Register for upcoming webinars!
IUSTI Canada Webinar Series | Série de webinaires de l’UIITS Canada
Wassermann’s Ghost: Moving Beyond the RPR in Syphilis Diagnostics
Thursday, October 29, 2026 | 12-1pm EST
Since the early 1900s, syphilis diagnosis has relied on the logic of Wassermann’s lipoidal-antigen serology, technology on which the current RPR is based. Serology remains the backbone of diagnosis and treatment monitoring in syphilis, but its limitations are increasingly consequential: it cannot provide a precise timeline for when infection occurred, it may lag in early disease, and its interpretation depends on assumptions that new prevention tools may disrupt. This talk will review the current state of syphilis diagnostics, including potential novel uses for Treponema pallidum polymerase chain reaction, a discussion of the point-of-care test pipeline, and how novel prevention strategies like doxyPEP may impact syphilis diagnosis.
Objectives
Compare the performance and limitations of treponemal and nontreponemal serology, including point-of-care tests, in diagnosing and staging syphilis.
Summarize the evidence for the potential role of Treponema pallidum PCR in syphilis diagnosis and staging.
Discuss how new prevention tools may potentially impact our ability to diagnose syphilis.
Register here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_xPKluZ2CRHa6ay_JAWm0pA
(PLEASE NOTE THE NEW REGISTRATION LINK!)
About the Speaker
SPEAKER: Dr. Troy Grennan, MD MSc FRCPC
Dr. Troy Grennan is the Physician Lead of the HIV/STI Program at the BC Centre for Disease Control, and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia. He is an infectious diseases physician and researcher, where both his clinical and research work focus on sexually transmitted infection (STI) treatment and prevention, HIV, anal cancer screening, and the health of gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (gbMSM). He is the nominated Principal Investigator on the Doxycycline Intervention for STI Chemoprophylaxis (DISCO) study, a large Canadian RCT examining the role of doxycycline for STI prevention. Dr. Grennan holds a Health Professional-Investigator Award from Michael Smith Health Research BC, is Vice-Chair of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Sexually Transmitted and Bloodborne Infections, and Co-Lead of the Coinfection and Related Conditions Core of the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network. He is also on the executive committee of the International Anal Neoplasia Society.
MODERATOR: Dr. Caroline E. Cameron, PhD
Dr. Caroline Cameron is a Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology at the University of Victoria in Victoria BC, Canada, and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington in Seattle, WA, USA. She is the Regional Director of IUSTI-North America, President of the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Diseases Research (ISSTDR) Foundation, and Past-President of IUSTI-Canada. Her research is internationally funded by NIH, CIHR, NSERC, and Coefficient Giving, and her research team focuses on diagnostic and vaccine development for infectious and congenital syphilis, with prioritization of partnerships with clinical and biotech collaborators to ensure research discoveries can be translated into clinical products. An additional focus for Dr. Cameron and her research team is the training of the next generation of scientists in the syphilis research field.