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5th Advances Against Aspergillosis
This conference series began in 2004 and at its last meeting attracted 533 doctors & scientists from 49 countries. The last meeting in Rome in 2010 was also used to record a series of lectures aimed at patients, and those lectures have now been viewed by tens of thousands of people across the globe with many more downloading and viewing the podcasts. The 5th Advances Against Aspergillosis hopes to be the most successful yet and opened its call for abstracts in March 2011, so there is plenty of time to get involved! The conference will be located in Istanbul, Turkey and take place on 26-28th January 2012. Latest News and Articles
BEI are extending their valuable (free of charge to the research community, funded by NIAID) standardised and quality assured strain & reagent resources to include Aspergillus and other medically important microbes. Submit your strains & requests here. In addition they will be providing services intended to provide new reagents e.g. antibodies, recombinant proteins. The Fungal Research Trust is 20 years old this year and plan to celebrate with a meeting for researchers and patients at the Medical Society of London (close to Oxford Circus Underground Station) on the 18th June 2011. There will be a patients meeting in the afternoon but everyone is also welcome to attend the morning session when we will be able to listen to a series of research talks given by people who have had research funded by the FRT. SET Awards 2011: get recognition for your research and your researchers from a wider audience including major professional societies and commerical companies You've never had it so good. Our blog discusses the recent record approval rating by the public for the National Health Service in the UK. Articles: There have been 73 additions to the Articles section (68 full papers), of which 7 are reviews and 7 historical. We have picked out a few of the highlights here: An array of oligonucleotides that can quickly and accurately identify 21 airborne fungi that may cause health problems. The array consists of a panel of short DNA sequences that are species specific and are fixed to a nylon substrate. Hybridisation of PCR amplified DNA fragments derived from mould samples to the panel provides a rapid and cheap method of assessing which fungi are present . Given the ease and accuracy with which this can now be done it is possible the research on the effect of fungi on human health will progress more rapidly. Genetic susceptibility to aspergillosis in allogeneic stem-cell transplantation Patients who are rendered highly vulnerable to infection after transplant operations were thought ot be mainly at risk because of the severe immunosuppression they have undergone. In practise we find that not all such patients are equally vulnerable - many do not develop a fungal infection at all - so the authors of this paper have assessed other factors influencing vulnerability, including the inherited genetic susceptibilities of the patient. Aside from improving the treatment of the patient e.g. more resources could be devoted to the more vulnerable patients, it is possible that this research may be able to identify better donors i.e. select donors who have an innate resistance to invasive aspergillosis and use their stem cells to improve the resistance to fungal infection of the recipient. Primary diagnostic approaches of invasive aspergillosis - molecular testing The use of molecular techniques involving the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) has emerged as a strong contendor to speed up diagnosis of invasive aspergillosis thanks to its extreme sensitivity in detecting what tiny amounts of fungi there may be in a clinical sample, and the speed with which it can generate a result. However it is as yet unfortunately not accepted as a standard technique, and this paper discusses why and what needs to be done to maximise its realised potential. Effects of omalizumab in Aspergillus-associated airway disease Standard treatment for Aspergillus allergic diseases (ABPA), some asthma, is the administration of corticosteroids. Unfortunately there are many serious sideeffects of the use of corticosteroids in the long term so alternatives are needed. Omalizumab has been widey approved for use in severe asthma and has had success in reducing steroid dose. This paper looks at several very positive outcomes noted so far when using this new drug to treat Aspergillus allergic diseases. ReviewsClinical risk factors for invasive aspergillosis There is an emergence of non-traditional groups at risk for Invasive Aspergillosis (IA), including intensive care unit (ICU) patients, post-operative patients, those with chronic pulmonary diseases, patients with AIDS and patients on immunomodulating drugs (TNF- α inhibitors). Identification of clinical risk factors for IA may help in determining which patients require risk modification and other prevention measures. Drug-drug interactions by azole antifungals: Beyond a dogma of Alternate pathways for drug interaction other than CYP3A4 are explored including receptor agonism/antagonism and transcription activators: pregnane X receptor (PXR) and glutocorticoid receptor (GR) respectively. One suggestion is that interactions between azoles and GR/PXR may also have far wider effects physiologically than generally appreciated. Air QualityThe UK government Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has published its latest conclusions on the health effects of industrial scale composting - both to workers and residents living nearby. Historical ArticlesTreatment of pulmonary aspergilloma with Amphotericin B by H Ikemoto, 1965 Spontaneous lysis of a secondary aspergilloma / Laboratory ProtocolsWe are always looking for more for our collection - please send your suggestions here Conferences - coming up
Call for abstracts: 5th Advances Against Aspergillosis 26-28 January 2012 Istanbul, Turkey - Abstracts deadline September 27 2011. Joint ECCMID/ICC Congress May 7-10 2011, Milan, Italy American Thoracic Society International Conference May 13-18 2011, Denver, CO, USA 111th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology May 21-24, New Orleans, LA, USA Cellular and Molecular Fungal Biology Gordon Research Conference, June 17 - 22 2012, New Hampshire, USA.
