Conference Description
We now know that microorganisms are astonishingly abundant everywhere, and that their activities affect everything from geology to human behavior. However, most of our current insights into microbial populations have come from mathematical models of their evolution and ecology and from laboratory cultures of model species. Unfortunately, ‘culturable’ species are rare exceptions, since most microorganisms will not grow under laboratory conditions. Natural communities of bacteria are also very diverse; individual isolates of the same species typically differ by 10% of their genes, and communities from seemingly identical environments (e.g. the guts of different humans) often contain very different species.
Tools to investigate microorganisms in their natural habitats have recently become available. Advances in microscopy allow researchers to examine bacterial communities, and sometimes even identify species, with unprecedented resolution. Metagenomics and other culture-independent approaches, originally applied only at very broad taxonomic levels, are becoming increasingly able to distinguish sequences at the level of species or individual lineages.
This conference will bring together research on a wide range of microbial communities, from cheese to caverns, from lakes to lungs, from teeth to the troposphere. In selecting speakers, we will prioritize those who will introduce us to new communities and new phenomena, raising exciting new questions about their evolution, diversity, and consequences. Our long-term goals will be to build understanding of the principles governing the properties of these communities. A key objective will be to identify which of these properties can, and which cannot, be explained by current models of community structure and function.
The topics, speakers, and discussion leaders for the conference sessions are displayed below. The conference chair is currently developing their detailed program, which will include the complete meeting schedule, as well as the talk titles for all speakers. The detailed program will be available by March 11, 2021. Please check back for updates.
Metabolic Interdependencies in Symbioses
Discussion Leaders
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Nicole Dubilier (Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, Germany)
Speakers
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Toby Spribille (University of Alberta, Canada)
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Nicole Gerardo (Emory University, USA)
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Lee Henry (Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom)
Intermicrobial Warfare
Discussion Leaders
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Kevin Foster (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
Speakers
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Jennifer Bomberger (University of Pittsburgh, USA)
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Seemay Chou (University of California, San Francisco, USA)
Microbiomes of Fermented Foods
Discussion Leaders
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Sijmen Schoustra (Wageningen University and University of Zambia, The Netherlands)
Speakers
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Rachel Dutton (University of California, San Diego, USA)
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Bernard Moonga (University of Zambia, Zambia)
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Delphine Sicard (Universite de Montpellier, France)
Origins and Evolution of Animal Epidemics
Discussion Leaders
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Vanessa Ezenwa (University of Georgia, USA)
Speakers
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Jeff Foster (Northern Arizona University, USA)
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Bree Rosenblum (University of California, Berkeley, USA)
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Daniel Streicker (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)
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Wendy Turner (University of Albany, USA)
Origins and Evolution of Human Epidemics
Discussion Leaders
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Bill Hanage (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, USA)
Speakers
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Adam Lauring (University of Michigan, USA)
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Nathan Grubaugh (Yale University, USA)
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Richard Neher (Biozentrum of the University of Basel , Switzerland)
Interactions in Polymicrobial Infections
Discussion Leaders
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Michael Surette (McMaster University, Canada)
Speakers
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Michel Koo (University of Pennsylvania, USA)
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Jacques Ravel (University of Maryland, USA)
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Katrine Whiteson (University of California, Irvine, USA)
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Joao Xavier (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, USA)
Research that Drives Policy
Discussion Leaders
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Rees Kassen (University of Ottawa, Canada)
Speakers
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Anita Melnyk (Council of Canadian Academies, Canada)
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Sharon Messenger (California Department of Public Health, USA)
Viruses as Drivers of Microbial Dynamics
Discussion Leaders
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Maureen Coleman (University of Chicago , USA)
Speakers
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Eugene Koonin (National Institutes of Health, USA)
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Debbie Lindell (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Israel)
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Matthew Sullivan (Ohio State University, USA)
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Gil Amitai (Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel)
Planetary Scale Microbiomes
Discussion Leaders
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Paul Falkowski (Rutgers University, USA)
Speakers
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Naomi Levine (University of Southern California, USA)
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Alyson Santoro (University of California, Santa Barbara, USA)
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Valeria Souza (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico)