Another year over!
We celebrated 40 years of service to our scientific community with the Anniversary Conference 2025!
We hope you enjoyed the day!
Please complete the evaluation form when you receive it. It will help us to make your experience so much better.
A thank you to our sponsors:
We would not be able to run our Annual Conference without the support from our sponsors. Please visit the Sponsors page for the full list of 21 commercial companies supporting the conference 2025.
Read these excellent Programme preview articles published in Pathology in Practice:
Article 1 Celebrating 40 years of microbiology conferences: a milestone meeting
Article 2 Laboratory Microbial Diagnostics: Current and Future Practice
Article 3 The 40th BSMT Annual Microbiology Conference: exhibition preview
40th ANNIVERSARY MICROBIOLOGY CONFERENCE
Venue: Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon
Date: Thursday 15 May 2025
Laboratory Microbial Diagnostics: Current and Future Practice
The following articles are available to read; Programme Preview 1 and Programme preview 2 and the final preview article.
Profiles for Chairs and Speakers
Biomarker-guided antibiotic treatment for patients with sepsis: providing value for patients and services?
Professor Paul Dark, National Deputy Medical Director, NIHR Clinical Research Network, University of Manchester
Novel technologies and the fight against antimicrobial resistance
Professor Hermine Mkrtchyan, Head of Research, University of West London
The Mini-Lab: accessible clinical bacteriology at the district level
Dr Alessandra Natale, MSF Paris
Developing the UK public health rapid support team Rapid Response Mobile Laboratory as a tool for global outbreak response
Dr Daniel Carter, Genomics Specialist, UKHSA Porton Down
Wastewater surveillance for epidemiological surveillance
Dr Alexander Shaw, Imperial College, London
Advances in the diagnosis of invasive/systemic fungal infections
Dr Riina Richardson, Honorary Consultant Mycologist and Senior Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Diseases and Medical Education, Manchester
Dr Kate Templeton, BSMT President and Professor Brian Duerden CBE, will chair the conference
39th ANNUAL MICROBIOLOGY CONFERENCE
Venue: UKHSA, Colindale
Date: Thursday 02 May 2024
Rapid Diagnostics ~ warts and all
Read Programme Preview 1 and Programme preview 2 in readiness for the Conference. The final preview article is available here.
Profiles for Chairs and Speakers
How do we assess and value rapid diagnostics?
Dr Luke Moore, Consultant Infectious Diseases, Microbiology & Virology, Chelsea & Westminster NHS Foundation Trust
Next-generation molecular diagnostics: Leveraging digital technologies to enhance multiplexing in real-time PCR
Dr Jesus Rodriguez-Manzano, Associate Professor, Imperial College, London
STI AMR surveillance; the molecular approach
Dr Michelle Cole, Principle Clinical Scientist, STI Reference lab, UKHSA
Setting up a Microbiology service in a low to middle income country
Ivor Mitchelmore, Now retired Chief BMS, Luton & Dunstable University Hospital
Evaluation of a unified metagenomic method for rapid detection of bacteria, fungi and viruses in clinical samples
Adela Alcolea-Medina, Lead, Next Generation Sequencing, Infection Sciences, Synovis, St Thomas’ Hospital, London
UKHSA: What next for AMR? The 2024-2029 UK Antimicrobial Resistance National Action Plan
Dr Alicia Demirjian, Clinical Lead, Antimicrobial Resistance & Prescribing (AMRP), UKHSA and Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Evelina London Children's Hospital
Dr Kate Templeton, BSMT President and Professor Brian Duerden CBE, will chair the conference
About the Conferences
BSMT conferences are aimed at senior biomedical and clinical scientists, other scientists, medical microbiologists and other healthcare professionals. They are particularly relevant for bench microbiologists to provide up-to-date information about organisms and techniques especially with regard to new molecular technologies.
Read more
Jim Lindsay
4 February 1953 – 30 June 2025
Tribute
The BSMT Committee was shocked and saddened to hear that Jim Lindsay had died after a short illness. In this tribute Valerie Bevan, former Chair of the BSMT, shares insights into Jim’s life on their behalf.
Jim was a founding member of the BSMT and served as the BSMT Secretary for many years retiring from the committee in 2022. I met Jim at the BSMT’s inaugural meeting in Nottingham in 1985 and joined the committee shortly after. Jim remained a staunch supporter of the BSMT and diagnostics industry, attending the more recent BSMT conferences as our guest. The Committee has much admired Jim’s intellect and knowledge and his passing represents both a personal and professional loss — we have lost a valued friend and a key supporter of the society we care deeply about.
There have been many tributes to Jim from the BSMT Committee, and two past presidents who knew Jim well have also added their recollections including from Dr Robert George and Professor Eric Bolton. Rob knew Jim since joining the BSMT Committee in 1985 becoming its President from 1997 until 2012. He was pleased that he had been able to spend time socialising and reminiscing with Jim at this year’s BSMT Conference. Eric recalled that Jim had invited him to give his first lecture for the BSMT at Colindale and had also played golf with him, Jim’s favourite sport.
