Microbe Magazine Podcast

Bacteriophages are interesting viruses that target bacteria and have been used for therapeutic purposes. Recently, the emergence of antibiotic resistance has spurred a renewed interest in using these viruses or their products as therapeutic tools against recalcitrant human pathogens. AAC has also published a recent manuscript from ARLG to guide the use of phages in clinical practice. We will discuss with experts in the field the state-of-the-art in phage therapy. Objectives: • Understand the use of bacteriophages and their products for therapeutic purposes • Discuss the clinical applications of phages • Debate the barriers for developing of phages as therapeutic tools to treat multidrug-resistant infections Guests: • Vincent A. Fischetti, Ph.D, Professor and Director, Laboratory of Bacterial Pathogenesis and Immunology, The Rockefeller University, New York, NY. • Saima Aslam, MBBS, Professor of Medicine, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA. • Anthony Maresso, PhD. Professor and Founder of TAILOR

When most of us hear the word ‘CAPA’, these days we more than likely immediately start thinking about SARS-CoV-2 variants, trying to remember how important this particular one was in the grand scheme of the COVID-19 pandemic. But, that is not the ‘kappa’ we will be talking about today. Instead, we’ll be discussing the other CAPA, or COVID-19 Associated Pulmonary Aspergillosis, and we will cover a few areas on this topic, including: - Defining what CAPA is and how prevalent it is among ICU patients with COVID-19 - Discuss why identification of invasive aspergillosis in patients with COVID-19 differs compared to other at-risk patients - Review two recent publication in JCM that discuss specific assays and diagnostic approaches for optimal detection of invasive aspergillosis in patients with COVID-19. Guests: Dr. Martin Hoengil Prof. Alexandre Alanio 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 The

AAC just published a review from the WHO advisory panel on the antibacterial pipeline analyzing ‘traditional’ and ‘non-traditional’ antibacterial agents and modulators in clinical development current on 30 June 2021 with activity against the WHO priority pathogens, mycobacteria and Clostridioides difficile. Today, we will dissect this important publication Objectives: • Understand the role of the WHO in antimicrobial resistance • Discuss the analysis of the antibacterial pipeline • Deliberate on important highlights from the review and the future of antibacterial research. Guests: - Dr. Peter Beyer, Senior Advisor for the Antimicrobial Resistance Division at the World Health Organization. - Dr. Mark Butler, MSBChem Consulting, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia - Dr. Prabhavathi Fernandes. Member, Scientific Advisory Committee, GARDP, Geneva, Switzerlandand The National Biodefense Science 17Board, Health and Human Services, Washington DC, USA This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Antim

In less than two months since it was discovered, the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 has become the dominant variant of the virus, causing an unprecedented rise in the number of cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. and elsewhere. The emergence of this variant has quickly led to some surprising claims about diagnostic testing for omicron and a renewed appreciation of the importance of sequencing the viral genome for typing purposes. We will address several questions about testing for omicron, including: • Are rapid antigen tests sensitive for detection of omicron? And should people swab their throats to increase the sensitivity of these tests? • How does the emergence of omicron change our use of polymerase chain reaction tests for SARS-CoV-2? • How can we definitively identify the omicron variant and do we have the needed capacity for this? 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 availabl

As we round out yet another year of this pandemic, clinical microbiologists have not slowed down. We have not slowed down in our response to the pandemic or other day-to-day testing needs, despite the constant reagent backorders and personnel shortages, and equally as important, we have not slowed down in publishing high quality, informative and clinically relevant papers, which have really spanned the gamut of clinical microbiology - from antimicrobial susceptibility testing, to next generation sequencing assays and AI, to evaluation of new high throughput assays for a variety of pathogens, the field continues to expand at an impressive pace. Three Journal of Clinical Microbiology (JCM) editors discuss some of their favorite and most impactful papers published in the Journal in 2021. Welcome to Editors in Conversation. This episode is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, available at https://jcm.asm.org and on https://twitter.com/JClinMicro and is supported by the American Society for Micr

Infections caused by carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter spp. are considered an urgent public health problem. Antibiotic options are scarce but new drugs may be available in the near future. We discuss this important topic with experts in the field. Topics discussed: Acinetobacter as an opportunistic pathogen Therapeutic approaches for Acinetobacter infections The future approach for this MDR organisms. Guests: Dr. Yohei Doi, Professor and Director, Center for Innovative Antimicrobial Therapy, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA Dr. Joseph Patrick Hornak. Fellow, Infectious Diseases, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX 

