Preliminary Scientific Program 
(may be subject to change)

WEDNESDAY, 27 August

Opening Lecture 1: Genetic Variation: Molecular Mechanisms and Impact on      Microbial Evolution
 Werner Arber (Basel, Switzerland)

Opening Lecture 2: Molecular Epidemiology and Evolution in the Analysis of Bioterrorism Events
Paul Keim (Arizona, USA)

THURSDAY, 28 August

Session 1:  Genomics and Molecular Epidemiology

State of the art lecture:  
Use of Microarrays and High-throughput Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Analysis in Molecular Population Genetics and Epidemiology
James Musser (Hamilton, USA)

The Genomics of Escherichia coli and its Epidemiology
Jean-Claude Piffaretti (Lugano, Switzerland)

 Session 2:  Typing for Diagnosis, Surveillance and Control of
                Nososcomial  Infection

The Role of Molecular Typing for Diagnosis and Outbreak Investigation in the Clinical Laboratory
Marc Struelens (Brussels, Belgium)

The Use of Molecular Typing for Surveillance and Investigation of Endemic Nosocomial Infections
Dominique Blanc (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Session 3: Molecular Epidemiology of Viruses 

The Phylogenetic Analysis of Mumps
Kathrin Mühlemann (Bern, Switzerland)

The Molecular Epidemiology of Enteric Viruses
Marion Koopmans (Bilthoven , The Nederlands) 

Session 4:  Molecular Epidemiology of Zoonosis and Antibiotic
                Resistance

Antimicrobial Resistance in Animals: Similarities and Links with the Human Situation
Patrick Boerlin (Canada)

Molecular Epidemiology of Antimicrobial Resistance in Zoonotic Agents
Frank Aarestrup (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Session 5:  Typing of Uncultivable or Fastidious
                Microorganisms

The Development of a Typing Method for an Uncultivable Microorganism: the Example of Pneumocystis carinii
Philippe Hauser (Lausanne, Switzerland)

Phylogeny and Epidemiology of Rickettsia
Gilbert Greub (Marseille, France)

Workshop 1:  The Ins and Outs of PCR Mediated Typing: 
                    Troubleshooting and Optimizing
                     Lenie Dijkshoorn (Leiden, The Netherlands)

Workshop 2: The Ins and Outs of MLST: Sequence, Strains and Statistics
                    Speaker to be defined

FRIDAY, 29 August

Session 6:  The Role of Molecular Subtyping in Foodborne  
 Disease Surveillance and Outbreak Investigations

STATE OF THE ART LECTURE:
Molecular Epidemiology of E. coli O157:H7 and Campylobacter jejuni/C. coli infections - Different Approaches for Different Pathogens
Bala Swaminathan (Atlanta, USA)

Molecular Epidemiology of Salmonella and Shigella
John Threlfall (London, UK)

Session 7:  New Approaches to Microbial Identification and
                Typing 

MALDI-TOF Mass Spectrometry
Haroun Shah (London, UK)

Multiple-locus Variable-Number Tandem Repeat Analysis for Strain Typing
Leo Schouls (Bilthoven, The Netherlands)

Session 8:  Molecular Epidemiology of Fungi

Population Structure and Epidemiology of Dermatophytes
Yvonne Graeser (Berlin, Germany)

Molecular Epidemiology of Candida
Christof D’Enfert (Paris, France)

Workshop 3:  The Ins and Outs of PFGE: Troubleshooting and Optimizing
                     Richard Goering (Omaha, USA)

Workshop 4: The Ins and Outs of AFLP: Troubleshooting and Optimizing
                     Paul Janssen (Liège, Belgium)

SATURDAY, 30 August

STATE OF THE ART LECTURE:
What Can Molecular Epidemiology Expect From Bioinformatics?
Siv Andersson (Uppsala, Sweden)

Session 9:    Computerized Typing Databases and Networks:
                How Far Did We Get?

The European Experience
Kevin Towner (Nottingham, UK)

The American Experience
Fred Tenover (Atlanta, USA)

Session 10: New Insights Into the Molecular Epidemiology
 of Antibiotic-resistant Pathogens 

Macro-epidemiology of International Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistant Clones of Pathogens
Wolfgang Witte (Wernigerode, Germany)

For updated information, please email ASM Conferences at conferences@asmusa.org.