Operation Ouch-reach

Sometimes great opportunities come along with less than ideal timing. So it was when back in the summer of 2024 the Foster Lab was approached with an unusual request; could we help to answer the question 'Why do my feet smell bad after wearing trainers all day?'. The timing was tricky, with our move to the Dunn School of Pathology scheduled in a perfect clash. But - how could we say no? Accepting the challenge, we put our experience culturing the human microbiome to a new use.

This mini-project was started by a child submitted the question to a popular science programme made by CBBC, ‘Operation Ouch!’. The producers imagined cultivating the foot microbiome using giant petri dishes, and using this to explain how bacteria contributed to that distinctive foot smell. We got to work sourcing tubs and trays big enough to house an adult foot print, as well as some willing volunteers.

Experimenting amongst half-packed crates of lab equipment, we started to get some nice results. In September we travelled to the ‘Operation Ouch!’ studio to take the CBBC presenters, Doctors Chris and Xand Van Tulleken, footprints on the agar. After a few days incubation the microbial footprints were grown and looking great.

The Foster Lab team, Xuedan Wang, Ryan Teo, Louise Pankhurst and Frances Spragge attended filming at the studio to look after the cultures. Frances stepped up in an on-camera appearance; and although sadly this did not make the final cut, we were proud of her courage and committment to science communication.

Watching the making of an episode segment was fun, and provided a great insight into how much research and scientific expertise gets poured into each episode. We were thrilled to make a small contribution to science communication and education with CBBC, although, maybe next time we will try to avoid moving Departments at the same time!

Episode 7 of series 13 of Operation Ouch! “What a stinker!” aired on CBBC on 3rd March 2025 and is available on iPlayer.