Message from Incoming President

Message from Outgoing President

Don't Go In the Water!

Branch News

1999 Branch Meeting

Updates

Message from Incoming President

In writing this message I indicate to you my enthusiasm for the Florida Branch ASM and its activities for the next few years. I would like to both introduce myself to you and invite you to take a more active role in Branch activities. 

I am asking you to let me know what the branch can do to better serve you as a member. Questions that you might address include: What programming would be of benefit to you as a member? How should the annual meeting of the branch be arranged (time of year, days of week, subjects presented)? Do you have an interest in Clinical Microbiology, Basic Microbiology, Industrial Microbiology and/or Immunology? Would the Branch benefit from a joint meeting with (an) other Branch(es) in this region? Should we again investigate expanding our boundaries or merging with another branch? Any other topic you would like to raise. Please e-mail or surface mail your comments to me at sspecter@com1.med.usf.edu or Steven Specter, Ph.D. Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, University of South Florida College of Medicine, 12901 N. Bruce B. Downs Blvd., Tampa, FL 33618-4799, Alternatively, I can be reached at (813) 974-0897 or by FAX at (813) 974-4151.

Message from Outgoing President

I wanted to say to all of you how much fun it has been to serve as the President of the Branch over the last two years. This is because of all the people who contribute not only to FLASM but also to a better understanding and importance of microbiology for all Floridians. I particularly want to thank Dr. Sam Farrah, our previous president for his support and Mr. Dale Griffin for his work as secretary. 

We had an exciting meeting last year. Not only did we get to see rocket launch at our networking mixer but we had excellent presentations by our guest speakers and students alike. This year should be even better. We have received a grant from the Regional ASM section for enhancing undergraduate participation. This year we will have poster presentations by the undergraduates. Travel, registration, hotel and per diem will be provided. Please get your applications in!!!

I want to welcome our new President Dr. Steven Specter. Dr. Specter trained as a Virologist/Immunologist at Temple University and served as a post-doctoral fellow in experimental immunology for 2 years. Dr. Specter was the Director of a Diagnostic Virology Laboratory at the Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia for the following 3 years. He has been a faculty member at the University of South Florida since March of 1979. Currently he is a Professor of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and Associate Dean for Pre-clinical Education. His research focus is in immunomodulation by viruses and drugs of abuse. Dr. Specter has been active in ASM both at the Branch and National levels, having served as Branch Secretary, division Chair for the Clinical and Diagnostic Immunology Division (V), as well as Editor-in-Chief of the Cumitech series, Editor for Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory Immunology and on 3 ASM journal editorial boards. Dr. Specter has also organized the Annual Clinical Virology Symposium held in Clearwater Beach for the past 14 years.

 Joan B. Rose

Don't go in the Water!

Recreational waterborne disease can result from water contamination from numerous sources, including human and animal wastes, urban runoff, industrial pollution, wastewater, storm waters, large concentration of bathers, and even from indigenous sources such as red tide. While historically the focus of monitoring has been on enteric diseases such as those causing diarrhea, of even greater concern are infections of the skin, wounds, respiratory and genital tracts, eyes, and ears. Transmission of disease has been documented from individuals swimming, wind surfing, and even boating in or on polluted waters. Concern for such transmission has been heightened with the emergence of new pathogens (e.g. E. coli O157 H7 and Cryptosporidium), antibiotic resistant strains, and a more susceptible population (due to more elderly, AIDS, and immune suppressant medical treatments). 

During 1996, nearly 3,700 beach closings and advisories were issued at U.S. Ocean bay and Great Lake beaches. The detection of excessive levels of bacteria caused 83% of the closings. 

Public health and safety are tied to the understanding of sources of pollution, so that prevention and remediation can be accomplished, and timely (preferably advance) public information can be made available. The keystone of any effort is the measurement of water quality and protection of these waters from pollution.

While the focus of monitoring water quality has been on the coliforms, there are now new methods and alternative indicators that will serve us better. Clostridium, Enterococci, and coliphage just to mention a few. In addition, molecular fingerprinting will allow the identification of the source of pollution. Microbiologists are needed for this field as new programs are established nation-wide to address the microbiological safety of recreational waters.

To learn more contact EPA web site on Beaches at  http://www.epa.gov 

Branch News

1998 Annual Branch Meeting

The annual meeting of the Florida Branch was held February 27 - 28, 1998 at the Quality Suites Oceanfront in Indialantic Florida. Once again we were presented with a wide variety of topics, which included current research being conducted in the fields of clinical and environmental microbiology. Exposure to new and different ideals is a core benefit of meeting participation.

"For as no perfect view of a country can be taken from a flat; so it is impossible to discover the remote and deep parts of any science by standing upon the level of the same science, or without ascending to a higher"  - Francis Bacon, Ibid.

