Globally, supervisor time, manageable workloads, and early‑stage optimism correlate most with satisfaction, while long hours consistently reduce it.

What has made the biggest difference for your #PhD experience?

Link to the Nature article:

That's data from a study from an @imperialnhli.bsky.social study with the Busselton Health Study pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34425308/ All bacteria were down in total numbers, but Streptococcus species were more resilient and clinging on. We don't yet know why.

I don't know - I'm hoping an annual and I suspect if we do a good job it will be and if we don't...make the most out of this one! :D

Be thAIR or be squAIR

(My second entry into the organising committee pun competition. A winner there I think).

We've got human challenge models, in vitro models, microbiome and metagenomic diagnostics, interactions between bugs and immune system, single cell, spatial transcriptomics and it is ALL respiratory

Very happy to take informal enquiries to find out more, and interested in diverse skills, background and experience. There will also be other opportunities for PhDs funded by the HPRU so keep an eye out for those too.

It's supervised by a scientists, a clinical academic with expertise in ICU and respiratory, a clinical microbiologist and antimicrobial stewardship lead and a leader in applying and implementing public health metagenomics so there's real breadth of expertise to tap into

The project includes hands-on training in metagenomics and applying this to samples so you can fundamentally understand the process from the start, but moves to data analysis and crucially interpretation - what does this data mean for the patient and how can we apply it routinely in healthcare?

It is always difficult marching with an organisation and even sometimes in a particular Pride march (the little local ones are always my favourite) as you can't agree with all their policies and actions. For me this year representation overrules those qualms.

I put it at the end as a test to see how many people got that far in the email 😇

(and yes Azithromycin mechanism of action unhelpful here as might be anti-inflammatory too, but later work from the authors of that trial demonstrated an impact of the antibiotic on the bugs directly).

Anyway cool paper and diagnosis of infection before prescription could have enormous benefits.