Editors in Conversation

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.

The launch of ChatGPT three years ago brought the concept of artificial intelligence into the daily conversation. Today, it seems all industries, including lab medicine, are integrating AI with the promise of making our lives easier. How do we best navigate implementing this technology into clinical microbiology? How will it be regulated? … and, what is AI anyway?

Watch this epsiode: https://youtu.be/2B_JJEFJv7I

• Dr. Susan Sharp
• Dr. Kendall Bryant

• Proceedings of the Clinical Microbiology Open 2024: artificial intelligence applications in clinical microbiology
• Diagnosis of Plasmodium infections using artificial intelligence techniques versus standard microscopy in a reference laboratory
• Development and evaluation of an artificial intelligence for bacterial growth monitoring in clinical bacteriology

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.

The Journal of Clinical Microbiology has a great tradition of publishing mini-reviews on topics that are important to the clinical microbiology community. Minireviews provide "up to the minute" updates on topics pertinent to clinical microbiologists and serve as fabulous training tools for medical professionals, trainees, and researchers across all disciplines. Dr. Humphries and Dr. Ledeboer discuss what makes a great mini-review, and their favorite mini-reviews published in JCM.

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/sXOrfTkoDGM

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).

Editors in conversation is supported by the American Society for Microbiology, which publishes JCM. 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 https://asm.org/joinasm.

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

Subscribe to the podcast at https://asm.org/eic

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the largest threats to global public health, compromising all other advances in modern medicine. At the forefront of detecting AMR is the clinical laboratory. However, walk into any clinical microbiology laboratory today and you will find this important task being accomplished using techniques that barely evolved from the methods proposed by Alexander Fleming, nearly 100 years ago. Bacteria are exposed to antimicrobials, in an in vitro culture system, and growth inhibition is measured after overnight incubation. In the time of laboratory automation, molecular testing and artificial intelligence – are we ready for an antimicrobial susceptibility testing revolution? What are the technologies that might get us there?

• Dr. Daniel Rhodes
• Dr. Jacob Rattin

https://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jcm.00674-25

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) and Elitza (Elli) Theel, Ph.D., D(ABMM). JCM is available at jcm.asm.org. 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.

Measles is becoming an important public health problem and it is important to recognize and understand the origins of this problem and how it can affect the population of our country. At the same time, it is critical to have updated and scientifically accurate information on the clinical presentations, risk factors and countermeasures. Today, we will discuss this topic with experts in field.

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/oQDaa8J9v5w

Topics:

• Define measles as an important public health threat • Explain the origin of the epidemic • Accurate information on countermeasures and strategies to tackle this outbreak.

Guests:

- Hana Mohammed El Sahly, M.D. Professor, Kyle and Josephine Morrow Chair, Department of Medicine, Molecular Virology and Microbiology; Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) Baylor College of Medicine Houston, TX US.

- Natasha B. Halasa M.D., M.P.H. Craig Weaver Professor of Pediatrics, Vanderbilt Institute for Infection, Immunology and Inflammation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville Tennessee

This episode is brought to you by the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy journal available at https://asm.org/aac.

If you plan to publish in AAC, ASM Members get up to 50% off publishing fees. Visit https://asm.org/joinasm to sign up.

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

Follow Cesar on twitter at https://twitter.com/SuperBugDoc for AAC updates.

Subscribe to the podcast at https://asm.org/eic

With Alex's departure to new pastures, which include things like being the incoming President of ASM, we now have a new JCM Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Romney Humphries! Dr. Humphries is currently Director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Director of the Microbiology Laboratory at Vanderbilt University, as well as a Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology. She is an absolute powerhouse in the AST world as we all know, and as of this month, is the new Editor in Chief of JCM. In this episode, we find out Dr. Humphries's vision and new ideas for the Journal and where she'd like to see JCM go over the next few years.

Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/xkyUb6zE9X4

• Romney Humphries, Ph.D., D(ABMM), M(ASCP)

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

A common description of antibiotic action aims to classify them between "bactericidal" or "bacteriostatic". Although these phenomena have robust in vitro foundations, the clinical translation of these concepts is sometimes difficult to ascertain. This controversial topic has important conceptual ramifications to treat severe infections. Today, we will discuss this topic with an expert in field.

Watch the video version here: https://youtu.be/3z4BItBrzbk

• The definitions of "cidal" vs "static" antibiotics
• The clinical applicability of the above terms in terms of antibiotic choice and syndromatic approaches
• antibiotic choices and the controversy between bactericidal and bacteriostatic antibiotics.

• Brad Spellberg, MD. Chief Medical Officer at the Los Angeles General Medical Center

• ASM and IDSA launch the Interdisciplinary Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation (IMARI) in 2026
• Watch this session on YouTube

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.

Oversight and guidance for performing antibiotic susceptibility testing can be bewildering. There is an alphabet soup of agencies and bodies involved: FDA, CLSI, and USCAST, to name a few here in the US. How does the Food and Drug Administration, which has regulatory authority over AST, work with a nimble group like the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute?

• Romney Humphries, Ph.D., D(ABMM), M(ASCP)
• Patricia Simner, Ph.D., D(ABMM)

• Major updates to FDA-recognized Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute breakpoints are a win for the fight against antimicrobial resistance
• 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

In the last decade, there have been major changes in the approach of the treatment of pneumonia, in particular, with the availability of new diagnostic tools. Additionally, new drugs have been approved for the treatment of pneumonia. We discuss the approach to the management of pneumonia with a person who has spent most of his professional career working on this topic.

• Definitions and nomenclature of pneumonia and evolution of these terms
• Changes in the diagnosis of pneumonia
• Ttherapeutic changes and future approaches for the treatment of pneumonia.

• Daniel M Musher, M.D.

• ASM and IDSA launch the Interdisciplinary Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation (IMARI) in 2026

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.

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