Editors in Conversation

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the world in many ways. One of the most exciting applications of artificial intelligence is in the area of drug discovery. Particularly the discovery of antimicrobial molecules that are in the environment or even hidden within our own body. Today, we discuss some of the uses of artificial intelligence in the discovery of antimicrobials with an outstanding expert in the field.
Topics discussed:
How artificial intelligence can help the discovery of new antimicrobial moieties
Antibiotic discovery and challenges to bring molecules to the clinic
The implications for artificial intelligence and infectious diseases in particularly in the discovery of antibiotics.
Guest:
César de la Fuente, Ph.D., FRSB, Presidential Associate Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Director, Machine Biology Group.
This episode is brought to you by the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy journal available at https://asm.org/aac. 
If you plan to publish in AAC, ASM Members get up to 50% off publishing fees. Visit https://asm.org/joinasm to sign up.
Visit https://asm.org/aac to browse issues and/or submit a manuscript.
Follow Cesar on twitter at https://twitter.com/SuperBugDoc for AAC updates. 
Get the audio only podcast at https://asm.org/eic.

Accurate AST results are the backbone of diagnostic stewardship, yet routine quality control (QC) might be missing subtle shifts that skew your hospital's annual antibiogram. By examining a real-world "silent failure" in daptomycin testing, we explore how lab-driven data is essential to the AMR crisis response and why the human eye—and traditional QC bugs—aren't always enough to catch technical drifts. This session breaks down the importance of LIS rules, alert fatigue, and the future of automated susceptibility testing.
Guests:
Laurel J. Glaser, M.D., Ph.D.
Rebekah Dumm, Ph.D. D(ABMM)
Links: 
Leveraging patient data to detect systematic shifts in daptomycin susceptibility testing associated with reduced prescribing
This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Romney Humphries, Ph.D., D(ABMM) and Elitza (Elli) Theel, Ph.D., D(ABMM). 

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Become an ASM member to receive up to 50% off publishing fees when you publish in JCM or any of the ASM journals. Sign up at asm.org/joinasm.

In this episode, a fascinating new bacteriophage, JS1. While most contractile phages (which inject DNA like a spring-loaded syringe) are rigid and straight, JS1 sports a curved, flexible tail that may help it navigate the complex "canyons and valleys" of the bacterial cell wall.
Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/eDGta8xc4_0
Guests:
Sabrina Suhani, Ph.D., Graduate Student, Monash University, Australia
Trevor Lithgow, Ph.D., Professor, Monash University's Biomedical Discovery Institute.
Links: 
Staphylococcus species infected by a bacteriophage with a tail that is both curved and contractile
This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by mBio® and hosted by mBio Editor in Chief, Marvin Whiteley, Ph.D. 

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/mbio to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Receive up to 50% off fees when you publish in mBio® or any of the ASM journals by becoming an ASM member. Sign up at asm.org/joinasm.

Is the future of cervical cancer screening non-invasive? Sharmila Manjeshwar, Ph.D. and Jeffrey Klausner M.D. MPH, discuss a breakthrough in HPV diagnostics: urine-based testing. While vaccination and clinical screening have reduced cervical cancer rates, participation has stalled due to barriers like healthcare access and the invasive nature of traditional clinician-collected samples. This conversation explores how novel high-volume urine concentration technology is changing the landscape, making screening more accessible, private, and efficient.
Watch this episode: https://youtu.be/am7NvL1Y0g4
Guests:
Sharmila Manjeshwar, Ph.D.
Jeffrey Klausner M.D. MPH
Links: 
Performance of a novel, urine-based test for the detection of cervical human papillomavirus infection
This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and hosted by JCM Editor in Chief, Romney Humphries, Ph.D., D(ABMM) and Elitza (Elli) Theel, Ph.D., D(ABMM). 

Visit journals.asm.org/journal/jcm to read articles and/or submit a manuscript.

Become an ASM member to receive up to 50% off publishing fees when you publish in JCM or any of the ASM journals. Sign up at asm.org/joinasm.

Most microbiome research focuses on soil, oceans, or hosts. But the atmosphere itself harbors diverse communities of bacteria and fungi that move between ecosystems. This episode explores a recent mBio study comparing airborne microbial communities above a subalpine forest and a grassland in Colorado.

The conversation unpacks what the "aerobiome" is, how scientists actually sample microbes from the air, and why height, time of day, and season matter. The study reveals striking differences between fungi and bacteria, with fungi showing strong site-specific structure and environmental sensitivity, while bacteria appear more ubiquitous. They also discuss "vertical filtering," long-distance dispersal, and what these findings mean for pathogen spread, ecosystem connectivity, and climate change.

The atmosphere is not empty space, it is an active conduit connecting microbial life across landscapes.
Guests:
Carolyn R. Cornell, Ph.D., Department of Agricultural BiologyColorado State University
Jane E. Stewart, Ph.D., Department of Agricultural BiologyColorado State University
Links: 
Spatiotemporal patterns of airborne microbial communities in forest and grassland ecosystems.
This episode of Editors in Conversation is brought to you by mBio® and hosted by mBio Editor in Chief, Marvin Whiteley, Ph.D. 
This episode is brought to you by the mBio journal available at https://asm.org/mBio. 
If you plan to publish in mBio, ASM Members get up to 50% off publishing fees. Visit https://asm.org/joinasm to sign up.
Visit https://asm.org/mBio to browse issues and/or submit a manuscript.
Follow mBio on twitter at https://x.com/mbiojournal.