We are proud to announce the Second Annual Advanced Diagnostics for Infectious Disease conference which will highlight novel molecular methods to precisely diagnose microbial infections. The ability to quickly and accurately detect infections
and monitor outbreaks is changing the standard of practice. This year will feature coverage of novel mass spec and sequencing technologies, streamlined sample prep methods, regulation and adoption for these technologies to enter the clinic and greatly
improve patient care.
Scientific Advisory Board
Till T. Bachmann, Ph.D., Reader, Personalised Medicine in Infectious Disease; Deputy Head, Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Matthew Cotten, Ph.D., Senior Staff Scientist, Virus Genomics, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, United Kingdom
TUESDAY, 5 APRIL
8:00 Registration and Morning Coffee
9:00 Chairperson’s Remarks
Till T. Bachmann, Ph.D., Reader, Personalised Medicine in Infectious Disease; Deputy Head, Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
» 9:05 KEYNOTE PRESENTATION: HURRICANE WATCH: USE OF NOVEL TECHNOLOGIES FOR EARLY DETECTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF MULTI-RESISTANT BACTERIA
Ulf B. Göbel, M.D., Ph.D., Director, IMH Charité University Medicine Berlin;
Director, Microbiology Labor Berlin Charité-Vivantes GmbH, Germany
The rapid evolution of antimicrobial resistance and the alarming spread of multi-resistant bacteria represent a major challenge for health care systems worldwide. Early, rapid, accurate and cost-effective detection of phenotypic and/or genotypic
resistance is therefore mandatory to prevent transmission and to initiate appropriate therapy. I am reviewing the latest developments and discussing pros and cons of their implementation from a large hospital laboratory’s perspective.
9:35 Futuristic Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing
Alex van Belkum, Ph.D., F(AAM), Corporate Vice President, Microbiology, bioMérieux,
France
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing is a key technology in clinical microbiology. It helps identify drug resistance and directs patient treatment. Classical methods mostly rely on growth interruption. Many alternatives have been developed including
several which utilize the detection and characterization of nucleic acid molecules. The presentation will review the current methodological state of affairs and will survey those molecular technologies which are considered candidates for ultimate
replacement of the existing methods.
10:05 In vivo Persistence of Human Rhinoviruses Identified by Molecular Typing
Ilka Engelmann, Ph.D., Virology, Lille University, France
10:35 Coffee Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing
11:15 AMR DxC Competition and the Longitude Prize
Till T. Bachmann, Ph.D., Reader, Personalised Medicine in Infectious Disease; Deputy Head,
Division of Infection and Pathway Medicine, College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Worldwide efforts to develop rapid diagnostics to tackle antimicrobial resistance are facing substantial technical and non-technical barriers to innovation. As a consequence, international challenge prizes were launched. The Longitude Prize will reward
a competitor that can develop a transformative point–of–care diagnostic test that will conserve antibiotics for future generations and revolutionise the delivery of global healthcare. AMR DxC, the Antimicrobial Resistance Challenge
competition, will address AMR Diagnostics from an interdisciplinary perspective of the next generation of researchers.
11:45 The Impact of Sequencing as a Routine Clinical Diagnostic for Resistant Organisms
Brian McKeown, Ph.D., Principal Scientist, DNA Electronics, United Kingdom
The treatment of millions of critically-ill patients, and the appropriate use of antibiotics, is still often hampered by the bottleneck of the day(s)-long turnaround time of culture. There remains a need for a broad, versatile diagnostic, which is
far more rapid. This talk will outline some additional solutions being developed to provide rapid, sample-to-result sequencing and highly-multiplexed molecular diagnostics, sensitive enough to operate directly from whole blood or other specimens,
and easy enough to be used in a routine clinical testing environment.
12:15 Enjoy Lunch on Your Own
14:15 Chairperson’s Remarks
Matthew Cotten, Ph.D., Senior Staff Scientist, Virus Genomics, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, United Kingdom
14:20 Outbreak Sequencing of Ebola Virus: The Utility of Phylogenetics for Tracking Virus Transmission Chains
Matthew Cotten, Ph.D., Senior Staff Scientist, Virus Genomics, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute,
United Kingdom
West Africa has experienced the largest known outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in history. The ability to rapidly identify virus sources and chains of transmission is essential for ending the epidemic. We show that local Ebola virus genome sequencing,
(in as little as 24 hours from clinical sample to genome) combined with epidemiological data and a comprehensive database of virus sequences across the outbreak provide powerful tools for identifying sources of new infections and for interrupting
Ebola virus transmission.
14:50 Virus Discovery in Diseases of Unknown Origin
Lia van der Hoek, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Laboratory of Experimental Virology,
Medical Microbiology, Center for Infection and Immunity Amsterdam (CINIMA), Academic Medical Center (AMC), University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Attributing the presence of a new virus to a disease can be a challenge since often the Koch’s postulates cannot be fulfilled. Adding a selection for pathogenic viruses in next generation sequencing virus discovery via an antibody capture step
enhances detection of those viruses to which a patient has developed an antibody response. This selection can justify further research to reveal the causative nature in disease.
15:20 From Months to Hours: Can Molecular TB Diagnostics Replace Phenotypic Tests?
Bouke de Jong, M.D., Ph.D., Head, Mycobacteriology Unit, Institute of Tropical Medicine,
Belgium
Tuberculosis requires concurrent treatment with a minimum of three effective drugs. In the presence of drug resistance, the treatment duration increases from 6 months to 2 years, often with dismal outcome. Resistance testing can take up to 4 months.
