Meetings

AFC Winter 2019 meeting call for papers

Winter Meeting 2019

Preliminary notice and call for papers

Friday 4th of January 2018 at

Institute for Child Health,
University College London

Local Organisers:

Tine Arnvig and Mahdad Noursadeghi

Offered papers should be sent on the appropriate form to the meets secretary, Phil Hogarth (Phil.Hogarth@apha.gov.uk) no later than 8^th November 2018. The submission form can be downloaded below.

All papers should include the title, affiliation of each author and a short summary (no more than 100 words). Papers cannot be considered after the club’s committee meeting.

Please note that registration for the meeting will open in late November (when program is finalised), with a deadline of 13^th December for final registration.

Nominations for new members may also be sent to Phil Hogarth. Please provide the name of the nominating and seconding members and the full contact details of the proposed member no later than 8^th November 2018. Please note that any proposed new members must have presented at a previous AFC meeting. Remember that if you nominate a new member you should expect to attend the meeting!

Download abstract form AFC winter 2019

Download Word version of the AFC Winter 2019 call for papers

AFC Summer 2018 Meeting Registration

The Acid Fast Club Summer Meeting 2018

to be held on Thursday 5 and Friday 6 July 2018

at The Richard Doll Building, Old Road Campus, Roosevelt Drive, Oxford OX3 7LF

Local organiser: Professor Helen McShane (Helen.mcshane@ndm.ox.ac.uk)

AFC Summer 2017 meeting registration

The Acid Fast Club Summer Meeting 2017

to be held on Thursday 6th – Friday 7th July 2017

at the University of Leicester

Local Organiser: Natalie Garton (njg17 [AT] le.ac.uk)

The Summer Meeting will be held at the University of Leicester on July 6-7th 2017; for the final programme and directions, see below.

The timeline (as ever!) is short for registration.

Please note that as spaces are limited to 133, and we have to do a two-step registration:

1. Members are requested to fill in a Doodle poll with their name followed by the number of guests they intend to bring in brackets no later than May 26th. Members and speakers have priority and after that it will be on a first-come first-served basis. Members will receive an email stating how many of their guests we can accommodate.

Remember that guests pay a registration fee of £5

2. Please pay for your booking by PayPal if you can by going to this site, and email the confirmation with the booking form to Natalie Garton no later than Friday 10^th June. If you do not use PayPal please send a cheque payable to “The Acid Fast Club” along with your booking form to Natalie at: Dept Infection, Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester, Maurice Shock Building, University Road, Leicester LE1 9HN.

AFC Programme Summer 2017_final

AFC Summer 2016 meeting registration

The Acid Fast Club Summer Meeting 2016

to be held on Thursday 7th – Friday 8th July 2016

at Public Health England, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JG

Local Organiser: Sally Sharpe (Sally.Sharpe[AT]phe.gov.uk)

The Summer Meeting will be held at Public Health England, Porton Down on July 7-8th 2016; for the final programme and directions, see below.

The timeline is short for registration.

Please note that as spaces are limited at Porton Down, we have to do a two-step registration:

1. Members are requested to fill in a Doodle poll with their name followed by the number of guest they intend to bring in brackets no later than May 20 th . Members and speakers have priority and after that it will be on a first come first serve basis. Members will receive an email stating how many of their guests we can accommodate.

Remember that guests pay a registration fee of £5

2. Please pay for your booking by PayPal if you can by going to this site, and email the confirmation with the booking form to Sally Sharpe no later than Friday 10^th June. If you do not use PayPal please send a cheque payable to the Acid Fast Club along with your booking form to Sally

AFC Programme Summer 2016_final

AFC Winter 2016 meeting

AFC Winter 2016

Held at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Friday January 8th 2016

Scientific Programme

Session 1 (Welcome, Host presentations and Offered papers)

The TB Centre at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine – who we are and what we do
Helen Fletcher & Katherine Fielding, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Polyfunctional CD4 T-cells and in vitro mycobacterial growth inhibition detected in Mycobacterium bovis BCG-vaccinated UK infants
Steven Smith, Andrea Zelmer, Rose Blitz, Helen Fletcher & Hazel Dockrell, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Ex vivo mycobacterial growth inhibition assays (MGIA) as a new tool for assessment of TB vaccines
Andrea Zelmer, Satria Prabowo, Rachel Tanner, Elena Stylianou, Helen McShane & Helen Fletcher, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The C-terminal domain of protein kinase G is required for regulation of glutamate catabolism in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Nabanita Bhattacahatyya, M. Zimmerman & H. M. O’Hare, University of Leicester

