Vincent, Michael, Elio, and Joe review highlights of the 15th International Symposium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections (ISSSI) in Lyon, France.
Vincent and Michael travel to San Francisco for the 52nd Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), where they meet with Bill, John, and Victor to discuss tuberculosis, monitoring infectious disease outbreaks with online data, and outside-the-box approaches to antibacterial therapy.
Vincent and Stanley meet with Waclaw Szybalski and John Kirby at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory on the occasion of its designation as a Milestones in Microbiology site. They reminisce about how the well known laboratory has advanced the science and teaching of microbiology, and discuss John’s work on the soil dwelling, predatory myxobacteria.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio review chapters from Microbes and Evolution, a collection of short, personal essays by microbiologists.
Vincent, Jo, Michael, and Elio review an outbreak of pertussis in Washington, and how culturing can reveal rare members of the soil biosphere.
Vincent, Jo, Michael, and Elio discuss two examples of dynamic microbial symbioses that switch between mutualistic and pathogenic states.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio explore the origin of Mycoplasma pathogens of ruminants, and share their thoughts on the recent ASM General Meeting.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio review necrotizing fasciitis, and a link between surface remodeling in gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
Vincent, Michael, and Elio discuss changing populations of Emiliania huxleyi and their viruses in the North and Black Seas.
Vincent, Michael, and Ivo review the requirement for segmented, filamentous bacteria for the induction of a specific type of helper T cell in the gut.