Oxford Events, the new replacement for OxTalks, will launch on 16th March. From now until the launch of Oxford Events, new events cannot be published or edited on OxTalks while all existing records are migrated to the new platform. The existing OxTalks site will remain available to view during this period.
From 16th, Oxford Events will launch on a new website: events.ox.ac.uk, and event submissions will resume. You will need a Halo login to submit events. Full details are available on the Staff Gateway.
DNA sequencing has transformed our understanding of the microbiome in health and disease, yet microbiome-based interventions remain scarce in clinical practice. One challenge lies in reference-based computational pipelines, which report numerous false-positive species, compromising accuracy and reproducibility across cohorts (“garbage in, garbage out”). Fourier transform-based algorithms enhance species-level annotations and minimize contamination signals. Moreover, software that integrates longitudinal DNA, RNA, and metabolomics data enables monitoring early bacterial stress-sensing. Since stress responses are often stimulus-specific, transcriptional programs of bacteria point to the stressors itself and may inform targeted therapies; for example, supplementing commensal strains that consume gluconate decolonizes antibiotic-resistant Enterobacteriaceae through ecological competition.
