Session Moderator: Meenakshi Malik, PhD - ACPHS*

Dana Mordue, PhD - New York Medical College

• "The emerging malaria-like disease in your back yard"

Chandra Shekhar Bakshi, DMV, PhD - New York Medical College

• "Development of tularemia subunit vaccine: Are we there yet?"

Wei Sun, PhD – Albany Medical Center

• "Plague: an old disease, but not over yet- Strategies for plague vaccine development"

Danielle Baranova, BS- University at Albany SPH, Wadsworth Center

• “A Vibrio cholerae mechanosensitive channel involved in sensing outer membrane stress in the context of an immune host“

*Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Science

Session Moderator: Yi-Pin Lin, PhD and Linda Gebhardt, BS, MT (ASCP) – Wadsworth Center

Linden Hu, PhD- Tufts University

• "Strategies for preventing Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases"

Rafal Tokarz, PhD - Columbia University

• "Multiplex serologic assay for tick-borne diseases"

Bryon Backenson, PhD - NYSDOH Bureau of Communicable Diseases

• "Vector-borne disease trends in NYS and the Northeast US"

Brian Leydet, PhD - College of Envrionmental Science and Forestry

• "Vector competence of Ixodes scapularis for Borrelia bissettiae: A model for comparative genomics?"

Session Moderator: Nellie Dumas, BS-Wadsworth Center

Lisa Mingle, PhD – Wadsworth Center

• "MALDI-TOF MS: Impact on clinical laboratory staff and workflows"

Kathleen Stellrecht, PhD – Albany Medical Center

• "Effects of new technologies on sepsis"

Susan Whittier, PhD – Columbia University

• "A syndromic approach for diagnosing meningitis: Lessons learned"

Interactive Discussion Panel

Session Moderator: Kimberlee Musser, PhD - Wadsworth Center

Barry N. Kreiswirth, PhD - Public Health Research Institute TB Center, Rutgers University

• "Treating multidrug resistant pathogens in high risk patients: Time to think out of the box"

Mary George, PhD - Albany Medical Center

Michelle Kaiser - Albany Medical Center

• "One hospital’s approach to antibiotic resistant organism screening"

Guiqing (Hank) Wang, MD, PhD - Westchester Medical Center

• "NGS genomics-informed sntimicrobial stewardship and infection control"

Kimberlee Musser, PhD - Wadsworth Center

• "Northeast Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Network (ARLN): Two years of building, communication and impact"

Session Moderator: Kirsten St. George, PhD - Wadsworth Center

Alex Ciota, PhD – Wadsworth Center

• "The resurgence of Yellow Fever"

Sumathi Ramachandran, PhD - CDC

• "Nation-wide HAV outbreaks and the development of molecular testing to support their investigation"

Patrick Bryant, PhD – Wadsworth Center

• "When measles rashes aren’t measles"

Session Moderator: Sudha Chaturverdi, PhD - Wadsworth Center, Magdia DeJesus, PhD -University at Albany

Ellis Tobin, MD - Albany Medical Center

• "Blastomycosis: A New York State of mind"

Robert McDonald, PhD - EISO (CDC) in the Division of Epidemiology, NYSDOH

• "The emergence of blastomycosis in New York State"

Yan Zhu, MS – Wadsworth Center

• "Multidrug-resistant Candida auris outbreak/surveillance in New York: Laboratory investigation update"

Steven Torres, BS – University at Albany

• "Lessons learned about Candida auris in our journey to develop a vaccine"

Sudha Chaturvedi, PhD – Wadsworth Center

• “Candida auris: An Emerging Fungal Pathogen of Concern”

Session Moderator: Eric Yager, PhD - ACPHS*

Eric Yager, PhD - ACPHS*

Michelle Parent, PhD - ACPHS*

Anna McLoon, PhD - Siena College

Kelly Halstrom, PhD - College of St. Rose

*Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Science

Session Moderators: Nick O’Donnell, PhD -ACPHS*, Nicole Shakerley, PhD - ACPHS*

Tobias Dorr, PhD - Cornell University

• "Cell wall stress sensing and antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative pathogens"

Pallavi Ghosh, PhD -Wadsworth Center

• “Deciphering the exceptional drug resistance of Mycobacterium abscessus”

Nicholas Smith, MS, PharmD - University of Buffalo

• "Systems approaches to overcome microbial resistance"

*Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Science

Session Moderator: William Wolfgang, PhD - Wadsworth Center

3:00-5:30PM

Renato Orsi, PhD - Cornell University

• "Longitudinal assessment of L. monocytogenes persistence in a food facility using WGS"

Patrick Mitchell, PhD - Cornell University

• "NGS Surveillance of Veterinary Pathogens"

Todd Gray, PhD - Wadsworth Center

• "Using the ribosome to empirically annotate mycobacterial genomes"

Monica Parker, PhD - Wadsworth Center

• "Can NGS help us beat Hepatitis C?"