Highlights of the So Cal ASM (SCASM) meeting

I went to the annual meeting of the Southern California branch of the American Society for Microbiology (SCASM). ASM is one of the largest scientific organizations in the world. It is the premiere Microbiology professional organization. I have been to several ASM conferences, but this was the first time I've been able to attend our branch's meeting. The meeting was held in San Diego at the Hilton Torrey Pines (nice!) with a dinner reception at the Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institute in La Jolla. So yes, it was all very nice, and the food was abundant and surprisingly good over the weekend. Especially the cheesecake lollipops and the made to order cupcakes...but getting to the real highlights...

Hot topics in Microbiology today:

• Fungal taxonomy and diagnosis (doesn't sound too exciting, but I heard some great case studies that I'll use next year. I'll probably talk about the case of the nurse who unknowingly contaminated the NICU this year!) is undergoing tremendous change and not enough clinicical folks are trained to recognize fungal pathogens. Yet, we have very serious fungal diseases, and emerging fungal diseases.
• 4 talks were on antibiotic resistance! Increasingly resistant organisms, clinical antimicrobial susceptibility levels are having to be adjusted. FDA is way behind in studying, assessing and changing these, yet they regulate it. And, as I have talked about, very few new antibiotics are being produced.
• More on antibiotic resistance: we will never win the war--microbes have been producing antibiotics for billions of years and developing resistance to each other's over the same time span. Our actions have selected for those resistant organisms. We will continually have to fight the battle however and must provide incentives for antibiotic research and production, and fix the FDA process for approval. Check out this website:

http://www.idsociety.org/10x20.htm

• Think about this: 70% of antibiotics are used in farmed animals to promote growth (not to fight disease!). This is contributing to our problems with antibiotics. In terms of bacterial evolution and resistance: Microbes have been producing antibiotics for 3.5 billion years. The time that Penicillin has been around (1928-2009) is 2.6 billion seconds.
• Onto another topic: New molecular tests are flying onto the market. Many of these are PCR based and can detect very small numbers of pathogens. But, how do those numbers actually relate to infection and disease? Are false diagnosese possible?
• Several speakers talked about how important it is for nurses and clinicians to take good specimens at the bedside. Garbage in garbage out--in other words, if the lab gets a crappy specimen, they will not be able to produce good results. This is important for you to know.
• In the research field topics included Chlamydia and the Type 3 secretion system--how they invade and replicate inside a host cell. Influenza's mechanism of how its mRNA leaves the host nuclei--findings could help in the discovery of new anti-virals. Deep ocean organisms were discussed-how their metagenomics and single cell genomics are informing diverse fields of microbiology.
• Finally, several speakers talked about the huge need for Clinical Lab Specialists and Bioinformatics scientists. These are areas that should have big opportunities for employment for a very long time.

Lots of opportunities and interesting things going on in Microbiology these days! Check out

http://www.scasm.org

http://www.asm.org