ASM Nancy Millis Awards Night

The annual ASM Vic Branch Nancy Millis Student Awards were held on Thursday 14th March 2024 at Monash University. This year, 78 attendees (both in person and virtually via zoom) joined us for an fascinating night of talks from our student microbiologists.

The prestigious ASM Nancy Millis Student Award is a long-running prize awarded to the best student presenting research carried out as part of a PhD or Masters by Research, with each State nominating their top representative to speak at the National conference. Following a highly competitive abstract selection process, our six selected finalists were: : Jayson Rose (La Trobe University), Sara Di Simone (Hudson Institute, Monash University), Hanwen (Rex) Hou (MCRI), Hugh Cottingham (Monash University), Sher Main Tan (University of Melbourne, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity) and Leo Kan (Monash University). Our congratulations goes to:

• ASM Nancy Millis award 2nd place: Sara di Simone - Longitudinal culturing of the early life human microbiome reveals temporal and spatial differentiation between the respiratory tract and gut
• ASM Nancy Millis award 1st place: Hugh Cottingham - Characterisation of bacterial pathogens using CRISPR-Cas9 enrichment and Oxford Nanopore sequencing

In addition to the Millis award competition, ASM Vic Branch also awards the VIC Branch Award (for Honours and Masters by Coursework students). This year we had three competitors for this prize: Alexandra Blejusca (University of Melbourne, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity), Georgie Gilmore (Monash University) and Jessica Owen (La Trobe University). We would like to congratulate:

• Vic branch prize: Georgie Gilmore - CdspoCR_R disruption impairs CdSpoCR-mediated cephamycin resistance in Clostridioides difficile

As winners of these awards, Georgie, Sara and Hugh will receive registration to ASM Brisbane 2024, and travel funds for accommodation and flights. Hugh will also present his research in a dedicated symposium session at ASM Brisbane, with the other state winners of the Nancy Millis award.

Congratulations to all students who competed for prizes on the night – all presentations were of extremely high quality, making judging a incredibly difficult task!

It was also our pleasure to present the Undergraduate Academic Student prizes for 2023 on this evening. These awards are presented to the top scoring student from participating Institutions across Victoria, in recognition of their academic achievements in the previous year. Our 2023 winners were:

Federation University

• Year 3 (Science): Samuel Isaac Varjabedian

La Trobe University (Bundoora)

• Year 2 (Science): Laura Viola • Year 3 (Science): Phillip Bottomly

Monash University

• Year 2 (Science): Daniela Lambrechts • Year 3 (Science): Luca Petterlin

RMIT University

• Year 2 (Biomedical Science): Alex Ambrosi • Year 2 (Food Microbiology): Declan Hayton • Year 3 (Medical Microbiology): Maneath Pov • Year 3 (Industrial Biotechnology): Finlay Hayton

The University of Melbourne

• Year 2 (Science): Kayleigh Schroder • Year 2 (Biomedicine): Rithu Tennekoon • Year 3 (Combined): Taylah Phabmixay

ASM Vic Branch would like to acknowledge the contribution of all who made the evening a success, including our judges (Bliss Cunningham, Rhys Dunstan and Rachael Lappan), all our competitors for their outstanding presentations, and of course our audience.

We hope to see you all next year!

Inaugural Mirobial Mixer

The inaugural ASM Vic Branch Microbial Mixer event was held at the Riverland Bar on the 15th Feb 2024. The mixer brought together ~28 microbiology enthusiasts for networking, collaboration and drinks. From seasoned researchers to aspiring students, microbial aficionados exchanged ideas, forged connections, and fostered camaraderie. Stay tuned for future mixers to 'culture' a positive and inclusive microbiology community!

Trivia Night

On 19th September 2023, the Victorian branch of the Australian Society for Microbiology held its 12th annual Trivia Night at The Imperial Hotel. A total of 7 teams representing the Peter Doherty Institute (PDI), The University of Melbourne, Monash University, La Trobe University, RMIT University, The Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne), and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) competed across 3 rounds of trivia, hosted by FAME trivia company.

Between the three rounds we played table games comprising a 50/50 game and a Microbiology themed “Who (or What) Am I?”. At the end of the night, “That’s Not PC2” won with a whopping 87 points. Second place “HBA (Half Baked Answers)” (74 points) beat third placed “See You Next Tuesday” (73 points) by a single point, which boiled down to the question “What is a 7-letter word that, when you remove 1 letter, becomes 12”. See You Next Tuesday wrote “Dozen” which was the 6-letter word meaning 12, but HBA correctly put down the 7-letter word “Dozens”. In equal fourth place on 70 points was “RCH! RCH!” and “The Kids Table”, fifth place on 66 points was “Cultured Contenders”, and 7th place on 60 points was “McTrying Our Best”.

