We are traveling to Cape Town, South Africa, to attend 22nd International Pathogenic Neisseria Conference. The Neisseria conference will be held from 9th to 14th October 2022 at Lagoon Beach Hotel, Cape Town.

International Pathogenic Neisseria Conference is the best platform to discuss the epidemiology, genomics, vaccine research and development, host-pathogen interactions, and new approaches to the diagnosis and treatment of Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Neisseria meningitidis.

If you want to be part of this global event, the registration is still ON. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER 

In 2022, 350 participants (200 in person and 150 online) will participate in this event. Affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and after many uncertainties, this event finally kicked off on 8th October 2022, here in Cape Town.

Major Highlights of the Event

We reached Cape Town around 3:30 PM, so we missed the workshops scheduled for the first day of this conference.

Sunday 9th October 2022

The first day of the 22nd Pathogenic Neisseria Conference commenced with registration and set up for poster and exhibition. Three parallel workshop sessions of approx 3:30 hours will be held on the first day. Attendees can register for one of the workshops of their choice.

1. Workshops
   1. New approaches to diagnosis and treatment
   2. Gonococcal vaccines
   3. Application of omics
2. Welcome Receptions at Lagoon Beach Hotel
   The venue was excellent. When we reached there, it was windy, and various types of light snacks, juices, and wines were served to the attendee. Everybody seemed busy discussing within small groups. Some roamed, introducing their current affiliation and ongoing research activities to others.

Monday 10th October 2022

Anne von Gottberg and Mignon du Plessis welcomed all the participants for coming to South Africa, The Rainbow Nation, and also thanked sponsors of the event; Inqaba Biotec, National research institute, GSK, Pfizer, and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

After the welcome speech, three major sessions were held on the second day in the following thematic areas, followed by poster viewing.

• Meningitis in Africa
• Host Defences and Immune Response
• Genomics and Gene Regulation

In the first session, Meningitis in Africa, Rito Mikhari, Adodo Sadji, Rachel Charles-Amaza, and Susan Meiring did presentations on their ongoing research on meningococcal meningitis in Africa.  Africa, which houses more than 14% HIV-infected individuals, also suffers from invasive meningococcal meningitis. Most cases are seen in the meningitis belt of Sub-Saharan Africa, favored by its hot and dry season.  

Neisseria Meningitidis serogroup A (NmA) was the most prevalent strain till 2010. After the introduction of MenAfriVac (A meningococcal conjugate vaccine for serogroup A) in 2010, the cases of NmA decreased. This changed the epidemiology, and new serogroups such as NmW, NmX, and NmC are becoming more prevalent.

Tuesday 11th October 2022

1. Meningococcal Vaccines and Impact
2. Epidemiology/Molecular Biology
3. Antibiotic Resistance, Diagnostics, and Treatment
4. Poster presentation

Wednesday 12th October 2022

1. Surface Structures
2. Physiology and Metabolism
3. Free Social Program

Thursday, 13th October 2022

1. Molecular and Cellular Biology
2. Gonococcal Vaccines
3. Antibiotic Resistance, Diagnostics, and Treatment
4. Meningococcal Vaccines and Impact
5. Gala Dinner

Friday 14th October 2022

1. Antibiotic Resistance, Diagnostics, and Treatment
2. Host Defences and Immune Response

Dear all

I am excited to share with you all that the main authors of microbeonline.com, “Tankeshwar Acharya” and my wife “Nisha Rijal” is traveling to Atlanta to present the findings of our research in “ASM Microbe 2018”. ASM Microbe 2018 will take place at the Georgia World Congress Center from June 7-11, 2018.

Our papers have been accepted for poster presentation in ASM Microbe 2018. We will update you about our research and findings after we conclude our presentation in Atlanta at ASM Microbe 2018.

There are Eight Tracks in ASM Microbe 2018, which are:

1. Microbial Ecology and Evolution (MEE)
2. Antimicrobial Agents and Resistance (AAR)
3. Applied and Environmental Science
4. Clinical Infections and Vaccines
5. Clinical and Public Health Microbiology
6. Host-Microbe Biology
7. Molecular Biology and Physiology
8. Profession of Microbiology

Whatever your current expertise, you will find something innovative and exciting in this event. You can choose one of the above tracks to narrow in on your scientific niche and can have the opportunity to meet and interact with the experts in your field.

ASM Microbe brings the opportunity of learning, connect with new and old friends, and exchange information and ideas. Microbial scientists from >100 different countries will present at this event to share information about their current research, so it is a great networking event for people devoting their careers to advancing Microbiology, be it fundamental science or its applied aspect.  We hope to have connections and expand our professional networks by participating in ASM MICROBE 2018.

If you want to participate in this most important meeting of microbial scientists from all over the globe, registration is open.

The registration rate will vary based on your current status (ASM Member, Student, Ph.D. Student, Postdoc Member, etc.). ASM members can save up to $225 in registration.  Finally, we are thankful to ASM for providing us ASM MICROBE 2018 TRAVEL AWARDS “ASM Student and Postdoctoral Travel Award” and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Travel Award for Scientist from Low and Low Middle-Income Countries.”

I am excited to visit Vietnam, and I am thankful to Computational Biology for Infectious Diseases (CBID) team for giving me this fantastic opportunity. The purpose of the visit is to attend “Summer School of Computational Biology for Infectious Diseases” to study “Molecular phylogenetics. (https://fujifilm-x.com/) ” The event will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam, from September 18-25, 2016.

The CBID summer school is organizing the training of students, researchers, and professionals working on infectious diseases to share basic concepts and hands-on experience in quantitative analyses of data.

Five parallel thematic groups (mentioned below) of 15 students will run for a week. I am taking part in “Molecular phylogenetics.”

• Molecular phylogenetics
• (Meta)genomics
• Population genetics
• Transmission dynamics
• Epidemics forecasting

If you are interested to know more about this training and each thematic group. please visit the official website of CBID here

After completing summer school, I plan to visit some of the popular travel destinations in Hanoi and sail on a cruise in Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular travel destination.

If time permits, I have a plan to visit Ho Chi Minh’s Mausoleum and the One Pillar Pagoda before returning to Nepal.

July 21, 2016:  I had a tight schedule this July. I was so engrossed in my daily routine: regular lab work, ongoing student examinations along with added responsibilities in my personal life that I lost the track of time which increased the piles of unread emails in my inbox that needed to be acknowledged. That day, I managed to read and reply to all emails I got from microbeonline@gmail.com.  Most of the emails were usual; the queries from my valuable readers regarding the confusion/problem they have either in their Microbiology class or on a working bench of their laboratory.

One of the emails seemed unusual; the subject “interview request” drew my attention. It was an email from Timothy P. Gauthier, in which he had expressed an interest to interview me in his famous column “One-On-One” for the website idstewardship.com. Idstewardship is one of the leading pharmacology websites which aims to help current and future healthcare practitioners and others too.

After a few email exchanges, we became ready for the interview. The interview has now been published in idstewardship.

 You can access the full interview here.  

 In this interview, you can find more information regarding my academic journey, and my motivation for founding microbeonline.com among others.

Finally, I am grateful to idstewardship team and personally to Timothy P. Gauthier for providing me with this great opportunity. I am equally thankful to you all.

If you want to share your views, or suggestions regarding my interview, email me or let me know in the comment section below.