Is sequencing the SARS-CoV-2 genome useful for patient care? What about institutional infection control? And if clinical labs decide to perform SARS-CoV-2 sequencing, how should they do it? How should they report the results? And will they get paid? Until recently, sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 genomes has mainly been done in public health or research laboratories. Now, there is increasing interest in sequencing the viral genome in healthcare settings for uses in patient care and infection control. We’ll be talking about a new guideline that can help clinical labs and institutions decide whether to perform SARS-CoV-2 sequencing. Guest: Dr. Alex Greninger Dr. Francesca Lee Links: Clinical and Infection Prevention Applications of SARS-CoV-2 Genotyping: an IDSA/ASM Consensus Review Document https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JCM.01659-21

Candida auris is an urgent and high-priority antimicrobial resistant organisms. COVID-19 appears to have increased the identification of this pathogen in vulnerable patients. We discuss with experts the emergence of Candida auris and its relationship with COVID-19. Guests: Dr. Sevtap Arikan-Akdagli, Director, Department of Medical Microbiology, Head of Mycology Laboratory, Hacettepe University Medical School, Ankara, Turkey Dr. Bhavarth Shukla. Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Director of Stewardship, Jackson Memorial Health System. Miami, FL. Dr. Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis,  Robert C Hickey Chair in Clinical Care, Deputy Head, Division of Internal Medicine, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX.

Today we’re talking about testing in schools for COVID-19, and about recalls of SARS-CoV-2 tests due to false positive results, and, about whether we are ready to go to in-person scientific and medical meetings. Joining me for this roundtable discussion are two frequent guests on the podcast, Dr. Melissa Miller, from UNC School of Medicine, and Dr. Elli Theel, from Mayo Clinic. Links: School Testing for COVID-19. https://www.cp24.com/news/toronto-school-parents-set-up-diy-covid-19-surveillance-testing-program-1.5590772 and https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/19/health/coronavirus-school-quarantine-testing.html False positive COVID-19 tests. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/view-hosts-say-they-had-false-positive-covid-tests-during-n1280183 and https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/health/at-home-covid-tests-recall.html Return to In-Person Meetings? https://blogs.jwatch.org/hiv-id-observations/

How can we determine whether someone who has COVID-19 can transmit the virus to other people? Tests in routine clinical use, such as reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction and antigen tests, are designed to determine whether SARS-CoV-2 is present or not, but many people have proposed that these tests be used to determine whether a patient is infectious. Furthermore, tests for SARS-CoV-2 that are not routinely used in clinical laboratories, such as viral culture and detection of sub-genomic viral RNAs, have also been discussed as indicators of infectivity. But how accurate are any of these tests for determining whether someone is infectious? Guest: Dr. Matthew Binnicker, Director of Clinical Virology and Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic. Twitter: @DrMattBinnicker Links: Can Testing Predict SARS-CoV-2 Infectivity? The Potential for Certain Methods to be a Surrogate for Replication-Competent Virus https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/JCM.00469-21 Visit https://asm.org/jcm to

Enterococci, particularly vancomycin-resistant isolates tend to affect the most vulnerable and immunocompromised patients and are one of the most difficult bacteria to treat. In absence of robust clinical data, we will discuss therapeutic approaches for these recalcitrant organism.  

Tests for antibodies, or serological testing, for SARS-CoV-2 have come a long way since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are now several commercial tests available and some laboratories have developed tests for specific purposes. Tests can determine whether a person has had COVID-19 in the past, or whether someone has had an antibody response to vaccination or even whether someone has antibodies that can neutralize the virus, preventing it from infecting host cells. Guests: - Dr. Elitza Theel, Director of the Infectious Diseases Serology laboratory at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. - Dr. Alex Greninger, Assistant Director of the Clinical Virology Laboratory at the University of Washington Clinical Virology Laboratory, where he is also an Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine. Visit asm.org/eic for links mentioned

During the pandemic, the need to develop therapeutic approaches became critical and so the need to study them in a structured way to critically evaluate their effectiveness. Innovative strategies to conduct clinical trials under difficult circumstances were required. We will discuss these strategies with some people who created them! Objectives: • Understand the main challenges to conduct clinical trials in the middle of a pandemic both in the developed and developing world • Discuss strategies for patient recruitment and evaluation. • Deliberate on future strategies to study new therapies for emerging pathogens. Guests: • David Boulware, MD MPH. Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases, University of Minnesota. • Eduardo López-Medina, MD. Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Universidad del Valle, and Director of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Centro Medico Imbanaco, Cali Colombia.

