Yesterday eLife published the first paper from our citizen science project, BashTheBug, which was launched in April 2017 on the Zooniverse platform. (Update on 19 July 2022: the final formatted version of the paper has been posted on eLife). Through BashTheBug we asked for volunteers to classify images of M. tuberculosis growing on a range […]
Category: citizen science
BashTheBug is a citizen science project hosted on the Zooniverse platform that we launched in April 2017 and asked volunteers to help us assess how well 20,637 clinical samples of M. tuberculosis grow on one of 13 different antibiotics. To help engage with the volunteers it has its own blog, that has grown into the […]

We are advertising for a Part-time Citizen Science Project Co-ordinator to come and work with us in Oxford improving BashTheBug, in particular how the project engages, informs and educates its existing base of volunteers, as well as reaching out to new audiences. The closing date is Monday 25 November 2019. For more information please see […]

In this Microbiology paper we show how a Python package, called the Automated Mycobacterial Detection Growth Algorithm (AMyDGA for short), can be used to independently read a 96-well plate designed for determining the minimum inhibitory concentration of 14 different anti-tubercular drugs. AMyGDA is reproducible and shows promising levels of accuracy. Where it fails, it does in […]

BashTheBug, a citizen science project I run that is helping us measure how different clinical samples of M. tuberculosis grow in the presence of 14 different antibiotics, reached its first million classifications earlier this week. To read more head over to its blog. The photo mosaic on the left is made up of images […]

A paper was published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this week by the CRyPTIC project, of which I am part, with help from the 100,000 genomes project. It demonstrates how whole genome sequencing can be used to accurately predict drug susceptibility for the four first-line anti-tubercular drugs (isoniazid, rifampicin, pyrazinamide and ethambutol) […]