PAW 2020: Workshop postponed

A decision has been made to postpone the 4th ESCMID Professional Affairs Workshop due to the unpredictable current situation due to COVID-19, which is affecting the work schedules of many faculty members and potential participants.

The workshop was originally planned to be held from 23 – 26 November 2020 in an online format.

A decision regarding the new dates for the workshop will be made and communicated in January 2021.

The new ESCMID CAREer Grant: research and childcare are compatible for ESCMID members!

EUCAST Zoominar Days – 11 and 20 November 2020

EUCAST has arranged a series of web-based live updates and discussion forums. It is free and available to anyone with an interest in EUCAST guidelines and developments.

The first Zoominar day will take place tomorrow, 11 November 2020 and is titled ”EUCAST General update – new breakpoint table, recent projects, new agents”.

The second Zoominar day will take place on Friday, 20 November 2020 and is titled ”EUCAST New definitions of S, I and R” (and ATU if there is time).

Each of these will be one hour + 30 min Q&A, and each zoominar will be repeated at 8:00, 13:00 and 16:00 CET to try to fit around work-hours and time zones as much as possible.

Find the links for the Zoominars on the EUCAST website.

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Smart, Innovative, Continuous: REMAP-CAP Launches First Video

REMAP-CAP, an Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia, launched its first in a series of videos. The video shows the uniqueness, smart, and easy-to-handle design of this trial. As an adaptive platform, REMAP-CAP is designed to adapt in the event of a pandemic, increasing the likelihood of patients receiving an effective treatment.

Combatting antimicrobial resistance – COMBACTE – battles antimicrobial resistance by speeding up the development of new antibiotics. CLIN-Net, the clinical network pillar of COMBACTE, is involved in the site selection of the REMAP-CAP trial and aims to select 250 hospitals across Europe.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, REMAP-CAP has extended its domains to investigate new treatments specifically for COVID-19 patients on the ICU and the ward. With the ability to improve the design according to new insights and already having the clinical trial infrastructure in place to implement these insights swiftly, various interventions can be tested simultaneously within multiple therapeutic domains.

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GARDP Live Webinar: 17 November 2020

Don’t miss the next GARDP live Webinar, taking place next Tuesday, November 17, 2020 from 17:00-18:30 CET.

Join James J. Collins (Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, USA), Cesar de la Fuente (University of Pennsylvania, USA), Henriette Willems (University of Cambridge, UK) and Frederik Svensson (UCL Drug Discovery Institute, UK) as they discuss the use of artificial intelligence in the discovery of new antibacterials (computational chemoinformatics).

The discussion will be moderated by Laura Piddock from GARDP.

Sign up on the GARDP Website.

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EMA communication: materials on the development, approval and monitoring of vaccines for COVID-19

EMA has developed communication materials on the development, approval and monitoring of vaccines for COVID-19. The information material, which can be used for various purposes as needed, are divided into ‘tiers’ depending on the level of detail and complexity (Tier 1 and Tier 2):

• Tier 1: Basic facts on COVID-19 vaccines - Q&A in public friendly language for the public published on EMA website (link)

• Tier 2: Development, evaluation, approval & monitoring - a description of how COVID-19 vaccines are developed, approved and monitored intended for general and (professional) interested audience (link)

In addition, based on this material, text has been developed for the European Vaccines Information Portal (EVIP), which will be translated into all EU languages for publication.

Please check EMA’s dedicated webpage on COVID-19 for the latest updates.

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ARLG Survey – Management of Gram-negative bacteria

The Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG) have developed short online survey that examines clinical practice patterns involving duration of therapy and transition to oral antibiotics in Gram-negative Bloodstream Infections (BSI). The hope is that this data will help the ID community best design RCTs in these areas. 

The survey is designed for ID providers and ID pharmacists.

Access the survey online here.

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CMI highlight: Intrahost non-synonymous diversity at a neutralising antibody epitope of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein N-terminal domain

SARS-CoV-2 has evolved rapidly into several genetic clusters. However, data on mutations during the course of infection are scarce. This study aims to determine viral genome diversity in serial samples of COVID-19 patients.

Targeted deep sequencing of spike gene was performed on serial respiratory specimens from COVID-19 patients. Sanger sequencing was then performed to confirm the single nucleotide polymorphisms. From the results obtained, it emerged that mutations may arise spontaneously at neutralizing antibody sites during the course of COVID-19. Although these mutations may not be sustained during person-to-person transmission, these amino acid mutations may affect the antiviral activity of neutralizing antibodies.

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