Program Interacademy Conference

Microbiology 2023: from single cell to microbiome and host

Würzburg (September 20-22, 2023)

Venue: Institute for Molecular Infection Biology, Main Lecture Hall


Conference Schedule

Wednesday, September 20th, 2023

13:00 – 16:00 Arrival, registration, coffee & cake

16:00 – 16:30 Welcome by the organisers

16:30 – 19:00 Session: Infection biology, microbiome  
Chairs: Jörg Vogel & Thomas Rudel  

16:30 – 17:00 Sophie Helaine
Internal conflicts in Salmonella persisters

17:00 – 17:30 Susan Bullman
The Role of Intratumoral Microbiota Within the Tumor Microenvironment: from microniches to single cells

17:30 – 18:00 Break

18:00 – 18:30 Andreas Bäumler
Host-Microbe Interactions Underlying Colonization Resistance

18:30 – 19:00 Andrew Goodman
Microbiome dynamics during infection

19:00 Light dinner, drinks, poster session


Thursday, September 21st, 2023

9:00 – 12:30 Session: Phage biology and defense
Chairs: Pascale Cossart & Chase Beisel

9:00 – 9:30 Rotem Sorek
Deciphering the immune system of bacteria

9:30 – 10:00 Joe Bondy-Denomy
What to do when CRISPR fails? Back-up plans for phage defense

10:00 – 10:30 Karen Maxwell
Inhibition of virion assembly in antiviral defence

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 – 11:30 Nassos Typas
Enormous diversity anti-retron proteins in phages

11:30 – 12:00 Melanie Blokesch
Molecular secrets of 7th pandemic Vibrio cholerae

12:00 – 12:30 Elizabeth Villa
Opening Windows into the Cell: Bringing structure into cell biology using cryo-electron tomography

12:30 – 14:00 Lunch

13:00 - 14:00 Editor Session - Working Lunch (room 2.016, second floor)
Panel Chair: Anke Sparmann, Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research

Panel participants

Nonia Pariente, PLOS Biology

Carmen Buchrieser, microLife

Jessica Thompson, Nature Microbiology

14:00 - 14:30 Roundtable discussion - The importance of microbiology and infectious disease research in the year 2023

Panel participants:

Eliora Ron, Tel Aviv University

Seyed E. Hasnain, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Carmen Buchrieser, Institut Pasteur

Feng Shao, Beijing, China

 14:30 – 17:30 Session: Molecular microbiology, bacterial cell biology
Chairs: Cynthia Sharma & Franz Narberhaus

14:30 – 15:00 Mariana Gomes de Pinho
Dynamics of the peptidoglycan synthesis machinery during Staphylococcus aureus cell division

15:00 – 15:30 Christine Jacobs-Wagner
Chromosome Segregation: How bacteria do more with less

15:30 – 16:00 Coffee break

16:00 – 16:30 Tracy Palmer
Novel effector proteins of the Staphylococcus aureus Type VII secretion system

16:30 – 17:00 Jean-François Collet
Mechanical Interplay of the Outer Membrane and Peptidoglycan Layer in Gram-Negative Bacteria: A Key to Resisting Turgor Pressure and Cell Bursting

17:00 – 17:30 Davide Sassera
Intramitochondrial localization of Midichloria bacteria: where, when and how

19:00 Conference dinner at Würzburg Residence


Friday, September 22, 2023

9:00 – 12:30 Session: Molecular infection biology
Chairs: Birgitta Henriques-Normark & David Holden

9:00 - 9:30 Feng Shao
The cytosolic LPS-sensing noncanonical inflammasome pathway in bacterial infection

9:30 – 10:00 Elizabeth Hartland
Legionella and the host epitranscriptome

10:00 – 10:30 Anat Herskovits
Pathogen phage cooperation during mammalian infection

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break

11:00 – 11:30 Jan-Willem Veening
Uncovering mechanisms of pneumococcal-host interactions with synthetic gene regulatory networks

11:30 – 12:00 Petra Dersch
Shaping Yersinia virulence for acute and persistent infections

12:00 – 12:30 Christina Stallings
Inflammation as a driver of Mycobacterium tuberculosis pathogenesis

12:30 – 12:45 Concluding remarks

Coffee and end of the meeting