Vertical Transmission

I am excited to share news about our upcoming national conference in Brisbane over 1–4 July 2024, which I hope is on your travel agenda. The program can be viewed online on the ASM website and I encourage you to take a look at the breadth and quality of speakers and topics at the conference (see https://asmicro-2024.p.asnevents.com.au/). Congratulations to the Local Organising and Scientific Program Committees for putting together a fabulous list of plenary speakers including Prof. Mario Feldman (Washington University in Saint Louis, USA), Prof. Joanna Goldberg (Emory University, USA), Dr Marie Chattaway (UK Health Security Agency, UK), Assoc. Prof. Marco Vignuzzi (Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore) and Prof. Kelly Wrighton (Colorado State University, USA), as well as our orators Prof. Mark Walker (Distinguished Award Orator, Institute for Molecular Bioscience, The University of Queensland, Australia), Prof. Matthias Boll (Rubbo Orator, Institute of Biology, University of Freiburg, Germany) and Prof. Jessica Blair (Snowden Lecturer, University of Birmingham, UK). What a fantastic line-up! Our national conference will kick-off with an Industry session. Also included will be symposium sessions on diverse themes in microbiology, award lectures, Nancy Millis student award talks, the Nancy Millis mentoring program, networking sessions, interactive poster sessions, Special Interest Group workshops and the LARGEST Trade display we have ever seen at an ASM national conference. If that isn’t enough, we will also be running our CliniCon (https://www.theasmmeeting.org.au/clinicon) and EduCon (https://www.theasmmeeting.org.au/educon) meetings. I do hope you can make it!

Continuing this conference theme, I would like to emphasise a commitment from our Executive to support ‘all meetings’ microbiology held in Australia. Our preferred model of support is to offer discounted registration to ASM members attending a microbiology conference, so if you are planning a meeting please contact our national office to discuss this further. This year, we have already provided this type of support to the following conferences – Viruses of Microbes 2024 (15–19 July 2024, Cairns, Qld, Australia, see https://www.vom2024.org), 10th World Melioidosis Congress (21–23 October 2024, Darwin, NT, Australia, see https://www.wmc2024.org.au), APCOP-V 2024 – the 5th Asian Congress of Protistology held jointly with the 38th Annual Meeting of the Australasian Society for Phycology and Aquatic Botany (ASPAB) (4–6 November 2024, Brisbane, Qld, Australia, https://protist-au.org), and Biomolecular Horizons 2024, which brings together three prestigious congresses, the 26th Congress of the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUBMB), the 17th Congress of the Federation of Asian & Oceanian Biochemists & Molecular Biologists (FAOBMB) and the 22nd ComBio Conference (ComBio) (22–26 September 2024, Melbourne, Vic., Australia, https://www.bmh2024.com). For a full list of ASM Conferences and events coming up this year please check out our webpage (https://www.theasm.org.au/conferences-and-events).

I am thrilled to announce two early–mid career researcher (EMCR) papers in this issue of Microbiology Australia.^1,2 We have launched this new initiative in our journal to feature EMCR Highlights in research. This opportunity is open to all EMCRs in our membership and provides an opportunity to communicate your expertise in a senior or corresponding author role. I encourage all EMCRs to look at these articles and consider if you could do something similar. It’s a great way to demonstrate your emerging national leadership in microbiology and adds value to your CV. If you are interested in contributing an EMCR Highlight article, please contact anyone on our Microbiology Australia editorial board (https://www.publish.csiro.au/ma/EditorialStructure).

Finally, I hope to see you in Brisbane at the national conference!