OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
The Global Enteric Multicentre Study (GEMS) was a case-control study that identified Shigella as a leading causes of moderate-to-severe diarrhoea in children under the age of 5 years old in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, yet Shigella is increasingly resistant to antimicrobials, and there is no licensed vaccine. Here, we performed large-scale analysis of approximately 1500 Shigella from GEMS to determine the genomic and genetic diversity among this relevant, systematically obtained isolate collection to draw out implications for management of the disease with antimicrobials as well as prevention through vaccination. We find differences among the diversity between Shigella species and collection sites, including variation in the epitope region of protein antigen vaccine targets and serotype switching events that will affect glycoconjugate vaccination approaches. We also identify significant differences between species and site with regard to the development of antimicrobial resistance and, finally, in conducting a pathogen genome-wide-association-study, we identify pathogen genetic factors that contribute to the elaboration of shigellosis. Thus, whole genome sequence analysis of this representative dataset has provided a new lens through which to view the diversity of these pathogens in those populations most vulnerable to severe disease and highlighted several significant hurdles we may face in continued management of the disease through antimicrobials and in implementing future vaccination programs
