Microbial Ecology
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Microbial Ecology
Understanding emergent properties of microbial communities: from microbes to ecosystem
To be determined
Scope
Microbial communities are everywhere and their properties have critical impact on our lives and our planet. But where do these community properties come from? Ultimately properties, such as diversity, stability, resilience, function and dynamic evolution arise from the interactions of the constituent microbes with each other and their environment. But how do we connect understanding of the physiology of individual microbes in the lab to the seemingly overwhelming complexity of microbial communities in soil, marine or human environments? What role do model systems play? Are there general principles? How do we connect the different levels of organisation?
These are big questions with no clear answers. But what happens if we lock you up for one week with experts in fields such as molecular systems biology, game theory, microbial physiology, ecology, metagenomics, bioinformatics and evolutionary biology, each providing their perspective on these microbial community properties? It may not give clear answers, but lots of new ideas, insights, perspectives, friends and research directions, we expect. More than enough reasons to participate in this course!
Course set-up
The course is composed of a series of lectures, subsequent discussions, working group activities, and poster sessions. The course will start on Sunday in the late afternoon (4-5 PM) with welcome drinks, a dinner, and a keynote lecture by George Kowalchuk. The course will run till Friday lunch (1-2PM). As soon as more detailed information about the programme is available, this will be published here.
List of speakers in 2022 edition
- Prof. Dr. George Kowalchuk (Utrecht University, Ecology and Biodiversity research group)
- Dr Cameron Wagg (Fredericton Research and Development Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food, Canada)
- Prof. dr. Tom Curtis (Centre for Synthetic Biology and the Bioeconomy, Newcastle University, UK)
- Prof. dr. Frank Bruggeman (Systems Biology Lab, VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
- Dr. Xavier le Roux (Microbial Ecology Centre of Lyon, France)
Course organisers
- Prof. dr. Joana Falcao Salles (Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, The Netherlands)
- Prof. dr. ir. Eiko Kuramae (Microbial Ecology, Netherlands Institute for Ecology, The Netherlands)
- Dr. Roeland Berendsen (Plant-Microbe Interactions Group, Utrecht University, The Netherlands)
- Prof. dr. Bas Teusink (Systems Biology Lab, VU Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
General information
| Target Group | The course is aimed at PhD candidates, postdocs, and other academics |
| Group Size | Max. 40 participants |
| Course duration | 6 days |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Frequency of recurrence | Every three years |
| Number of credits | 1.5 ECTS |
| Lecturers | See description above |
| Prior knowledge | Basic knowledge of microbial ecology is assumed |
| Location | to be determined |
More information
PE&RC
office.pre@wur.nl
Registration
At this moment, this course is not scheduled yet. However, if you register your interest in this activity below, we will inform you as soon as the course is scheduled and registration of participation is opened.