Division G Newsletter
March, 1997
The 1996-97 Division G Officers are:
Chair (Out-going):
Councilor:
Alternate Councilor:
Chair-elect:
1997 ASM Meeting in Miami Beach, Florida
The 1997 General Meeting promises to be an exciting one for mycoplasmologists.
Most of the activities will be packed into the first three days of the meeting.
We will begin with the business meeting at 1:00 PM. Please make every effort
to attend. There is also something new this year, a poster session at night.
It will follow the Presidential Address on Tuesday evening and will be accompanied
by a food buffet. There should be a great crowd for the presenters. [It
may not be possible to have an evening poster session at every meeting depending
upon the facilities, but I welcome your comments regarding this one.] The
mixer will be on Monday evening. Please make every effort to attend. I have
not finalized the details yet, but mark your calendars for 6 - 8 PM. The
location will be announced at the business meeting and at the symposium
following.
Monday
1:00 Business Meeting
2:00 Divisional Lecture (Jerry K. Davis) immediately followed by:
Symposium (Diverse interactions of mycoplasmas with mammalian cells)
Mixer that evening (place will be announced at Business Meeting)
Tuesday
8:00 Symposium (Mycoplasma gallisepticum: A better model for mycoplasmal pathogenesis?)
12:45 - 2:15 Poster session 1
7:30 - 9:30 Poster session II
Wednesday
2:00 Symposium (co-sponsored with Division B, Evasion of mucosal defenses
by pathogens that interact with the respiratory tract)
Thursday
8:00 Colloquium (Special habitats and new host-parasite interactions
- Gail Cassell is a speaker)
BACK
ASM Workshop on Diagnosis of Mycoplasma Infections in Clinical Laboratories.
For the third year in a row, the ASM Board of Education and Training
has asked Ken Waites to convene the workshop "Diagnosis of Mycoplasma
Infections in Clinical Laboratories" at the 1997 General Meeting.
It will take place on Sunday, May 4 from 8:30 - 4:30. Information regarding
specific location and instructions for registration for the workshop will
be provided as part of the general information of the meeting. Look for
it in the ASM News. Registration is limited to 40 persons.
For the past two years at the ASM General Meeting, this workshop has
provided an up to date discussion of laboratory techniques for detection
of mycoplasmal infections in diagnostic laboratories. Almost 60 people have
participated thus far. This coming year, the workshop will provide essentially
the same topics in a lecture-discussion format, followed by laboratory demonstrations
in which participants will have the opportunity to examine mycoplasma cultures.
The topics which will be presented and their discussants are as follows:
Overview of Mollicute Taxonomy and Classification, Dr. Janet Robertson,
University of Alberta; Role of Mycoplasmas in Human Disease, Dr. Gail Cassell,
University of Alabama at Birmingham; Culture-based methods of mycoplasma
detection and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, Dr. Ken Waites, University
of Alabama at Birmingham; Commercial media, Quality Control, Rapid and Molecular
Methods for Detection of Mycoplasmas in Clinical Specimens, Dr. Christiane
Bebear, University of Bordeaux; and Serologic Diagnosis of M. pneumoniae
infection, Dr. Deborah Talkington, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ms. Lynn Duffy, University of Alabama at Birmingham will preside over the
laboratory session.
This workshop is taught at an intermediate level. Participants should
have some microbiology laboratory experience, but not necessarily with mycoplasmas.
The workshop is designed for persons working in diagnostic microbiology
laboratories who wish to implement or possibly improve mycoplasma detection
in their facility, persons in the pharmaceutical industry or those engaged
in clinical or basic research in which mycoplasma detection in clinical
specimens is important. All participants will be provided with a course
syllabus which includes detailed procedures for cultural, serologic and
molecular based methods for detection of mycoplasmas in clinical specimens
along with copies of numerous reprints from recent published studies on
the subject.
BACK
Every year, it is important to recruit new members to Division G. We
are one of the smaller divisions, but not the smallest. We usually have
an excellent percentage attendance at the meeting and overall attendance
at the seminars is very good. We get lots of support from non Division G
members in our seminars. We have for several years now been treated extremely
favorably by ASM in regards to the number of seminars that we are assigned.
We need to increase our membership, however. Please encourage your students
to join the association and affiliate with Division G. In addition, spread
the word to other colleagues. There are many ASM members who have not placed
an affiliation with a division. Some of the individuals could be in hospital
clinical laboratories, etc. and could have an interest in mycoplasmas. They
need to be part of Division G!
BACK
The Division G homepage is nearing completion and will be up and running
by the time you read this newsletter (I hope). You will be able to access
it through the ASM homepage (www.asmusa.org). I am still looking for ideas
and suggestions for the content. Send images directly to me. I can digitize
them or if you have done so already, send them as tiff or pict files. (I
use a Mac so I can handle lots of formats.) I will gladly relinquish the
role of webmaster if someone else is interested in taking on the responsibility!
Contact me at fcminion@iastate.edu if you would like to be actively involved.
The IOM homepage can be found at URL: http://iml.vm.iastate.edu/vmri/.
I am looking for links to other homepages of interest to mycoplasmologists,
so don't be shy. Please visit this site and let me know what you think.
I have a thick skin and will not be too upset over the criticism. I am not
an artist, and could certainly use some help here. Do you have your own
lab homepage? If so, let me know. We hope to have a searchable database
with strains, probes, primers, etc. available sometime in the future. Mary
Brown, Jerry Davis and Maureen Davidson (University of Florida) are working
on this, but they need your help. The IOM homepage has links to the Constitution,
a list of present officers, the awards rules, etc. I will also be adding
a form for updating membership information (address, telephone, email, etc.)
in the near future. This will make it easier to keep in contact with you.
[If you have not informed the IOM of your email address or a change in address,
please do so immediately. The newsletter and other information will be sent
in this way to save money.] I need to know what you would like to
see on this page.
BACK
The 1998 General Meeting will be held in Atlanta. The planning for that
meeting will begin at the 1997 General Meeting. Duncan Krause will
be available in Miami Beach to meet with anyone interested in discussing
potential symposia topics for that meeting. Please contact him at dkrause@uga.cc.uga.edu
or at the meeting if you have an idea or two. I know that your help would
be greatly appreciated.
Is there interest in discussing guidelines for mollicute gene nomenclature?
We could try to assemble a committee to address this issue and present a
draft at the Sydney IOM Meeting in 1998. Please contact Duncan Krause if
you have an interest to serve on the committee or have ideas.
In closing, I would like to thank you for your participation in Division
G activities. A special thanks to Ken Bott and his nomination committee
for their work in developing a slate for our next election. Also, a special
thanks to Ken Waites for his help in obtaining support for our mixer at
the meeting. This is my last Newsletter and soon I will be turning over
the reigns to Duncan. Please continue to give him the support you have given
me this past year so that the Division can remain vibrant and healthy. It
is in all of our best interests. I look forward to seeing you in Miami Beach
in May and in Atlanta in 1998.
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Chris Minion
Chair, Division G