ISHAM NEWS! (6-10-2010)

Dear , The Middle East Yeast Workshop  ‘Molecular Diagnostics and Treatment’ in Doha, Qatar, 16-18 February 2011 has now a website with all relevant information. There will be an international panel of speakers.

The 4th FEMS Congress of European Microbiologists will be organised in Geneva, Switzerland, 26-30 June, 2011, with several topics relevant to medical mycology. The preliminary program and further info can be found here.

A new user-friendly phylogenetic program is being developed by Thasso Griebel in Jena, Germany, Epos, a tool for phylogenetic analysis from ground up. Included is an embedded database that allows data storage and management, including raw sequences, alignments, distance matrices and trees. A multitude of algorithms is supported, for example, ClustalW and Muscle for multiple sequence alignments, RaxML and Paup for tree construction as well as various consensus and supertree methods. The Epos user interfaces allows you to view and edit your data, and execute the algorithms either locally or on a remote cluster. The Software provides a tree comparator for visual comparison, script support, Blast integration and a way to automatically install external programs (i.e. ClustalW). Epos is Open Source and runs on all major Platforms (Windows/Mac OS/Linux). You may download the latest version here. Feedback is appreciated: thasso.griebel@googlemail.com.

The website of the workshop “The dynamics of zygomycete research in a changing world” is now open with preliminary program and registration data, click here. The workshop is organised in Utrecht, The Netherlands, 3-5 March, 2011. The workshop aims to connect researchers in clinical, environmental and food-related areas to build up a balanced vision on Zygomycetes. There is no registration fee; ISHAM members will be offered a free excursion.

ISHAM welcomes a new Working Group uniting medical mycologists from Asia that has now joined our society; see at the Working Group area of this website here. This group wishes to run teaching workshops and perform fungal surveillance studies across many countries in Asia.  ISHAM members from Asia are kindly invited to participate in its activities.

The Netherlands Society for Medical Mycology (NVMY) will organize an English-language scientific meeting in Utrecht, The Netherlands, on 8 December 2010, see here. Participation is free of charge.

The ECMM-ISHAM Working Group Pseudallescheria / Scedosporium Infections has a new team of conveners: Michaela Lackner ela.youngisham@googlemail.com, Sharon Chen sharon.chen007@live.com.au and Walter Buzina walter.buzina@medunigraz.at.

WUR-CBS-RU meeting on "Fungal bioinformatics and medical mycology" to be held on November 12 in Wageningen. further info can be found here

The Belgian Society for Medical Mycology organises a meeting in Antwerp, Belgium, on 7 October 2010, entitled: “Belgian course in medical mycology:  what has changed after 5, 10 or 20 years?” Program and registration info can be found Here.

The new ISHAM Working Group on Barcoding has now officially been approved and can be found in the WG area of our website here. Conveners are Wieland Meyer w.meyer@usyd.edu.au, Arun Balajee fir3@cdc.gov and Sybren de Hoog de.hoog@cbs.knaw.nl. The group is searching for specialists in different fungal groups and will organise meetings at major mycological congresses.   

The new issue of Medical Mycology (48-6) has been published and is freely available in your ISHAM member area. For your convenience we list the contents below: