Host-microbe symbioses: from functional to ecological perspectives (PhD summer course)
Location – Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência
Dates – July 9-21, 2017
Applications are open until March 20, 2017
In the Summer School “Host-microbe symbioses: from functional to ecological perspectives” we will explore stable host-microbe interactions as a spectrum from parasitic to mutualistic. Animals and plants live together and establish stable interactions with a large number of symbiotic microbes. These microbes largely influence the physiology of the host, from nutrition to behavior. Although many microbes are deleterious to the hosts and cause disease (pathogens), most are actually neutral or even beneficial (commensals and mutualists). The study of the biology of animals and plants, from functional to evolutionary perspectives, has to take into account their set of microbial symbionts. The course will explore this field with leading scientists that bring a broad range of expertise and approaches. The Summer School will be targeted at second or later years PhD students. The main aim of this meeting is to help them define their future research interests.
The course will last two weeks (from July 9-21, 2017), and will consist of general lectures, research seminars and development of a project research proposal. The students will have close contact with leading scientists on host-microbe symbiosis. The Summer School will take place in Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Portugal. The IGC has approximately 30 research groups in diverse areas of biology. Many of these groups work on topics related with host-microbe symbiosis. IGC has a long tradition in postgraduate education and has run several innovative and successful PhD programmes for the last 20 years. The institute is located in Oeiras, by the sea, and 20 minutes away from Lisbon by train.
This summer school is supported by Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and VolkswagenStiftung.
Applications
Applications are open until March 20, 2017. See http://pages.igc.gulbenkian.pt/symbioses2017/
Confirmed Lecturers
Martin Blaser (New York University, USA), Resident microbes and the ecology of human diseases
Amanda Birmingham (University of California, San Diego, USA), Bioinformatics, genomics and metagenomics
Thomas Bosch (Kiel University, Germany), Evolution and the ecology of development
Jocelyne Demengeot (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal), Lymphocyte physiology
Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello (New York University, USA), Microbiota in early life and microbial anthropology
Kevin Foster (University of Oxford, UK), Social Lives of Microbes
Isabel Gordo (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal), Evolutionary Biology
Jonathan Howard (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal), Host-Pathogen Co-evolution
Nicole Hynson (University of Hawaii), Community Ecology
Rob Knight (University of California, USA), High-throughput sequencing to study microbial diversity
Margaret McFall-Ngai (University of Hawaii, USA), Invertebrate-microbe symbiotic interactions
Nancy Moran (University of Texas, USA), Evolution of biological complexity
Vojtech Novotny (Czech Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic), Tropical Ecology
Howard Ochman (University of Texas, USA), Microbial Evolution – Dynamics of bacterial genomes and microbiome co-evolution with hosts
Ned Ruby (University of Hawaii, USA), Biology of the squid symbiont Vibrio fischeri
Miguel Soares (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal), Inflammation
Luis Teixeira (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal), Host-Microorganisms Interactions
Karina Xavier (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal), Bacterial Signalling
Course Organizers
Martin Blaser (New York University, USA), Resident microbes and the ecology of human diseases
Margaret McFall-Ngai (University of Hawaii-Manoa, USA), Invertebrate-microbe symbiotic interactions
Luis Teixeira (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal), Host-microbe interactions
Karina Xavier (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal), Bacterial Signalling