Oxford Nanopore at ASM Microbe 2026
Oxford Nanopore will be at the ASM Microbe at Booth 2015 in June, 2026, hosted in Washington, DC. We will also host an Industry event. See additional details below.
Industry Event
Rapid genomics in action: Transforming microbial detection and surveillance with Oxford Nanopore Technologies sequencing
Date: Friday, June 5, 2026
Time: 6:30–7:30 PM
Location: Marriott Marquis DC, Marquis Ballroom Salon 7-10
Recent advances in long-read sequencing technologies are transforming the practice of clinical and public health microbiology. Oxford Nanopore sequencing enables rapid, flexible, and increasingly accessible genomic analysis, supporting a wide range of applications from pathogen detection to genomic surveillance and microbial community characterization.
This symposium will examine the growing role of Nanopore sequencing across diverse microbiological settings, including its use in bacterial and viral genomics as well as culture-independent approaches. We will highlight its capacity for real-time sequencing, implementation across varied laboratory contexts, and its contributions to outbreak response, infection prevention, and public health decision-making. In parallel, advances in bioinformatic tools and analytical workflows are improving the accuracy and usability of Nanopore-derived data for taxonomic identification and metagenomic profiling.
By highlighting current capabilities and practical considerations, this session will provide attendees with a broad understanding of how Nanopore sequencing is being integrated into modern microbiology workflows and its potential to further bridge the gap between genomic innovation and routine clinical and public health practice.
Agenda
6:30-7:30 PM | Talk title | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
6:30-6:40 PM | Welcome and introductions | Anna Niewiadomska, Oxford Nanopore Technologies |
6:40-7:05 PM | Unlocking high-resolution, strain-resolved microbiome analyses with modern nanopore sequencing | Jim Shaw, Harvard Medical School |
7:05-7:30 PM | Sequencing for infectious diseases: From evolutionary insights to clinical applications | Heba Mostafa, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine |
Anna Niewiadomska

- Job title
- Associate Director, Segment Marketing - Micro & Infectious Disease
- Institution
- Oxford Nanopore Technologies
- Biography
With over 15 years in the field of microbiology, Anna Maria Niewiadomska combines a deep knowledge of experimental and in silico methods for the generation and analysis of genomic and bioinformatic data, with wide-ranging experience in scientific communication and outreach.
Dr Niewiadomska has worked on multiple projects focusing on innate immunology, host/virus interactions, viral phylogenetics, mathematical modeling of antimicrobial resistance, and emerging infectious disease outbreaks. More recently, she has worked on pandemic response to multiple viral outbreaks such as SARS-CoV-2 and Mpox virus and collaborated with the SAVE and SPHERES consortia to identify emerging SARS-CoV-2 viral variants of concern.
Jim Shaw

- Job title
- Postdoctoral Researcher
- Institution
- Harvard Medical School
- Biography
Jim Shaw is a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, advised by Professor Heng Li. He received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Toronto, supervised by Prof. Yun William Yu. His research interests are in bioinformatics algorithms for microbial genomics. He has developed widely-used metagenomics software, including tools such as skani (Nature Methods, 2023), sylph (Nature Biotechnology, 2024) and myloasm (Nature Biotechnology, 2026).
Dr. Heba Mostafa

- Job title
- Associate Professor of Pathology
- Institution
- Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
- Biography
Dr. Heba Mostafa is Associate Professor of Pathology at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and Director of the Medical Microbiology Division, Molecular Virology and Infectious Diseases, and Infectious Disease Sequencing Laboratories at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She earned her M.D. from Alexandria University, Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of Kansas, completed a postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and a Clinical Microbiology Fellowship at the University of Rochester.
