In this episode of Microbe Talk, we meet some members of staff at the Microbiology Society to reflect on 2025 and look at ways to get involved in 2026.

The relationship between humans and parasites is changing along with the climate crisis, globalisation, and innovations in science. In this month's Microbe Talk, we chat to expert Kinga Kowalewska-Grochowska at the University of Alberta, Canada, about the evolutions in how we look at parasites, where they are found, and what the future holds for diagnosing and treating these illnesses. This follows Kowalewska-Grochowska's latest review of the same topic published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology.

If you’d like to read the paper, you can do so by following this link.

Stay tuned to the Microbiology Society socials to be the first to hear about exciting new research in the world of microbiology.

You can download a full, auto generated transcript of the podcast here.

In 2019, a mysterious shape appeared on a petri dish in a Birmingham lab. Its surprising appearance, similar to noodles, intrigued researchers to find out more about it. They consulted other scientists online at the time, which sparked an idea to start an online club dedicated to sharing laboratory contaminants.

Now, the team finally publish their research characterising this contaminant as a new species of bacteria, Kocuria rhizophila, in our journal Microbial Genomics. Researchers Rob Moran and Greg McCallum join Communications and Media Officer Lilly Tozer to talk about their journey from discovery to publish.

If you’d like to read the paper, you can do so by following this link: microb.io/47L8aoY

Stay tuned to the Microbiology Society socials to be the first to hear about exciting new research in the world of microbiology.

You can download a full, auto generated transcript of the podcast here: microb.io/3J6DUf3