Prokaryotic Mechanisms for Sensing, Responding and Adapting to Stress

Bacteria face a nearly constant onslaught of different stressors both expected (e.g., nutrient fluctuations, temperature changes, phage predation, microorganism competition and predation etc) and unknown (e.g., novel antibiotics, unanticipated changes in environment, etc). How they detect and respond to such abiotic and biotic stressors largely determines their survival in a world of fierce competition. The 2026 Microbial Stress Response GRC will feature the latest, cutting-edge research into all facets of how bacteria sense, respond, and adapt to stress. The talks and posters presented will showcase the many approaches being taken to understand bacterial stress responses, including genetic, biochemical, structural, imaging, computational, and genome-scale assays. A range of organisms and scales of study, from the atomic to the community level, will be included.

The program will feature a distinguished set of invited speakers as well as many talks selected from submitted abstracts that highlight early-stage investigators, postdocs, and graduate students. Daily poster sessions will be a major element of the meeting, enabling the dynamic exchange of new results and ongoing work, while promoting interactions between conference participants at every level. Finally, as in past years, this GRC will be preceded by a GRS that focuses entirely on grad students and postdocs.

PLEASE NOTE: If you wish to be considered for a short talk at this conference, please submit your abstract by February 15, 2026. Thank you!