Mid-Atlantic Microbial Pathogenesis Meeting

ABSTRACT The Mid-Atlantic Microbial Pathogenesis Meeting (MAMPM) was founded in 2003 and is a biennial meeting that will be held in early February 2025 at Wintergreen Resort and Conference Center near Charlottesville, Virginia. The purpose of MAMPM is to foster communication and collaboration among scientists engaged in microbial pathogenesis research in the Mid-Atlantic Region (North Carolina, Virginia, Maryland, The District of Columbia, West Virginia, and Delaware). Numerous NIH/NIAID-funded investigators studying the virulence mechanisms of pathogens of importance to human health are in this geographic region and have participated in multiple MAMPMs. However, MAMPM attracts scientists both from within and outside the Mid- Atlantic region – on average for the last 5 meetings, 80% of the 190 attendees were from the Mid-Atlantic region, while 20% traveled from at least 8 states outside the region per meeting. MAMPM’s primary goal is to provide students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty with the opportunity to present their work in a collegial, yet scientifically rigorous environment. As such, MAMPM is a formative experience for young scientists’ professional development, which remains one of the most appealing and positively evaluated aspects of this conference. MAMPM will consist of four scientific sessions over three days. Each session will feature an invited keynote speaker and talks by graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and a limited number of junior principal investigators (selected from the submitted abstracts by the Scientific Program Committee). Two highly interactive poster sessions will also be held to provide the opportunity for all participants to present and discuss their work face-to-face. For MAMPM 2025, Drs. Sean Crosson (Michigan State Univ.), Michael Jonhson (Univ. Arizona), Carol Kumamoto (Tufts Univ.), and Christina Stallings (Washington Univ. St. Louis) have agreed to be Keynote Speakers. The conference will be publicized through advertisements in professional publications and local American Society for Microbiology branches, social media posts, and direct electronic mailings to relevant departments at academic institutions and government and private laboratories within the region. MAMPM remains committed to ensuring a balanced representation of women, underrepresented minorities, and persons of disability in the leadership, conference participation, and as speakers, including the keynote speakers. The conference will also feature a diversity-focused session each year. For MAMPM 2025, we will hold a mentoring workshop lead by Keynote Speaker Dr. Johnna Frierson (Duke Univ.), which will highlight mentoring strategies in increase inclusivity in STEM. In addition, MAMPM specifically includes “Dine with a Keynote” opportunities for trainees to discuss professional development issues and promote scientific networking.