Student Presentations and Awards

The centerpiece of Saturday’s activities at the branch meeting was the presentation of research by students from around the state. There were 17 excellent presentations. The finest of these were recognized by the presentation of student awards.

The first place presentation, and recipient of the Bennett Sallman Award, was Michael R. Cassler from the Florida Institute of Technology. His talk was entitled "Enzymatic In Vivo Footprints of Protein-oriC DNA Interactions During the Escherichia coli Cell Cycle". The second place presentation was awarded to T.J. Bowers from the University of South Florida. Her talk was entitled "DNA Packaging by the Bartonella henselae Bacteriophage". The presentation awarded third place was that of Michael Schmiederer of the University of South Florida. His talk was entitled "Identification of Two Putative Antigens of B. henselae".

1999 Branch Meeting

Science on the Gold Coast 

The 1999 Florida branch ASM Meeting will be held at the Radisson Resort No. Hutchinson Island, 2600 No. A1A, Fort Pierce, FL on February 26^th and 27^th. We have blocked 15 rooms for the meeting and more are available if needed. The phone number for reservations is (561) 465-5544. If you have any problems making reservations or need directions please give me a call or contact me via elm. 

An ASM Foundation speaker and variety of other guest speakers will conduct presentations on a variety of scientific topics on Friday afternoon (the meeting will start at 1:00pm). Undergraduate poster presentations with awards for 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd place will also be conducted on Friday. Our second ASM Foundation speaker presentation and Graduate student presentations will be held on Saturday (the sessions will start at 8:30am).

Our Foundation speakers for this years meeting include Dr. Nancy L. Craig (Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) who will present "Tn7: A Smarter Transposon", and Dr. Raul J. Cano (Biological Sciences Department, California Polytechnic State University) who will present "Molecular archaeology of infectious diseases". 

Additionally, Dr. Huw Smith, form the Scottish Diagnostic Parasitic Laboratory/WHO Center, will be a keynote speaker at this years meeting. Dr. Smith's presentation topic will be "Research in the Clinical Laboratory". Dr. Smith is an international expert in parasitic diseases. He runs the WHO regional center for diagnostics and the parasitic laboratory at Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland. Dr. Smith is an expert in the identification of Cryptosporidium and Cyclospora and has been active through out the world in the development of new methods and molecular characterization of protozoa in clinical and environmental samples. He has served for the United Kingdom's expert panel on waterborne disease risks and traveled to Africa to examine lagoons for treating sewage. Dr. Smith not only runs the diagnostic program but also runs an active research program where he has mentored both masters and Ph.D. students.

The Branch will also sponsor a Friday night mixer (6:00pm) and a team volleyball tournament on the beach, so get your teams together and prepare for a fun and interesting meeting (please contact me if your laboratory or organization is interested in fielding a team). Once again Florida Branch ASM funds are available to support undergraduate attendance (travel by car, registration and hotel/food costs). The National Organization has provided funding in support of our initiative to promote undergraduate participation in ASM. We are offering a poster session for undergraduate research at this years meeting. Please spread the word to any colleagues who may be interested in sending undergraduates to our meeting. Support is offered to all undergraduates regardless of whether they are presenting or not. Any members who wants to sponsor an undergraduate (you may sponsor more than one) should contact me by phone, (813-553-3925) or e-mail (dgriffin@seas.marine.usf.edu). Please contact me prior to the meeting so that the correct number of hotel rooms can be booked in advance. 

See you there!

Dale W. Griffin
U.S.F., Dept. Marine Sciences

Update

News from the World health Organizations Weekly Epidemiological Record (WER). 2 October 1998. 73^rd Year

Outbreaks of influenza between March and September have been reported in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Influenza A (H3N2), (H1N1) and Influenza B have been isolated in the United States. Some of these isolates were reported to be antigenically related to viruses isolated during outbreaks in Beijing and Sydney in the years ranging from 1993 to 1997. Reference strains for antigenic analysis may be obtained from our CDC.

WHO has set a target date of the year 2000 to reduce leprosy to a prevalence rate of less than 1 case per 10,000 population. Since 1985, the prevalence of leprosy has been reduced globally by nearly 85%, by curing over 9 million leprosy patients using multidrug therapy.

Information on a variety of national and international meeting/workshops can be found in the ASM web site -http://www.asmusa.org/mtgsrc/mtgs.htm

MICROCOMM is published as an annual newsletter of the Florida Branch ASM. Besides meeting announcements, we will endeavor to bring you local branch news and items of interest. We welcome contributions to the newsletter from our members. Anything that you feel would be of interest to other microbiologists in Florida is welcome.

Please Send your input to: Dale Griffin, Department of Marine Sciences, University of South Florida, St Petersburg, FL 33701 or e-mail to dgriffin@seas.marine.usf.edu