Josh Osowicki

AAMRI announces 2025 Rising Star finalists showcasing our brightest young researchers - AAMRI AAMRI is delighted to announce the finalists for the 2025 AAMRI Rising Star Award, proudly sponsored by CSL. The award shines a spotlight on the extraordinary talent driving the future of health and m...

AAMRI is thrilled to announce our 2025 AAMRI Rising Star Award Finalists, proudly sponsored by CSL.

These outstanding researchers are shaping the future of health + medical research in Australia 👏 #2025AAMRIRisingStar

aamri.org.au/news-events/...

Winner announced 4 Nov at #2025AAMRIConvention

I am exciting to publish our validated, lab-based model of oral gonorrhoea infection! With this model we can begin to understand how gonorrhoea behaves in the mouth (which is lacking) and screen for new compounds for interventions such as a gum to prevent infections. sti.bmj.com/content/earl...

Buruli ulcer: flesh-eating bacteria spreads in Melbourne suburb amid warning about rise in cases Increase in cases ‘linked to Ascot Vale’ leads health officials to warn the disease is ‘spreading geographically’

Melbourne 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘵𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘱𝘺𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘴 researchers have been dealing with a similar challenge too…

www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Our new review “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘝𝘢𝘤𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘔𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘣𝘪𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤-𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘉𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘴” is out

Compared to antibiotics, vaccines:

✓ Act prophylactically at low pathogen burden

✓ Less prone to inducing resistance due to multifactorial nature of immune pressure

🧵1/3

Some NICUs don’t specifically cover anaerobes for NEC, although more to do with understanding of the developing GI microbiome. Your Q isn’t whether anaerobes are there, more what happens if we don’t go out of our way to treat them? There are some cholangitis & asp pneumonia studies 🤷‍♂️

🤔 could consider when clindamycin was abandoned for IAI (because rising Bacteroides-R). If this was preceded by ⬆️ refractory cases that would be convincing-ish. And how about before any of these drugs were available? Anaerobic culture standards probably haven’t been consistent enough to be useful.

Exited to announce 2 EDCTP consortiums led @lshtm.bsky.social w partners in Europe & West, East & Southern Africa

MAMS4CL will deliver seamless Phase 2-3 trial of treatments for Cutaneous Leishmaniasis.

IVMKIDS will provide data on paediatric dosing ivermectin down to 5kg/weight for STH & Scabies.

Case report of osteomyelitis relapse after 50 years

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10443871/

Phenomenal piece of work by a great team across @mrcunitgambia.bsky.social @lshtm.bsky.social @sheffielduni.bsky.social - Delighted to have played a small part in combining epidemiology & immunology to shed light on what protection for #StrepA might look like & help advance vaccine development.

Fantastic to see this immense body of excellent work published! Well done @alexjkeeley.bsky.social and everyone involved 👏

#StrepA
@floreyinstitute.bsky.social
@molmicrosheffield.bsky.social

VERY excited by our latest work on StrepA below, but also rhe multiple collaborations and work to come off the back of this at MRCG

🧵 Our paper out today in @naturemedicine.bsky.social

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

On development of #StrepA #Immunity over life course in #TheGambia raising hope for #vaccines on the horizon

1/

#Immunosky #IDsky #MicroSky #globalhealth.

T cell responses in repeated controlled human schistosome infection compared to natural exposure - Nature Communications In schistosomiasis-endemic regions, the cyclical nature of infection and treatment complicates understanding of host immune responses. Repeated controlled human Schistosoma mansoni infection, designed...

A real pleasure to be a part of this beautiful new study on T cell responses in repeat controlled human infection vs natural infection with #schistosomes, spearheaded by @emmahoulder.bsky.social with many wonderful colleagues #helminths #ImmunoSky #IDSky 🪱 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Congratulations to 𝐃𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐃𝐀𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐋 𝐒𝐔𝐍 on the successful defense of his PhD "𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘰𝘴𝘵-𝘗𝘢𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘯 𝘐𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘧𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘕𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵 𝘋𝘳𝘶𝘨 𝘙𝘦𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘱𝘩𝘺𝘭𝘰𝘤𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘶𝘴" in the Biomedical Sciences Graduate Program as part of his dual degree training in the UCSD SSPPS PharmD/PhD Program

Tony Breu on X: "1/ Why hasn't syphilis developed resistance to penicillin (PCN)? It took staph aureus about a year to demonstrate resistance. After 75 years, there has never been a reported case of treponema pallidum resistant to PCN. Let’s have a look at why this might be..." / X 1/ Why hasn't syphilis developed resistance to penicillin (PCN)? It took staph aureus about a year to demonstrate resistance. After 75 years, there has never been a reported case of treponema pallidum resistant to PCN. Let’s have a look at why this might be...

Thanks for the reference! And of course there's this classic from @tonybreu.bsky.social x.com/tony_breu/st...

Why have group A streptococci remained susceptible to penicillin? Report on a symposium - PubMed In spite of 50 years of extensive use of penicillin, group A streptococci remain exquisitely susceptible to this antibiotic. This observation that continuing susceptibility has occurred despite the de...

