American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

September 28, 2026 Washington, D.C.—ASM is launching the Detection to Protection (D2P) Initiative, bringing leading voices together to lay out a specific, expert-validated blueprint to address emerging infectious and zoonotic disease threats.

September 9, 2026 Washington, D.C.—ASM announced the recipients of its 2027 Awards and Prize Program. The awards recognize leading scientists and researchers in the microbial sciences for outstanding accomplishments and contributions to research, education and leadership.

In July 2026, a multi-state outbreak of Cyclospora was reported, with the CDC currently reporting over 18,000 laboratory-confirmed cases and additional probable cases. This webinar will examine the partnership between clinical and public health laboratories during outbreak response, from surveillance and epidemiologic investigations to diagnostic testing and patient care.

Relocating laboratories with biological safety requirements, particularly BSL-2 and BSL-3 facilities, presents unique operational, regulatory and validation challenges. This webinar will explore best practices for planning and executing laboratory moves while maintaining biosafety, containment integrity and compliance. Attendees will gain insights into lessons learned from real-world relocations, including risk mitigation and post-move validation strategies.

As part of CDC’s Fungal Disease Awareness Week 2026, ASM will host a webinar exploring emerging advances in fungal diagnostics and antifungal susceptibility testing, highlighting how innovative technologies are improving fungal identification and clinical decision-making. Experts will discuss new approaches to interpreting susceptibility results and leveraging diagnostic tools to support effective antifungal stewardship.

Despite growing interest and clinical successes, access to phage therapy remains fragmented and difficult to navigate. Patients, clinicians, laboratories, phage suppliers and treatment centers often operate through disconnected processes, creating barriers to timely care. Join ASM Health on Oct.

This panel-style webinar will bring together experienced microbiologists and science communicators to share practical strategies for engaging the broader public. Panelists will discuss approaches for translating complex scientific or microbiology concepts into clear, accessible language, using storytelling and addressing common misconceptions.

Using synthetic biology, researchers can engineer microbes with new or specialized functions. Source: Getty Images/kirstypargeter Microbes are pioneers of the planet. They evolved over millennia from the primordial precursors of ancient Earth, the starting point for the preponderance of life as we know it. The question is: how? Once purely existential, the query into how life emerged has moved into the world of experimentation.

July 20, 2026 Researchers found that extreme changes, both due to weather and human activity, are reshaping microbial communities in the Great Salt Lake that form the base for a large food web. Scientists analyzed communities and abundances of microbes near a channel that connects the super-salty north arm to the less-salty south arm. Changes to the depth of the channel significantly changed the diversity and abundance of the microbes due to changes in water flow and weather.

While it is not exactly pleasant to imagine the mouth as an ecosystem teeming with microbial life, that is exactly what it is. The mouth, or oral cavity in scientific terms, hosts many kinds of bacteria, fungi, archaea and viruses that make their homes in saliva and on teeth in the form of biofilms known as dental plaque.