Previous Conferences

Since its inception, we have held nine international conferences on gram-positive pathogens, with each iteration designed to highlight difference themes or concepts, as well as host distinguished speakers and varied activities.

2024 Conference

Program

Guest speakers

• JD Sauer, PhD, Associate Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health
  "Listeria monocytogenes: How to survive and thrive in the macrophage cytosol"
• Kumaran Ramamurthi, PhD, Senior Investigator, National Institutes of Health
  "Orthogonal cell division in Staphylococcus aureus: a fifty-year-old mystery"
• Jodi Lindsay, PhD, Professor, St. George’s, University of London
  "Evolution and epidemiology of Staphylococcus aureus: horizontal gene transfer in action"
• Bas Surewaard, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Calgary
  "Unlocking Therapeutic Potential: Intravital Imaging Sheds Light on Novel Treatments for Staphylococcal Infections"

2022 Conference

Program

Guest speakers

• Jose Lemos, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Florida College of Dentistry. Gainesville, FL
  "Therapeutic potential of a novel P-type ATPase that protects Streptococcus mutans from zinc intoxication"
• Shonna McBride, PhD, Associate Professor, Emory University School of Medicine. Atlanta, GA
  "Discovery of a mechanism linking sporulation, toxin, and motility in Clostridioides difficile"
• Andreas Peschel, PhD, Professor, University of Tübingen. Tübingen, Germany
  "How staphylococci balance commensal vs. pathogen lifestyles"
• Wilmara Salgado Pabón, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison, WI
  "Anti-angiogenic effects of Staphylococcus aureus superantigens: targeting vascular regeneration to promote disease"

2018 Conference

Program

Guest Speakers

• Dr. Juliane Bubeck-Wardenburg, Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Pediatrics Critical Care Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO
  "S. aureus a-toxin -- Architect of Long Term Health Outcomes in the Host?"
• Dr. Vincent Fischetti, Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Bacterial pathogenesis and Immunology at Rockefeller University
  "Exploiting phage evolution for the development of novel therapeutics"
• Dr. Anat Herskovits, Professor and member of the George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences at Tel Aviv University
  "Bacteria phage cooperation during mammalian infection"
• Dr. Eric G. Pamer, Professor and Hon. Head of the Division of Subspecialty Medicine, Enid A. Haupt Chair in Clinical Investigation and Director of the Center for Microbes, Inflammation & Cancer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
  "Microbiota-mediated suppression of Enterococcus faecium in the lower intestinal tract"

2016 Conference

Program

Guest speakers

• Dr. Ken Bayles, Professor and Associate Vice Chancellor for Basic Science Research, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE
  "Staphylococcus aureus biofilm development and the origins of multicellularity"
• Dr. Gary Dunny, Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Minnesota in St. Paul, MN
  "Sensing, adaptation and competitive fitness in E. faecalis"
• Dr. Borden Lacy, Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, TN
  "Structures and functions of the Clostridium difficile toxins, TcdA and TcdB"
• Dr. Shiranee Sriskandan, Professor and Hon. Consultant of Infectious Diseases at the Imperial College Faculty of Medicine in Hammersmith Hospital, London, England
  "Explaining disease phenotype: lessons from Streptococcus pyogenes"

2014 Conference

Program

Guest speakers

• Dr. Andrew Camilli, Professor and Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator in the Department of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at Tufts University in Boston
  "High throughput genetic analysis of Streptococcus pneumoniae virulence and desiccation tolerance"
• Dr. Kelly Doran, Associate Professor in the Department of Biology at San Diego State University
  "Microbial Warfare: Domestic and Foreign Policy"
• Dr. Bruno Dupuy, Associate Professor and Laboratory Head of the Bacterial Anaerobes Section at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
  "Control of Clostridium difficile virulence factors by metabolism"
• Dr. Jean Lee, Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Microbiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Cambridge, MA
  "Prevention of staphylococcal infections by glycoprotein vaccines synthesized in E. coli"

2012 Conference

Program

Guest speakers

• Michael S. Gilmore, Harvard Medical School, Boston
  "The Enterococci: From Gut Commensals to Leading Causes of Hospital Acquired Infection"
• Friedrich Götz, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
  "Physiology of staphylococcal biofilm and in vitrosimulation of high antibiotic resistant subpopulations"
• Mary O'Riordan, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor
  "Surviving Intoxication: Host Responses to Membrane Damage by Gram-Positive CDC Toxins"
• Abraham L. Sonenshein, PhD Tufts University, Boston
  "Integration of Metabolism and Virulence in Gram-Positive Bacteria"
• Elaine Toumanen, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN
  "Pneumococcal pathogenesis: From population biology to bacterial/host interactions"

2010 Conference

Program

Special topic
Mechanisms of Gram-positive bacterial pathogenesis and their therapeutic implications

Guest speakers

• Olaf Schneewind, University of Chicago
  "Advances in the use of Gram-positive virulence factors as targets for antibiotic drug discovery and vaccine development"
• Victor Nizet, University of California, San Diego
  "Streptococcal disease, virulence factors and strategies to augment the host’s immune response to combat infection"
• Barbara Murray, University of Texas Health Science Center
  "Enterococcus pathogenesis, mechanisms of antibiotic resistance and ideas regarding circumventing these resistance determinants"
• Richard Novick, New York University Medical Center
  "S. aureus virulence factor regulatory networks and approaches to abate their expression properties"

2008 Conference

Program

Special topic
Antibiotic action and resistance mechanisms

Guest speakers

• Alexander Tomasz, The Rockefeller University
  "Where resistant genes come from: the inventors and the users"
• Debra Bessen, New York Medical College
  "Population biology of antibiotic resistance among group A streptococci"
• Louis Rice, Brown University
  "Class A Penicillin-binging proteins and expression of b-lactam resistance in Enterococcus faecium"
• Kim Lewis, Northeastern University
  "Persister cells: role in pathogenesis and mechanisms of drug tolerance"

2006 Conference

Program

Special topic
Virulence factor regulation

Guest speakers

• Michael Caparon, Washington University
  "The ExPortal of Streptococcus pyogenes"
• Theresa Koehler, The University of Texas Medical Center
  "Virulence gene expression by Bacillus anthracis"
• Nancy Freitag, University of Illinois at Chicago
  "Regulation of the transition of Listeria monocytogenes from environmental bacterium to intracellular pathogen"
• Steven Projan, Novartis
  "Antibacterial drug discovery in the 21st century: has understanding pathogenesis made a difference?"