Public Health Night

Public Health Night 2023 was hosted by the ASM Victorian Branch and held at the Doherty Institute on Monday 28th August,2023. The event was chaired by Professor Ben Howden, Director of the Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory (MDU PHL). Presentations were delivered by five excellent speakers on four public health related topics from the Doherty Institute and the Victorian Department of Health to approximately 45 attendees. Special thanks to Jane Hawkey (Burnet Institute) and Jessica Gu (MDU PHL) for technical assistance on the night.

The speakers who presented were:

Local Public Health Units – expanding the Victorian public health network Dr. Christian McGrath (Vic DH) [Ms Nicole Hughes (Vic DH) in absentia]

Critical antimicrobial resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae Ms Kerrie Stevens (MDU PHL) and Ms Daneeta Henessey (Vic DH)

COVID-19 serosurvey Dr. Joshua Szanyi (Doherty Epidemiology)

Genomic characterisation of Mycoplasma genitalium in Victoria, Australia: exploring connections between lineages and epidemiological data Ms Francesca Azzato (VIDRL)• Certificate

ASM National Meeting

The annual ASM meeting occurred on July 3rd-6th at the Perth Exhibition Building. The conference showcased the research from microbiologists across the nation in fields ranging from molecular microbiology through to translation into the clinic. Throughout the conference many of our Victorian members were presented with awards and shared their work, including our Vic Branch Nancy Millis winner Sally Byers, our ECR oral presentation winner Dr Emily Gulliver, the ASM Distinguished Award Orator Prof. Dena Lyras, and the Rubbo Orator Prof. Julian Rood. Dr Gulliver also went on to receive the national ECR oral presentation award where she will receive a €500 prize from FEMs. Now it’s time to start planning for the next ASM in Brisbane 2024!

News From The Hospitals II

News from the Hospitals was well attended, both in person and online, with six interesting and informative presentations from Monash and Cabrini Hospitals, and Australian Clinical Labs. Infectious Diseases Consultant Dr Sadid Khan of Monash Health was an engaging chair, and bioMerieux was the sponsor for the evening.

The Early Career Microbiology Scientist Award was presented to Megan Van Es from Monash Health for her excellent presentation of a case study titled “A Cryptic Case of HIV”. The abstract describing her work can be read below:

A Cryptic Case of HIV

The patient presented to ED with a 2-day history of fever, headache, photophobia and neck stiffness and a 1-month history of weight loss. He had no past medical history or medications, no significant epidemiological risk factors and no illicit drugs but was sexually active. Routine pathology was found to be normal. Blood cultures were collected, and the patient was discharged from ED after declining a lumbar puncture. His blood culture flagged positive on day 3 with a suspected Cryptococcus in the gram stain. Serum cryptococcal antigen was negative on initial bloods before a positive result four days later with a titre of 1:10. On readmission, CSF was collected and grew Cryptococcus neoformans with an antigen titre of 1:20. All subsequent blood culture and CSF collections were negative for culture. HIV serology was performed and returned a positive result with a viral load of 1.8 million copies/mL and a CD4 count of 84. His diagnosis was advanced HIV with a crypotococcal AIDS-defining illness.

New cases of HIV in Australia are exceedingly rare at 0.1 per 1,000 uninfected individuals and advanced cases of HIV with AIDS progression even fewer given the access to anti-retroviral therapy. Individuals within the heterosexual risk-group more often progress to advanced cases, possibly due to less routine screening and public health campaign targeting.

Urinary Red Cell Morphology Workshop

On Saturday the 3rd of June 2023, a captivating collaborative ASM and AIMS event on urine microscopy took place at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre lecture theatre in Parkville Melbourne. The event held 94 attendees in person and provided comprehensive coverage of various aspects, including red cell morphology and examination of urine sediment. Renowned speakers shared their expertise throughout the day, starting with Dr. Jeffrey Susilo from Sysmex Asia Pacific, who discussed the role of automation in investigating Haematuria and the advancements Sysmex aims to bring to this field. Maureen Jacobson emphasized the importance of continued professional development through APACE accreditation during informative session. We also had a passionate presentation by Dr. Kathy Paizis, a respected Renal Physician, offered insights into renal presentations from a clinician's perspective, highlighting the impact of routine laboratory test results on her work and patient care.

Attendees enjoyed a lively Morning Tea break which also included a networking game that brought participants together to match their name tags featuring pictures of organisms. Retired principal scientist Dr. Peter Ward gave up his Saturday morning to enriched the minds of attendees further by sharing numerous examples of glomerular and non-glomerular red blood cells, focusing on assessing the red cell morphology.

The event concluded with medical scientist Patricia Szczurek from the Austin hospital, who explored various other elements found in urine, such as casts and crystals identification and significance. A fun quiz covering the day's topics added an element of excitement before attendees gathered for a well-deserved lunch. The detailed workshop provided valuable insight while contributing to APACE points for participants. Looking forward to attending the next one.