PODCAST · science
Editors in Conversation
by American Society for Microbiology
Editors in Conversation is the official podcast of the American Society for Microbiology Journals. Editors in Conversation features discussions between ASM Journals Editors, researchers and clinicians working on the most cutting edge issues in the microbial sciences. Topics include laboratory diagnosis and clinical treatment of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, epidemiology of infections, multidrug-resistant organisms, pharmacology of antimicrobial agents, susceptibility testing, and more.The podcast is directed to microbiologists, infectious diseases clinicians, pharmacists and basic, clinical and translational researchers interested in the microbial sciences. A particular emphasis is on basic, epidemiological and pharmacological aspects of infectious diseases, including antimicrobial resistance and therapeutics.
Episodes
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Ebola: Is Your Laboratory Prepared To Handle a Potential Case?
An outbreak of Ebola disease caused by the Bundibugyo virus remains in a period of intense transmission, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Since it's first detection in May, 6757 cases have been confirmed across 6 provinces of the DRC, along with 20 cases in Uganda and one in France (as of...
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Group B Strep After Antibiotics: Survival, Persistence, and Evolution
In this episode of Editors in Conversation mBio edition, Marvin Whiteley speaks with Macy Pell and Shannon Manning about how group B Streptococcus (GBS) responds to antibiotics given during childbirth to prevent newborn infections. GBS can cause serious neonatal disease, and intrapartum…
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Diagnostic Access and Equity
Equitable access to healthcare, and more specifically diagnostic testing, remains elusive globally, negatively impacting the health and wellbeing of all people. A not-so-distant illustration was access to testing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when testing sites globally, including here in the...
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Gram-Negative Resistance: A Decade of Evolution with Laurent Poirel, Ph.D.
Multidrug-resistant Gram-negative infections remain one of the most urgent public health challenges worldwide, with some infections approaching the limits of available treatment options. In this special edition of Editors in Conversation, we celebrate the remarkable 10-year tenure of Dr. Laurent...
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Technology and Discovery in Modern Microbiology
New imaging and measurement approaches are revealing previously hidden aspects of microbial life, challenging long-held assumptions and creating opportunities to answer questions that were once out of reach. Marvin Whiteley, Heran Darwin and Jeffrey Moffitt talk about how technological innovation...
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Cyclospora In The Lab
It starts out with a couple of stomach twinges, maybe a little nausea, maybe some sharp pains, and then… before you know it, you are running to the closest toilet with which you become very, very familiar. Cyclospora causes frequent watery diarrhea with sometime "explosive" bowel movements, but…
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Next Gen Careers in Clinical Microbiology
So, you think you want a career in clinical microbiology? This field demands more than technical skill—it's driven by curiosity, growth, and the confidence to lead. From mastering diagnostics to pushing innovation and mentoring the next generation, success comes to those who keep evolving. In…
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AI and Antibiotic Discovery
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the world in many ways. One of the most exciting applications of artificial intelligence is in the area of drug discovery. Particularly the discovery of antimicrobial molecules that are in the environment or even hidden within our own body. Today, we...
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Why Your Lab QC Might Be Missing Critical Errors
Accurate AST results are the backbone of diagnostic stewardship, yet routine quality control (QC) might be missing subtle shifts that skew your hospital's annual antibiogram. By examining a real-world "silent failure" in daptomycin testing, we explore how lab-driven data is essential to the AMR...
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Phage JS1: The Virus Breaking the Rules
In this episode, a fascinating new bacteriophage, JS1. While most contractile phages (which inject DNA like a spring-loaded syringe) are rigid and straight, JS1 sports a curved, flexible tail that may help it navigate the complex "canyons and valleys" of the bacterial cell wall. Watch this…
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Urine-based Testing to Detect HPV
Is the future of cervical cancer screening non-invasive? Sharmila Manjeshwar, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Klausner M.D. MPH, discuss a breakthrough in HPV diagnostics: urine-based testing. While vaccination and clinical screening have reduced cervical cancer rates, participation has stalled due to barriers...
