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Infectious Diseases
Subdivision Report
On
behalf the Infectious Disease Subdivision, Chair-elect
Randy Hayden and I would like to thank Rick Nolte
for his outstanding leadership in 2008-2009. From program
development to abstract evaluation, Rick demonstrated a
commitment to AMPs leadership in molecular diagnostics for
infectious diseases applications, and his efforts were
rewarded by highly informative and effective sessions at the
Annual Meeting. We also wish to extend our gratitude
to outgoing Clinical Practice Committee representative
Belinda Yen-Lieberman, Nominating Committee
representative Randy Hayden, and Training and
Education Committee Representative Matt Bankowski for
their service during the year. Our 2010 Committee
Representatives are Donna Wolk and Jeff Wisotzkey
(Clinical Practice Committee), Jeanne Carr and
Preeti Pancholi (Nominating Committee), and Carol
Holland and Janice Matthews-Greer (Training and
Education Committee).
Randy
and I are in the midst of the final stages of the
preparation for the 2010 Meeting in San Jose, CA. In the
Plenary Session we are proposing to focus on the impact of
pathogen discovery techniques, specifically broad-range PCR,
in defining or re-defining the etiologic basis for two
infectious conditions: 1) Whipples disease (admittedly
esoteric but on the differential diagnosis of myriad
conditions), and 2) Bacterial vaginosis, an exceedingly
common but poorly understood condition, the etiology of
which has been redefined by PCR and high-throughput
sequencing. In the Infectious Diseases Workshop we propose
to focus on verification, validation and implementation of
quantitative nucleic acid detection methods, an important
area for those of you offering viral load testing.
Additional infectious-diseases related topics will likely
appear at other times during the Meeting; details to follow. |
