Igor Mokrousov, Head the Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics and Anna Vyazovaya Senior Researcher of this Laboratory took part in the 39th Annual Congress of the European Society of Mycobacteriology (ESM-2018), which was held in Dresden, Germany on 1-4 July 2018.
Over 200 scientists from 39 countries (Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Russia, Mexico, the Netherlands), as well as WHO representatives took part in the Congress of the European Society of Mycobacteriology (ESM), the largest scientific society that focuses on fundamental and applied research on M. tuberculosis and other mycobacteriosis.
The following representatives from Russia took part in the Congress: I. Mokrousov, A. Vyazovaya (St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute), V. Zhuravlev, N. Solovyova (Saint-Petersburg State Research Institute of Phthisiopulmonology) and E. Shitikov (Federal Research and Clinical Center of Physical-Chemical Medicine of Federal Medical Biological Agency).
The Congress consists of the following sessions and symposia: New treatment concepts, Innovation in Diagnostics, TB in vulnerable populations, Population structure and transmission, Whole Genome Sequencing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in epidemiology and diagnostics of MDR TB, non-tuberculous Mycobacteria. At the Workshop on Host Pathogen interaction the following topics were discussed: Impact of M. tuberculosis complex population diversity on the immune response and the clinical outcome of tuberculosis infection; The Mycobacterium marinum-zebrafish model to study host pathogen interactions in tuberculosis; Macrophage infection models for M. tuberculosis virulence testing. Regarding the 20th anniversary of Whole Genome Sequencing of M. tuberculosis strain, Roland Brosch (Institut Pasteur, Paris), one of the key authors of the research, presented the Special lecture “Lessons learned from 20 years M. tuberculosis genome research”.
All in all the researchers of the Laboratory of Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics (St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute) presented one oral and three poster presentations.
Igor Mokrousov made an oral presentation “Key role of mass migration, as opposite to ordinary human exchange, in global spread of M. tuberculosis strains” and poster presentation “Rapid and robust detection of the epidemiologically important Central Asian/Russian strain of M. tuberculosis Beijing genotype” (research supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant 14-14-00292).
Anna Vyazovaya in poster session One population structure and transmission of MTB presented 2 posters: “Population structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in the Komi Republic, Russian Federation” (research supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Grant 14-14-00292) and “Ancient sublines of M. tuberculosis Beijing genotype in Western Siberia, Russian Federation”.
With the participants from the UK, Bulgaria, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Finland, China, Brazil and Canada their own research results on M. tuberculosis molecular epidemiology, the possibility of joint projects on the analysis of epidemic clones of mycobacteria, the dynamics of their circulation and the driving forces of their spread in Russia and Europe were discussed. In addition, the foreign colleagues were invited to participate in the International Conference “Molecular Bases of Epidemiology, Diagnostics, Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases” dedicated to the 110th anniversary of St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute, including the Symposium on Tuberculosis and Mycobacteria.
At the meeting of the Society General Assembly the decision to hold the following ESM congresses in Valencia (Spain) in 2019 and in Tirana (Albania) in 2020 was made. During the General Assembly new members of the ESM Steering Committee were elected: Iñaki Comas (Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia, Spain), Leen Rigouts (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium), Vladyslav Nikolayevskyy (Health Protection Agency, London, United Kingdom) and Igor Mokrousov (St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute). It may be noted that for the first time in 39 years of ESM the representative of Russia was elected to its management.
The Steering Committee of ESM consists of seven persons (including the President of the Society, currently Daniela M. Cirillo, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milano, Italy), which are elected for three years and two terms maximum in this position.
The Scientific Program of the ESM-2018 is presented on the Congress website:
http://vorschau.agentur-konsens.de/ESM/downloads/2018/ESM_Short_program_2018_A5_2_pp.pdf
