Posts by Philippa Harris

Senior Executive Editor for the BMC-series

Visit author's website: http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcmicrobiol

Follow author on Twitter: @BMC_series

Auf Wiedersehen ECCMID 2013

Philippa Harris on May 10, 2013 at 1:46 pm - 0 Comments

Caravaggio is not an artist traditionally associated with Berlin, but discussion of potential causes of his death–postulated to be due to sepsis– at a recent microbiology conference held in the city–mean that sometime in future he just may be! Luckily the eventful life of the famous Italian painter was not emulated by the participants at the 23rd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2013) and we, BMC Infectious Diseases included, instead enjoyed a diverse set of presentations covering the whole spectrum of infectious disease research.

The focus of many of the talks was on prevention, rather than the treatment of diseases, from Linos Vandekerckhove’s review of early initiation of HIV treatment to prevent transmission, …

BMC Infectious Diseases ist ein Berliner

Philippa Harris on April 17, 2013 at 3:54 pm - 0 Comments

Berlin has seen more than its fair share of microbiology pioneers, including Robert Koch and Paul Ehrlich. In light of this it is only fitting that Berlin will be the host city for the 23rd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID 2013) from the 27th-30th April. BMC Infectious Diseases will be attending and are looking forward to a diverse range of talks. If you are interested in meeting to discuss anything please contact the Executive Editor Philippa Harris.

Defining bacterial species in the genomic era: insights from the genus Acinetobacter

Philippa Harris on February 15, 2013 at 3:55 pm - 0 Comments

A recent paper in BMC Microbiology argues that delineation of bacterial species based purely on whole genome sequences is both feasible and desirable. In this guest blog, the authors outline why.

In the early eighteenth century, in his Systema Naturae, Linnaeus provided the first workable hierarchical classification of species, based on the clustering of organisms according to their phenotypic characteristics. Over a century later in On the Origin of Species, Darwin added phylogeny, i.e. the history of organismal lineages over time, to biological taxonomy, while also emphasizing the arbitrary nature of biological species. Despite concerns over the capricious nature of taxonomic boundaries, the pragmatic reality and utility of the species concept continues to inform the theory and …

BMC Infectious Diseases highlights hepatitis

Philippa Harris on January 28, 2013 at 4:52 pm - 2 Comments

BMC Infectious Diseases has always prided itself on the hepatitis research it publishes, from epidemiology studies in underreported locations such as Iraq and Libya, as well as more global studies. In addition we have been working closely with conferences to publish supplements on this subject, such as the recent proceedings of the Second Workshop of the Regional Study Group on HCV in the Calabria Region.

In recognition of this growing area of the journal we are delighted to announce our expansion to include a new section dedicated to manuscripts reporting research into hepatitis and co-infections. Authors will be able to submit directly to this section and readers will be able to search directly for …

Highlights of the BMC-series: July 2012

Philippa Harris on July 31, 2012 at 10:36 am - 0 Comments

July has been a fantastic month for the BMC-series! The sun has finally shone on our London offices after weeks of rain, we have our first video highlight, Darwin the puppy made two appearances on the BMC Genetics homepage (see more below) and we published the following great articles. Oh and there’s some sporting event in town.

Cell Biology: Nuclear envelope assembly needs MeCP2

Loss of methyl CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2) reduces cell proliferation and is linked to an accompanying ecrease in lamin levels as shown in a new study published in BMC Cell Biology. This indicates that MeCP2 may be part of omplexes involved in attracting heterochromatin at …

Journal clubs tweeting to success

Philippa Harris on July 12, 2012 at 4:24 am - 0 Comments

The BMC-series is a big fan of twitter (@BMC-series) and an even bigger fan of promoting scientific discussion and debate. Virtual journal clubs allow researchers all over the world to interact using tweets to discuss articles and next week BMC Microbiology is under the spotlight!

The following guest blog from Emma Trantham invites you to participate in the Microbiology Twitter Journal Club.

“After learning about the success of #twitjc (a medical based Twitter journal club) a group of microbiologists decided to set up their own Microbiology journal club on Twitter, and so #microtwjc was born.

The club runs every other Tuesday (8pm-9pm BST) and at each session a different microbiology-related paper …

ASM2012 highlights

Philippa Harris on July 4, 2012 at 1:55 am - 0 Comments

BMC Microbiology and BMC Infectious Diseases have returned from ASM2012, the 112th General Meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. The conference, held this year in San Francisco, spanned a broad range of topics with the Human Microbiome Project generating a lot of buzz.

Jean Claverie discussed whether bigger was better when it comes to viral genomes with Megavirus chilensis and its (astonishing) 1,259,197 bp genome. The virus was discovered whilst diving in Chile showing that science doesn’t have to be lab-based! Apparently an even bigger sibling has been discovered….

Toby Kiers gave a fascinating talk on the interactions between mychorrhizal fungi and their plant host in allocation …

BMC Microbiology & BMC Infectious Diseases will be wearing flowers in their hair….

Philippa Harris on June 12, 2012 at 4:32 am - 1 Comment

BMC Microbiology & BMC Infectious Diseases will be
attending the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Microbiologists in San
Francisco, USA, from June 16-19, 2012. We will be in the exhibitor’s hall at
1315 so do stop by to discuss the journals and any questions you may have with the
Executive Editor Philippa Harris.

BMC Infectious Diseases publishes its first supplement

Philippa Harris on May 4, 2012 at 3:43 am - 0 Comments

BMC Infectious Diseases has published its first supplement of abstracts from the 4th National and 1st International Science Symposium on HIV and Infectious Diseases, held in Chennai, India earlier this year.

The aim of the conference was to “address key scientific issues, gaps in knowledge and an opportunity to identify priorities for future action”. The supplement, comprising 117 meeting abstracts, highlights the wide breath of research currently being carried out in this field.

We hope you will enjoy reading them.

Image source: PDH on Wikipedia

ECCMID’s mass gathering

Philippa Harris on April 11, 2012 at 5:45 am - 0 Comments

The year 2012 is an important year for London as host of the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer. However, BMC Infectious Diseases was equally excited to attend 22nd European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) at the ExCeL exhibition and convention centre also held in the east end of the capital.

The Olympics were a widely discussed event highlighted in a series of talks on infection control during mass gatherings. Valuable insight into the challenges London will face was presented by the Saudi Assistant Deputy Minister of Health Prof Ziad Memish as he discussed his country’s experience with the Hajj.

The debate sessions contained some lively discussion on diverse themes such …