Past Events

Dr Rohinton Mulla chats with other delegates in the Trade show at the 2019 ASC in the RAF Museum

Dr Mark Wilks (BSMT Committee Member) and Dr Riccardo Alagna from Milan (Speaker on New Diagnostics for MDR/XDR-TB), ASC 2019

• 38th BSMT Annual Microbiology Conference 2023

  Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon

  Date: Thursday 11 May 2023

  Current Topics in Microbiology and Infection

  Read 3 previews about the Conference - see Articles below right
  

  Programme

  Profiles for Chairs and Speakers

  Overview of the development of AMR and approaches to controlling it
  Professor Alasdair MacGowan, Professor of Antimicrobial Therapeutics, University of Bristol

  An update on susceptibility testing methods
  Dr Mandy Wootton, Scientific Lead, Specialist Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Unit, Public Heath Wales, Cardiff

  Rapid sequencing techniques for the detection of AMR and their use in typing and Infection Control
  Dr Nathanial Storey,  Department of Bioinformatics, Great Ormond Street Hospital, London

  Laboratory development for AMR surveillance in low- and middle-income countries
  Dr Claire Gordon, Consultant in Infection, Rare & Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL) UK Health Security Agency, London

  Molecular detection of enteric pathogens, results of a network wide analysis of the use of the Serosep EntericBio Gastro Panel 2
  Michael Perry, Lead Clinical Scientist, UK Anaerobe Reference Unit, Public Health Wales Microbiology, Cardiff

  The advantages and disadvantages of molecular methods over culture in the detection of orthopaedic infections
  Dr Kevin Cole, Senior BMS, North Tyneside General Hospital, Newcastle

  Group A streptococcal infections and other infections in children in the post-pandemic period
  Dr Charlene Rodrigues, Consultant in Paediatric Infectious Diseases, St Mary's Hospital, London and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine  

  Dr Kate Templeton, BSMT President and Professor Brian Duerden CBE, chaired the conference

• 37th BSMT Annual Microbiology Conference 2022

  We are delighted that despite COVID, train strikes and being held on the hottest day recorded in the UK, the conference was a great success!

  We are grateful to the staff at the RAF Museum for working so hard to cope with the weather.

  Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon

  Date: Tuesday 19 July 2022

  The Genomic & Microbiology Revolution: In Technology we Trust?

  THE PRESENTATIONS HAVE BEEN MADE AVAILABLE TO ALL WHO REGISTERED

  Read a Report of the Conference, the Programme Preview, Looking Forward and a Commercial Preview.

  Speakers (read the profiles of the moderators and speakers):

  Professor Paul Dark, National Deputy Medical Director, NIHR Clinical Research Network
  Developing the best evidence for effective molecular diagnostic technologies in sepsis: impacts of a viral pandemic

  Dr Katie Hopkins, Clinical Scientist Microbiology, UKHSA Colindale
  Current methods & problems in testing for antimicrobial resistance

  Adela Alcolea-Medina, Guys & St Thomas’s Hospital, Viapath
  Direct sequencing from clinical specimens for the rapid detection of viruses
  

  Dr Natasha Weston, Senior Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Registrar, University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Trust
  Whole Genome Sequencing of MTB and other mycobacteria: what can we learn beyond ID and sensitivity? 

  Dr Elaine McCulloch, QCMD
  The need for quality assurance in molecular diagnostics & NGS

  Dr Esmita Charani, Research Lead (Practice, Design and Engineering), NIHR Health Protection Research Unit, Imperial College London
  Antimicrobial stewardship: an international perspective

  Dr Dinesh Aggarwal, Wellcome Clinical PhD Student, Department of Medicine, University of Cambridge
  Genomics in understanding and controlling the COVID-19 pandemic

  Professor Brian Duerden CBE chaired the afternoon session.

  Dr Mark Wilks, BSMT Science Lead, ably chaired the morning session standing in for Dr Kate Templeton whose plane from Edinburgh was cancelled because of the weather.

