Horizon Awards 2026: Professor Stephen Obaro named as winner of Christiana Figueres Award
Professor Stephen Obaro, Professor of Pediatrics and Senior Scientist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA , has been named as the winner of the Christiana Figueres Policy to Practice Award.
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Buried in the Himalayas: What wetland soil Is telling us about climate change
High up in the Indian Himalayan Region lie wetlands that most of us will never see. New research suggests these quiet, high-altitude wetlands are playing a far bigger, and far more substantial, role in the planet’s carbon budget than anyone expected, say Shweta Kadam and Dr Om Prakash Sharma who sits on AMI’s Climate Action Advisory Group.
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Faster results, harder decisions: interpreting syndromic panels in microbiological clinical practice
Every generation in diagnostic microbiology has tried to answer the same questions more quickly. Is an infection present? What is causing it? What should happen next? What has changed dramatically is how rapidly, and how broadly, laboratories can now search for answers to these questions.
Tracking the invisible: monitoring microbial processes in freshwater ecosystems using fluorescence sensing
Rivers are dynamic ecosystems driven by microbial processes that regulate carbon and nutrient cycling, organic matter decomposition, and oxygen consumption. Despite their central role in river health, microbial processes remain mostly invisible in routine water quality monitoring programmes, which continue to focus primarily on physicochemical parameters.
How indigenous microbes could rescue the Niger Delta
Benzene contamination from decades of oil exploitation has turned the Niger Delta’s groundwater into a slow-acting poison for millions of people. Yet the solution may already be living in the contaminated sediment itself, if only the political will exists to deploy it.
Under the Lens video series
The Microbiologist: Under the Lens | Episode 4
The microscopic organisms living around plant roots may hold the key to reducing agriculture’s reliance on chemical fertilisers and other non-renewable inputs, according to plant microbiome researcher Dr Davide Bulgarelli.
The Microbiologist: Under the Lens | Episode 3
Is raw milk safe to drink? Prof Emmanuel Adukwu is joined by Prof Nicola Holden and Dr Gil Domingue for a conversation on the societal, scientific, and health implications of this pertinent question.
The Microbiologist: Under the Lens | Episode 2
In our second episode, Dr Callum Cooper joins Professor Emmanuel Adukwu to talk about all things bacteriophage, from alternatives to antibiotics, social impact, and regulation.
The Microbiologist: Under the Lens | Episode 1
In our first episode, Professor Raquel Peixoto joins Professor Jack Gilbert for a deep dive into coral reefs, microbes, and the future of our planet.
The Microbiologist: Under the Lens | Episode 4
The Microbiologist: Under the Lens | Episode 3
The Microbiologist: Under the Lens | Episode 2
The Microbiologist: Under the Lens | Episode 1
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Maybe Vitamin C isn’t just expensive urine after all
“Expensive urine” has become a convenient way of dismissing vitamin supplements taken in doses beyond what our bodies have an immediate need for. But if some unabsorbed vitamin C remains in the gastrointestinal tract, it raises an interesting question about how it could be interacting with the gut microbiome.
Shigella: A phenotypic genus in a genomic era
In an era where evolutionary relationships can be resolved down to the single-nucleotide level, Shigella stands out as a relic of phenotype-based classification: a label built on lost traits rather than shared ancestry. Yet the genus persists, defended by appeals to clinical utility, says Georgina Donovan.
Menopause may have a link to fungal skin infections
For decades, skin concerns associated with menopause, like dry skin, itching, and redness, have often been dismissed as superficial cosmetic concerns inherent to biological ageing. But these changes may reflect the underlying shifts in skin biology.
From evidence to action: how to bridge the gap between scientists and decision-makers to solve global One Health challenges
Reflections from the AMI Policy Team’s recent workshop at the 9th World One Health Congress.
Food and innovation: Reflections from FOODMicro 2026
AMI Food Security Advisory Group member Professor Marciane Magnani, a Full Professor of Food Science at the Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB), Brazil, reflects on her experiences of FOODMICRO 2026 in Slovenia.
Horizon Award winners one year on: What are they up to?
The nominations for the Horizon Awards are in - and the judges are making their decisions. While we await the big announcement, we’ve been catching up with the superstars who won in 2025.
Gut microbes may steer where fat accumulates—through an ancient signaling hub
Fat tissue grows in two ways: existing fat cells swell, or progenitor cells spawn new fat cells. When new-cell formation falls behind long-term energy surplus, lipids pile up inside aging fat cells. A review argues that Wnt signaling sits at the junction where gut microbial metabolites may decide which way fat tissue goes.
CARB-X funds UNSW Sydney to develop novel antibiotic targeting drug-resistant Gram negative bacterial infections
Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) is awarding US$853k to UNSW Sydney to support the development of synthetic darobactin analogues, a new class of antibiotic designed to kill multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.
Hidden toxicity unmasked: engineered E. coli sets record for hemostatic compound dencichine
Dencichine, the hemostatic active ingredient of the herb panax notoginseng is hard to obtain, with earlier engineered E coli strains low-yielding and growing poorly. Researchers have traced the growth defect to a hidden toxicity and their fix resulted in a final strain that produced the highest reported titer to date.
Food security
Improving heat-resilient indigenous livestock using local AI models built on gut microbiome data
Researchers have proposed a policy roadmap of an AI-driven precision farming approach to further improve indigenous and other livestock breeds’ abilities to withstand extreme conditions in farming operations of all sizes and types.
Clean Water
Modified biochar improves antibiotic removal but reshapes soil microbiomes
Modified biochar can improve the removal of antibiotic residues from agricultural soils, but its effects depend strongly on soil type. Researchers found that better sulfamethoxazole removal was accompanied by major shifts in bacterial communities, showing that remediation benefits can come with ecological trade-offs.
CARB-X funds UNSW Sydney to develop novel antibiotic targeting drug-resistant Gram negative bacterial infections
Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Biopharmaceutical Accelerator (CARB-X) is awarding US$853k to UNSW Sydney to support the development of synthetic darobactin analogues, a new class of antibiotic designed to kill multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria.
