Australian Society of Antimicrobials 8th Annual Scientific Meeting

On behalf of the Australian Society of Antimicrobials (ASA) I would like to invite you to the Society's 8^th Annual Scientific Meeting "Antimicrobials 2007 to be held at the Rydges Melbourne on Thursday 22^nd - Saturday 24^th February 2007".

I am pleased to announce Dr Bob Moellering from the Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts USA, and Dominique Monnet from the Staten Serum Institut, Denmark will be participating at the meeting. Bob will be presenting the plenary "Antimicrobial Agents" while Dominique will be presenting the plenary "How Antibiotic Usage Drives Resistance". Both speakers will also be participating in the symposia sessions. In addition Dominique will be involved in the Pharmacy workshop.

The Australian plenary speaker for Antimicrobials 2007 is Dr Peter Colman from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Peter will be presenting the plenary "Development of Resistance to Neuraminidase Inhibitors" .

The programme's symposia will cover many different aspects on antimicrobials including "Molecular Detection of Antimicrobial Resistance", "Duration of Treatment", "Antimicrobial Usage and Resistance", "Current Plagues - Detection and Management" and "VISA/VRSA". In addition we have planned two workshops on Saturday afternoon titled "Scientific Picture Quiz with Keyboard" and the "Pharmacy Workshop" which will discuss "The Anti-Infectives" and "The Bugs". The Scientific Picture Quiz will be an interactive quiz/workshop that will explore the common and more recently described resistance mechanisms and discuss which susceptibility methods can be used to detect these mechanisms in clinically significant bacteria.

Once again ASA is offering travel awards to financial members of the Society who are submitting abstracts for the meeting. These awards include return economy airfare, registration and accommodation. In addition the ASA/bioMérieux travel award will be awarded during the meeting to an abstract dealing with the identification of bacterial resistance to antimicrobials in a routine clinical setting.

To promote discussion and interaction between delegates and the invited speakers the meeting's registration includes lunches, morning and afternoon teas and admission to the Welcome Reception. In addition a conference dinner is planned on the Friday evening.

I am confident that you will find the meeting's programme both scientifically stimulating and informative and we look forward to meeting you in Melbourne.

Keryn Christiansen
President ASA