  I am pleased to say that there was a full Trade Show with 19 of the 20 expected commercial companies making it through the heat. Unfortunately Alpha Labs were thwarted.

  The BSMT is very grateful to these commercial companies who are sponsoring the 2022 conference, some of whom have supported the BSMT since its inception 37 years ago.
  

  • Programme

  • COVID:
    We ran the conference to be as COVID safe as we could be and no one to date has reported to me that they caught COVID during the conference.
  • In view of the uncertainties associated with the pandemic, the BSMT committee moved this year’s face-to-face event to 19 July.

  Valerie Bevan BSMT Chair
  vbevan@bsmt.org.uk

• Conference by Webinar: COVID 19 - The Infection Challenging the World 2021

  The very successful BSMT Webinar which ran over 4 days covered laboratory related aspects of COVID-19.

  The Webinar was convened in conjunction with media partner Pathology in Practice for their support in publishing relevant articles and promoting the conference. We are also hugely grateful to Step Communications who encouraged us to convene the Webinar and for making it happen - without their support and encouragement it is unlikely it would have taken place.

  The BSMT Webinar on laboratory related aspects of COVID-19 drew some complimentary comments including:

  • I was delighted to attend this BSMT meeting, all the presentations were very interesting and the format was spot on: efficient wan with a clear messaging.  Thanks to all the speakers.
  • The virtual conference programme of webinars was really interesting and informative and useful both in terms of understanding the work done on COVID and also for CPD purposes.
  • I liked the very clear message of each of the speakers and the story telling format. I also like the fact that you allowed for a real discussion at the end of each session.  It was like being in a pub and having an information chat about the subject.
  • Didn’t require real time attendance so could deal with urgent lab issues and watch later when not interrupted.
  • The spreadout of the presentations over several days was good – meaning I did not have to block out the entire day and maintain attention throughout. The topics that I watched were presented very well.

  The Webinar series of lectures (see programme below) was recorded so that anyone can now view the recordings and associated Q&A sessions!  Questions not answered during the sessions may be found by following the links below within the programme.
  
  Read a preview of the conference by Dr Mark Wilks.
  Read Mark's review of the conference published in Pathology in Practice.

  Another massive thank you to the speakers and moderators.

  We are also grateful to the 22 sponsor companies who supported the conference withough whom we could not have convened it.

  Read a commercial preview published in Pathology in Practice.

• 2020 BSMT Annual Scientific Conference

  The BSMT Committee regrets that the 2020 BSMT Annual Scientific Conference has been postponed due to the pandemic until 12 May 2022 when we have again booked the RAF Museum in Hendon. We will be updating the programme and application form in Autumn 2021 and hope that you will be able to register.

• 34th BSMT Annual Scientific Conference 2019

  Respiratory Microbiology – A Day of Inspiration

  Venue: Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon.

  • Read the report on this meeting in Pathology in Practice

• Autumn Symposium 2018 Going Overboard with Microbiology – Women and Children First

  Going Overboard with Microbiology – Women and Children First

  Venue: Merseyside Maritime Museum, Albert Dock, Liverpool.

  • Read the report on this meeting in Pathology in Practice

• 33rd BSMT Annual Scientific Conference 2018

  Rapid Diagnostics - Time is Relative

  Venue: Colindale, Public Health England

  • Read the report on this meeting in Pathology in Practice
  • Evaluation Report

• 32nd BSMT Annual Scientific Conference 2017

  Hot Topics in Microbiology: Join the Grapevine

  Venue: Colindale, Public Health England.

  • Read the report on this meeting in The Biomedical Scientist
  • Evaluation Report

• 31st BSMT Annual Scientific Conference

  Assessing the Impact of New Technology in Diagnostics on Global Epidemiology: How Laboratories make a Difference

  Venue: Colindale, Public Health England.

  • Read the report on this meeting in The Biomedical Scientist

• Autumn Symposium 2015 To Screen or Not to Screen

  Regional Symposium: To screen or Not to Screen

  Friday 27th November 2015

  Venue: Liverpool Maritime Museum