Accurate antibiotic susceptibility testing, or AST, is a key tool in addressing the rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. But AST is one of the most complicated and rapidly changing areas in the clinical microbiology, and the resulting confusion can make it difficult for clinical laboratories to keep up with best practices. Dr. Romney Humphries joins to talk about controversies and myths about AST. This episode was recorded with a live, remote audience at the World Microbe Forum. It is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, available at jcm.asm.org and on twitter @JClinMicro. Visit asm.org/eic for links.

Malaria continues to be a major “killer’ in the developing world affecting the most vulnerable populations with more than 500,000 deaths per year. Emergence of resistance to antimalarial drugs is major public health issue. In this episode, we will discuss the latest information on this rapidly evolving field with one of the foremost experts in the field. • Review the main factors leading to malaria resistance • Discuss the main genetic mechanism of resistance to antimalarials. • Elaborate on future approaches for the prevention of resistance in Plasmodium spp. Guest: Professor Sir Nicholas White. Professor of Tropical Medicine at Oxford University and Mahidol University in Thailand. Visit https://asm.org/eic for links and https://journals.asm.org/journal/aac to read the AAC Journal

In addition to Staphylococcus aureus, there are a small number of other coagulase-positive staphylococci. We have become increasingly aware of these due to improvements in identification methods used in clinical laboratories. Staphylococcus argenteus is a coagulase-positive Staphylococcus that, until now, had mainly been detected in Australia, the Pacific Islands and Thailand. It was thought that the species might be geographically restricted, however a paper in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology describes a large number of isolates collected from patients in North America. We’ll be talking to two of the authors of this paper. Guests: Dr. Julianne Kus, Dr. Audrey Schuetz

The development of β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitors seems to be expanding rapidly and promise to be the best short-term strategy against the most recalcitrant Gram-negative pathogens. In this podcast, we will discuss the current state of the art in this field. Objectives: • Discuss how the discovery of β-lactam/β-lactam inhibitors has evolved • Review the current state-of-the-art of developing of novel β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitors • Analyze the current and future clinical applications of these drugs against major antimicrobial-resistant pathogens. Guests: Robert Bonomo, MD. Professor and Associate Chief of Staff for Academic Affairs; Director Case-VA Center for Antimicrobial Resistance and Epidemiology, Case Western Research University, School of Medicine. Past Editor of AAC Pranita Tamma, MD. MH.S. Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Director, Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. Johns Hopkins University. Editor of AAC. Visit https://aac.asm.org to read more

Our options for susceptibility testing have greatly increased in recent years. In addition to classical phenotypic susceptibility testing by disk diffusion and measurement of the minimum inhibitory concentration, genotypic tests are increasingly available. Genotypic tests range from tests for a single organism and one resistance gene to tests for 20 or more organisms and multiple resistance genes. But what should the clinical microbiologist do when the results of phenotypic and genotypic are in conflict? Welcome to Editors in Conversation. This episode is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, available at jcm.asm.org and on twitter @JClinMicro. I'm JCM Editor in Chief, Alex McAdam. This podcast is supported by the American Society for Microbiology, which publishes JCM. Guests: Dr. Patricia Simner, Dr. Jennifer Dien Bard Visit https://jcm.asm.org to read more

The incidence of fungal infections is rising in immunocompromised people, and the morbidity and mortality of these infections are high. Recent threats include multi-drug resistant Candida auris, however antifungal resistance is rising in other species as well, such as Aspergillus fumigatus. But have advances in diagnostic testing kept up with the accelerating threats of fungal infections? Guests: Dr. Esther Babady, Dr. Sean Zhang, Dr. Shawn Lockhart Visit https://jcm.asm.org to read more

During the pandemic researchers who focus on the microbiology of built environments suddenly found themselves at the center of attention. Understanding how SARS-CoV-2 may be spreading indoors became incredibly important to ensure we can operate indoors in a safe manner. We now know that SARS-CoV-2 transmits through the air in droplets and as particles, and this information has helped us to provide comprehensive advice on how people should manage the indoor environment. Last year my guests published a review in mSystems: 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Pandemic: Built Environment Considerations To Reduce Transmission. This is published with co-authors David A. Coil, Mark Fretz, and Jonathan A. Eisen. This paper was the most downloaded article for mSystems in 2020, and was in the top ten most downloaded articles across all ASM journals. This is maybe not surprising based on the topic covered. Guests: Leslie Dietz, Patrick Horve, Kevin Van Den Wymelenberg Links mentionoed: Microbes and social equity working