BASHH OGM
STI Molecular Diagnostics: Present and
Potential
Royal Society of Medicine, London
Friday 14th Match 2014; 13:00 – 15:30
Chair: Dr Paddy Horner
Approved for 2 RCP CPD points
12:00 – 13:00
Exhibition
13:00 – 13:05
Chair’s Introduction
13:05 – 13:40
Challenges with diagnosis and treatment of gonorrhoea
Dr Magnus Unemo
13:40 – 14:00
A syndromic approach to the detection of sexually transmitted
pathogens
Dr Markus Schmitt
14:00 – 14:30
Next generation sequencing for sexually transmitted pathogens
direct from patient samples
Professor Nicholas Thomson
14:30 – 15:00
Debate: Is the increase in pharyngeal gonorrhoea real?
Dr John White and Mr Michael Perry
15:00 – 15:30
TEA/COFFEE
15:30 - 16.30
AGM (BASHH members only)
17:00 – 19:00
Evening session
This meeting has been kindly supported by Roche, Luminex and Hologic
Speaker Profiles
Dr. Magnus Unemo, Ph.D. and Assoc Professor in Medical Microbiology and Molecular Biology, works as
a senior researcher and is directing a WHO Collaborating Centre for Gonorrhoea and Other STIs linked to
the WHO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland as well as the National Reference Laboratory for
Pathogenic Neisseria, Örebro University Hospital in Sweden. His main research focuses on Neisseria
gonorrhoeae and other bacterial STIs, and he has published more than 180 scientific peer-reviewed papers
as well as many chapters in international STI books. He is also Editor of the Swedish Reference
Methodology for STIs; was Editor-in-Chief of the 2013 WHO Manual for Laboratory Diagnosis of STIs and
HIV; is in the Editorial Board for the European Guidelines for Diagnosis and Treatment of STIs; and is
responsible for one of the two laboratories acting as the European CDC STI Reference Laboratory hub.
Dr. Markus Schmitt is a researcher in the Department of Genome Modifications, Infection and Cancer
Research Program at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ). His research focus of the last 9 years
has been on the association of human papillomaviruses (HPV) on cancer of the uterine cervix and the
development of biomolecular technologies for improved cervical cancer precursor screening. Dr. Schmitt
has also developed several high-throughput multiplex assays applied in many international cooperation’s
on infection and cancer including one for sexually transmitted infections.
Professor Nicholas Thomson a Principal Scientist in the Welcome Trust Sanger Institute Pathogen
Genomics Group and Chair of Bacterial Genomics and Evolution at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine. His expertise centers on using whole genome sequencing approaches to study bacterial
genome evolution. He has been working with Pathogen genomes for 11 years and specialises in part on
those causing sexually transmitted infections (STIs). His recent work centers on redefining what we know
of C. trachomatis evolution and epidemiology using whole genome resolution data. To extend their
population based studies his group has also developed methods to sequence Chlamydia directly from
uncultured discarded clinical swabs which he is now applying to other STI's.
Dr. John White FRCP is an Australian Sexual Health Physician who has been working in the UK since
2004 as a consultant physician in the Department of Genitourinary Medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas’
Hospitals in London. His professional interests include bacterial STIs, sexual health of men who have sex
with men (MSM) and diagnostic tests for HIV/STIs. He has a keen interest in lymphogranuloma venereum
infection in MSM and is involved in several research studies involving the assessment of diagnostic tests
for bacterial STIs and HIV. He is Chair of the British Association of Sexual Health & HIV Education
Committee and also sits on the Core Group of the European Collaborative Clinical Group of the
International Union against Sexually Transmitted Infections (IUSTI). Since 2009 he has been Editor-inChief of the International Journal of STD & AIDS.
Mr Michael Perry is a Clinical Scientist working within the Public Health Wales National Molecular
Diagnostic Unit at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff. Michael sits on the core group of the Bacterial
Special Interest Group of the British Association of Sexual Health & HIV. During the last 10 years he has
been instrumental in the development and implementation of a wide range of molecular microbiology
diagnostic methods and strategies in Wales including those recently introduced for the detection of N.
gonorrhoeae.