Use of the cytoskeleton to control Shigella infection

COVID-19 has helped to illuminate the fundamental importance of young people and scientists effectively communicating the urgency of infectious disease. This project will develop the ways in which our science explains and communicates discoveries to a wider audience, using story and narrative devices familiarly used in animation and graphic novels as gateways to complex ideas. The body of work created will be a snapshot of where Mostowy lab research is in 2020, and a tool to develop the way in which the lab communicates its research. The project will be made with members of the Mostowy lab, with input from students and young people in London and Manchester, collaboratively producing an animated film examining central research concerns of the Mostowy lab including; Shigella, superbugs, antimicrobial resistance in a post-antibiotic environment, and the global health challenge these present. Inclusive sharing events will bring together the professional film we make with the creative work made by young people, giving an opportunity for us to discuss and appraise the learning from each experience. The work will be shared, at different stages of its development, at public events in London and Manchester, online, and at festivals internationally. Developing from the award-winning Wellcome Trust funded animation Loop (2016), this new project will be a legacy tool to explain the lab's most recent discoveries to a non-scientific audience, as well as to any researcher, healthcare professional or stakeholder. It will include ideas from young people as well as researchers, creating engaging visuals about compelling material.