April 21 -22, 2009
University College Cork
Ireland

Chair:
Robert P. Ryan (r.ryan@ucc.ie)

We are pleased to announce a Young microbiologists mini-symposium to coincide with the SGM Irish Division on 23-24 April in 2009.

This programme is intended to bring together graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to discuss their current research prior (April 21-22nd) to the start of the larger SGM (April 23-24rd). The Young microbiologists mini-symposium will provide an excellent opportunity for junior scientists to present their work and receive constructive feedback, to network with other students, post-docs and young PIs in the field, and hopefully to facilitate future collaborations. In addition, the Young microbiologists mini-symposium will prepare the attendees for following SGM Irish Division meeting and ideally promote a higher level of participation throughout the subsequent conference.

The two-day programme will include seminars by 12-14 invited speakers, a poster session involving all participants, and opportunities for social interaction. There will be four seminar sessions, covering the following highly topical areas of prokaryotic molecular microbiology:

1) Gene regulation and intracellular signalling;

2) Structure, biogenesis and transport across membranes;

3) Microbe-microbe interactions;

4) Host-microbe interactions – pathogenesis and commensalism.

Offered papers will be selected from poster abstracts and will be presented by students or post-docs. Attendees not giving an oral presentation will present a poster on their work.

Confirmed speakers:

Prof. Jeff Errington (Newcastle University)

Prof. Charles J. Dorman (Trinity College Dublin)

Prof. Tracy Palmer (University of Dundee)

Prof. Paul Williams (University of Nottingham)

Prof. Guy Cornelis (University of Basel)

Prof. Tony Romeo (University of Florida)

If you would be interested in attending and presenting, please send an abstract and contact details to: meetings@ucc.ie

We must also point out there are limited spaces so please enter you abstract early to avoid disappointment.

Preliminary Programme*

Young microbiologists mini-symposium: microbe signalling, organisation and pathogenesis

April 21-22, 2009
University College Cork
Ireland

Tuesday April 21^st
8:45 am - 9:15 am Arrival and Registration
9.15 am - 9:30 am Robert Ryan (University College Cork) Introduction and Welcome

9.30 am – 12.00 pm
Gene regulation and intracellular signalling
Chair: Prof. Charles J. Dorman (Trinity College Dublin)

9:30 am - 10:15 am Prof. Charles J. Dorman (Trinity College Dublin) "Thermo-regulation of virulence gene expression in Shigella"

10.15 am – 10.45 am Roger Simm (University of Oslo) “Cyclic-di-GMP signalling in Salmonella Typhimurium”

10:45 am Coffee Break

11:15 am – 11.35 am Christina Pesavento (Freie Universität Berlin) “Inverse regulatory coordination of motility and curli-mediated adhesion in Escherichia coli”

11.40 am – 12.00 am Niall O’Leary (ERI, University College Cork) “Differential regulation of the styrene degradative catabolon in Pseudomonas putida CA-3 in response to extra-cellular and intra-cellular sensing systems”

12.00 pm – 1.00 pm EMBO lecture: Prof. Jeff Errington (Newcastle University) “Life without a wall or a division machine in B. subtilis: implications for the origins of life”

1.00 – 3.00 Lunch and Poster viewing

3.00 pm – 6.00 pm
Host-microbe interactions – pathogenesis and commensalisms
Chair: Prof. Guy Cornelis (University of Basel) 

3.00 pm – 3.45 pm Prof. Guy Cornelis (University of Basel) “The type-III secretion injectisome”

3.45 pm - 4.15 pm Paul Cotter (APC, University College Cork) “Listeriolysin S, a Novel Peptide Haemolysin Associated with a Subset of Lineage I Listeria monocytogenes”

4.15pm – 4.45 pm Coffee Break

4.45 pm – 5.05 pm Ellen Arena (University of British Columbia) “Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium target gallbladder epithelial cells”

5.10 pm – 5.30 pm Timothy Cairns (Imperial College London) “Stage specific gene expression profiling during initiation of invasive aspergillosis”

5.35 pm – 5. 55 pm Sarah Lebeer (Universiteit Leuven) “Genetic and functional analysis of surface factors in Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG: focus on surface polysaccharides”




Wednesday April 22^st


9:00 am - 9:15 am Sarah Coulthurst (University of Dundee) Introduction

9.15 am - 11.30 am
Structure, biogenesis and transport across membranes
Chair: Prof. Tracy Palmer (Dundee University) 

9:15 am - 10:00 am Prof. Tracy Palmer (Dundee University) “Export of folded proteins by the bacterial Tat pathway”

10.00 am – 10.20 am Daniel Walker (University of Glasgow) “Colicin retrotranslocation: Discovering strategies to cross bacterial cell membranes”

10.20 am – 10.45 am Coffee Break

10.45 am – 11.05 am Robert Fagan (Imperial College London) “Structure and assembly of the Clostridium difficile S-layer”

11.05 am – 11.25 am Amanda Rossiter (University of Birmingham) “Deciphering the autotransporter mechanism of Gram-negative pathogens: from regulation to secretion”

11.30 – 1.00 am Short poster talks selected from abstract submissions


1       Maria Sanchez-Contreras (University of Bath)    RVA (Rapid Virulence Annotation) as a functional genomics tool to compare two Photorhabdus species with different host ranges  

2       Alejandro Arce (Centro Nacional de Biotecnología)       Characterization of a Pseudomonas putida strain lacking the global regulator Hfq       

3       Cate Reynolds (Imperial College, London)        The regulation and function of the C. difficile cell wall protein CwpV 

4       Natalia Tschowri (Freie Universitat Berlin)     The BLUF-EAL protein YcgF acts as a direct anti-repressor in a blue light response of Escherichia coli 

5       Marlies Mooij (University College Cork)         Pseudomonas aeruginosa pathogenesis in zebrafish embryos       

6       Tamzin Gristwood (University of Cambridge)      A predicted ArsR/SmtB family transcriptional repressor, PigS, regulates prodigiosin production in Serratia sp. ATCC 39006      

7       Hans Steenackers (Universiteit Leuven)  Identification of Small Molecule Inhibitors of Salmonella Biofilm Formation and Investigation of Their Mode of Action  

8       Emma Smith (Trinity College, Dublin)    Characterisation of the Sbi Protein of Staphylococcus aureus   

1.00 pm – 3.00 pm Lunch and Poster viewing

3.00 pm – 4.00 pm ASM Lecture: Prof. Tony Romeo (Emory University) “The Csr system: A global regulatory circuit that governs bacterial biofilm development”

4.00 pm – 6.00 pm
Microbe-microbe interactions
Chair: Prof. Paul Williams (University of Nottingham) 

4.00 pm – 4.45 pm Prof. Paul Williams (University of Nottingham) “Quorum sensing and Pseudomonas aeruginosa: a tale of regulatory networks and multi-functional signal molecules”

4.45 pm – 5.15 pm Neil Williamson (University of Cambridge) “Regulation of antibiotic production, swarming and virulence in Serratia sp. ATCC39006”

5.15 pm – 5.35 pm Sean O’Rourke (John Innes Centre) “A novel immunity system conferring resistance to the lantibiotic cinnamycin”

5.35 pm – 5.55 pm Angela Nobbs (University of Bristol) “Building bridges: investigating the interactions of Candida and streptococci in mixed-species communities

*This programme may undergo some slight changes closer to the date of the meeting.