Pre-conference workshop

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

ILS 2026 Pre-Conference Workshop

"Advances in Laboratory Methods for Leptospirosis: From Isolation to Genomic Analysis"

Date: Monday, 26 October 2026
Time: 8:00 am–5:00 pm
Venue: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

A preconference workshop will be organised by Global Leptospirosis Environmental Action Network (GLEAN) and is pleased to invite laboratory scientists, clinicians, veterinarians, public health professionals, researchers and postgraduate students to participate.

The workshop will provide an overview of established and emerging laboratory methods for the diagnosis, isolation, typing and genomic characterisation of Leptospira. International experts will discuss the practical and technical aspects of culture isolation, serological diagnosis, molecular detection, genome sequencing and bioinformatics.

Key areas covered

• Isolation of Leptospira from human, animal and environmental samples
• Serological diagnosis using the microscopic agglutination test and antibody-detection assays
• Serological typing and interpretation
• PCR assay selection, validation and diagnostic applications
• Culture-independent genetic and genomic methods
• Short-read, long-read and hybrid genome sequencing
• Genome assembly, annotation, whole-genome analysis and in silico MLST

Tentative Programme

Registration and Opening

Time	Topic	Speaker and affiliation
8:00–8:15 am	Registration	—
8:15–8:30 am	Welcome and workshop logistics	Neela Vasantha Kumari — Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

 

Session 1: Leptospira Diagnostic Methods—Culture and Isolation

Time	Topic	Speaker and affiliation
8:30–9:00 am	Isolation from human clinical samples	Dinesha Jayasundara — Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Rajarata University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka; Paula Ristow and Hans van der Linden — Expertise Centre for Reference and Research on Leptospirosis, Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands
9:00–9:30 am	Isolation from animal samples	Sree Rajeev — Department of Biomedical and Diagnostic Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, USA
9:30–10:00 am	Isolation from environmental samples, including water and soil	Cyrille Goarant — The Pacific Community, New Caledonia
10:00–10:15 am	Coffee break

Session 2: Leptospira Serological Diagnosis and Typing

Time	Topic	Speaker and affiliation
10:15–10:45 am	Overview of the systematics of Leptospira and serological typing methods, including MAT with rabbit antisera and monoclonal antibodies, and CAAT	Paula Ristow and Hans van der Linden — Expertise Centre for Reference and Research on Leptospirosis, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands
10:45–11:30 am	Serological diagnosis by MAT: Technical aspects, interpretation and applications in seroprevalence studies — 30 minutes Challenges in animal serology — 15 minutes	Paula Ristow and Hans van der Linden — Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands   Sree Rajeev — University of Tennessee, USA
11:30 am–12:00 pm	Serological diagnosis through detection of IgM and IgG antibodies: overview of principles ELISA diagnostics for leptospirosis and outbreak resolution — 10 minutes Design and validation of a test for acute diagnosis — 10 minutes	Suneth Agampodi — International Vaccine Institute, Seoul, Republic of Korea Paula Ristow and Hans van der Linden — Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands Erika P. M. van Elzakker — Expertise Centre for Reference and Research on Leptospirosis, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands
12:00–1:00 pm	Lunch break	—

Session 3: Molecular Methods for Leptospira Detection and Characterisation

Time	Topic	Speaker and affiliation
1:00–2:30 pm	PCR and molecular methods for detection: primer selection and validation; estimation of analytical and diagnostic sensitivity and specificity Molecular diagnosis and characterisation of Leptospira in human, animal and environmental samples	Ahmed A. Ahmed — Expertise Centre for Reference and Research on Leptospirosis, Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands
2:30–3:00 pm	Culture-independent genetic and genomic techniques	Nathan E. Stone — Pathogen and Microbiome Institute and Department of Biological Sciences, Northern Arizona University, USA
3:00–3:15 pm	Coffee break

Session 4: Genome Sequencing and Bioinformatics

Time	Topic	Speaker and affiliation
3:15–4:00 pm	Leptospira short-read, long-read and hybrid genome sequencing, assembly and annotation: from isolate to analysis-ready genomes	Priscyla dos Santos Ribeiro — Department of Medical Microbiology and Infection Prevention, Amsterdam UMC, the Netherlands
4:00–5:00 pm	Bioinformatics, whole-genome sequencing analysis and in silico MLST	Mathieu Picardeau — Biology of Spirochetes Unit, National Reference Centre for Leptospirosis and WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Leptospirosis, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Who Should Attend?

The workshop will be relevant to:

• Clinical and public health laboratory personnel
• Medical and veterinary microbiologists
• Clinicians and veterinarians
• Epidemiologists and public health professionals
• Molecular biologists and genomic researchers
• Postgraduate students, postdoctoral researchers and early-career scientists

Main contact:

Dr. Neela Vasantha Kumari
ILS 2026 Workshop Coordinator
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences
Universiti Putra Malaysia
Email: vasantha@upm.edu.my

The programme, topics and participating speakers are tentative and subject to final confirmation.

👉 Registration is now open! Please refer to the Fees & Registration tab for further details and to complete your registration. Limited to 60 participants—secure your spot early!