Apropos of #7…

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9636860/

Many, perhaps most, of the deaths from ‘nephropathies’ (8%) and heart disease (12%) would have been infection-related so >2/3 deaths likely infection-related. Many, probably most, due to APSGN & RHD (i.e. #StrepA). Guess what? 🇺🇸 made a vaccine (it worked). 🌏 needs to do it again.

Evaluating clinical decision rules and rapid diagnostic tests for the diagnosis of Streptococcus pyogenes pharyngitis in Gambian children: a diagnostic accuracy study Accurate diagnosis of Streptococcus pyogenes (S. pyogenes) pharyngitis is imperative in high rheumatic heart disease-burden countries. We aimed to assess the diagnostic accuracy of two rapid diagnosti...

Latest from @mrcunitgambia.bsky.social #StrepA group. Show clinical decision rules developed elsewhere (mostly HIC) have poor performance in Gambia & molecular tests detect far more #StrepA than culture. Given burden of RhD in Africa we urgently need better & affordable tests for #StrepA diagnosis

Understanding the interaction of upper respiratory tract infection with respiratory syncytial virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae using a human challenge model: a multicenter, randomized controlled stu... Background Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are major causes of respiratory infections globally. Viral and bacterial co-infections are commonly observed in...

RSV and pneumococcus demonstrate close interaction in epidemiological studies but which is 🐥 and which is 🥚. This study by our group is designed to find out...

#idsky #medsky

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

A Phase II, Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of HEX17, a Novel Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Drug, in a Controlled Human Infection Model of Influenza Challenge - ... Introduction Viral respiratory tract infections are of global concern, with an unmet need for a broad-spectrum antiviral prophylactic. HEX17, a multivalent carbohydrate-binding module, binds to sialic...

A Phase II, Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of HEX17, a Novel Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Drug, in a Controlled Human Infection Model of Influenza Challenge.
Kitson, G., Byford, M., Cass, L. et al.
Infect Dis Ther (2025).
doi.org/10.1007/s401...

Job Opportunity at LSHTM: Research Assistant The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) is one of the world’s leading public health universities. Our mission is to improve health and health equity in the UK and worldwide; working i...

Come & work with me @benvyle.bsky.social @lshtm.bsky.social & @thelovetankcic.bsky.social Research Assistant with funded PhD within multidisciplinary project on Syphilis & STI control in the UK. Working with us to understand stakeholder & community perspectives on novel STI control strategies

It becomes the Thesis of Theseus.

Read the latest Journal of #Infection for the Phase-IIa trial and how it evaluates the safety and pharmacokinetics of high-dose, 10 weekly subcutaneous injections of penicillin (#SCIP) in young people with a history of acute rheumatic fever (#ARF) 👉 www.journalofinfecti...

Antagonism as a foraging strategy in microbial communities In natural habitats, nutrient availability limits bacterial growth. We discovered that bacteria can overcome this limitation by acquiring nutrients by lysing neighboring cells through contact-dependen...

🄰🅆🄴🅂🄾🄼🄴
Stubbusch et al 𝘚𝘊𝘐𝘌𝘕𝘊𝘌

Bacteria 🦠 repurpose Type VI Secretion Systems based on environmental cues:

Nutrient-rich environments ➜ kill competitors

Under starvation ➜ lyse neighbors to scavenge their nutrients

Even “non-pathogens” shift from competition to predation as a survival strategy

Victorella - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victore...

Dr O Xie has an entertaining talk on S. dys subsp eq [SDSE]

🐴 iSDSE has similar incidence and mortality v iGAS
🐎 Less genomic clustering in SDSE
🫏 Global dissemination iSDSE driven by stG62647-lineage

#LISSSD25 #clinmicro #idsky

Last of the #LISSSD25 presentations is Prof Victor Nizet imploring the community to think like streptococci in these times of authoritarianism USA anti-science

🍇 Evade host immunity (cont to do work)
🍇 Form biofilms (network)
🍇 Colonise diverse hosts (expand skill sets)

#strep #idsky

I said no more #LISSSD25 posts but forgot a major highlight!

Most sessions started w/ a patient lived experience video, and you can see them all @ lisssd2025.org/patient-stories

Looking after patients during thier illnesses is v. stressful so it's great to hear their experiences when recovered.

Prof N Moreland from NZ speaks through the ARF perturbed immune response in ARF.
🌍 All strep A serotypes assoc w/ ARF in NZ
🌍 Increased IgG3 ab phenotpes
🌍 Immune infiltration valves incl plasma cells.
🌍 DIifferences in immue activation in acute & chronic RHD

#LISSSD25

Dr K Gibney flys the flag for 🦘 clin trials by 🎺

ISAAC 🔎 at Abx prophylaxis of close iGAS contacts (enrolling soon)

STRAP 🔎 backbone Abx, adjunctive Abx, and IVIg (enrolling 2026ish)

Only enrolling in Aus for now but looking for int. collab.

#LISSSD25 #idsky #clinicaltrials #strep