Welcome

We are excited to once again assemble many of the leading clinicians and scientists from around the world for the 10th Advances Against Aspergillosis and Mucormycosis conference, which will be virtual only and held on 2-3 February, 2022. This conference has now clearly established itself as the premier forum for detailed and dedicated discussion of all aspects of Aspergillus infection and research. Beginning with the 8th conference, we have expanded to now include scientific sessions on mucormycosis pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment. We are holding a virtual event with speakers, posters and abstracts displayed online. The remote platform we will use multiple floors and on each floor there are multiple ‘tables’ allowing 1:1, 1:4 and 1:6 interactions, in addition to a plenary room. Because of challenging time zones and our desire to be as interactive as possible, we will pre-record talks and run them all, at different times on consecutive days, with different chairpersons to handle questions and discussion. We are scheduling poster sessions as well, with each poster at a table with its presenter on 2 occasions over the course of the meeting. Continuing education credit will be arranged through the Royal College of Physicians in London, which will provide appropriate CPD and CME credit for participants.

The Aspergillus field continues in a state of rapid advancement, including the publication of numerous post-genomic papers and substantial advances in translational, immunologic, epidemiologic and diagnostic research. The mucormycosis field is similarly advancing with novel studies in pathogenesis and diagnostic options. The launch of several antifungals in the last few years and anticipated clinical trials of newer compounds with novel mechanisms of action is an exciting time for mycology. Pan-azole, and echinocandin Aspergillus resistance has emerged and requires unique approaches, and combination therapy remains an important area of interest for both aspergillosis and mucormycosis. Greatly increased awareness of allergic aspergillosis has opened new opportunities for both antifungal agents and immunotherapies. New molecular strategies for diagnosis continue to make progress, and recent guidelines offer increased diagnostic insight. There is a continuing high death toll from invasive aspergillosis and mucormycosis, including patient groups not usually associated with this opportunistic infection. This meeting is another chance to gather the world’s aspergillosis and mucormycosis experts in one venue. A fundamental tenet of this colloquium continues to be to engender collaborative relationships amongst clinicians, scientists, and industry to further advance the field.

When this 10th meeting convenes, it will represent the 20th year of Advances Against Aspergillosis activity, beginning with the initial supplement in Clinical Infectious Diseases that originated in 2002. All previous 9 international meetings were overwhelmingly successful, as shown in the following table:

The Scientific Committee is being assembled and speakers will be selected who are actively advancing the field with new discoveries. We again anticipate a truly international speaker list, and almost all the speakers will not have spoken at a recent Advances Against Aspergillosis meeting, in order to attract and display new talent and perspectives in the topic area. By our design, the majority of the newest published literature and hypotheses in the entire field have originated from the planned speakers of this conference. We anticipate more oral presentations from the excellent selection of abstracts always received, and in each of the last meetings we published approximately 200 abstracts. After each of the previous meetings, a journal supplement was published, containing key papers presented.