Programme Details:
http://www.asainc.net.au/meeting

Important Dates:
Abstract Submission Deadline: Friday 3rd December 2010
Abstract Notification: Friday 10th December 2010
Early Bird Registration Deadline: Friday 17th December 2010
Accommodation Deadline: Friday 21st January 2011

Meeting Website:
Registration and Accommodation
www.antimicrobials2011.com

Abstract Submissions:
Abstracts must be submitted to the ASA by e-mail (info@asainc.net.au) by Friday 3rd December 2010. Hardcopy submissions will not be accepted. The abstract word limit is 350 words which does not include the abstract title, authors or institution. One table or figure in the abstract is permitted. Please nominate your presentation preference (oral or poster). Please note oral presentations cannot be guaranteed. Presentation format will be decided by the ASA Committee. Accepted abstracts will be eligible for early bird registration.

Travel Awards:
ASA has made funds available for travel awards to assist Members wanting to attend the Society's annual scientific meeting. Awards are made to ASA financial members presenting a proffered paper (oral or poster) at the meeting. Applicants must have current ASA membership and must have been ASA member for at least the last 12 months. Recipients of an Award are required to write a report on the meeting for the ASA Newsletter. The awards consists of a return economy airfare, accommodation and conference registration up to the value of AUD2,000. ASA members who wish to apply for this award are invited to submit their application to the ASA Secretary Despina Kotsanas at info@asainc.net.au. The application should include a copy of the abstract and for an abstract with more than one author, a letter stating the relative contribution of the applicant towards the research.

The ASA Executive congratulates Christopher Blyth from the University of Western Australia for being awarded the 2010 ASA AstraZeneca Travel Award.

The award, which consists of return economy airfare, accommodation and conference registration up to the value of AU$5,000 will enable Christopher to present his abstract "Bacterial and Viral Coinfections in Severe Influenza Infections 2009" at the next ICAAC meeting.

The conference will be held in Boston, United States of America from the 12th to 15th September 2010. Further details on the meeting can be found on the ICAAC website (www.icaac.org).

The ASA Executives wishes to thank Murray Green and AstraZeneca for their continuing support of the Award and the Society

The ASA Executive congratulates Kyra Chua from Austin Health for being awarded the ASA International Symposium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections (ISSSI) Travel Scholarship.

The scholarship, which consists of return economy airfare, accommodation and conference registration up to the value of AU$5,000 will enable Kyra to present her abstract "Understanding Increased Virulence of ST93-MRSA-IV, A Unique Australian Clone of Community Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus" at the next ISSSI.


The symposium will be held in Bath, United Kingdom from the 6th to 9th September 2010. Further details on the meeting can be found on the ISSSI website (www.isssi2010.com).

The Australian Society for Antimicrobials congratulates Dr Benjamin Howden, for receiving a commendation in the Victorian 2010 Victorian Premier's Award for Health and Medical Research.

Dr Howden received $8,000 and a certificate for his work from the Premier of Victoria at a recent ceremony at Government House.

Dr Howden has been investigating how and why Staphylococcus aureus, has become resistant to antibiotics, including vancomycin.

Using a combination of techniques, including high throughput whole genome sequencing, Dr Howden has shown that resistance can occur in patients being treated for serious Staphylococcus aureus infections by the bacteria developing only minor genetic changes. He also found that the bacteria are developing ways to evade the human immune system.

The findings are resulting in the development of new patient management strategies to improve outcomes in the treatment of serious Staphylococcus aureus infections.

Dr Howden is an infectious disease physician at Austin Health and an Honorary Senior Fellow at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne.

He completed his PhD at the Department of Microbiology, Monash University. He is establishing his own staphylococcal research group at Austin Health and within the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne.

He has been published extensively and was invited to review this entire research area in Clinical Microbiology Review.

He has presented his work internationally and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia and the Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

The Premier's Award for Health and Medical Research is an initiative of the Victorian Government and the Australian Society for Medical Research and is presented annually to an outstanding Victorian postgraduate health or medical researcher scholar.

The Australian Society for Antimicrobials (ASA) congratulates Dr Paul Ingram for being awarded the 2010 bioMerieux ASA Identifying Resistance Travel Award for his "Antimicrobial 2010" presentation "Detection of AmpC Beta-lactamases Using a Novel Etest Strip"

This Award is presented to an ASA Member on the basis of a proffered paper (oral or poster) presented during the ASA's Annual Scientific Meeting dealing with the identification of antimicrobial resistance in a routine clinical setting.