While molecular resistance tests have replaced the phenotypic gold standard for rifampicin, for other drugs the clinical relevance of discordant results remains unclear. Novel molecular tests need to resolve the interpretation for clinicians in
order for these tests to impact on patient outcomes.
15:50 Refreshment Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing
16:25 Chairperson’s Remarks
Matthew Cotten, Ph.D., Senior Staff Scientist, Virus Genomics, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, United Kingdom
16:30 Nanopore Sequencing for Microbial Diagnostics – The Perfect Fit?
Justin O’Grady, Ph.D., Lecturer in Medical Microbiology, Norwich Medical School, University
of East Anglia, United Kingdom
We are developing unbiased metagenomic sequencing methods for diagnosing clinical syndromes such as sepsis and UTIs. The biggest challenges to successfully applying these approaches are (1) the presence of large amounts of host DNA and (2) turnaround-time
to results. We are combining novel host depletion techniques with MinION sequencing to make this possible.
17:00 Resolving Molecular Diagnostics Need for Ebola, Advancing Point-of-Care Testing for the West
Sterghios Moschos, Ph.D., Reader and Associate Professor, Biomedical Sciences,
University of Westminster, United Kingdom
The West African Ebola outbreak galvanized academics and biotech internationally to innovate solutions for mass point-of-need testing for category 4 biological agents. The international public-private EbolaCheck consortium has addressed this need
by developing a 5-step, <30 min, portable system that can quantify Ebolavirus in as little as 5 ul of crude biofluids for under US$12 per test. Engineered for West Africa, the technology is now expanding to address differential diagnosis need
for future infectious disease outbreaks and beyond.
17:30 Smear-Negative, Culture Positive TB: Diagnosis Improvement by Xpert MTB/RIF Assay: Evidences and Bologna University Hospital Experiences in Tuberculosis Patients Diagnostics and Follow-up
Valentina Di Gregori, M.D., Medical Epidemiologist Doctor, UO Microbiology, Sant’Orsola Malpighi University Hospital, Italy
Evidences on new diagnostics are upcoming in tubercolosis molecular characterisation. Xpert can induce an advantage in smear negative culture positive recognition of cases during ordinary practice. Even though, on small samples, our experience can
be reported to be implemented on further hospital environment in high contingency and low expenditure conditions.
18:00 Welcome Reception in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing
19:00 Close of Day One
WEDNESDAY, 6 APRIL
8:00 Registration and Morning Coffee
8:40 Chairperson’s Remarks
François Jean, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Scientific Director (FINDER), University of British Columbia, Canada
8:45 Mass Spectrometry-Based Clinical Proteomics for Detection and Absolute Quantitation of Viral Proteins: A Tale of Two Fever-Associated Viruses, Dengue Virus and Ebola Virus
François Jean, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Scientific Director (FINDER), University
of British Columbia, Canada
Dr. Jean’s presentation focuses on the immense potential of multiple reaction monitoring mass spectrometry (MRM-MS) in clinical proteomics with the vision of developing a universal diagnostic test for emerging and re-emerging human viruses.
Dr. Jean will discuss the development and potential downstream applications of his novel MRM-MS assays for early diagnosis of dengue hemorrhagic fever and Ebola viral disease. Dr. Jean’s research program is funded by the Canadian Networks
of Centres of Excellence (IC-IMPACTS) and the British Columbia Proteomics Network.
9:15 Mass Spectrometry for Microbial Identification: A Revolution in Your Laboratory
Victoria Girard, Ph.D., Head, Identification, R&D Microbiology, bioMerieux,
France
Presentation of the principle of mass spectrometry, how the databases are built, what type of organisms can be identified and with which performance. Possibility of typing and other research activities using MALDI TOF MS.
9:45 Homogeneous Protein Biomarker Analysis by Optically Detecting Changes in the Rotational Dynamics of Magnetic Nanorods
Rainer Hainberger, Ph.D., Senior Scientist Health & Environment, Molecular Diagnostics, AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH
10:15 Coffee Break in the Exhibit Hall with Poster Viewing
10:40 Chairperson’s Remarks
François Jean, Ph.D., Associate Professor and Scientific Director (FINDER), University of British Columbia, Canada
10:45 The Pre-Symptomatic Diagnosis of Sepsis in Elective Surgery Patients: Finding Biomarker Signatures in the Transcriptomic Milieu
Roman A. Lukaszewski, Ph.D., DSTL Fellow, CBR Division, Defence Science
& Technology Lab, United Kingdom
The early diagnosis of sepsis remains a challenge that, if overcome, will have considerable impact on patient management and outcome. In this study of the onset of sepsis in elective surgery patients, pre-symptomatic host biomarker signatures
have been identified from patient blood samples that differentiate between those who go on to develop sepsis, SIRS or have an unremarkable recovery.
11:15 Twenty Minute Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases Using a Disposable Handheld Molecular Point-of-Care Test Device
James Mahony, Ph.D., Professor, Pathology & Molecular Medicine; Assistant Dean, Medical
Sciences, McMaster University, Canada
Most point-of-care test (POCT) devices detect antigens or antibody; however, these assays are insensitive compared with nucleic acid detection methods. Therefore there is an urgent need for nucleic acid amplification-based POCT tests for the detection
of infectious diseases. We describe here an instrument-free, hand-held, point-of-need test device that can detect viruses and bacteria on a swab providing an answer in 20 minutes.
11:45 Close of Conference