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The Aerobiome - The Hidden Biology of Air
Most microbiome research focuses on soil, oceans, or hosts. But the atmosphere itself harbors diverse communities of bacteria and fungi that move between ecosystems. This episode explores a recent mBio study comparing airborne microbial communities above a subalpine forest and a grassland in...
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Harnessing MALDI-TOF for MICs
Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time of flight mass spectrometry (or MALDI) has revolutionized the clinical microbiology laboratory, enabling rapid, accurate and cheap identification of bacteria, yeast, moulds and mycobacteria. In most labs, it has become a verb (I maldi'ed it). But –...
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Fungi in a Warming World: Climate, Candida auris, and the Next Microbial Frontier - with Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D.
In the inaugural episode of Editors in Conversation mBio edition, Marvin Whiteley speaks with Arturo Casadevall, infectious-disease physician-scientist, founding Editor in Chief of mBio, and a leading voice in fungal pathogenesis and scientific rigor. They explore how climate change may be...
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Best AMR papers of 2025: A Collaboration between AAC and JID for IMARI
The Interdisciplinary Meeting of Antimicrobial Resistance and Innovation has launched! The first version of IMARI brought together researchers, clinicians, industry leaders and policymakers to address one of the greatest challenges in modern medicine: antimicrobial resistance" Check the…
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Green Labs
Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing humanity – and is not a future problem. Changes to the Earth's climate driven by emission of greenhouse gases have led to glaciers shrinking, plant and animal geographic ranges shifting and historical droughts, wildfires and rainfall. What...
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Rising Antimicrobial Resistance in The Microbial Universe
This is a special live recording of Editors in Conversation at the 2025 ASM Global Research Symposium in Bengaluru, India. We explore the evolving landscape of drug-resistant pathogens—from the intracellular survival strategies of Salmonella to the global rise of multidrug-resistant fungi like...
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Favorite Clinical Microbiology Papers of 2025
I almost can't believe that we are wrapping up yet another year on the podcast this month, which has been going strong for 6 years now! And it has been another exciting year in the world of Clin Micro as well with improvements and new assays available for some of our bread and butter tests, but…
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Clinical Trials With the Potential To Change the Management of Prosthetic Joint Infections
Prosthetic joint infections (PJI) remain among the most devastating complications in orthopedic surgery, with increasing incidence paralleling the growth in arthroplasty procedures worldwide. While treatment protocols are well-established, evidence supporting current approaches is lacking, and...
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Metabolomics
It's that time of year, folks! No, not leaf-peeping season, or pumpkin spice season or even apple picking season – I'm talking respiratory virus season! The symphony of sniffles and coughs is just around the corner! It's the time of year that clinical laboratories are stocking up on supplies,...
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The First OTC Syphilis Test: Clinical Performance and Impact
Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis, has been around for what seems like forever, causing major outbreaks throughout the millennia and continuing to spread at high rates, globally, into today. When it comes to diagnostic testing, some tests like RPR and VDRL have stood the test of...
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Artificial Intelligence in the Microbiology Laboratory (JCM ed.)
The launch of ChatGPT three years ago brought the concept of artificial intelligence into the daily conversation. Today, it seems all industries, including lab medicine, are integrating AI with the promise of making our lives easier. How do we best navigate implementing this technology into...
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What Makes a Great Mini-review? (JCM ed.)
The Journal of Clinical Microbiology has a great tradition of publishing mini-reviews on topics that are important to the clinical microbiology community. Minireviews provide "up to the minute" updates on topics pertinent to clinical microbiologists and serve as fabulous training tools for…
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Emerging Technologies for Rapid Phenotypic AST of Clinical Isolates of Bacteria (JCM ed.)
Antimicrobial resistance is one of the largest threats to global public health, compromising all other advances in modern medicine. At the forefront of detecting AMR is the clinical laboratory. However, walk into any clinical microbiology laboratory today and you will find this important task…
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The Rise of Measles (AAC ed.)
Measles is becoming an important public health problem and it is important to recognize and understand the origins of this problem and how it can affect the population of our country. At the same time, it is critical to have updated and scientifically accurate information on the clinical...
