Vertical Transmission

Greetings everyone. I hope you are adjusting to the transition of our Microbiology Australia journal to a digital only online format. I have had several queries about this and would like to re-emphasise this was not an easy decision and was driven largely by the prohibitive costs associated with maintaining the print version of our journal. As mentioned in my previous Vertical Transmission, our Executive Committee is working closely with CSIRO Publishing to smooth out any issues and ensure a seamless transition; however, please contact me if you have any concerns or difficulty accessing the online journal (admin@theasm.com.au). One option available to you is to download the entire journal pdf file, then browse the contents on your device at your convenience.

In a connected development, I am thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr John Atack as the new Chair of our ASM Publications Standing Committee. John is a research group leader at the Institute for Biomedicine and Glycomics at Griffith University, and you can read his short introductory statement in this issue.¹ John will work with our Microbiology Australia editor Ian Macreadie and the expert editorial board (see https://www.publish.csiro.au/ma/EditorialStructure) to maintain the high quality of our journal. It is important to reassure you again that the content of Microbiology Australia will not change, and will continue to feature research articles and reviews, as well as updates and news on ASM affairs. I am excited to see how these and other initiatives for Microbiology Australia develop under John’s leadership.

I would like to take this opportunity to remind you about our Visiting Speaker Program (VSP). This is a fantastic ASM initiative where we fund local travel and accommodation for international experts visiting Australia to give talks in different cities around the country. Our ASM State Branches play a role in hosting the speaker and providing engagement opportunities for our membership. Some of you may have met Prof. Leo Eberl from the University of Zurich, our most recent visiting speaker. Leo gave eight ASM sponsored talks around the country and is a perfect example of what can be done with this program. Next up in our VSP we have Dr Jessica Thompson, a senior editor of Nature Microbiology. Jess will be attending the national conference in Adelaide, but after this will give talks and be available for meetings with ASM members in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne. If you have a visitor coming to your lab who you think could fit our VSP please reach out to your State Branch chair to discuss opportunities.

Our national conference in Adelaide is approaching fast and I hope you are planning to attend (14–17 July). The program can be viewed online on the ASM website and I encourage you to check out the breadth and quality of speakers and topics at the conference. Congratulations to the Local Organising and Scientific Program Committees for putting together a fabulous list of plenary speakers including Dr Sonja Best (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, USA), Prof. Ryo Honda (Kanazawa University, Japan), Prof. Helen Zgurskaya (University of Oklahoma, USA), Prof. Wenhong Zhang (Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, PR China) and Prof. Anton Peleg (Monash University, Australia), as well as our orators Prof. Tim Stinear (Distinguished Award Orator, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne, Australia) and Prof. Julie Bines (Rubbo Orator, The University of Melbourne). Our national conference will also include symposium sessions on diverse themes in microbiology, award lectures, Nancy Millis student award talks, the Nancy Millis mentoring program, networking sessions, interactive poster sessions and Special Interest Group workshops. Our conference continues to grow, highlighted by enormous interest from industry that has meant we will again break a record for our trade display exhibits and sponsorship. If that isn’t enough, we will also be running our CliniCon and EduCon meetings and these are shaping up as meetings not to miss.

I hope to see you in Adelaide at the national conference!