society for Microbial Technology Annual Microbiology Conference

UK Health Security Agency, Colindale, London
2 May 2024

EQA Reports: Interpreting Key Information & Troubleshooting Tips

ONLINE - Zoom
Thursday 16th May 2024

Participants’ Meeting: UK NEQAS Immunology, Immunochemistry & Allergy

Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield
24th May 2024

Med-Tech Innovation Expo

NEC, Birmingham
5-6 June, 2024

UK NEQAS Blood Coagulation: Clinical and Laboratory Haemostasis 2024

Sheffield Hallam University
5th - 6th June 2024

Access the latest issue of Pathology In Practice on your mobile device together with an archive of back issues.

Download the FREE Pathology In Practice app from your device's App store

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