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Meet the New Editor in Chief of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology
With Alex's departure to new pastures, which include things like being the incoming President of ASM, we now have a new JCM Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Romney Humphries! Dr. Humphries is currently Director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Director of the Microbiology Laboratory at...
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Static vs Cidal Antibiotics: Concepts Revisited
A common description of antibiotic action aims to classify them between "bactericidal" or "bacteriostatic". Although these phenomena have robust in vitro foundations, the clinical translation of these concepts is sometimes difficult to ascertain. This controversial topic has important conceptual...
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Updated FDA Recognition of CLSI Breakpoints (JCM ed.)
Oversight and guidance for performing antibiotic susceptibility testing can be bewildering. There is an alphabet soup of agencies and bodies involved: FDA, CLSI, and USCAST, to name a few here in the US. How does the Food and Drug Administration, which has regulatory authority over AST, work with…
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Management of Pneumonia: Past, Present and Future
In the last decade, there have been major changes in the approach of the treatment of pneumonia, in particular, with the availability of new diagnostic tools. Additionally, new drugs have been approved for the treatment of pneumonia. We discuss the approach to the management of pneumonia with a...
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Show Me the Light! Uv Light for Cyclospora
Picture this, you wake up one morning with nausea, body aches, abdominal pain, and despite sleeping all night, you are exhausted. You then find yourself running to the restroom with watery and somewhat explosive diarrhea. You think to yourself – what could this be? Well, if the year was 2023, in...
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Best Papers in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 2024
The past year in Clinical Microbiology, as seen through the lens of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. Four JCM editors have each selected a paper they consider to be among the "best" we published in 2024. Of course there are no objective criteria for what makes a paper the "best." So, by...
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Best Papers of AAC, 2024
2024 was a very active year on research in antimicrobial resistance, highlighted by an impactful and high level political declaration to combat antimicrobial resistance by the United Nations. In this episode, trainees from NIH-funded training program (T32) on antimicrobial resistance will help me...
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Getting a Job in a Clinical Microbiology Lab
Looking for a dynamic and rewarding career? Learn what it means to be a Clinical Microbiology Laboratory Director and the necessary steps to get there. It's a diverse job encompassing infectious diseases diagnostic testing, patient care, teaching, and research. This episode is geared for those…
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The Global Antibiotic Research & Development Partnership (GARDP)
Lack of access to antibiotics including those with enhanced activity against multidrug-resistant organisms is a major barrier to combat antimicrobial resistance, particularly in the developing world. Furthermore, discovering and making available new antimicrobial agents against the most pressing...
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At-Home Collection and Testing for STIs
So you want validated, at-home, self-collected swabs for STI testing… Here's what you need to know! Sexually transmitted infection rates continue to climb across the US and while testing for these diseases is widely available, for the most part it requires the patient to go to a local clinic to...
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High Level Meeting on AMR at the United Nations: A Debrief
The second High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) took place in New York on 26 September 2024 as the principal official, health-focused event during the UN General Assembly high-level week. The intergovernmental negotiations for the declaration were co-facilitated by Malta and...
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The Launch of ASM Case Reports Journal
The American Society for Microbiology is launching a new journal, ASM Case Reports. The journal is already accepting submissions and will begin publishing in January of 2025. We discuss ASM Case Reports and what you can expect from this new journal. Watch this episode…
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Heteroresistance: Mechanisms, Diagnosis and Clinical Implications
Heteroresistance is a phenomenon that has been well characterized for many years. However, we are only now starting to understand its mechanistic basis. Indeed, the manner how bacteria respond to antibiotics is complex and phenomena such as persistance, tolerance may be overlapping with...
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Microbiology in the Headlines: H5N1 in Dairy Cattle, The Plague, Measles, Neosporin and more!
Join Dr. Ben Pinsky and Dr. Greg Berry as they dissect recent news stories, including the USDA's testing for H5N1 in ground beef and a surprising bubonic plague case in Oregon. They also tackle the resurgence of measles in the U.S., the local reappearance of malaria, and a curious study on...