The Award consists of AU$1000 cash prize, a commemorative plaque, and the provisions of flights, accommodation and registration for the recipient to attend "Antimicrobials 2011" in Melbourne (Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th February 2011)

The ASA Executive thanks Noel Wentworth and bioMerieux for once again providing this award.

A copy of Paul's poster and many of the other "Antimicrobials 2010" presentations will be available shortly in the Members' Area of the ASA website (www.asainc.net.au)

ICAAC
Boston, United States of America
12 - 15 September 2010
Online Abstract Submission closes 7 May 2010
Website: http://www.icaac.org

This award is for attendance at the 50th Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) in Boston (12 - 15 September 2010). The award consists of return economy airfare, accommodation and conference registration up to the value of AUD5,000.

Applicants must have current ASA membership and must have been an ASA member for at least the last 12 months. The Award is conditional upon the abstract being accepted by the ICAAC program committee for presentation (oral or poster). In addition the recipient of the Award is required to write a report on the meeting for the ASA Newsletter.

ASA members who wish to apply for this award are invited to submit their application to the ASA Secretary Despina Kotsanas at info@asainc.net.au. before Friday 7 May 2010. The application should include a copy of the ICAAC abstract and for abstracts with more than one author, a letter stating the relative contribution of the applicant towards the research.

The Australain Society of Antimicrobials once again thanks AstraZeneca Australia for providing this award.

The Australian Society for Antimicrobials wishes to acknowledge the following companies for becoming Foundation (Sustaining) Members of the Society

Janssen-Cilag
Novartis
GlaxoSmithKline
AstraZeneca
Bayer Australia
Becton Dickinson
bioMerieux Australia
Immuno
Merck Sharp and Dohme
Pfizer Australia
ThermoFisher Scientific Products (Oxoid Australia)

Foundation Members websites can be located in the Foundation (Sustaining) Members section of the ASA webpage

Staphylococcal sepsis remains a significant healthcare problem worldwide, both in the community and in hospital practice. The literature demonstrates that outcomes are suboptimal for some cases of invasive staphylococcal infection. Factors known to impact on outcomes include resistance, especially methicillin resistance, and toxin production such as TSST-1 and PVL.

To understand the local epidemiology of severe Staphylococcus aureus disease in Australia and New Zealand a cooperative, under the auspices of the Australian Society for Antimicrobials, has been established; the Australian New Zealand Cooperative on Outcomes in Staphylococcal Sepsis (ANZCOSS).

The Australian Society for Antimicrobials Committee congratulate the following ASA Members for being awarded an ASA Travel Award to attend Antimicrobials 2010 in Sydney (25 - 27 February 2010):

Stephen Tristram. University of Tasmania, Australia.
Screening and Identifying BLNAR and BLPACR Strains of H. influenzae.

Natasha Holmes. Austin Health, Australia.
Vancomycin Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) in Australian Staphylococcus aureus Bactaeraemia (SAB) - An Australian and New Zealand Cooperative on Outcomes in Staphylococcal Sepsis (ANZCOSS) Substudy.

Steven Tong. Menzies School of Health Research, Australia.
Molecular Detection of the H275Y Oseltamivir Resistance Mutation in Influenza A/H1N1 2009 by Step-Down RT-PCR and SYBR Green High-Resolution Melting Analysis.

The next International Symposium on Staphylococci and Staphylococcal Infections (ISSSI) will be held in Bath in the United Kingdom in September 2010.

The website www.isssi2010.com will be made live in June 2009.

ASA will be providing a travel scholarship preferably to a PhD student or an advanced trainee who will be presenting at the meeting.

The scholarship consists of return economy airfare, accommodation and conference registration up to the value of AU$5,000.

Applicants must have current ASA membership and must have been a member for at least the last 12 months. The scholarship is restricted to Australian and New Zealand ASA financial members and is conditional upon the abstract being accepted by the ISSSI2010 program committee for presentation (oral or poster). In addition the recipient of the scholarship is required to write a report on the meeting for the ASA Newsletter .

Eligible ASA members who wish to apply for this scholarship are invited to submit their application to the ASA Secretary Despina Kotsanas at info@asainc.net.au. The application should include a copy of their abstract and for abstracts with more than one author, a letter stating the relative contribution of the applicant towards the research.