Jim’s academic and practical interest in microbiology began at Liverpool University in 1971 and subsequently at the R&D department at Mast Laboratories (now Mast Group) in Bootle, Merseyside. Shortly after being appointed in 1974, he worked on Mast’s behalf with another founding member, Michael Croughan (long term BSMT Treasurer) developing and comparing bacterial identification and susceptibility testing methods in local laboratories including at Liverpool Royal Infirmary where Michael was Laboratory Manager. The techniques used at that time were mainly disc diffusion techniques which remain current practice in many laboratories. This was of course long before the progression to semi-automated and automated methods.
Jim moved from the R&D department into marketing, rising through the ranks at Mast to become Managing Director of Mast International, where he was Head of Customer Services, Marketing and International Sales. He retired in 2014.
Apart from his professional life, Jim placed great value on family life. He met Sue at University and they were married for 45 years living in Stockton Heath in Cheshire. Their two sons, Stephen and Daniel with wives Caroline and Alison, have four children between them. Jim loved being a grandad and was especially close to the eldest granddaughter Isobel who was old enough to understand the enormity of her grandfather’s illness. Sue commented that shortly before he died, Isobel had been proudly showing him the many Guide badges she had earned.
Seventeen years ago, Jim suffered a serious illness, and those around him did not expect him to recover but Jim had other ideas. Sue said it was his sheer determination and stubbornness of spirit that pulled him through. Sadly, this time he was unable to overcome the disease to which he succumbed. Sue said his condition deteriorated very rapidly and he passed away in the early hours of Monday 30 June. We send our sincere condolences to Sue and her family.
The funeral will be held on Monday 21 July at 12.00 at Walton Lea Crematorium, Chester Rd, Higher Walton, Warrington, WA4 6TB followed by the Wake at one of Jim’s favourite places Lymm Golf Club, Whitbarrow Rd, Lymm, WA13 9AN.
Announcement of new BSMT Chair
We are delighted to announce David Westrip as the new Chair of the BSMT committee taking over the role from Dr Mark Wilks. We thank Mark for the exemplary leadership he has given the committee over the last few years.
David Westrip is a Senior Biomedical Scientist in Microbiology. After graduating from the University of Kent, David initially worked in a commercial food and water testing laboratory whilst completing his MSc through the LSHTM. He achieved HCPC registration whilst training at the Luton and Dunstable Hospital and since then has worked in South London and Western Sussex NHS Trusts covering a variety of Biomedical Scientist roles. Currently working in East Kent his current role as Microbiology Training Manager allows him to combine his enthusiasm for the development of other laboratory staff with maintaining an active role on the bench.
David has been a BSMT committee member since 2021 and brings with him his recent experience as the Deputy Chair of BSMT.
We hope you will join us in congratulating David on his appointment.
CPD
The 40th Anniversary Microbiology Conference on 15 May 2025 is registered with the IBMS - download the BSMT CPD Attendance Sheet which will help delegates undertaking IBMS CPD to reflect on the experience, which is now the focus of the IBMS scheme, rather than collecting points. The sheet may also be used for CPD verification with any professional body. The conference is also registered with RCPath and signed certificates will be available on request from bnation@bsmt.org.uk.
Our message on leaving X/Twitter
From Friday 1 November 2024 we will no longer be active on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The BSMT considers X no longer relevant to its activities and will discontinue its use.
Please visit British Society for Microbial Technology - BSMT | Facebook whilst we seek alternative social media platforms to conduct our communication strategy.
The 2024 conference was dedicated to the memory of Mahsa Amini
Mahsa Amini, an Iranian student about to start a degree in Microbiology but was arrested on 13 September 2022 for ‘improperly wearing the mandatory head covering’; she died in police custody several days later.
We are offering several grants in memory of Mahsa Amini aimed at potential delegates who would otherwise not be able to attend the BSMT conference due to financial reasons. The grant is for the registration fee and/or the cost of travel (standard rate). To apply for the grant, please write a short summary (one side of A4) of your reasons and send to BSMT Chair, Dr Mark Wilks (mwilks@bsmt.org.uk). They will be assessed by a subgroup of the BSMT committee.
UK 5-year action plan for antimicrobial resistance 2024 to 2029 is published
This second 5-year national action plan supports the UK 20-year vision for antimicrobial resistance.
Articles
Read two excellent previews of the 39th annual conference published in the Biomedical Scientist April 2024 and Pathology in Practice February 2024:
Microbiology: Rapid Diagnostics Warts and All
Rapid diagnostics - warts and all: a microbiology conference preview
Read Topics in Microbiology and infection: a review of the BSMT conference. An article published in Pathology in Practice giving an overview of the BSMT conference May 2023.
The following articles are previews of the conference on 11 May 2023. The first Microbial technology: a further preview of this year’s BSMT conference covers the global problem of AMR and childhood respiratory infections by Dr Mark Wilks, Chair of BSMT Committee. The second article Topics in microbiology and infection: 2023 BSMT exhibition preview is an introduction to the 20 leading biomedical science companies which are supporting the event. We invite all attendees to visit each trade stand and come armed with your questions to the commercial representatives.
Read Under the Microscope: Microbiology and Infection by David Westrip. A shorter version of this was published in the Biomedical Scientist April 2023.
Read Revolution in genomics and microbiology: the impact of technology by Mark Wilks. A report on the BSMT microbiology conference July 2022.
Past Events
Follow the link to see information on previous BSMT conferences.
Invitation to Comment on UK SMIs
All microbiologists are invited to comment of the UK Standards for Microbiology Investigations (UK SMIs).
Go to UK SMI page here
2024 Conference