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The Global Preclinical Antibacterial Pipeline
The pipeline of antibiotic discovery is a major necessity due to the continuous evolution of resistance to currently used antimicrobials. This pipeline faces important challenges due to the lack of investment on antimicrobial research in the private sector and an economic model that discourages...
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Turning the Output of the Microbiology Laboratory Into Gold
The European alchemists of the 12th century sought to find the philosopher's stone, a substance that would transmute base metals, such as lead, into precious metals, such as silver and gold. Today, we discuss whether data analysis, including machine learning, can transmute base laboratory data…
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Training in Antimicrobial Resistance: Gaps and Opportunities
Antimicrobial resistance is a priority public health problem with complex roots and connotations. However, due to a lack of focus on this topic, research training programs, specifically those focused on AMR are limited. Additionally, scientific meetings that particularly highlight the science of...
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10 Years of Rhodococcus: Clinical Trends and Susceptibility Profiles
Rhodococcus infections are uncommon, however they can cause serious disease in certain patients. There are a number of challenges though when dealing with Rhodococcus infections, including the fact that much of what we know around their susceptibility profiles and the clinical management of...
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Why Phage Therapy May Fail
Phage therapy has gained a lot of traction but the challenges created by this approach have not been properly assessed at a big scale. We often read about therapy successes on isolated cases but, rarely, we read or hear about failures. AAC recently published a case series of patients who failed...
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Is Lophomonas a Pathogen?
The protozoan Lophomonas has been reported to be a pathogen of humans in a large number of case reports and case series. Most of these case reports describe infections of the respiratory tract. Editors in Conversation is joined by two experts to discuss this possible parasite. Some of the…
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Treatment of Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis is one of the most deadly infectious diseases that still causes significant burden of disease, particularly in the developing world. The emergence of resistance to first line agents severely limits the therapeutic options and threaten the ability to control dissemination of this...
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New generation B-lactam/B-lactamase inhibitors: Taniborbactam
A new generation of B-lactamase inhibitors is likely to reach the market in the upcoming year. These broad-spectrum inhibitors exhibit activity against the most feared class B metallo-B-lactamases maintaining the inhibition of other enzymes. Recently AAC has published three papers that describe…
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Favorite Clinical Microbiology Papers of 2023 (JCM ed.)
We managed to make it through 2023 without a major epidemic or pandemic, and as we get into the holiday spirit and look forward to the new year, some of us took a look back and picked out one of our favorite JCM paper published in 2023, which I will tell you, was no easy task as there were many…
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Antimicrobial Resistance in Neisseria Gonorrhoeae (JCM ed.)
Gonorrhea remains one of the more common sexually transmitted infections. In North America, the number of reported cases has generally risen for over ten years, with interruptions in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by returns to rising rates of infection. Under the selective...
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New Antifungals (AAC ed.)
In the last few years we have witnessed the rise of very resistant fungal species some of them likely influenced by environmental conditions and climate change. Fortunately, there has been a bit of an explosion in the development of new antifungals and the pipeline has been strengthened in the…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Editors in Conversation is the official podcast of the American Society for Microbiology Journals. Editors in Conversation features discussions between ASM Journals Editors, researchers and clinicians working on the most cutting edge issues in the microbial sciences. Topics include laboratory diagnosis and clinical treatment of infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, epidemiology of infections, multidrug-resistant organisms, pharmacology of antimicrobial agents, susceptibility testing, and more.The podcast is directed to microbiologists, infectious diseases clinicians, pharmacists and basic, clinical and translational researchers interested in the microbial sciences. A particular emphasis is on basic, epidemiological and pharmacological aspects of infectious diseases, including antimicrobial resistance and therapeutics.
HOSTED BY
American Society for Microbiology
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Editors in Conversation currently has 124 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Editors in Conversation about?
Editors in Conversation is the official podcast of the American Society for Microbiology Journals. Editors in Conversation features discussions between ASM Journals Editors, researchers and clinicians working on the most cutting edge issues in the microbial sciences. Topics include laboratory...
How often does Editors in Conversation release new episodes?
Editors in Conversation publishes regularly with 124 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
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You can listen to Editors in Conversation on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
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Editors in Conversation is created and hosted by American Society for Microbiology.
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