The Scientific Seminar Series is designed to reach the microbiology community to disseminate knowledge across its professional networks. The events are designed as a regularly repeated series of short (typically 1–2 hour) online meetings.
The Journal of Medical Microbiology (JMM) monthly seminar series is designed to showcase high-quality and timely research from the journal’s key authors. JMM welcomes everything from laboratory research to clinical trials, including bacteriology, virology, mycology, and parasitology. The JMM seminars will reflect this same comprehensive scientific content.
Sign up to attend this series of seminars via the 'Registration' tab. Instructions on how to join the Zoom session will be sent ahead of each seminar.
Please note all times listed in the programme are UK time.
Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the leading causes of bacterial infection in children under five. The current Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine (PCV), targeting up to 20 of 107 known serotypes, has significantly reduced global mortality. Yet, the emergence of non-PCV serotypes is undermining vaccine effectiveness. To address this, we conducted the Global Pneumococcal Sequencing Project to assess PCV's impact on pneumococcal populations, aiming to inform future vaccine design. Methods: We whole-genome sequenced 21,155 pneumococcal isolates with detailed epidemiological data from 59 countries, 1989-2018. We defined a novel genomic definition of pneumococcal lineage (or Global Pneumococcal Sequence Cluster, GPSC) using PopPUNK, and inferred serotype, and antimicrobial profile of 19 antibiotics from genome data. Results: We clustered a global collection of pneumococcal genomes into 968 lineages. Globally, the top ten lineages contributing to vaccine evasion were identified, most of which were globally-spreading and capable of expressing multiple serotypes. An investigation into one of these lineages GPSC10 revealed its recombinogenic nature to acquire resistance genes and undergo frequent serotype switching. GPSC10 has mediated vaccine evasion across multiple countries through expanding its non-PCV serotypes components under the vaccine-selective pressure. After the introduction of PCV13, GPSC10 expressing serotype 24F was responsible for the increase in invasive disease in Europe and Latin America. These findings led to the inclusion of serotype 24F in the forthcoming 25-valent PCV (IVT-25). Conclusions: This study is a pioneering example of using pathogen genomic surveillance to inform bacterial vaccine design, highlighting serotype-based strategy limitations against vaccine-evading strains capable of expressing multiple serotypes.
Sign up to attend this series of seminars below. You will receive an email with information about each upcoming presentation, including joining instructions, a Zoom link, and any other relevant information, two days before each seminar. A second reminder email will be sent one hour before each seminar. Unfortunately, if you have signed up less than one hour before the seminar, you will not be able to attend until the next seminar in the series.
Please note all times listed in the programme are UK time.
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