Applications for this meeting must be submitted by May 20, 2012. Please apply early, as some meetings become oversubscribed (full) before this deadline. Patients (Patients website)Notes & slides from the latest Aspergillosis Patients meeting at the National Aspergillosis Centre (NAC) are available to watch here. The new sound system was a great success with one comment from a remote listener that it was now 'just as good as being in the same room as the speaker'. We are now also able to text chat with remote participants as the meeting is running allowing remote users to ask the speaker questions. The talk was given by Caroline Moore & Nicola Duddy of the Regional Mycology Centre here at the National Aspergillosis Centre. The subject was on techniques used to identify Aspergillus species & establish which antifugal drug was appropriate to use for each patient and the importance of maitaining appropriate drug levels during treatment. Watch a recording of the talk here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/aspergillosis-patients-meeting Himalayan 100 mile stage race
Please donate in memory of Steph and in appreciation of this huge effort by Lewis & Aaron. £841 donated already - many thanks to everyone who contributed. Don't forget to order your weekly shopping through our buy.at store - there are dozens of High Street stores to choose from and you will be donating to the Fungal Research Trust at no cost to yourselves!
Fungal Research Trust 20th AnniversaryThe Fungal Research Trust are going to hold a second meeting for patients outside of Manchester in London on 18th June 2011. If you are interested in attending as a patient or carer suffering from aspergillosis please let us know Email A patient volunteer is making & selling handmade cards for birthdays in aid of the Fungal Research Trust. 6 cards for £6 and 75% of that goes to the FRT. Order here. JobsEleven jobs are currently being advertised:
Advertise your vacancy free of charge on the Aspergillus Website here. *Optional donation to the Fungal Research Trust to cover costs incurred in providing this newsletter. Courses and WorkshopsWe keep a listing of courses and workshops including 'one off' events and courses that repeat regularly. Course subjects are wide ranging and include medical mycology, lab ID, young scientists symposia and much more. Those coming up next are:
If you know of a course that should be added to this list please add it by contacting us here VeterinaryAspergillus fumigatus Bronchopneumonia in a Hellenic Shepherd Dog A 3 yr old intact female Hellenic shepherd dog was referred due to depression, partial anorexia, fever, and a mild productive cough of 2 months duration. Itraconazole was administrated for 5.5 months and the dog was clinically normal 26 months after surgery. NB Vets in the UK in need of assistance with acquiring antifungals please contact us here Blog
Latest Books Lecture Notes: Respiratory Medicine by Stephen J. Bourke NB Use these links to support the Fungal Research Trust
Recent Theses
Antifungal activity of lactic acid bacteria: Factors affecting production and stability of antifungal compounds of Lactobacillus plantarum, and effects of the antifungal compounds on growth and aflatoxin production by Aspergillus spp. by Andreia Bianchini, University of Nebraska, 2010. Link (Registration required) Bacteria and fungi associated with red imported fire ants Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) and mounds in Mississippi, and their potential use as biological control agents by Sandra Winia Woolfolk, Mississippi State University, 2010 Link (Registration Required) Technical TipsOur discussion group (email and/or website) designed to promote discussion on technical issues for laboratory workers. Searching for Aspergillus Information
RSSDownload our updates and articles automatically every time we add to those pages- no need to wait for the next newsletter. 40 000 pages accesses per month. Use RSS. You can now receive notification of updates to the Aspergillus Website on your mobile phone via SMS texting free of charge. Go to http://twitter.com/AspergillusWeb and open a Twitter account. Follow AspergillusWeb. 105 already follow AspergillusWeb. If your network does not support Twitter SMS and you have a smartphone you can still monitor our messages over 3G or Wifi via free software and apps installed on your phone Facebook CausesThe Fungal Research Trust have a Facebook Causes page. Give your support to the cause here. Join the Aspergillus & Aspergillosis group to get in touch and keep in touch with your professional colleagues working in this field. All free of charge. Thanks for reading!Visit our website again soon. The Aspergillus Team. |
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