Editors in Conversation – Details, episodes & analysis

It's that time of year, folks! No, not leaf-peeping season, or pumpkin spice season or even apple picking season – I'm talking respiratory virus season! The symphony of sniffles and coughs is just around the corner! It's the time of year that clinical laboratories are stocking up on supplies, developing testing algorithms and putting out communications to try to convince people that every kid with the sniffles does not, in fact, warrant a highly-multiplexed respiratory virus panel test.

The diagnostic landscape for respiratory viruses has evolved dramatically in the last five years, with widespread institution of molecular tests both in laboratories of all sizes, but also at the point of care – and even consumer direct testing. What's next for respiratory virus testing? 

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/_tXqLyV3-QE

Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis, has been around for what seems like forever, causing major outbreaks throughout the millennia and continuing to spread at high rates, globally, into today. When it comes to diagnostic testing, some tests like RPR and VDRL have stood the test of time, having been implemented in the late 1930s and 1940s, and are now used in combination with contemporary methods like EIAs and chemiluminescent assays as the reference standard method to diagnosis syphilis cases. New approaches to screening and diagnosis are needed, however, to increase test access and ultimately case identification and treatment. 

• Dr. Kevin Clark
• Dr. Jody Berry

• Clinical development and performance of the First to Know Syphilis Self-Test for over-the-counter usage: a de novo rapid test for treponemal antibody

This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Romney Humphries, Ph.D., D(ABMM). 

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Become an ASM member to receive up to 50% off publishing fees when you publish in JCM or any of the ASM journals. Sign up at asm.org/joinasm.

Picture this, you wake up one morning with nausea, body aches, abdominal pain, and despite sleeping all night, you are exhausted. You then find yourself running to the restroom with watery and somewhat explosive diarrhea. You think to yourself – what could this be? Well, if the year was 2023, in the summer and you happen to live in Texas, chances were somewhat high that you had probably had cyclosporiasis.  And today, we are going to talk about this particular parasite and focus in on what our options are for detecting it given that it is not routinely picked up on O&P exams. And while there are molecular panels out there that include Cyclospora as a target, as our speakers will share, there is an easier and cheaper approach we can consider to quickly ID this pathogen.

• Dr. Angela Ma. Public Health Ontario and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto
• Dr. Marc Couturier. Drector of the clinical microbiology lab at NorDx lab at MaineHealth in Scarborough, Maine

• Shedding new light on Cyclospora: how the use of ultraviolet fluorescence microscopy can improve diagnosis of cyclosporiasis
• Join ASM for up to 50% off the publication fees when you publish in JCM or any of the ASM journals.
• Attend ASM Microbe

This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. JCM is available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Follow JCM on Twitter/𝕏 via @JClinMicro

Discussing new guidelines on the use of vancomycin for severe Staphylocccus aureus infections.

The August issue of AAC includes interesting papers about mechanism of resistance to metronidazole in C. difficile, a variant of KPC resistant to ceftazidime-avibactam and description of a new "ultra-broad spectrum B-lactamase inhibitor" among others!

You can find the issue at https://aac.asm.org.

The state of the art treatment of COVID-19, understand the role of some medications currently used for COVID-19 and dissecting novel approaches and strategies for the treatment of COVID-19 likely to become available in the short term. Guests: Henry Masur MD and Adarsh Bhimraj MD.

Read the current issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy at https://aac.asm.org

A conversation with Lou Rice about his career and his experience of being the Editor of Chief for the AAC Journal for the past decade. 

Visit aac.asm.org to read the current issue.

A discussion about laboratory testing for COVID-19 with two experts, Dr. Melissa Miller and Dr. Elitza Theel. Hosted by Journal of Clinical Microbiology Editor in Chief, Dr. Alexander McAdam.

Get the current issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology at https://jcm.asm.org/

Objectives:
• Discuss the therapeutic options currently being used for COVID-19
• Evaluate some clinical data supporting the use of these drugs
• Comment on clinical trials and enrollment

Participants:
• Andre Kalil, Professor, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NB, USA. Lead Investigator, NIH Clinical Trial for COVId-19
• Miguel A. Martinez, Editor AAC. Professor, AIDS Research Institute-IrsiCaixa, Hospital Universitari Germans Trias i Pujol, Barcelona, Spain.

Visit https://aac.asm.org/ to browse issues and/or submit a manuscript.

The past year in Clinical Microbiology, as seen through the lens of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Four JCM editors have each selected a paper they consider to be among the "best" we published in 2024. Of course there are no objective criteria for what makes a paper the "best." So, by "best," we mean "a paper that I find exciting."

View this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK9ZqZUrDiY

• Patricia Simner, Ph.D., D(ABMM), Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Romney Humphries, Ph.D., D(ABMM), M(ASCP), Vanderbilt University Medical Center

• Wood RC, Luabeya AK, Dragovich RB, Olson AM, Lochner KA, Weigel KM, Codsi R, Mulenga H, de Vos M, Kohli M, Penn-Nicholson A, Hatherill M, Cangelosi GA. 2024. Diagnostic accuracy of tongue swab testing on two automated tuberculosis diagnostic platforms, Cepheid Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra and Molbio Truenat MTB Ultima. J Clin Microbiol 62:e00019-24.
• Rodino KG, Luethy PM, Abbott AN, Bender JM, Eberly AR, Gitman M, Leber A, Dien Bard J, . 2024. Defining the value of medical microbiology consultation. J Clin Microbiol 62:e00359-24.
• Giske CG, Bressan M, Fiechter F, Hinic V, Mancini S, Nolte O, Egli A. 2024. GPT-4-based AI agents—the new expert system for detection of antimicrobial resistance mechanisms?. J Clin Microbiol 62:e00689-24.
• Bloomfield M, van der Werff K, Todd S, Bocacao M, Reed H, Balm M, Blackmore T. 2024. An exception-reporting approach for wound swab culture: effect on post-report antibiotic initiation. J Clin Microbiol 62:e00342-24.
• Join ASM for up to 50% off the publication fees when you publish in JCM or any of the ASM journals.
• Attend ASM Microbe

This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam and Dr. Elli Theel. JCM is available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro.

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Follow JCM on Twitter/𝕏 via @JClinMicro

2024 was a very active year on research in antimicrobial resistance, highlighted by an impactful and high level political declaration to combat antimicrobial resistance by the United Nations. In this episode, trainees from NIH-funded training program (T32) on antimicrobial resistance will help me discuss the most relevant research on the field in the year 2024. Welcome to editors in conversation!

• The best papers of 2024 in gram-positive, gram-negative, mycobacterial and parasite resistance

• Nathalie Chen: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
• Alex Kang: Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX
• Nathan Rabbe: University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA
• Taylor Blackburn: Emory University, Atlanta, GA
• Jacon McPherson: University of Houston, Houston, TX.
• Harrison Lee, MD: Associate Chief of Epidemiology and Microbial Genomics, Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Director, Center for Genomic Epidemiology, Director, T32 AMR, U of Pittsburgh
• William Shafer, PhD: Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Emory University School of Medicine, Co-Director, Emory Antibiotic Resistance Center. Director T32 AMR, Emory University

This episode is brought to you by the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy Journal. 

Visit asm.org/aac to browse issues and/or submit a manuscript. If you plan to publish in AAC, ASM Members get up to 50% off publishing fees. Visit asm.org/joinasm to sign up.