Parenteral adenoviral boost enhances BCG-induced protection, but not long-term survival in a murine model of bovine TB
Phil Hogarth, Daryan A. Kaveh, M. Carmen Garcia-Pelayo, Paul R. Webb, Esen E. Wooff, Véronique S. Bachy; Animal and Plant Health Agency

A spatial model of M. tuberculosis in the lung
Ruth Bowness, Stephen Gillespie & Mark Chaplain, University of St. Andrews

Session 2 (Offered papers)

The Suburban Cure–thoughts on dose and genetic susceptibility to TB
Andrea Cooper & John E. Pearl, University of Leicester

Does using aerosol and systemic routes of immunisation avoid anti-vector immunity and boost TB vaccine responses?
Zita-Rose Manjaly Thomas, Iman Satti, Stephanie Harris, Joel Meyer, Morven Wilkie, Michael Riste, Ali Hamidi, Sharon Sheehan, Alice Minhinnick, Henry Bettinson & Helen McShane, University of Oxford

Investigating host regulatory pathways that limit immunopathology in tuberculosis
Patience T. Brace, LB Tezera, JS Friedland, TM Millar, CG Proud & PT Elkington, University of Southampton

Towards definition of an immunological basis of protection obtained by prime-boost immunisation against bovine tuberculosis
Hannah Metcalfe, Bernardo Villarreal-Ramos, Gareth J. Jones, Sabine Steinbach, W. Ivan Morrison , Tom Connelley & Martin Vordermeier, Animal and Plant Health Agency

Targeting the mycobacterial membrane using novel antimicrobial peptides for tuberculosis therapy
Jasmeet Singh Khara, SM Newton, N Krishnan, I Uhra, M Priestman, PR Langford, PLR Ee & BD Robertson, Imperial College

Circulating serum microRNAs as novel biomarkers for bovine tuberculosis
Carolina N.Correia, Nicolas C. Nalpas, Kirsten E. McLoughlin, David A. Magee, Ronan G. Shaughnessy, John A. Browne, Adam O. Whelan, H. Martin Vordermeier, Eamonn Gormley, Bernardo Villarreal-Ramos, Stephen V. Gordon & David E. MacHugh, University College Dublin

Objectively-measured coughing patterns in pulmonary tuberculosis
Richard Turner, Graham Bothamley & Surinder Birring, Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Programme details (Word file)

AFC Winter 2014 meeting

AFC Winter 2014

Held at Birkbeck College, London

January 10th 2014

Scientific Programme

Session 1

NSAIDs to tackle drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Arundhati Maitra, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Parisa Nakhostin Mortazavi, Aleksei Kovalev, Juan David Guzman, Timothy D. McHugh and Sanjib Bhakta. Mycobacteria Research Laboratory, Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College

Structure and Function of the mycobacterial ACG protein family
Nicholas H. Keep, Francois Xavier-Chauviac, Doris Quay, James Torpey, Martin Bommer, Ambrose Cole. Institute for Structural and Molecular Biology, Crystallography, Dept of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College

Innate and antigen-specific cytotoxic cells and paradoxical HIV-1-associated tuberculosis immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (TB-IRIS)
Katalin A Wilkinson, Naomi F Walker, Graeme Meintjes, Keira H Skolimowska, Kerryn Matthews, Rebecca Tadokera, Ronnett Seldon, Gary Maartens, Mark P Nicol, Molebogeng X Rangaka, Gurdyal S. Besra, Robert J Wilkinson. Clinical Infectious Diseases Research Initiative, Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine, and MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London

High dose rifampicin therapy for a shorter treatment period
Yanmin Hu, Mitchison DA, Jindani A, Liu Y, Coates ARM. Medical Microbiology, Centre for Infection and immunity, Division of Clinical Sciences, St George’s, University of London

Getting to know Mycobacterium tuberculosis through metabolomics
Gérald Larrouy-Maumus, and Luiz Pedro Sório de Carvalho. Division of Mycobacterial Research, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London

Session 2

Counting mycobacteria: how many beans make five?
Han Xiao, Katarina Oravcova, Wilber Sabiiti, Eoghan Farmer, Stephen Gillespie. School of Medicine, University of St.Andrews

The pathological role of neutrophil necrosis in tuberculosis
David M Lowe, Nonzwakazi Bangani, Katalin A Wilkinson, Robert J Wilkinson, Adrian R Martineau. Department of Medicine, Imperial College London, and Clinical Infectious Diseases Research Initiative, Institute for Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town, Observatory 7925, Cape Town, South Africa

Role of lymph node-derived lymphatic endothelial cells in mycobacterial Infection
Maximiliano G. Gutierrez. National Institute of Medical Research, Mill Hill, London

Recovery of TB genomes from metagenomes
Jacqueline Chan, Martin Sergeant, Andrew Millard, Elizabeth Wellington, Helen Donoghue and Mark Pallen. Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick

Bioelectrospray-based cell encapsulation for in vitro modelling of Mycobacterium tuberculosis induced granuloma formation
Liku B Tezera, Magda K Bielecka, Victoria Workman, Patience T Brace, Brian D Robertson, Suwan N Jayasinghe, Paul T Elkington. Clinical and Experimental Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton

Programme details (Word file)

AFC Summer 2013 meeting

AFC Summer 2013

Held at University College, Dublin

July 4th-5th 2013

Scientific Programme

Session 1: University College Dublin Symposium and guest speakers

Guest speaker
Prof Patrick Brennan, Colorado State University

Host preference across the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex
Stephen Gordon, University College Dublin

Wildlife intervention strategies for control of bovine tuberculosis
Eamonn Gormley, School of Veterinary Medicine, UCD, Dublin

Session 2: Trinity College Dublin Symposium and guest speakers

Invited talk: TB vaccine efficacy trials:what can we learn and what’s next?
Helen McShane, University of Oxford

TBC
Joe Keane, Trinity College Dublin

Phylogenetic lineages of tuberculosis isolates associate with specific patient demographics in New Zealand
Ronan F O’Toole, Trinity College Dublin

The ancient evolution of tuberculosis as a zoonosis
David E Minnikin, University of Birmingham, Birmingham

Session 3: Offered papers

TBC
David McHugh, University College Dublin

Genetic Analyses of a Conserved Virulence Regulon in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex
Claire Healey, University College Dublin

The Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of Mycobacterial p-Hydroxybenzoic Acid Derivatives (p-HBADs)
Eoin Sacnlan, Trinity College Dublin

My-D88 adapter like (Mal) is required for effective macrophage responses To Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Cliona Ni Cheallaigh, Trinity College Dublin

Insights into the global metabolic changes in mycobacteria during nitrogen stress
Kerstin Williams, Imperial College London

Session 4: Offered papers

Biofilms and antibiotic tolerance: transcriptomic profiles of Mycobacterium smegmatis biofilms
S.A. Lethbridge, Public Health England, Porton Down, Salisbury

Genome-wide mapping of transcription start sites defines an extensive leaderless transcriptome in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Teresa Cortes,National Institute for Medical Research, MRC, London

A transposon-mutagenesis library to study mechanisms of drug resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Joana Fonseca, University College London

Mannan core branching of lipo(arabino)mannan is required for initiation of mycobacterial granuloma formation in vivo
Arun K. Mishra, MRC National Institute of Medical Research, London

Mycobacterium leprae – A genome lost in time
Thomas A. Mendum, University of Surrey

AFC Winter 2013 meeting

AFC Winter 2013

Held at the Royal Free Hospital, London

January 11th 2013

Scientific Programme

Session 1

Human plasma miRNA and snoRNA molecules are significantly downregulated in tuberculosis-infected individuals in response to chemotherapy but HIV-1 co-infection spoils the picture
Isobella Honeyborne, Shirin Bokari, Silvana Christou, Clare Eckold, Alexander Pym, Timothy McHugh. UCL, London

Carbon fixation and a mixed diet for intracellular Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Dany J V Beste, Katharina Nöh, Sebastian Niedenführ, Tom A Mendum, Nathaniel D Hawkins, Jane L Ward, Michael H Beale, Wolfgang Wiechert and Johnjoe McFadden. Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Department of Microbial and Cellular Sciences, University of Surrey

Destruction of lung extracellular matrix by MMP-1 is critical in TB pathogenesis
Basim Al shammari, Takayuki Shiomi, Liku Tezera, Brian D Robertson, Jon S Friedland, Jeanine D’Armiento and Paul Elkington. Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunity, Imperial College London

Non-replicating Mycobacterium tuberculosis elicits a reduced pathogenicity profile and corresponding modifications to the cell wall
Bacon J, Alderwick LJ, Allnutt JA, Gabasova E, Watson R, Hatch KA, Clark SA, Marriott A, Rayner E, Tolley H, Pearson G, Hall G, Besra GS, Wernisch L, Williams A, Marsh PD. Health Protection Agency, Porton Down, Salisbury

Analysis of host gene induction following MVA85A
M. Matsumiya, Z. Lang, J. Meyer, S. Harris, A. Pathan, R. Rowland, A. Minassian, H. Fletcher, H. McShane. The Jenner Institute, University of Oxford

Session 2

MTS2048 a small RNA with a secret
Joanna Houghton, Olga Schubert, Douglas Young and Kristine Arnvig. Division of Mycobacterial Research, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London

Structure of M. tuberculosis DprE1, the target of BTZ compounds
Sarah M Batt, Talat Jabeen, Veemal Bhowruth, Peter A Lund, Luke J Alderwick, Klaus Fütterer, Gurdyal S Besra. School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham

Discovery of the anti-tubercular specific activity of ibuprofen and other 2-arylpropanoic acids using the HT-SPOTi whole-cell phenotypic assay
Juan David Guzman, Dimitrios Evangelopoulos, Antima Gupta, Kristian Birchall, Solomon Mwaigwisya, Simon Gibbons, Barbara Saxty, John Malkinson, Timothy D. McHugh and Sanjib Bhakta. Mycobacteria Research Laboratory, Institute of Structural and Molecular Biology, Department of Biological Sciences, Birkbeck College, London

Selective ESAT6-dependent necrosis of phosphatidylserine externalised neutrophils
Robert J Francis, Rachel E Butler, Graham Stewart. Department of Microbial and Cellular Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Surrey

Ethnic variation in inflammatory profile in tuberculosis
Adrian R. Martineau, Anna K. Coussens, Robert J. Wilkinson, Vladyslav Nikolayevskyy, Francis A. Drobniewski, Paul T. Elkington, Graham H. Bothamley, Robert N. Davidson, Christopher J. Griffiths. Queen Mary University of London, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Blizard Institute, London E1 2AB, Division of Mycobacterial Research, MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London

AFC Summer 2012 meeting

AFC Summer 2012

Held at the Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex

July 5th-6th 2012

Scientific Programme

Session 1: Brighton and Sussex Medical School and University ofSussex Symposium

Genetic susceptibility to M.tuberculosis
Melanie Newport

Interactions between a novel transcriptional activator and RNA polymerase
Mark Paget

Flow-cytometry in the diagnosis of active TB
Florian Kern

DNA repair in mycobacteria
Aidan Doherty

The effect of growth rate on the efficacy of isoniazid against Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Alice Marriott, Jon Allnutt, Kim Hatch, Catherine Arnold, Tim McHugh, Philip Marsh, Joanna Bacon, HPA Microbiology Services, Porton Down, Salisbury

Session 2: Guest speaker

Host-pathogen interactions in TB
Olivier Neyrolles. CNRS, Toulouse

Session 3: Offered papers

Evaluating BCG and novel TB vaccine candidates with a human BCG challenge model
Joel Meyer, S Harris, I Satti, A Minassian, H Fletcher, H McShane, Jenner Institute, Oxford University

Does biofilm growth of Mycobacterium tuberculosis replicate features of the phenotypes observed in tuberculous sputum?
Abdulwhab Binjomah, Andrew Bell, Su-Min Lee, Galina Mukamolova, Natalie Garton and Mike Barer, Department of Infection Immunity and Inflammation, University of Leicester

The role of peptidoglycan glycolylation in mycobacterial dormancy and resuscitation
Jessica Loraine, Obolbek Turapov, Jacob Biboy, Waldemar VollmerandGalina Mukamolova, Infection, Immunity, Inflammation Department and Chemistry Department, University of Leicester

Transcriptional profiling of disease-induced host responses in bovine tuberculosis
Elihu Aranday-Cortes, Philip J. Hogarth, Daryan A. Kaveh, Adam O. Whelan, Bernardo Villarreal-Ramos, Ajit Lalvani, H. Martin Vordermeier, Animal Heath & Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Surrey

Measuring phosphorylation of the metabolic regulator GarA in living mycobacteria
Barbara Rieck, A. R. Bottrill, H M O’Hare, Department of Infection, Immunity, and Inflammation, University of Leicester

Session 3: Offered papers

Genome-wide mapping of the GlnR regulon in Mycobacterium smegmatis
Victoria Jenkins, Brian Robertson and Kerstin Williams, MRC CMBI, Flowers Building, Imperial College London, South Kensington, London

Identification of novel Mt-GuaB2 inhibitor series active against M. tuberculosis
Veeraraghavan Usha, Judith V. Hobrath, Sudagar S. Gurcha, Robert C. Reynoldsand Gurdyal S. Besra, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham

ATP-dependent Mur ligases in the biogenesis of cell wall peptidoglycan in Mycobacterium tuberculosis: novel targets for anti-TB drug discovery
Tulika Munshi, Antima Gupta, Dimitrios Evangelopolous, Juan David Guzman, Nicholas H. Keep, Simon Gibbons and Sanjib Bhakta, Mycobacteria Research Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, Institute of Structural & Molecular Biology, Birkbeck, University of London

Impaired host immune system favours tuberculosis induced by Mycobacterium africanum but not Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Leopold. D. Tientcheu, J. Sutherland, B. de Jong, S. Smith, H. M. Dockrell, M. O. Ota, Vaccinology Theme, Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia, and Department of Immunology and Infection, Faculty of Infectious and Tropical Disease, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine