Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kp) Gram-negative bacteria cause nosocomial infections and rapidly acquire antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which makes it a global threat to human health. It also has a comparatively rare hypervirulent phenotype that can lead to severe disease in otherwise healthy individuals. In recent work by Anton et al., involving 13k publicly available sequenced Kp isolates and 2k hypervirulent strains, we analyzed the plasmid replicons and carbapenemase and siderophore encoding genes to understand the movement of hypervirulence and AMR genes located on plasmids. The large-scale analysis reveals outbreaks and movement of hypervirulent strains, including in China.

Our Infectious Disease ‘omics course was hosted by the Royal Veterinary College, with many participants online. The Alan Turing Institute sponsored RVC places on the course. Specifically, this course offers hands-on experience of processing sequencing data to construct genomes, identifying genomic variants and applying downstream methods, such as phylogenetics.

We co-organised an Infectious disease ‘omics symposium and data analysis workshop in the National Institute of Malariology, Parasitology and Entomology (NIMPE, Ministry of Health), Hanoi, Vietnam. Participants came from around Vietnam, and included staff within the national malaria control programme, who are starting to apply sequencing-based technologies to inform surveillance activities. The meeting was part funded by an MRC grant.